Kaufen wir im Fussgaengerzone!

Trader Joe Has a Brother. He’s Even Better.

Slate's Culture Blog  Dec. 2 2013 12:26 PM

 

By Rebecca Schuman education columnist for Slate.

 

 

This is the best grocery store in America

Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images

 

Chances are that you have never set foot inside the best grocery store in America: Aldi. And even if you are lucky enough to be in one of the 32 states where Aldi is, perhaps you were put-off by the cardboard boxes in lieu of shelves, or the row upon row of suspicious-looking off-brands. What is this place? Why do I have to put down a deposit to check out a cart? What is the weird giant shelf by the exit? And what do you mean, I have to pay for a bag?

Calm your hormones, meine Schatzis: Aldi, which is short for Albrecht Discount, is the American incarnation of a German grocery chain that is so ubiquitous in the Vaterland that almost 90 percent of Germans shop there. (Not all German imports are luxury cars, beer, and super-cool glasses.)

Aldi is part of a charming subset of Teutonic trade: the brother-run company that cleaves in twain. Shoe aficionados already know the story of the Dassler brothers, Adolf and Rudolf, whose bitter feud resulted in the creation of Adidas and Puma. (Germans pronounceAdidas differently—some might say correctly—AH-dee-das, from Adi Dassler.) But outside Germany, few know about grocery-store kingpins Karl and Theo Albrecht (who was kidnapped in 1971!)—even though Karl, with a reported net worth of more than 17 billion euros, is the richest man in Germany (Theo’s descendants are a close second). 

 

The Brüder founded their discount-store empire together. A disagreement in 1960 over selling cigarettes hastened a partition, and an epic game of grocery-store Risk: Theo would rename his business Aldi Nord, and would control territories north of the Rhine, plus a healthy chunk of Europe. Karl would head up Aldi Süd, and get southern Germany, more of Europe, plus the U.K. and Ireland. But both companies operate stores in the United States—Aldi Süd operates as Aldi, and Aldi Nord as the now ubiquitous Trader Joe’s.

But whereas Trader Joe’s employs just one major cost-saving device—private labeling—everything else about it is Americanized. The place is swarming with upbeat employees; cashiers stand at the till and bag your products for you; you just grab a cart willy-nilly and they trust you to put it back. Aldi also private-labels (those $1.99 “Millville” Rice Squares are Chex, you guys!), but what makes it a more exciting venture—and even cheaper than Trader Joe’s—is that it has imported the entire German grocery experience (aside, alas, from employees yelling at you if you do something wrong).

If you’ve ever visited Germany, you’ve noticed that a 4-ounce glass of juice at a restaurant may run you $10, while groceries—often of much higher quality than their American counterparts—will be noticeably less expensive. This is in part because of cost-cutting shopping practices whose arrival stateside I greet with a robust “Wunderbar!”

You can always tell an American in Germany by the way they incredulously don’t get that nobody is going to bag their groceries for them—they’re expected to do so (and schnell!) while the seated cashier is ringing them up. Shoppers also have the option of quickly sticking wares back into the cart and schlepping them over to a special low, wide shelf that’s an official bagging area. As for the cart: It requires a deposit, and customers must return them to their rightful place—without the help of an employee—if they want their money back.

These are standard practices at even upscale German Supermärkte, so high-end groceries are cheaper relative to other goods than they are here. This is why I am hoping for Aldi’s rousing success in Amiland: so that more of our stores, and our culture in general, will incorporate such Teutonic efficiency. First the cost-savings of bagging our own groceries—then the ubiquitous bicycle lanes; immaculate, punctual public transportation; and, finally, required paid vacation and parental leave. It would be ausgezeichnet indeed, meine Lieben.

Deutsch Direkt TV

 Lernen wir Deutsch,  mit Hanni Vanhaiden

1.  Programm
Wie heißt du?
Wo kommst du her?
Wo finde ich Duhnen?
Wie ist das Wetter?
Wann machen sie Urlaub?
Der Wattwagen



2. Programm

Die Autobahn A1
Einmal Volltanken, bitte!

Wir brauchen eine Tankstelle.
Wir brauchen Benzin

Wir gehen zur Kasse.
"Bitte nicht selbst tanken!"
Ausverkauft
Es tut mir leid!
Haben Sie einen Stadtplan?
Haben Sie Mineralwasser?
Haben Sie Briefmarken?
Haben Sie ein Zimmer frei?
Haben Sie Brötchen?

Wo ist das Telefon?
Woher kommen Sie?  -- aus Bremen!

Aladin und die Wunderlampe
der Lamberduz ist der Geist der Lampe



3. Programm

Was gibt es hier?
Wo kann man hier parken?
--in einem Parkhaus.
Entschuldigen Sie bitte!
Sie kauft Briefmarken am Markt.
Was kosten diese Postkarten?
Was macht das zusammen?  (Was kostet das?)
Im Ratskeller
Ausgezeichnet!
Ich möchte gerne die Rechnung.
Was kann man kaufen?
--Süßigkeiten kann man in einer Konditorei kaufen.
-- Urlaub in der Sonne kann man buchen.
-- Ein Eis kann man essen.
-- Eine Bluse...oder Fußballschuhe ... kann man kaufen.
Hier gibt es Tee, Brot, Zigaren, Schmuck, Kräuter, Gewürze und Mehl.
Wenn ich nicht arbeite, verbringe ich meine Freizeit mit meiner Familie.



