Missing items in grocery store
4 years ago
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- 4 years ago
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Aldi grocery store in your area?
Comments (46)arkansas_girl, and I only say this because I care, they have decaffeinated brands now that taste just as good as regular! :) lydia1959, While they don't carry Fritos® *brand*, they do carry corn chips, their generic/store brand is Clancy's. And no they don't carry Diet Rite® brand cola, again, they have their own diet cola. They have very few brand name items however quite regularly have Oscar Meyer® bacon, Miracle Whip® salad dressing and a few other name brands at times but the whole point of the store is that about 95% of the products are generic/store brands. One rep said they will get a brand name if they can't get the quality or price they want or they just won't carry it. They guarantee the items so if you don't like it, they'll refund your money and replace the item on most items. Since you want brand name items, discount stores like these are not for you. I've found some of their products to be better than brand names, most are equal to and a few are not as good IMO. But I'm not a brand-loyal person on too many things so I find Aldi and the comparable type stores to be great. Keep in mind the average Aldi carries about 1400 SKUs so they're obviously not going to have as big an assortment of major things. They also go for items they get the right price and the right quality so produce can be hit and miss. Aldi is a store you shop first then go to another store to pick up the things like zucchini. Onions will vary. Sometimes they'll have red but sometimes they'll have white or yellow. Again, it varies. If you want a *guarantee* they'll have a particular type, then it's not for you. But then, no store can guarantee it! LOL (I see more out of stocks and perpetual OOSs at Malwart than any other store.) I'm surprised about the salsa. Around here they always have it and it's usually in the aisle as you come into the store, by the chips. Casa Mamita is their brand name, however if you're going to look for a variety of "heat" and a variety of flavor, don't expect it. Generally they carry one of each types. Green onions are hit and miss. Generally I think it's because they spoil quite quickly so I seldom see them there. Shredded cheese is in the cooler, most stores it's against the back wall with salads, sausage, milk, eggs, sour cream, etc. You need to get used to what they *have*, and know they will *not* have 50,000 to 80,00 SKUs as a large grocery store nor 100,000+ SKUs like a super center to cover all needs. (In fact, that's one of their advertising bits You don't have to search through aisles of camping gear to find your ketchup.) Nor will a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods for that matter. People that shop these stores realize they're not going to get *everything* in one stop. They're specialty stores. Whole Foods for "natural" stuff, TJ's for yuppy stuff and Aldi for low priced staples. I'm not surprised you didn't find green onions, red onion, zucchini and canned green chiles. They do carry a substitute "Rotel" tomato and chilis though. And of course your brand names are pretty much a given, though they do carry diet cola and corn chips, though not the flavor you were looking for. Frankly you could simplify your trip for those two things by picking them up when you get gas and you're not really doing an additional store. Most gas stations carry Diet Rite and Fritos. I'm very surprised you didn't find salsa and shredded cheese. I take it you didn't ask someone about it? I started making a list of things they have that I would buy. I check my Aldi List before going there, then do an Aldi trip. Although I pretty much do the same for any other store. I keep a price log so I know which stores have better prices on certain things. Keep in mind, Aldi is about a 10,000 square foot store with about 1400 SKUs as mentioned. They cannot physically carry the variety an 80,000 sq ft common grocery store would nor a 130,000-150,000 sq ft "super store". Their model is to carry bargain basics and some special things. An air conditioner for $60, cast iron pans for $30 and under, flash drives cheap, lawn chairs, and more. But they won't have it all the time. I consider it garage sale shopping in that you never know for sure what you can get, just like I experience at Malwart for that matter! LOL All stores run out. Not all stores carry "everything". They can't. No one store is for everyone, that's why there's so many. And as I mentioned earlier, rumor has it that Aldi gets its pop/soda from Dr Pepper Snapple Group, who make Diet Rite. Can't verify this yet, but wouldn't surprise me. BTW, while they don't carry a 100' aisle of various breads, they carry white, wheat, a few buns, and they also have a 12 grain bread that I really like and it's about $1.69. Considering the comparable bread at any other store is $3-$4 there's times I'll make a stop just for a few things that they have that I like better or save me lot. I don't like having to stop at multiple stores to get what I want, but unfortunately these days it's nearly a requirement. I can't get decent produce at a Walmart here, they just don't have it in stock or the quality is SO poor I wouldn't feed it to farm animals. (They don't get anything locally.) Cub and Rainbow are hit and miss. When Aldi has produce, I've had 95% good luck with the quality and of course the prices are substantially less. I got used to the Aldi concept long before Aldi came into this area. We had a store called Save-A-Lot owned by Nash Finch and it basically was the same concept. No frills, bag your own, store brand mostly and closeouts/special purchases. Again, not the place to buy everything but a great place to save money. I was saddened to see them close but I understand when they saw Aldi moving in, they gave up and closed the doors....See MoreDo your grocery stores have gas rewards?
