Is Aldi Sacrificing Quality For Dollars?
Comments (10) It is hard to put Aldi stores into a category. Whilst they are predominantly a grocery chain, they do also sell a wide range of non grocery items.
It is also hard to determine if they are low quality, medium quality or high quality. I have always placed them in the medium to good quality range – however recent purchases leave me wondering.
Aldi Stores are a European setup that have established themselves in Australia with a wide network of stores. Their products in the main have been good – some products very good. Apart from a narrow range of grocery items, they have weekly sales items which are only stocked until sold out. These items range from televisions to computers to dishwashers amongst other big ticket items to smaller items like clothing, toys, electrical goods and million and one other items.
I recently purchased one of their electric kettles – one which is along the lines of the old fashioned kettles. It works well – in fact it actually boils water, it doesn’t switch itself off at the first sign of steam.
Unfortunately, for a kettle that isn’t exactly cheap; looks and works well; it has a simple design fault that makes it almost
unusable and decidedly dangerous. The kettle is built using a tiny little screw to hold the handle in place – two screws actually, one at the spout and one opposite where traditional handles sit. Within weeks one screw works itself loose and, like most things in life, if they are going to break they will do it when you least expect it – like pouring boiling water into a cup.
I was fortunate – I felt it giving way and stopped before wearing the contents. I wonder how long it will be before someone does wear a pot full of boiling water.
This is not the first product. We recently purchased a salt and pepper mill. Again – they look great and the price was okay – not dirt cheap but not expensive. They only problem is – there were no instructions on how to open the darn things to put the salt and pepper in – I still haven’t worked that one out!
Simple issues like these will eventually turn people away from products. Trust is an important issue so if you cannot trust a business to provide value for money – they will shop elsewhere. For a supermarket chain that is still trying to establish itself in the Australian market, I am surprised they have allowed these products through their quality inspections – if that is, they have a quality inspection team to start with. I wonder – is Aldi now sacrificing quality for profits? Long term they may be sacrificing profits by losing reputation.
