National pride is a great thing. Germans in particular have been brow beaten way too much, most of which seems to have come from their own government sadly. The German people are great and they have many things to be proud of.
You are officially this American's favorite German. Keep it up, brother. Edit: Yes, we get interrogated. No, we're animals who don't return carts. Yes, that wage is awesome. Yes, we ask employees where stuff is and the cashier knows it. Ranch is a salad dressing but we put that crap on everything. Yes, people get zombified in the grocery store.
Oh absolutely! I HATE grocery shopping during the day. This is why I prefer going shopping in the evening. And yes, the ONLY TIME you’re allowed to sit is if you’re pregnant or have a medical condition that makes it hard to stand for long periods of time.
To answer your question: Ranch dressing is a quintessentially American salad dressing that shows up as a flavoring pretty often. It's a tangy, herby dressing that uses dairy as a base. People eat it on salads, but it also gets made into dips for vegetables, chips, or is served alongside hot wings (presumably because the dairy in the ranch offers some relief from the spiciness).
I was in Hamburg a few weeks ago and was offered Italian or American dressing for my salad. Curious, I asked what is American dressing and they told me it was Thousand Island. I thought that was funny because if you are looking for dressing to be called American, it would surely be Ranch. People use it n everything. I think it is buttermilk based.
Runny ranch (a consistency a bit thicker than gravy) for salads. Thick ranch (about the consistency of sour cream or greek yogurt) for chips and veggie platters
When a cashier asks me if I found everything I needed, I say, "Why? Have you been hiding stuff?" A majority of our grocery stores and supermarkets have "cart corrals" in their parking lots... it's a metal enclosure where you take your cart when you're finished with it, so it doesn't roll into another car. (Lots of people still leave the cart where it is when they unload it, which is rude.) Aldi is the only grocery store I've seen here in the U.S. that allows their cashiers to sit down. UGH! I wish they all did that. It would show that these corporations value their employees.
Most stores have cart corrals in the parking lot where you put your cart when you're done and hire cart pushers to retrieve the carts and take them into the building. It saves you from having to walk back to the building to return your cart. However, some people just leave their carts anywhere.
I have been to Germany several times and I love Aldi for all the reasons mentioned in the video, but also because you can find actual German Food there. Now you won't find any of that good German Bread there but stuff like Spaetzle, deserts, and other things. They are usually under the brand Deutsche Küche and the selection tends to change. Still waiting for them to get some Apfelschorle, es ist mein favorit.
Apfelschorle kann man billig zu Hause machen. Oh, sorry, most of your comment was auf Englisch. I will start over auf Englisch. Apfelschorle is just apple juice and sparkling water, easy to make at home. You can purchase both at Aldi or other stores, and then mix them to taste yourself.
Hello from Michigan We have Aldi here. Its great that they are cheep. I shopped there when my kids were little. But now most stores will let you place an order and they load it in your car and some are just as cheep but has options. We have special places in the parking lot to put the carts in. We also find it rude to not take care of your cart. Minimum wage in michigan is $10.33. Which is 9.59 in euros Yes all most all cashiers have to stand.
Shopping carts. At most stores, they have a specified area where you place your cart after unloading it into your car. Because of how large the parking lot at most stores is, taking the cart back to the store is a significant extra task. They provide a more convenient location to leave the cart in the parking lot. An employee is tasked with going around to collect the carts from these locations and returning them to the store for the next customer to use. It's the common, and acceptable, practice with almost all stores. By having us return the cart, because we want our quarter back, they don't have to pay an extra employee to do this. They save money on salaries, and we save money on groceries. Smart and I love it.
My family loves shopping at Aldi. We like trying stuff from Europe that none of the other grocery stores stock. Frozen fish & chips dinner from Scotland? Aldi-only. Those strawberry cream German chocolate bar things I like? Aldi-only. And Aldi has the Best cheese selection of any store in my area. I always end up buying at least four different cheeses that I don't strictly need. Local Aldi doesn't carry everything we need, so we end our shopping days with Kroger, but Aldi is always the first stop.
I have been a cashier in Maine for years and I do see how sending cashiers out to collect the carts to such a waste of resources. Customers walk right past empty carts in the parking lots just to wait in the entrance to watch an employee to push twelve carts in the dark of a snowstorm to them. Then they complain that there aren’t enough check out lanes open - that’s because one or often two cashiers had to close registers to go collect carts. Sitting at the register would have felt great after collecting carts for 45 minutes in the rain or heat but you are only allowed to sit if your doctor fills out disability forms. I had a doctor’s note to be allowed to drink water every two hours but they still gave me a hard time at my last job. We don’t have Aldi in Maine but I visited one in Florida once. It was great!
i love your innocence to the grocery experience. without a store card i was prevented from buying my groceries at last last week. i was shocked at the audacity.
