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  • In September 2020, the International Business  Times announced that Aldi would be making its  

  • advent cheese calendars available in early  November. The Emporium Selection Cheese  

  • Advent Calendar is one of Aldi's most popular  items, and it only costs $14.99. Even though  

  • the quantity of cheese is small enough to fit in  each day's square, the advent calendars are just  

  • another instance of Aldi providing incredibly  cheap cheese at a quality worth having.

  • Anyone who knows of Aldi knows  about their cut-to-the-bone style  

  • that allows for low prices that even  Walmart struggles to compete with.  

  • In 2019, CNN ran a piece in which Greg  Foran, Walmart's US CEO, had this to say:

  • "I've been competing against Aldi for 20-plus  years. They are fierce and they are good."

  • The article goes on to list several well-known  examples of why Aldi runs so efficiently. For  

  • instance, Aldi's shopping carts must be returnedwhich saves on wages wasted on cart runners.  

  • However, these reasons don't completely  explain why Aldi's cheese, in particular,  

  • is so incredibly cheap. Aldi can get away with  selling good supermarket cheeses at a low price  

  • because of their practice of selling  almost all their stock as a private label,  

  • a practice best illustrated by their  American counterpart, Trader Joe's.

  • The connection between Trader Joe's and Aldi  stems from a separation of Aldi into Aldi Nord,  

  • or North, and Aldi Süd, or South, in  the 1960s. In 1971, as Mark Gardiner,  

  • author of Build a Brand Like Trader  Joe's, explains, Theo Albrecht,  

  • the German owner of Aldi Nord, bought Trader  Joe's. The Aldis seen in the US today belong  

  • to Aldi Süd. They're competitors but  operate according to the same logic.

  • Like Aldi, Trader Joe's relies heavily  on private labels. Sara Nesbitt,  

  • CEO of Coastal Carolina Soap, explained to  Business.com what "private labeling" entails:

  • "[Private labeling] is selling products  

  • a business makes under another  company's or business's brand."

  • Additionally, it could also mean using  an ingredient supplied by a separate  

  • company to produce one's own product without  attribution. The seller has to directly pay  

  • for the product's creation but has the  freedom to alter it before selling it.

  • "They're selling, Mortimer."

  • "Well, that's ridiculous."

  • This arrangement allows for the cheap prices that  suck people into Aldi and Trader Joe's. By cutting  

  • out the premade aspects of the product, the  seller lowers the amount they need to charge to  

  • make a profit. Furthermore, doing this allows the  seller to change the product however they want.  

  • This is why Aldi has an easy enough time producing  all kinds of cheap cheeses and advent calendars.

  • Since they can develop their  wares however they want,  

  • they can opt to redirect some of  their cheese into advent calendars,  

  • an option unavailable when buying  an already packaged product.

  • According to a pamphlet from the  2019 Private Label Trade Show,  

  • the private label market has reached 25 percent  of all US sales. While loyal shoppers at stores  

  • like Aldi and the Aldi Nord-owned Trader  Joe's certainly contribute to this number,  

  • it more generally reflects how pervasive  this hush-hush market practice is.

  • The extent of this secrecy grows apparent when you  attempt to find out where these foods come from.  

  • More than 90 percent of Aldi's products are  private label, and their labels leave a lot  

  • to the imagination. Its cheese offerings  are given vague yet aspirational-sounding  

  • names like "Emporium Selection" or  "Specialty Selection" or "Happy Farms."

  • In 2017, Eater commented on this phenomenon  in an article about the brands behind Trader  

  • Joe's brands. In the piece, reporter Vince  Dixon quoted from Gardiner's book, writing,

  • "Suppliers aren't allowed to say  they supply Trader Joe's products  

  • and Trader Joe's never willingly  talks about who their suppliers are."

  • However, by looking at the FDA's recalls  of certain Trader Joe's offerings,  

  • you can discover that Naked Juice and  Stauffer's animal crackers are among  

  • the name-brand items Trader  Joe's rebrands as its goods.

  • Trader Joe's also likes exclusive partnerships  with private labels, as might Aldi. And cheese  

  • lovers reap the benefits. Happy FarmsAmerican cheese tastes like Kraft's version.  

  • It may be Kraft-produced for all we know, but  it's cheaper. As long as we can still buy decent  

  • quality cheese at a low cost, we will happily  put up with the mystery of private labeling.

  • Check out one of our newest  videos right here! Plus,  

  • even more Mashed videos about your favorite  supermarket chains are coming soon.  

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In September 2020, the International Business  Times announced that Aldi would be making its  

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