Some readers will no doubt recognize the name of this blog as an homage to Louis Malle's 1981 film, My Dinner with Andre. If you haven't seen the film, I highly recommend it (a new edition was recently made available by the Criterion Collection). As the film's title suggests, two characters (played by Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory) have dinner at a fine restaurant in New York City. Andre spends much of the meal recounting to his friend, Wally, his numerous attempts at experiencing transcendental enlightenment. Wally eventually calls Andre on his stories, dismissing his friend's outlandish exploits as vacuous follies that only the privileged could possibly experience. It's a talky film where nothing really "happens," but there's a good reason that it's been parodied and referenced countless times in pop culture.(most recently by the cult-favorite sitcom Community). My point is this: Wally would probably shop at ALDI.
If you are not familiar with ALDI, then allow me to give you the nutshell history. ALDI (a truncation of "Albrecht Discount") was founded by two brothers in Germany nearly a century ago. The Albrechts eventually split the company into two entities: ALDI Nord (which runs ALDI Markt) and ALDI Sud. Collectively, ALDI became one of Germany's largest discount supermarket chains (You can read more about the company's German and international branches on Wikipedia). ALDI Sud runs the ALDI stores in the United States. According to ALDI US' "Corporate Information" page, the first ALDI store opened in the United States in 1976. Today, there are over 1,000 stores in 31 states. I think I'll save my personal reminiscences of ALDI for another time (However, now might be a good time to assert that this blog is not endorsed by ALDI, or its subsidiaries. The viewpoints expressed by the author do not reflect the viewpoints of ALDI, or its subsidiaries).
My Dinner with ALDI was not expressly started to highlight deals or savings. Nor is it a foodie blog. There already are scads of blogs that deal with those topics. I'm just your average semi-literate-guy-working-in-retail. I try to live within my means, but scrimping isn't something that preoccupies me. That idea of living within one's own means is what I think fascinates me about ALDI. In many ways, their corporate policies and practices reflect a company that's operating within its means and is apparently flourishing.
I'm the farthest thing from being a journalist, but this blog is going to be a sort of investigation to see what it is about ALDI's products that have earned them its loyal consumer base. If anything, I want to write something that entertains. I hope that you return in the coming weeks to read my random impressions. If you're not careful you may just learn something. So let's get ready, okay?
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