There was a funny article on the Telegraph website called ‘The Kitchen Thinker: Aldi’ by Bee Wilson who writes for Stella magazine. The full article can be read here
The article says that the Aldi founder, Theo Albrecht, who died last year was the 31st richest person in the world yet led a life which was more akin to a skinflint.
Although he ate cheap meals of potatoes and used pencils right down to their stubs he was seemingly regarded as a pioneer of the modern supermarket and his success and global empire was born out of a total focus on cost control and the elimination of waste. The article says that although the UK version of Aldi is perhaps known for cheap sausages, globally, its a different story and that Aldi is a supermarket used by the ‘Kitchen Thinker‘.
Perhaps the message of Bee’s article was that the smart person who wants fresh, quality veg goes to Aldi as in the end a carrot is a carrot, is a carrot and you can buy them from Aldi (and be smart) or go to Sainsbury’s and pay three times the price for a product with no discernable difference?
While brand plays a big part in all our lives, from cars and clothes to fitted kitchens and electrical goods you can argue brand shouldnt really traverse to fresh fruit and veg?
Either way it wasnt the Aldi brand that caught our eye in searching for ‘kitchen’ related news and it is a pity the visionary wasn’t around to impart some of his wisdom during the spending review which has divided UK opinion so and seen VAT go up to 20%.
What did catch our eye was one such tale of his cost cutting when he was kidnapped at gunpoint in 1971, and in which he duly he haggled down his own ransom and then went to court in an attempt to seek tax relief on the ransom as a business expense!!!!
Follow Bee Wilson on twitter @KitchenBee
