Aldi to cease Click and Collect grocery service from 19th August 2024.

Ezeoul

Just received an email from Aldi Ireland.

I guess I'll be doing more of my shopping in Dunnes and Tesco, as life is too short to spend it in a supermarket.

JVince

and?

Obviously loss making, so excellent business decision.

Dunnes and Tesco (Dunnes in particular) charge premium prices, so would have the margin to assume the costs of staff picking orders

Ezeoul

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122501080#Comment_122501080

Well, for me it will mean I will no longer do the bulk of my shopping in Aldi, but will switch to Dunnes as despite their higher prices, I expect it will balance out with their €10 of €50 offer, and not actually having to pay for their click & collect service.

Removing the service is an inconvenience to loyal Aldi customers, but obviously Aldi is prepared to lose some of those. I personally relied on click & collect due to mobility issues which make shopping in-store difficult, but that is besides the point. I also know many others who found it great as shopping online didn't cut into their free time to spend with the family and kids, rather than spending it walking around a supermarket.

But Aldi obviously think business comes first, despite claiming they are doing this for customers' benefit!

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122501227#Comment_122501227

They are doing it for customer benefit. Customers benefit from lower prices. If a service is loss making, ALL customers pay via higher pricing. So dropping a loss making service means the vast vast vast majority of customers benefit.

For customers like you, there are other options available from other stores.

It is good business sense to delete a service that is lossmaking even if it means losing a handful of customers

bren2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122501227#Comment_122501227

But Aldi obviously think business comes first, despite claiming they are doing this for customers' benefit!

Obviously business comes first…they're a business… What else takes priority???

C3PO

I see Dunnes staff wandering around Cornelscourt filling baskets and it always strikes me that unless they are charging the customers a significant premium it really can't make any sense from a business perspective!

Uncle Pierre

We use the Tesco delivery service ourselves, and to be honest, they're not that much more expensive than Aldi if you go for Tesco own-brand products wherever possible.

As an experiment about a year ago, I did up a Tesco shopping list one week to get a total price, but didn't put the order through, and instead went to Aldi to buy their equivalent products. There was less than a €5 difference in about a €100 shop.

JohnC.

I see on the news this morning that they're axing it in the UK too, not just here.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122502109#Comment_122502109

It loses money for everyone by and large

Eventually, companies stop losing money to gain or maintain market share.

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122502134#Comment_122502134

here's a challenge - buy 20 Tesco own brand items and buy the equivalent Aldi own brand items.

Have a look at the ingredients.

You'll avoid many of the tesco ones in future when you see fat & sugar content along with, higher content of palm oils, excessive emulsifiers and high level of glucose fructose syrup.

Remember, Tesco "own brand" also operates under some of their own brand names (Hearty food, Stockwell, Creamfields, Butchers choice & growers harvest) - so you can use these names too to find the price point match.

Uncle Pierre

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122505953#Comment_122505953

Ah, but the convenience of having the Tesco ones delivered straight to our door, instead of having to go to Aldi to buy theirs…..! 😁

bren2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122505953#Comment_122505953

I'm gonna be honest, I dont think I've ever looked at the following:

You'll avoid many of the tesco ones in future when you see fat & sugar content along with, higher content of palm oils, excessive emulsifiers and high level of glucose fructose syrup.

If I put it in my mouth and it tastes nice, I'll eat it. Otherwise I'll try a different brand/not eat it.

reactadabtc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122502134#Comment_122502134

Yep I agree. Lidl/Aldi are not the cheap supermarket they use to be - and they still try to pretend they are. The fruit and vege is subpar, and they won't put their beer in a fridge. If the savings were significant fair enough, but theres minimal difference now days.

bren2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122506757#Comment_122506757

If the savings were significant fair enough, but theres minimal difference now days.

Huh? Fridges are expensive… Stacking on a shelf is free (or no additional cost outside of shelf space).

Uncle Pierre

And in fairness, most of the beer in my local Tesco isn't kept in a fridge either.

It's not like it's meat or dairy products or something else that has to be kept cold. Unless you're absolutely bursting to drink it immediately, should be no issue to get it home and put it in your own fridge for a while first.

reactadabtc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122506786#Comment_122506786

The idea that they have no fridge for their beer to keep costs down and be a discount supermarket, however they are no longer a discount supermarket, but they behave as one.

Gusser09

Aldi are ok in store. Lidl take the complete piss refusing to open more tills when the q is 20 deep.

bren2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122507286#Comment_122507286

Ah, I see. I misunderstood. Apologies.

MrMusician18

A click and collect service really doesn't come with a great cost. Assuming their software produces a logical pick list even the largest of shops wouldn't take more than 15mins to pick. Given that they charge €5 for the service, it would be hard to lose much money on it. They could have increased the cost and those that valued it could have paid it.

It wasn't much use here as most aldis in Ireland never implemented it

What I actually think is they don't want to publish their prices online anymore.

bren2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122507414#Comment_122507414

Who maintains the website? Updates the catelogue? Updates the stock list?

See a few posts up for a link, pretty clear it's a loss leader.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122507441#Comment_122507441

They are all fixed costs no matter if just 1 or all shops offered the service. if it was those costs that were the problem then the solution is to extend it to more shops. One would also assume that the maintenance was minimal and it just grabbed from their stock database.

It doesn't look that they were ever that committed to it anyway since they rolled it out to a small fraction of shops.

Was it originally a covid launch?

bren2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122507496#Comment_122507496

and those costs are a lot higher than one would expect

It clearly doesn't make Aldi money

elperello

I don't see that click and collect is a great advantage.

You still have to go to the shop and load the shopping into the car.

If I'm going that far I'd rather go in and pick my own fruit and veg, meat etc. Also you get to decide on b/b dates and choose special offers.

Ezeoul

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122507414#Comment_122507414

They actually increased the cost to €6.49 per click & collect order quite some time ago.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122507608#Comment_122507608

When our children were very small it was handy. Do the order at home and I'd do the collection on the way back from work. No impulse purchases or unnecessary angle grinders would end up bought either.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122507792#Comment_122507792

I can see the attraction for people with small children all right.

Impulse purchases and the middle aisle are just a matter of self control.

C3PO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122507441#Comment_122507441

And it has to be stored and located when the customer comes to collect - €5 wouldn't begin to cover it!