Aldi's in the WSJ!

My favorite grocery store gets some run in the WSJ in an article by John Stoll and Sharon Terlep...

You can't buy nearly everything there. But what you can get-- including most of the staples-- is of good quality and great prices. And the recession is a good opportunity for them to peel away buyers from other, more expensive stores.

They smoke WalMart-- and everyone else-- on food prices. Milk prices just rose from $1.99/gallon (over the last six months or so) to $2.29. Still crushing other options!

German store chain Aldi is so cheap that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. closed its discount outlets in Germany two years ago partly because shoppers found the U.S. giant too expensive in comparison.

Now, the U.S. arm of Aldi is cranking up expansion in Wal-Mart's home turf and seizing on the economic downturn to lure consumers to its Spartan stores and cheap groceries. The discount chain will open at least 75 U.S. stores this year, well above its typical pace, including its first Aldi store in New York City.

The company is counting on the economic downturn to crash a traditional barrier to the U.S. grocery business: Americans tend to be loyal to big-name brands....

Aldi's first arrived in 1976 and began opening a collection of 1,000 U.S. stores, mostly in the Midwest and Northeast....

The push comes as the retailer is running out of room to grow in its German home market, where an estimated 90% of households shop at its stores...