The untold truth of Aldi - The Daily Populous

One of the first things you might notice when you're looking at the shelves in Aldi is that the product is still in boxes. That's not employees being lazy, it's exactly the opposite. Frugal Bites got a peek behind the curtain, so to speak, and got to visit Aldi's Illinois offices. According to them, product is shipped in boxes that aren't just designed to be functional, but they're a part of what's called the "invisible case" project. Instead of having employees spend time opening boxes and putting individual product on shelves, they open the box and put that on the shelf — saving hours and, in turn, wages. And it's necessary for employees; according to one ex-employee's I AmA Reddit, they were required to empty an entire pallet worth of goods in 30 minutes. That's no time at all!

Business Insider says you'll see efficiency packaging elsewhere, too. Things that aren't boxed — like produce — are wrapped in bundles and milk is shipped pre-racked, all to streamline the process from receiving to shelving to checkout.

turkeylegmaster on November 30th, 2017 at 18:57 UTC »

For the record, Trader Joes is owned by a private German trust that has ties to one of the owners of Aldi but the entire model of the store is based on the design of its founder Joe Coulombe.

currently__working on November 30th, 2017 at 17:28 UTC »

I love Aldi's because they play ZERO music.

mrshatnertoyou on November 30th, 2017 at 17:13 UTC »

Aldi might be known as a discount store, but their winning formula has made the Albrecht family very, very rich. When Karl died in 2014, he was worth an estimated $25.9 billion, and when Theo died in 2010, he was worth around $24.7 billion. It's no wonder that kidnappers set their sights on the brothers way back in 1971.

It was Theo who was kidnapped at gunpoint, and spent 17 days in a closet in Dusseldorf while his kidnappers negotiated for the ransom. They did get the money (Theo later attempted to claim the ransom as a business expense on his taxes) and released him, but were ultimately identified. The two kidnappers served eight and a half years in prison, and when they both died in 2017, they left millions unaccounted for, with each one insisting they didn't know what happened to the rest of the money.

The kidnapping left both brothers understandably shaken, and both adopted an extremely reclusive lifestyle. They stopped making comments in public, always drove in separate cars, and never took the same route twice.

You never herd anything from them because of this.