While Aldi has held internal discussions about the bulk-buying space,the discount supermarket is ultimately choosing not to compete in this area after observing that shoppers typically tend to stick to a certain budget for their grocery spend.
“When customers have that limited amount of money to spend each week,I think it’s really important that they can get the breadth of their goods. We haven’t changed our ranging structures to move to bulk in this time because we actually have the right pack sizes at the best price possible,” Lack said.
Woolworths and Coles,which command about 37 per cent and 28 per cent of market share respectively,haveexpanded their home-brand and private label ranges as they observe “trading down” behaviour and expectcustomers to celebrate Christmas at home.
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However,Lack said that Aldi’s model doesn’t rely on a high-low pricing strategy,where a retailer initially sells a product at a high price and then periodically offers it at a discount to attract customers.
“Competitors use high-low pricing a lot in their stores … We don’t have the ‘high price this week,low price next week’ where it’s in a catalogue and people have to stock up,” Lack said.
“We just have that lowest price on an everyday basis,so that’s what customers will see when they come into our stores.”