"Ranch" is a salad dressing that is slightly salty, white and creamy. In the last 10 years or so, it became more popular as a topping for "wings". You know that "buffalo wings" are really just chicken wings, right? So people like to have buffalo wings in really hot sause and then alternate with something more mild. That's where the Ranch dressing comes in.
Until less than 10 yrs ago, Arizona did not have Aldi. Strangely enough, I shopped at Aldi in my college town, in northern Illinois back in the late 70’s. We just got word that Aldi is finally coming to Tucson later this year.
13:57 yes! Most grocery stores in the US have cashiers standing. From what ive read, there was one study that was funded by a grocery company that said productivity goes down when cashiers sit. Their conclusion was that productivity would go up if the cashiers are standing. This has been adopted by pretty much all grocery stores in the US and is seen as the industry standard. Its been a while since I read about this though, i could be wrong
Not bringing carts back was another thing that changed for the worse in my lifetime. As a kid in the 80's people brought them back in and only the lazy or handicapped did not. Now, 90% of people can't be bothered to walk those 10 steps to bring the cart back. We have cart corrals in the parking lot and some people are even too lazy to make it to them!
I go shopping at Aldi once every month here in Florida. When it comes to the cart, when I'm done, I'll wait for an older person to walk by going to shop, and give them the cart and they can keep the quarter.
I really enjoy Aldi for all the reasons listed. I’d say most people here return their carts to designated areas. It’s just the self-important assholes that leave them in the parking lot. It takes 30 seconds, but some people would apparently rather let their cart hit someone else’s car than spend the time taking it back, I guess.
Yeah, I live near an Aldi (Sud), a Lidl and a Trader Joe's (Aldi Nord) but I also live near multiple Krogers, Publix, Walmarts, Targets, a Food Depot, COSTCO, Sam's, BJ's, Ingles, Sprouts, Food Lion, IGA and many small chains and shops. The US market is BIG with over 200 grocery chains operating on the national, regional, and local level, not including specialty shops such as foreign markets, halah markets, butchers, farmer's markets, bakeries, etc.
I think one of the reasons grocery stores here in America evolved differently is because during the 1920s & 30s Americans had a phase where we were ludicrously obsessed with health. This was the period during which things like health spas were invented. The Seventh Day Adventist Church was promoting vegetarianism & veganism. The first breakfast cereals (which we now call "granola") were created. And everyone was craving fresh foods rather than things that were preserved via curing, salting or pickling, because those things were seen as unhealthy. People wanted fresh goods, and thanks to the creation of refrigerated transport & storage, stores could finally offer that. As an example, there are 4 or 5 major grocers in my area of South Carolina, in addition to Aldi. All of them have delicatessen counters and a massive produce section, as well as bakeries. One store chain, Lowe's Foods, is built primarily around a "farm-to-table" theme, with a produce section, bread bakery, pastry bakery, delicatessen, butcher counter, seafood market, and lots of products from small & local producers, in addition to all the products one would normally find in a traditional grocery store. Publix is very similar in their focus on fresh, perishable goods. We also have a chain with a few locations here called The Fresh Market, which sells no prepackaged goods other than beverages and salad dressings. All of the meats, fruits & vegetables are processed & packaged at the store, and usually on-demand...their butcher counter has no shelves, only a large windowed case showing different available cuts, and all are packaged to order. Aldi is more akin to large convenience stores or bodegas in the US, which are often placed in such away to provide maximum availability to a neighborhood or driving route. Those kind of stores are also designed for the sake of efficiency rather than variety.
When I worked at a pet store chain here in the US there were many days I gave my coworkers a chair at the register, especially if they had an injury or if they weren't feeling well, but I wasn't supposed to. There's the common corporate garbage of "we aren't paying you to sit, we're paying you to work" and there's an extremely, unfortunately common belief that sitting implies laziness, and a business doesn't want to be seen as non productive. Even if there's nothing left for you to do at a register, you're supposed to "look busy" which means mindlessly standing and mucking about with a duster or wet wipe.
