Aldi Embraces Its Softer Side

The German discount chain has begun designing stores with a warmer tone.

May 18, 2016

UNTERHACHING, Germany – Aldi, known for its cheap prices and no-frills stores, has started designing retail locations with a cozier feel, including wood paneling, natural light and a café area serving fair trade coffee and fresh smoothies, the Bangkok Post reports.

The renovations will take place over the next three years. Products will be placed neatly on shelves, instead of the current layout of today of haphazard piles or on tables. Benches will be placed throughout the store for relaxing, and restrooms will have baby changing tables.

All of this heralds a new philosophy for the supermarket chain built on slashing costs to the bare minimum. “We have a healthy confidence in ourselves,” said Jeannette Thull, head of central purchasing. She added that the new look won’t mean higher prices.

Aldi currently sells around 1,200 products per store, far below the more than 10,000 products a typical grocery store stocks, and well below the more than 35,000 products supercenters have. Analysts predicted that the revamp would “generate long-term economic returns,” said Frederic Valette with Kantar Worldpanel.

The discount chain also has begun to “highlight the quality and price and no longer speak only about low prices,” he said. Aldi also has plans to open 2,000 locations in the United States within two years.

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