Published: May 19, 2008 09:23 am            

LIFESTYLE: Scaling down at the supermarket

Would you pay to rent a shopping cart?

When people shop for the first time at area Aldi supermarkets, they are often shocked by the need for a quarter. The coin is required to obtain use of a shopping cart. You get your quarter back when you return the cart.

As you push your cart up and down the four or five wide aisles in the store, you will note that there is no shelving. Items are displayed in their shipping containers. And, when you reach for the mustard, there’s no choice of size or style. There’s only one size of every product, and usually it’s an Aldi store brand.

At the checkout, the cashier does not bag the groceries. You do. You can either purchase bags — 5 cents for paper and 10 cents for plastic — or use one of the boxes left out for just that purpose.

Welcome to one of the area’s many “limited assortment stores,” which may be one of the few remaining retail trends with a growth cycle.

Who would chose to shop like this?

Anybody that wants to cut their grocery budget by as much as 50 percent, according to some who shop in area “limited assortment” stores such as Aldi and Save-A-Lot. The stores are called that because they typically carry about 1,300 different products compared to 25,000 or so in a traditional supermarket. The potential savings to customers might be found in those scaled-down numbers.

“Analysts show traditional supermarkets are losing market share, but as the supermarkets are losing, Aldi is opening 100 new stores in the U.S.,” Aldi spokesperson Tina-Marie Adams said of the company’s 900 American stores. “We're doing really well, and we're doing well in a time of recession.”

Traditional supermarkets are expected to drop in market share to 37.3 percent over the next five years, from 44.1 percent in 2006, Gannett News Service reported. U.S. prices on all food soared 4 percent last year, the highest increase since 1990, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The culprits are higher commodity and energy costs. A larger demand for corn for ethanol production caused corn to rise to $3.34 per bushel last fall, up 83 percent from the fall of 2005. And the average price of milk was 13.3 percent higher than in March 2007, according to the March consumer price index.

Aldi keeps costs low because shopping is streamlined and simple, she said, including “flat management,” which means there are only five levels from top management to cashiers. Services are also reduced. There is no butcher, photo processing or even check cashing.

The company uses major food producers like Tyson and Kraft to manufacture Aldi brands, and those brands are scrutinized in test kitchens “to make sure quality meets and exceeds the national name brands.” Aldi saves money by not have to market their products, Adams said.

“Instead of having 50 different kinds of mustard, by brands and size and shape, we have one mustard,” she explained. “And it tastes as good as your favorite mustard.”

The reward for having less choices is substantial, according to Linda Hickman, a recent shopper at the Aldi store on South Transit Road in Lockport with her husband, Robert, and her son, Rob, 16. “We can fill our grocery cart here and walk out paying maybe $80 while at some other stores it might be a couple of hundred.”

When asked about quality, Hickman noted that the products seemed comparable to name brands across the board, but that the high quality of the vegetables and meats really surprised her. “The meats are frozen, but they’re really nice.”

And, if customers are dissatisfied with their purchase, they can return it for twice what they paid, according to Brett Baker, manager of the Lockport Aldi store, which is one of the most successful Aldi stores in the state.

Brad Simpson, Aldi district manager, added that “not only do we refund the money for the item, but we also replace it.”

Despite what some consider to be comparable tastes, there are area shoppers who simply prefer brand name products. That’s where Save-A-Lot — which has about 1,300 stores in the United States — differs from Aldi.

Save-A-lot corporate headquarters did not return several phone calls regarding this story and prohibits employees from speaking to the media without permission. Save-A-Lot spokeswoman Jaime Powers told Gannett News Service, though, that competition has increased among all grocers as commodity prices continue to rise.

Save-A-Lot’s parent company, Minneapolis-based Supervalu Inc., reported net earnings of $156 million for the three months ending Feb. 23, up 30 percent from a year earlier.

Customers in the Save-a-lot parking lot on Pine Avenue in Niagara Falls shared some thoughts about the two different limited assortment stores.

Niagara Falls resident Betty Dutton shops at both Aldi and Save-A-Lot but prefers the latter because she likes purchasing brand name products.

“I really don’t like too many off brands,” she said after buying some of her favorite cornmeal for a fish fry she was cooking for supper.

Rich Backlas, a retiree from Niagara Falls, spent his entire career in the grocery business, much of that at R.T. French Co. in Rochester. He trekked into Save-A-Lot with a long shopping list.

“There’s no question on how much they save you,” he said of the limited assortment stores in the area. “I can save at least 50 percent of my regular grocery bill.

“I don’t mind the inconvenience of packing my own stuff,” he said with a grin. “I usually grab a box. When you’re retired you have to watch your pennies. That’s all there is to it.”

Contact reporter Michele DeLucaat 693-1000, ext. 157.

        

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