Aldi is an amazing business with it's blue and orange livery signs. Every store also looks kind of the same, a kind of supermarket version of McDonalds (without drive-throughs yet). While the Germans tried hard in the early 1940s to invade most other Western (and some Eastern because Russians aren't really Westerners) countries with stukas, U-boats and Tiger tanks, the peaceful (and welcome) invasion of Aldi post-war throughout the Western (and some Eastern) world is truly astonishing and f**ks the virtual two supermarket monopoly of Coles and Woolworths in Australia since 2001. Amazing number of stores here in virtually every suburb and large towns. Spoken as a man where moths fly out of my wallet each time I open it; Aldi, Danke Schoen.
My dad managed a chain grocery store when I was a kid, grew up fronting shelves, building cute holiday displays,learning store brands are made by national brands etc There were no banks, pharmacies, liquor in stores back then. The bagger followed you to the car and loaded your groceries. My hubby hates Aldi because customer service doesn’t exist and he can’t get the brand he prefers.
Aldi is all about efficiency and speed , get your groceries get out finished. Why do you Americans want all this extra stuff , extra customer service , extra brands , extra employees etc etc.? That all adds to more expensive groceries slower to get them , too much time wasted . Most people have other things to do and can't spend 3 hours in the grocery store .
Brands are a waste of money. If you do a blind taste test you will not be able to tell 90% of name brands from Aldi brand. Why would I pay $5+ for Hellmans when I can get Aldi mayo for $3?
16:13 The customer service counter is great. We can pay bills, get money orders, buy stamps, buy lottery tickets, return items, etc. Aldi doesn't have that, and I understand.
Chris I just recently discovered your channel, and I enjoy your content very much! I subscribed to your channel and great job! Greetings from El Paso TX .
There are corrals in the parking lot to put your cart after unloading. An employee has to bring those carts to the front of the store occasionally throughout the day.
I agree with you on the baked goods point. Bakeries, as a stand alone store, have kind of gone out of style in my area of the US and the big name grocery stores, generally, have crappy baked goods that stay "fresh" for days/weeks (usually produced by another company). I go out of my way, to a specific grocery store, that bakes their bagels, rolls and donuts in-house, fresh every day!
I've only been to an aldi once but I was thoroughly impressed with how it operated. Only some folks don't return their carts. No one likes those people, but we also have many cart corrals throughout our parking lots so after you load your vehicle you just have to walk 20-30 steps (at most) to return your cart. Even with that level of convienience there are still sociopaths out here that can't do that.
I prefer Lidl, because Lidl has a good selection of stuff I care about. Like different kinds of breads, cheeses, meats. And they always have new stuff to try in one section. If it wasn't for Lidl, I'd have never learned about Belgian monastery cheeses (like Corsendonk) or Italian bresaola.
as an Iowan, I was happy to learn in this video that the Fat Electrian is an Iowan. I can also tell you the first time he referenced working in a grocery store in Iowa it was Hy-Vee. Once upon a time, their motto was, "A Happy Smile in Every Aisle" meaning there were staff working to stock every aisle and available to help you. Now they have self checkout and smiley faces on their trucks.
Ranch is a type of salad dressing. Americans put it on pretty much everything. I high school my lunch table put it on pizza, nachos, dipped mozzarella sticks in it. It was gross for me, but they thought I was weird for hating the smell of Ranch Dressing
Chris, in American supermarkets, we have cart corrals in the parking lots for people who are too lazy (or have other reasons, like not wanting to leave their kids in the car alone) to take their carts back. It also should be noted, our parking lots are *huge*.
I live across the street from a Super Wal-Mart. This is very convenient since I can no longer drive due to health reasons. I can get my hair cut, have my eyes examined, buy prescription glasses & have them repaired, and do many other things without going into the main part of the store. A Super Wal-Mart is a department store with a grocery store attached and many specialty shops all under one roof. Very convenient.
hearing how cheap aldi is everywhere else is funny cause before they pulled out of denmark i remember aldi being basically a luxury store....without the luxury items as in it was always more expensive than almost the rest of our grocery stores guess that explains why they dropped out since not enough people cared to pay that price
Another great reaction to TFE. You should know that there is usually some humorous closing comments at the very end of video after his "Quack. Bang. Out." outro.
Ranch is a type of Salad Dressing in America. Until recently most grocery stores in America had employees that took your groceries to the car for you. Now they have racks out in the parking lot to leave carts but they have to send an employee to retrieve the carts and bring them back to the building. It was customary to stand when greeting someone out of respect and that carried over into retail customs. This custom should have went away with high volume stores, but didn't.
