My colleague at The Packer had a fascinating story about potential "price wars" as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. doubles down on its "Every Day Low Price" promise, under pressure from discounters like Batavia, Il.-based Aldi, and soon-to-be German cousin Lidl, this summer.
Wal-Mart is doing price comparisons in the Midwest and Southeast, reports say. For good reason, I think. Aldi and Lidl reportedly own 12 percent of the United Kingdom market share, and that number is growing. Aldi also hopes to have 2,000 stores by the end of next year.
Analysts even have Whole Foods under pressure from Aldi and Lidl, which have expanded their selections of natural and organic products over the past several years.
Who ISN'T a threat from these guys, then?
When I was a kid, my mom had an encyclopedic memory of prices from every store we frequented, which in central Missouri included Wal-Mart Supercenter, Aldi, Consumers and the local independent, Carl's Market. She could ask my dad how much money he had in his pocket, and come within a couple of dollars, cash.
I, however, don't have THAT good of a memory, so I called upon a friend to go price check Aldi for me. We both went on Monday, March 7. I took her information to my neighborhood Wal-Mart. I know there's a little bit of a regional difference here, like cilantro is never more than 39 cents in Central Texas, and we'd die before paying $1.29 for a small avocado, but a lot of these items don't vary much from market to market.
Here's what we found, for comparable items:
