When the Cheshire emerges...

German supermarket chain ALDI has taken plenty of cities in its own country and beyond by storm. Their outlet rival the best of the best in the grocery price war.

Supposedly.

Their expansion to Australia's east coast has been met with good feedback by the majority of shoppers. In both metropolitan and regional areas it is always a relevant point of discussion around the water cooler.

Adelaide and South Australia are yet to join in the conversation. The recent announcement that the state has been earmarked as part of ALDI's further expansion is interesting, and to be completely honest probably more of an 'about time' thing than anything else (uh yeah, so we finally have an Apple store after Androids are outselling iPhones...). As is the case with Dubbo.

Now, I've visited ALDI stores in Europe, and particularly remember the store by my Salzburg hostel for finding some bread and that as my breakfast (and possibly lunch) that day. I remember seeing them everywhere and likened it to the UK's Tesco (oh how I miss those - they are good value). However, I'm yet to visit one in Australia.

I would never have thought the obsession of getting a supermarket would be so strong as it is in Dubbo. I can't speak for Adelaide, but on today's announcement that ALDI have put in a development application to Dubbo City Council, it really came out.

It's been years in the making, and people are now glad they won't have to drive an hour to Mudgee, or longer down the Mitchell Highway, to get some good deals. I was rather impressed at the sheer excitement by residents as I fulfilled my social media duties with success for the afternoon.
(*link Facebook-friendly only).

Bottom line: I'm not going to knock (or approve) it until I go in and suss it for myself. Anywhere too, not just Dubbo.

What do you think? Are you on the ALDI bandwagon - am I out of the loop or is there nothing to be fussed about?

***

In other social media news, I made it onto the Crows' latest Storify thread!

Not bad for my first week on it! Storify has shown itself to be a slight pain though. It should be simple enough, but trying to find things both for feeds and within a general profile has proven rather difficult. I WILL get the hang of it.