Comments (25)Here in SW. Pa., we have Shop n Save and Giant Eagle that have the rewards along with double coupons....Giant Eagle is very expensive and I have a feeling they jack up their prices to cover the rewards but they're parking lot is always full... Different times of the year, they will also give double points for gift cards and it's really a savings...I usually make a killing at Christmas time and get all my gift cards at Shop n Save...And then along with the gift card, I usually give my son the rewards (which amounts to free gas) as another gift...With his truck, 30 gallons of gas is a pretty good gift.......See Morewhen you go to the grocery store, put one item back
Comments (31)Attention, shoppers! If you take a half-gallon of fudge ripple ice cream from your supermarket's freezer case and then remember you are on a diet, don't leave it to melt on the rack where the tabloid magazines scream "Tom Cruise Marries Alien!" Likewise, in a department store, if you suddenly realize that a pink poncho will be passe in a month, don't fling it over a display of men's socks and walk away. Nor should a four-pack of 60-watt light bulbs be wedged between the boxes of fettuccine and ziti. For a few minutes, pretend I'm your mom -- your shopping mom: Were you raised in a barn? Will you never learn to pick up after yourselves? Stop rolling your eyes and look at me when I talk to you! Listen up: More and more of you are not putting things back where they belong when you go shopping. It happens at high-end and low-end and everything-in-between stores. It occurs in supermarkets, clothing stores, toy stores, stationers and any place where merchandise isn't too heavy to lift. It even goes on at the Gap, despite clerks -- only those with eyes in the backs of their heads are hired -- who attempt behavior modification in customers by pointedly refolding polo shirts milliseconds after they are mussed. It occurs even in bookstores, where, as in libraries, there are often tables or carts with posted pleas to place unwanted books on them so that people who know exactly where they should be shelved can do so. Still, you'll find a John Grisham tome next to "101 Ways to Cook Cauliflower." Especially during sales, the dressing rooms of department stores look like pigsties -- clothing in dumping grounds on the floor or falling off hangers and hooks -- because customers won't even return them to collection racks at the mouth of the dressing room so employees can restock them. Don't make the excuse that everybody does it. What if everybody jumped off a cliff? Would you? Experts who study what is called "shrink" -- the term for inventory loss due to shoplifting, employee theft or error, and damaged or "distressed" items -- estimate that less than 1 percent of all shrink is caused by shoppers who act as though they are royalty being shadowed by a maid. (A major grocery chain has about $500,000 worth of shrink a year, according to recent studies.) This number would be higher if alert shoppers and employees didn't see wrongs and right them, says Larry Miller, president of Trax Retail Solutions in Scottsdale, Ariz., and national director of the National Supermarket Research Group. Miller estimates that shoppers (acting as mothers the world over do) or store employees rescue about 60 percent of dumped grocery items. "Most people don't look at a pound of ground beef sitting on a grocery store shelf and ignore it. They take it back to the refrigerated meat section," Miller contends. "This has always been a problem, and it occurs at all stores no matter where they are," says Barry F. Scher, vice president of public relations for Royal Ahold NV's Giant Food LLC chain. He notes that the cost for supermarkets is especially high when the item involved requires refrigeration or freezing. Even though employees are instructed by managers at various times during the day to scout for misplaced items, perishables most often have to be thrown out because it is not known how long they've been sitting around. Scher says that Giant stores don't have staffers dedicated to performing the task called "shop backs" but that it takes employees away from other duties. "Stores also lose out because the stock isn't where someone can find it and sell it," says Jon Schreibfeder, president of Effective Inventory Management Inc. of Coppell, Tex. This means that, to be confident that they have enough of any product, managers must overstock items. Schreibfeder, whose company advises retailers on ways to control inventory, says that although the practice isn't nearly as large or troublesome as shoplifting or employee theft, "we talk about the [dumping] problem continually" with clients. Schreibfeder's prescription has been to have his clients schedule regular "stock straightening" for several times a day, especially when the store isn't busy. He also said a retail customer in Bermuda learned that nothing works as well as a departing ship in making people evacuate a store, leaving stick deodorant next to the asparagus. "A cruise ship would come in and the passengers would begin shopping. They'd find they were running out of time and would leave stock scattered everywhere," Schreibfeder recalls. He and his employees helped the store employees realize that they should scurry to round up misplaced products in between dockings. He also advised the owner to mark shelves that were most often victimized by shoppers and to have employees combing those prone areas. Schreibfeder says it's conceivable that, down the line, radio frequency identification (RFID) might be able to beam out an all-points bulletin (APB) to store managers, saying, in effect: "I'm over here -- and I'm defrosting!" to help in the roundup. Both Schreibfeder and Scher are inclined to be soft on consumers who dump products thither and yon. "People these days think they are too busy. Everybody's in a rush," Scher says. But Dorothea Johnson is unforgiving. Johnson, founder of the Protocol School of Washington and an etiquette teacher for 40 years, says we all must put things back because it is right and proper and is a tiny thing we can do to keep the world from chaos. She can think of no excuse for not returning merchandise to its shelf. Practicing this daily has the side effect of increasing self-esteem, she says. "Oh, you see, not putting things back is not being mindful of the next person who comes along. Although salespeople are trained to watch out for such things, I always put things back. I can then tell myself I did the right thing," says Johnson from her home near Portland, Maine. Even parents who spend the livelong day harping on children and spouses about tidying up can slip up now and then and ignore their inner Miss Manners. The other day, in a fit of fitness, someone left a pound of bacon next to a mound of tilapia packages after glancing about the store furtively to see if anyone was looking. But do as I say, not as I do. And don't run with a stick in your hand. You'll poke your eye out....See MoreOur first official trip to the grocery store...
Comments (21)That is kind of how my kids learned to add very well. They knew that if I had extra money left at the end of shopping they'd get a treat. So we'd have peanut butter on the list say, and they'd decide do we want the expensive one or the cheaper one. Sometimes the answer was expensive for taste, other times they'd get the cheaper, see what I'd planned to spend on the item (yes the budget was so tight that I knew prices even), and if we saved enough...treat! DD#1 has the rule, if you beg for it, you will NOT get it. If you're good in the store you can pick out a treat. This is great, until they beg for a Plum (DS did this), how do you say no to plums? Non-junk food was my only exception. Vickey (PS, adopt me too, your a fun mom)...See More- 4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoKathsgrdn thanked carolb_w_fl_coastal_9/10
- 4 years ago
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