Aldi’s ‘aisle of shame’ is a middle row of items that have nothing to do with groceries. Buyers are big fans

Aldi’s ‘aisle of shame’ is a middle row of items that have nothing to do with groceries. Buyers are big fans

Caitlyn Pratt is an avid Aldi shopper, so much so that she crosses state lines several times a month, driving 45 minutes from her home in Heavener, Oklahoma to the nearest Aldi in nearby Arkansas.

The distance doesn’t bother her if it means she can do these three things: Stay on budget for her household needs, skip Walmart and most importantly, enjoy a fun affordable treasure hunt in what Aldi superfans have dubbed the “aisle of shame .”

Aldi, the privately owned German discount grocer that touts Walmart-like sales at everyday low prices, has been operating in the US since 1976 when it opened its first store in Iowa. It operates more than 2,000 stores across the country and 12,000 stores worldwide.

Inside every Aldi store there is an aisle of goods that mostly have nothing to do with groceries. The retailer describes it as “a rotating assortment of specialty items available for a very limited time.” It can be anything from a garden swing to a furry sweater for your dog. The prices are staggering, with most of these items costing just a few dollars.

Aldi calls it the “Aldi Finds” aisle. Superfans have a more colorful alternative to it – the “aisle of shame”. Novice shoppers at retail chains might think it’s a jumble of randomly selected items pushed onto the shelves, sometimes spilling onto the floor after the wave of customers descends on Wednesday mornings. and immediately for that one item of the week that went viral. But often products are carefully selected and seasonally timed to meet what customers are already looking for.

The Wednesday rush can often be pinned down to die-hard Aldi shoppers, 3 million of whom are members of the highly active Aldi Aisle of Shame Facebook page and regularly post about their latest aisle of shame.

Pratt is one of them. He happily admits that the aisle of shame is as much a catalyst for him as Aldi’s famously low prices – which research has found can be as much as 15% cheaper than Walmart in some markets – to make him make the monthly 42 miles. Aldi got in his car.

alley of temptation
Pratt, who has been an Aldi shopper for more than 12 years, loves Aldi so much that she avoids going to the Walmart shopping center just 15 minutes from her home “no matter what.”

“When you go to Walmart and you’re looking for a can of green beans, you have 18 different options. In Aldi, there is one, and maybe another. I can go in and out and get what I need without spending forever there,” Pratt said.

When she’s done with her grocery list, she heads to the center aisle to find a bargain or two on various other items.

Aldi Finds may include anything from shovels, plastic garden gnomes, patio rugs, deck furniture (depending on the season), to candles, bedding sets, greeting cards, shoes, light fixtures, pet beds, clothing, exercise equipment and cookware at very low rates. price.

Some items, such as shoes, are substitutes for well-known brands and cost $13 a pair.

The various mixes are refreshed weekly, usually on Wednesdays. “Fans love our ALDI Finds aisle because it takes the average grocery trip from errands to adventure,” the company said in an email to CNN.

Pratt said his province has its own tongue-in-cheek descriptor for the lane.

“In the south, we call it ‘sh*t lane,'” he joked. “Because for unnecessary things, I probably spend like $150 at Aldi every time I go there,” Pratt said. “I got so much sh*t for $150, half of it wasn’t groceries.”

Those purchases include outdoor rugs, patio sets, planters, lanterns, candles, cookware, pillows, pet beds and pet clothing. “When my friends come over to my house, they no longer ask me where I got some new stuff. They know it’s Aldi,” Pratt said. Aldi, explaining the process behind stocking the shy space, said a team of trend experts and buyers looked at the growing trend of products and “sourced the best products at the lowest prices.”

“Aldi usually takes nine months or less, bringing in relevant items faster than competitors,” he said, and that includes food items, such as the Seafood Boil that was tested through the aisle of shame last summer, and which the company plans to bring back this year. .

One infamous aisle — a sparkly $13 wrap dress — had a somewhat viral moment last fall and was featured on many media outlets, including Good Morning America, after shoppers flooded social media with photos of the versatile dress that seemed to complement a variety of body shapes. However, there is no word on whether the product will be restocked. Britney Henderson, who lives north of Atlanta, Georgia, recently bought a pair of hanging bamboo pendant lights from Aldi for $9 each for her bedroom and promptly posted them on the Aisle of Shame Facebook group.

Like Pratt, she shops at Aldi two or three times a month. It’s a 30-minute drive for her but she generally prefers the quality of groceries and prices at Aldi to other discount supermarkets, including Walmart.

Before his trip, he updated himself on the latest posts on the Aisle of Shame Facebook page.

“If something pops up there and I think, oh man, I’ve got to have it, I try to get to the store as quickly as possible. Otherwise, it’s gone,” she said, sharing that she was wearing shoes she also bought at Aldi during the interview. One item what she can’t take is the viral wrap dress from 2022.

Sometimes she tries to avoid the aisles when she insists on sticking to her budget, but it’s a struggle.

“I’m almost embarrassed by it,” Henderson said.

A low-cost juggernaut
Aldi is keen to fill the US landscape – small towns to big cities – with efficient, no-frills, lowest-priced, small-sized hybrid grocery/discount stores. And it poses a growing competitive threat to other retailers such as Walmart, Target and Costco.

“The stores have a limited variety, very focused on private label products. Their overall messaging to clients is effectively “we’re making things more efficient and sorting things out for you so you don’t have to pay all those extra costs,” says John Clear, senior director in the global consumer and retail consulting group of firm Alvarez & Marsal.

It’s perfectly positioned for the current state of US consumers, he said. “It’s a clear and simple message for the times we live in, where customers are stretched thin where their wallets are tight and they don’t have time,” Clear said.

The chain checks two boxes for shoppers: Low-priced, quality and affordable grocery items and an efficient shopping experience without the overwhelming product selection of big stores, “so it makes it easy for shoppers to get in and out quickly,” he said. It helps that the store has less than a dozen aisles. In March, the company announced plans to expand its footprint by adding 800 more stores nationwide by 2028, in addition to the more than 2,300 stores it already has in the US.

“Our growth is driven by our customers, and they are asking for more ALDI stores in their neighborhoods across the country,” Aldi CEO Jason Hart said in a statement. “With savings of up to 40% on groceries, new customers are inspired to try us, and existing customers keep coming back. ”

Lanes of shame also serve strategic business purposes. Although Aldi declined to disclose annual sales in the US or worldwide, Clear estimates that 10% to 15% of annual sales, and “some multiple of that” contribute to profit margins just shy of purchases.

“The way I think about that middle aisle is that traditionally customers spend a lot of time shopping outside the store, which is frozen, cold, fresh, frozen,” Clear said, adding that that section tends to be a lower margin area.

“Products such as milk and eggs, flour and sugar drive [shopper] frequency because of Aldi’s low prices,” he said. However, stores usually don’t make a big profit on low-margin products unless they sell a lot of products.

Aldi Finds items, combined with higher-priced Aldi’s own private label grocery offerings (which make up 80% to 90% of groceries) such as olive oil however, tend to be more profitable.

Products in the shame aisle are extras that boost profits, Clear says. “It’s plastics and textiles that they import directly from overseas.”

“Customers who come in and just buy milk and eggs are not good for Aldi. No one is really making money out of it,” he said. “You need to get customers who come once or twice a week to also pick up some other products. That’s where this aisle of shame fits in and helps Aldi offer low prices overall.”