On-Off: Aldi’s relationship with National Brands
“Spend a little – live a lot” – is Aldi’s value proposition for consumers looking for superior product quality for a low price. In delivering its promise the discounter heavily focuses on operational efficiency and simple store layouts. The assortment at any point in time consists of a considerable number of Aldi exclusive brands mixed with a few national brands. However, these may look very different during successive Aldi visits. While the majority of Private Labels purchased at Aldi is available for the whole year, national brands experience a more volatile existence: Consumers can select from more than 1000 different brands at Aldi throughout the year, but a large percentage is available only for seven days, and less than 1% can be purchased throughout the whole year (see figure 1). The strategy appears similar to fashion retailers’ like Zara that rotate a large part of their assortment to drive shopping frequency. Every visit to Aldi – full of surprises.
