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fredag den 25. november 2022

Fredagsfrustration :: Digitalisering og centralisering af forretninger

Friday Frustration :: Digitalisation and Centralisation of Supermarket Chains

Efter at være flyttet tilbage til Danmark fra Tyskland, hvor vi havde tilbragt et år, blev jeg begejstret, da Aldi og Lidl - to tyske supermarkedskæder - åbnede i Helsinge, den ene, Lidl, næsten inde i centrum, den anden, Aldi, et stykke udenfor byen ... nu kunne vi få meget af det, vi savnede fra Tyskland. Gode pølser, sært syltetøj, slik, kager, yoghurt i bøtter, fyldepenne, adventslys i fire forskellige højder, julekort med krybber og engle ... masser af sære ting.
     For nogen tid siden var jeg i Aldi igen. Jeg kommer der ikke så tit, for der er vel en kilometer derud til fods - og kiggede efter julekager, juleslik og en hel del andre varer, jeg plejer at købe der. Deres Stollen (tyske julekager) var de samme gode, som de også havde haft de foregående år. Men deres øvrige udvalg var væsentligt mindre igen i år. Og så var det præcis det samme som jeg havde set i Netto, Lidl og Rema1000 inde i byen. Sådan havde det også været til halloween og til oktoberfest. 
     Mit yndlingsslik var udsolgt, og jeg spurgte en medarbejder, om det mon kom igen. Det kunne han ikke sige, for varebestillingen var nu digital og centraliseret. Han kunne ikke se, om det kom, eller bestille hvad, der skulle komme. Jeg købte Stollen nok til hele julen og gik igen.

    Forleden var jeg så Aldi igen - jeg havde et ærinde i nærheden og ville lige se, om mit yndlingsslik skulle være kommet - men gik skuffet ud af butikken med en tom kurv. Mit yndlingsslik var ikke kommet, og den der lap med varenavn og pris var fjernet - det betyder normalt at varen er udgået.
     Så gik jeg en runde og kiggede på slagtilbuddene, de faste varer og sæsonvarerne, og konstaterede, at Stollen (de der tyske julekager) var den eneste vare, der var anderledes her, end i resten af byens butikker (af dem, jeg køber, naturligvis). Alle de andre sære, tyske varer, jeg havde købt der gennem årene, var enten udgået eller erstattet af billigere, dårligere produkter, mestendels fra andre lande end Tyskland. Og Stollen  havde jeg jo allerede købt sidste gang, jeg var der. Så nu kan jeg vente et helt år med at handle der igen.

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After moving back to Denmark from Germany, where we spent a year, I was thrilled when Aldi and Lidl - two German supermarket chains - opened in Helsinge, one, Lidl, almost in the centre, the other, Aldi, a bit outside the town ... now we could get much of what we were missing form our stay in Germany.

Some time ago I was in Aldi - I do not go there often as I have to walk about a kilometre to get there - looking for Christmas cakes, sweets and a lot of other things I usually buy there. The Stollen (German Christmas cakes) were the same good ones as they'd had in previous years and I bougth some. But for the rest the selection was significantly smaller. And the Christmas candies etc. were exactly the same I had seen in the other supermarkets in town. It had been the same for Halloween and Oktoberfest.
Some of my favourite candy were sold out, and I asked an employee if they were coming back. He couldn't say, because the stock was now digital and centralised. He could see neither if it was coming, nor order what was to come.

A couple of days ago I went to Aldi again  - I had another errand close by and wanted to see if my favourite candy had returned - and left the store disappointed with an empty basket. My favourite candy hadn't arrived and that piece of plastic with the item name and price had been removed - this usually means the item is out of stock. I then went for a stroll up and down the aisles and looked at the special offers, the regular items and the seasonal items, and noticed that Stollen (those German Christmas cake) was the only item that was any different from what was on offer in the town's other supermarkets  (from items I buy, of course). All the specific German stuff I went there to buy were discontinued or replaced by low-quality items mostly of non-German origin. And as  had already bought Stollen the last time I was there, I can now wait a whole year to go shopping there again.

5 kommentarer:

  1. Sigh. I have noticed similar things in our Aldi (we don't have Lidl). The stock they carry is very similar to that carried by other chains. Even marzipan has disappeared...

    SvarSlet
  2. @ EC. Exactly how I see it too, and the items in stock carrying the chains' own brands are all made in the same place, only the packaging is different. Marzipan, the good lübecker one, is one of the items I was looking in vain for too.

    SvarSlet
  3. I shopped only a couple of times in Aldi here and never for food, I have my very excellent "Foodland" supermarket for that. At Aldi I bought kitchen towels and my "Day of the Dead" statues that now sit on top of my DVD cabinets. a few times I went there for items advertised in the catalogues but they were always sold out by the time I got there and the sale was only for that one day on those items. I haven't been back to Aldi in almost five years now.

    SvarSlet
  4. We have not had an Aldi here yet. Many years ago, i got to shop in one when i was visiting a friend in another part of the country, and i was quite impressed. I always hoped they would come here, but so far they haven't.

    If it's now just the same items as everywhere else, then i'm not sure i'm missing anything special.

    SvarSlet
  5. @ River, no ALdi is also not my to go for daily shopping either, but for seasonal stuff, cakes, candy, candles etc, much of it actually non-food. "My" ALdi is quite small, and stuff like that almost never sold out, but now I won't be going there much, if indeed at all.

    @Messymimi, I'm afraid you would get disappointed looking for the Aldi of that visit, so not much harm done in them not being bear by.

    SvarSlet

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