4. Programm

Im Dorf Dötlingen ist das Leben ruhig.
In der Gemeinde Dötlingen (parish/township) wohnen etwa 4.500 Menschen.
(4.500 = viereinhalbtausend)
Seit 4 Jahren bin ich hier.
Er hat eine Frau, er ist verheiratet.
Nein, ich bin nicht verheiratet.
Haben Sie ein Zimmer frei?
Ein Einzelzimmer?
Nein, ein Doppelzimmer mit Bad, bitte.
Hier kann man vom 7 bis 10 Uhr Frühstücken.
Heute ist Marktag
Wir kaufen 100 Gramm gekochten Schinken.   (cooked ham)
Ich hätte gerne zwei Pfirsiche und zwei Zitronen.  (peaches/lemons)
Ich möchte ein Kännchen Tee.
Hier ist eine Töpferei.         (potterer's workshop)
Man kann Kunstobjekte kaufen,     (die Kunst = art)
zum Beispiel diese handgemachte Schachfiguren.
In Jever fließt der Jeverbier.
Herr Peters ist hier Erster Baumeister.
In diesem Betrieb (company) wird nichts mit der Hand gemacht.
Man kann die Gersten (barley)  sehen, aber die Hopfen (hops)   und der Malz (malt) sieht man nicht.
Hier arbeiten nur wenige Menschen.
Hier machen Computer die Arbeit.
Es dauert (takes/lasts)  zirka 8 bis 10 Wochen vom Maiskorn zum Glas.

Why U.S. Retailers Are Still Vulnerable to Card Fraud

Bloomberg Business Week Technology Data Security

By Olga Kharif and Bianca Vázquez Toness April 10, 2014 

 

Photograph by Kristoffer Tripplaar/Sipa via AP Photo

A chip-based EMV smart card

After last year’s massive security breaches at Target (TGT) and Neiman Marcus, data security pros urged U.S. retailers to upgrade their credit and debit card technology to reduce fraud. Companies have been slow to embrace the more secure payment systems that have been widely used in Europe and Asia for years, mostly because of the expense and a lack of synchronization among retailers, credit card providers, and banks.

Many companies are behind schedule in updating their systems to comply with a chip-based smart card standard known as EMV (for Europay-MasterCard (MA)-Visa (V), the companies that first backed the technology). Credit card networks have set an October 2015 deadline for most U.S. merchants to upgrade their payment systems.

EMV is considered more secure because it’s harder to copy account numbers and security codes from chips than from the magnetic strips on most cards used in the U.S.  EMV cards create a unique code for each transaction, making them more difficult to hack or counterfeit than striped cards.




Merchant Warehouse, which processes credit and debit card transactions for 80,000 U.S. merchants, projects that only about 60 percent of its clients’ locations will be ready to accept chip-based cards by the deadline. Richard Crone, chief executive officer of payments advisory firm Crone Consulting, says more than half of U.S. merchants will miss the cutoff.

Story: Why Heartbleed, the Latest Cybersecurity Scare, Matters

 

One reason for the delay is the upgrade’s high cost—$500 to $1,000 per payment terminal, according to researcher Javelin Strategy & Research, a division of Greenwich Associates. Retailers are also concerned that the switch will slow checkout times and that it remains unclear how the EMV software will work with debit cards. “It is not a question of just turning it on,” says Margaret Chabris, a spokeswoman for 7-Eleven (3382:JP). “EMV specifications are still being finalized.”

....
For terminals to provide added security, customers must have chip-enabled cards. “Part of the reason we haven’t pushed faster is there’re just no cards out there for acceptance,” Cook says. Today, with about 1 billion cards in use in the U.S., just 20 million chip cards have been issued, according to Smart Card Alliance. Only 20 percent to 30 percent of U.S. card holders will have the new cards by the deadline, says Nick Holland, an analyst at Javelin.

The new cards can cost up to $2 each, compared with pennies for the magnetic-stripe models. “We’ve got 10 million cards in inventory out in the field,” says Mark Putman, a senior vice president for First Data (KKR), which offers prepaid card services. “At $2, we are probably looking at a $20 million investment, which I am going to defer for as long as possible.”

Retailers are willing to do their part to improve security, the National Retail Federation says, but banks and card companies also have a responsibility to update their systems. That includes making and issuing chip-enabled cards.

Blog: The FBI Warns Retailers About Thieves Armed With Foil

 

The price for not complying could be high. Credit card companies have said most retailers and banks will be liable for some fraudulent in-store transactions if they don’t have the new system. Even so, “merchants aren’t crazy about this migration to EMV, and many of them are fighting it tooth and nail,” says Julie Conroy, an analyst at Aite Group.

 

 

 

H A U L : Was habe ich mir gekauft?

 Hier bloggt Katharine. 



Und hast du Katharines Fragen verstanden?  Sie möchte Rat.  Was sagst du?

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