I Can't Keep Up With All The Supermarket Openings

When I was a kid there were three supermarkets to choose from.  A&P, Ralphs, and Safeway.  Our town also had a small deluxe market called Jurgenson's.  That was IT!  We've come a long way in the past 75 years.  Today San Diego is home to the following supermarket chains:  WalMart, Target, Costco, Ralphs, Vons, Albertsons, Stater Bros., Gelson's, Bristol Farms, Frazier Farms, Sprouts, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Smart and Final, Winco, and most recently Aldi.  Whew!  That's a lot of supermarkets, and I wonder how they all survive.  Many of them are just barely hanging on, but others are packed whenever you go there.

Supermarkets seem to break down into several categories:  Traditional supermarkets, like Ralphs and Vons, Natural Food Markets, like Whole Foods and Sprouts, Deluxe supermarkets, like Gelson's and Bristol Farms, Discount markets, like Costco, Winco and WalMart, and Speciality markets, like Trader Joe's.  Now we have Aldi, a low cost supermarket that has just opened in Vista.  I have not been to see it yet, but will do so soon.  Here's what I know about Aldi.

Aldi is a high volume store, with only 1,400 products.  The typical supermarket carries 40,000 products.  With less products there is higher turnover, keeping food fresh.  Aldi takes no coupons or credit cards, just cash or debit cards.  Customers deposit 25 cents in a machine to rent a cart, then return it at the end of their shopping.  This keeps the supermarket from spending lots of money retrieving shopping carts and replacing carts that are left in the parking lots.  Their staff is well paid, and are well trained to multi task.  Most of their food items are private label, thus they control the packaging.  Packaging is designed for optimum efficiency.  Checkout is lightening fast.  All fruits and veggies are pre packaged, to avoid having to weigh items at checkout.  Aldi customers also bring their own bags (or buy them at Aldi) and bag their own groceries.  I've been told that all this reduces the cost of good 20%-50%, and quality doesn't suffer.  I can't wait to go try it out for myself.  They're opening on June 17, in San Marcos.

My husband Ron will probably love Aldi.  One of his big complaints about supermarkets today is that there are too many choices.  He doesn't want to have to choose between 10 different kinds of peanut butter, or 50 loaves of bread.  I, on the other hand, love all the choices.  I guess that's really the reason there are so many supermarkets.  Everyone has different shopping needs, and with so many choices, there's something for everyone.

One final note.  Our local Ralph's is closing on June 19.  It's in Oceanside, at the corner of Cannon and Melrose.  A rent hike has forced them out, and for the 1,632 families living in Ocean Hills, it will be a big loss.