I can see needing to complain to someone - not the cashier - if something is actually WRONG: the store is VERY unclean, or the food is on the edge of going bad. But that is very, very rare.
We do have Lidl in the US. I have never seen one think the first one opened up in Virginia Beach back in like 2017. They are in the US though. There is another store somewhat similar to Aldi named Save A Lot as well
yes, it's horrible in the stores here, hell, even my local dollar general is so confusing that it turns my brain into a diesel hit or miss engine while smoke pours out my ears from trying to think
At a grocery store, if I can't find something I usually ask an employee: "Where did you all hide the (item name)?" -- except at Aldi because (1) they don't have extra employees wandering around looking for confused customers and (2) if you can't find something at Aldi you've got issues that require a therapist and not a grocery store employee.
federal minimum wage in the US is under EIGHT DOLLARS AN HOUR. it's pathetic. to afford an average 2 bedroom ANYTHING you have to work like 96 hours a week at that wage, and that's without a car, no phone, no internet, nothing else to pay for. i have a little Aldi near my house in Nebraska, and i love shopping there. they carry a good hefeweizen and some great breads! i was stationed in Kaiserslautern for a few years, and loved shopping at the REAL near the base, because it was much better than the american stores i grew up with. so nowadays i drive nothing but VWs and frequently shop at Aldi.
Greetings from Germany. It Reminds me of a time, when i was a young Boy, when a lot more GIs were stationed here. Their Number decreased. Some of Those who had to go back to States, often told about their Experiences in Germany. 👍😉
I have said that something I wanted wasn't on the shelf but at a pet store and they asked if I wanted to have them let me know when it comes in stock again which was nice. At other stores I usually say yes I found what I needed. The carts at bigger stores are supposed to be brought back to the cart corral. At our Walmart there are a couple of cashier's that are disabled and they have stools for them. We like ALDI in our family, but they seemed to have removed some of their box dinners from our local store so not as many options. They have a lot of Wines and alcohol 😆lol. It is quite impressive!
11:24 Depends on where you are. It’s a spectrum. Some parts of the US are high cart return zones, others are not. This is also typically one of the surer indicators that you are in a nice part of the city/state/country. There is no enforcement, only an individual values check. In places with high rates of cart returning, you’ll find better neighbors.
I designed grocery packaging for a few years. The marketing REALLY doesn't work on me, though it never really has and my marketing 101 professor said that's probably what makes me good at it lol. He was right, but I tried to use my powers for good and not evil. I would covertly steer messaging away from truly subliminal manipulation that might sell more ice cream, but harms public health. And because I was good at it, I managed to get the execs to not notice or even agree without realizing it lol. Cracked me up more when a division chief tried to take the credit as if it was his idea LOL.
My first experience with Aldi was Malaga. Crete I think technically was a Lidi as well as, of all things, Cash and Carry now in the US called US Chef Store. My wife and I are cooking tourists. But I have to say I experienced Aldi when staying near Chicago. We took the train from Seattle which was, well, exciting. Even more exciting about the train is it's no issue adding let's say 30kg of cheese and Aldi had some very stellar options including a Cranberry cheddar. It was I think the Ottawa, IL Aldi. But the important thing is they also require a pesky coin for a shopping cart. Thankfully .20 Euros works.
Gruss Gott Chris, The best thing to do when Kaufen is to have a LIST. I think you do the right amount of talking. Aldi-Lidl was the one of the first supermarket chains to have the coin in the cart system. It's genius. In the US many shopping carts were all over the parking lot or stolen. 70% not returned The machines were designed to keep cashiers standing when checking you out. I don't think being proud of the Heimat Acommplishments is strange. Deutschland has so many things in it's history to be proud of. The Aldi-Lidl efficient shopping is simply one of the latest. I'm fascinated by Philosophy and Psychology and Languages. I would propose that the Deutsches Sprache way of creating new words by cobbling them together foments a way of thinking that everything is interconnected (shades of Hegel and Freud) I would also quibble about Fat Electrician's comment that German efficiency wasn't working in WW2. It was for the longest time. Just a glance at a historical map of 1942 Europe can make one shudder contemplating what the modern world would be like if the Axis powers had won. Besides the resolve of all the resistance fighters in Europe itself the outpouring of US men, money, and resources was the turning point. Normandy Invasion contemplations. Jim
We are supposed to get an Aldi here in Florida. I can’t wait!!! I am that snobby wine person. (I have sold it for almost 30 years). Ok. This type of efficiency is my love language 😅
ALDI is my favorite store, followed closely by Trader Joe’s. We don’t have either store in the town where I live so I go to neighboring towns in order to shop there. Walmart and other grocery stores are huge and they tend to be a waste of time if you’re in a hurry. Further, who wants to hike a mile just to get to the milk or bread or whatever it is you’re looking for? I feel like the cashiers and stock managers in Aldi and Trader Joe’s are friendly and helpful and best of all efficient. Aldi grocery stores are a great concept and who doesn’t love saving money?
