Aldi customers in some southern German cities can now have their supermarket shopping delivered to their front door. Until now, the service was only available to a limited number of employees working at Aldi.
From August 29, discount supermarket shoppers in southern Germany will be able to enjoy an experience normally limited to luxurious establishments like Edeka, Rewe or Alnatura. Aldi Süd’s new home delivery service will be available via the “Mein Aldi” app to anyone living in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Duisburg and Oberhausen, all of which lie in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Customers in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Duisburg and Oberhausen will be able to choose from 1.300 products on “Mein Aldi”, which will be delivered to their doors in one of the company’s electric vehicles.
Similar to the start-up grocery delivery services, such as Flink or Gorillas, that have spread like wildfire in many German cities in recent years, the food will not come from an Aldi shop but will be delivered from a so-called “dark store” - a fancy name for a warehouse.
Unlike the more glamorous supermarket delivery services, when customers in the three pilot cities order their food shopping via “Mein Aldi”, they will not be able to select a delivery slot, and will instead have to be prepared to wait around at the house for the doorbell to ring.
This is because Aldi Süd drivers will follow pre-arranged routes, similar to the way a milkman would, rather than go about the city delivering to set slots on time. Following this method is one of the ways that Aldi and other discount supermarkets can afford to offer delivery services, which are otherwise costly to run.
The cost is another reason why the supermarket is only tentatively launching the service in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Duisburg and Oberhausen, without any current plans to expand.
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