Major brands and retailers like to test new formats in small stores far from their headquarters. A region farther away than Australia could hardly be found at the Aldi Süd headquarters in Mülheim/Ruhr. The result is a corner market format for city dwellers, making shopping at Aldi a previously unknown experience.
Aldi City Store: Discount Has Never Been So Beautiful
This week, Aldi Süd opened its first “Corner Store” in Sydney, a new retail format: a small neighborhood branch. The product range is geared towards the needs of urban dwellers and includes convenience products such as ready meals, a large produce section, and a real bakery.
The store design, developed by Landini Associates, is nothing short of a revolution for Aldi. The concept optimizes the relatively small sales area for Aldi and relies on a colorful, bold design that is intended to appeal to urban customers. This includes bold colors and graphics, easy navigation, self-checkouts, and extended opening hours.
Those expecting an explosion of digital touchpoints at the Aldi Corner Store are disappointed. Aldi remains true to its maximum efficiency hard-discount concept, only implementing technology when it improves processes and increases business efficiency.
Tom Daunt, CEO of Aldi Australia, says the company has been cautious in its use of technology so far and has deliberately not rushed into adopting the latest trends.
“We have long maintained that we only invest when the costs of innovation prove viable,” says Tom Daunt. “After monitoring the market and evaluating which technological advances deliver cost savings and are also well-received by customers, we have strategically embarked on a path to modernize our business while maintaining our “Good Different” approach, underpinned by our core purpose of providing high-quality food at incredibly low prices.” In Australia, Aldi also uses digital signage at the entrance to promote weekly specials.
In addition to the pilot store, Aldi also tested self-checkout lanes in ten other stores in Australia. Aldi has been operating in Australia for 20 years and, with a 12.4% market share, is now the third-largest supermarket chain behind Woolworths and Cole.
Cooler: Aldi Tests Stretch Displays
An exception to the non-digital strategy are stretched displays Integrated into supermarket refrigeration systems. These special displays, only a few centimeters high and approximately 1 meter wide, complement electronic price labels. Stretched display require far less space than traditional 16:9 screens. Aldi displays promotional content across the entire screen, running across the entire width of the display.