The one item that causes me the most anxiety to buy is my husband's deli slices for sandwiches. He likes thicker cut, turkey, and smoked. Yeah. Good luck finding that combination in an aisle-length refrigerated section. I really do have to stand there, mouth agape, starting at the top and working my way down. Everything else is pretty easy, if definitely on the opposite side of the store. But golly gee wiz about cold cuts. I'm getting a headache thinking about it.
Most stores in the US have cart corrals, for people to retuen the carts to, sadly, it seems most people just abandon the carts next to where they parked.. even if they parked two spots down from the cart corral.
Some shops here in germany tried this "did you get everything" BS. And whenever it drops, i love to give a silly answer like: "almost, but none plutonium E213" or "close but no space-laser for world-domination". I mean, it is a stupid question. As if they could make appear what i did not get out of nothing.
I know you like Lidl lol, Aldi is doing something really important in the US fighting a lot of corporate stupidity over here, you guys dont need a walmart. german american here
It's gotten so bad that groceries are my only chore that day. Tipping is less about expecting good customer service but more for the fact, that most servers get paid $2ish a dollar an hour. The restaurants are relying on the customer to pay their employees a livable wage.
i love Aldi' and because i am from the south and the store is in the south, the cashier who was the manager said get timed.. i was like WOAH.. okay THATS CRAZY cause every one talks to the cashier
We actually have all 3 here. I actually prefer Lidl, but Aldi's is a bit closer, and Trader Joe's is the furthest of the three. I've never thought of it this way, but he's absolutely right. You can walk a U around Aldi's and hit all the essentials: vegetables, meat, dairy, bread, milk and be at the cash register is less than 10 minutes. Funny enough, I've never thought of ALDI as a 'full' grocery store. I've often compared it to being more akin to a gas station. The more I think about it though, it's not that ALDI isn't a full grocery store, its that it's model is designed to get you in and get you out just like a gas station, not keep you there wandering around the isles for as long as possible.
I had never been to an Aldi till recently but when I went in the first thing I said is that huh this is exactly like a Trader’s Joe. 😂😂😂 I had been going to traders Joes and loved it for years but never step foot into an Aldi.
I live in the Chicago area (in the State of Illinois - the one that you pointed to on the map that apparently has over 100 Aldi stores) and I probably do 80-90% of my grocery shopping at Aldi. I usually don't buy meat at Aldi because the quality often doesn't seem as good as other stores, the cuts of meat are generally very thin, and there isn't a great enough price difference with their meat when compared to other grocery stores. Also, some of their items don't taste as good as name brand items found in other stores. I'm sure a can of Del Monte, Hunt's, or Contadina diced tomatoes taste better than a can of Aldi's "Happy Harvest" brand - but not enough for me to spend the extra 20-30¢ that those name brands cost.
I am very fortunate in that I have an Aldi just one half mile from my home. I used to shop at super walmart, which is about .6 miles from my home, but I much prefer Aldi. Their prices are about 25% cheaper than Walmart, the products are just as good quality and taste wise And the shopping experience is much, much faster.
There's an Aldi in my state but its too far away to go to, the irony being my father who lives in another state tells me that its the best grocery store.
I'm from Albuquerque, New Mexico and I have been wanting an Aldi South sooooo bad here. We have a Trader Joe's but the one we have in Albuquerque is in a strange location and when I went was not we managed. The vegetables were not good. Maybe I have bad luck and go on bad days, but I want a regular Aldi.
Aldi first came to Iowa, and I think 4 other states. Aldi has been In United States since 1976 and the Aldi United States Headquarters is located in Batavia, Illinois
8:20 Not always, but it's not uncommon. But they do always ask about the shopper's card. Yeah, they'll sell your info, but you do get discounts are some items. Though that's probably by design. But you can expect to make small talk.
This doesn't sound like the Trader Joe's in California and Nevada. They have a lot of duplication of items. And they are considered to be more of a high end store rather than a discount store.
I've learned to be very good at ignoring all things that I don't care about in the store. I think the greatest problem in the US is GMOs and overemphasized customer service.
