The Meaning Behind Aldi's Unique Name

Both Aldi and Trader Joe's have loyal grocery shoppers, but Aldi has picked up an especially good reputation among its devotees for being a cheap supermarket, and it extends beyond the various Aldi dupes. This shouldn't be too surprising, as its low price is embedded in its name, though it may have been in hiding since the 1960s. The name Aldi is a shortened version of the words "Albrecht Discount," or more accurately, "Albrecht Diskont," since the store was founded in Germany.

Aldi was originally a family business, and "Albrecht" refers to the Albrecht family. Anna Albrecht first opened a humble grocery store in 1913 in Essen, Germany, shortly before World War I, and her two sons, Karl and Theo Albrecht, took over the business in 1948 after the conclusion of World War II. The second word in the name, "Diskont," comes from a long history of the Albrecht brothers' penchant for frugality and low costs while running the family business (more on that later). As they opened more stores, the brothers eventually split up the business and ran their own stores separately after an argument over whether Aldi should sell cigarettes. Theo wanted to sell cigarettes and began managing Aldi stores in northern Germany, while Karl — who thought cigarettes would bring in shoplifters — took over the southern stores. These became Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd, or Aldi North and Aldi South.

The Albrecht brothers were conscripted into the German army during World War II, and by the time both made it home, the German economy was in shambles, and much of its infrastructure had been bombed like the rest of Europe. The two brothers took on a frugal, waste-free approach to running and pricing the grocery stores, selling products for cheap by cutting store maintenance costs however they could. Theo and Karl Albrecht avoided selling any fresh produce in favor of non-perishable items that wouldn't spoil, and if any item on the shelves stopped selling well, it got removed immediately. Beyond that, the brothers refused to spend money on advertising or even decorating. 

Due to such low overhead costs, the products sold by the Albrecht family business were cheap. This worked well: The Albrecht brothers began opening more discounted store locations and officially went into business under the shortened name "Aldi" in 1962. It reached the United States in 1976, and nowadays, there are over 2,600 Aldi stores in the United States alone and over 13,000 stores worldwide between Aldi Süd and Aldi Nord. The company still seems to stick by that hidden message in its name, and your average Aldi can beat out Walmart in terms of lowest average prices. Just don't buy too much; the discounts won't matter if you overspend while making the most of Aldi's "Aisle of Shame."