If so, please consider clicking the above link and liking the Notes post—leave a comment or even share within your own community. Poetry lives on in the minds of hearts of writers, it breathes on the page.
Your voice can be heard among the starry illuminations, howling at the moon.
I used to live in a neighborhood where Trader Joe's was my local grocery store. My theory of its business is that it drew from two markets. First the people nearby who shop for convenience (but who couldn't support a grocery store on their own). But second a wider area of people who went there for its specialty products, three-buck Chuck and frozen meals and whatever. If it wasn't differentiated, that wider area of people would just drive to a bigger cheaper store.
"In other words, this retail concept just about went extinct in the United States, and was reintroduced much later by the German companies—which were viewed as modern and quite divergent from traditional grocery retailing in their home country. It’s an interesting story."
Is "their home country" referring to Germany or the US?
Germany. I read this in the Trader Joe's founder's bio - he explained how Lidl/Aldi were these barebones warehouse concepts in a country that still had smaller-scale and more personal grocery retailing. He also describes it as very different from the traditional neighborhood supermarket, but I think the similarities are pretty close.
Now that you say that, I remember when my German roommate read that Aldi owned TJ's, and he couldn't believe it. This was years ago, before Aldi was in the US. I asked what he meant. He said Aldi is a messy, very un-German place where they just throw piles of merchandise on the floor without organization or clear structure. He felt TJ's was the complete opposite of German Aldi.
Even now its very aesthetically different (and they were more divergent back then I think) but the basic idea is a stripped-down supermarket in a 10,000 square foot box. That's exactly what the Main Street supermarkets were in America in the 50s and 60s. I'm not sure to what extent they had things like bakeries and butchers in-house; if they did, that would distinguish them from both TJs and the German companies.
Fine writer and reader of Substack—we are starting a movement to get a poetry section added to the platform. Can I ask, are you with us?
https://substack.com/profile/10309929-david/note/c-15579327
If so, please consider clicking the above link and liking the Notes post—leave a comment or even share within your own community. Poetry lives on in the minds of hearts of writers, it breathes on the page.
Your voice can be heard among the starry illuminations, howling at the moon.
Thank you for your time and support.
Love and appreciation,
David
I used to live in a neighborhood where Trader Joe's was my local grocery store. My theory of its business is that it drew from two markets. First the people nearby who shop for convenience (but who couldn't support a grocery store on their own). But second a wider area of people who went there for its specialty products, three-buck Chuck and frozen meals and whatever. If it wasn't differentiated, that wider area of people would just drive to a bigger cheaper store.
"In other words, this retail concept just about went extinct in the United States, and was reintroduced much later by the German companies—which were viewed as modern and quite divergent from traditional grocery retailing in their home country. It’s an interesting story."
Is "their home country" referring to Germany or the US?
Germany. I read this in the Trader Joe's founder's bio - he explained how Lidl/Aldi were these barebones warehouse concepts in a country that still had smaller-scale and more personal grocery retailing. He also describes it as very different from the traditional neighborhood supermarket, but I think the similarities are pretty close.
Now that you say that, I remember when my German roommate read that Aldi owned TJ's, and he couldn't believe it. This was years ago, before Aldi was in the US. I asked what he meant. He said Aldi is a messy, very un-German place where they just throw piles of merchandise on the floor without organization or clear structure. He felt TJ's was the complete opposite of German Aldi.
Even now its very aesthetically different (and they were more divergent back then I think) but the basic idea is a stripped-down supermarket in a 10,000 square foot box. That's exactly what the Main Street supermarkets were in America in the 50s and 60s. I'm not sure to what extent they had things like bakeries and butchers in-house; if they did, that would distinguish them from both TJs and the German companies.