this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2024
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Work Reform

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[–] General_Effort 34 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It is telling that Aldi is successfully expanding in the USA while keeping the same model that made it big in its home market of Germany and the rest of Europe.

When Walmart tried to gain a foothold in Germany, it hemorrhaged billions before giving up. The managers responsible covered their asses with bullshit about cultural differences or unions, but the truth is that they just couldn't offer competitive prices. Looks like, even in the US, shoppers favor low prices over wasteful frills like greeters.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Greeters are literally a charitable expense (that they've mostly replaced with security goons) the wasteful frills in Walmart are executive compensation and benefits.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

hahahah right? I was like 'uh...I don't think that's where all the money's disappearing to my guy...'

[–] General_Effort 4 points 2 months ago

You think the managers at Aldi work for the satisfying feeling of serving their community or what? Aldi cut costs in any way possible and greeters are simply a very visible way.

Aldi isn't really a direct competitor of Walmart. There are other more similar (hypermarket) chains in Germany that directly offered the same as Walmart. For its attempt to enter the german market, Walmart bought up a bankrupt chain of such hypermarkets. The stores were in worse locations than those of their competitors. Basically, it was unwanted left-overs. The Walmart, closest to me, was right next to its competitors but on the far side. It was just a little less convenient. If they had been able to offer better prices or quality, that might have made it worth it. But they couldn't. There were only greeters and packagers.

[–] Johnmannesca 2 points 2 months ago

Yes please, we need more competition on groceries in rural Texas and also Arkansas as an extra special sort of fuck you to Walmart.