‘Value is always on trend’: Aldi CEO explains effort to prove the grocer has the lowest prices

As grocery prices remain a hot-button issue, Aldi sought external validation to prove to customers that it has the lowest grocery prices.
In early 2024, Aldi commissioned the “Aldi Price Leadership Report” alongside an announcement that it would add more than 800 stores nationwide by the end of 2028. The company released the report last week. The grocer — which currently has 2,400-plus stores — included third-party analysis of shopper sentiment, price comparisons and economic contributions and said it had the lowest prices of any grocer.
The report included a survey of Aldi shoppers done by an unnamed consulting firm, cost analysis research also done by an undisclosed consulting firm comparing prices in five metro areas and an analysis of Aldi’s economic impact by Ernst & Young. It includes many statistics related to the company’s pricing, perception and impact, such as that it collectively saves U.S. shoppers $8.3 billion a year if they switch from name brands to Aldi’s private-label products and that Aldi contributed an estimated $14 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product in 2023.
Because they were commissioned and shared by the grocer directly, its claims should be taken with a grain of salt. But the report does prove another thing: Aldi wants customers to know how it stacks up to grocers at a time when competing on price is crucial. The company plans to use this data in its communications moving forward, and last week shared some of its findings on social media. As people continue to worry about high prices and inflation, Aldi and other grocers are focusing on value and trying to find new ways to prove they are the best choice.
In an interview, Aldi CEO Jason Hart told Modern Retail that the company checks competitors and price points weekly to ensure it has a price advantage, and while other groups and media outlets may also report on grocery prices, the company wanted its own way to check those results and share them with its customers and employees. “It was important to us to validate the savings that consumers get at Aldi,” Hart said. “We wanted to have a third party provide an objective view and to quantify, just to look at how significant the savings are for customers and the impact that Aldi has on consumers.”
Ross Cloyd, a grocery analyst for research firm Kantar, said commissioning such studies hasn’t been a typical practice for grocers, but that this could become more common considering recent Federal Trade Commission findings on how some retailers may use people’s personal information to set tailored prices for goods and services, as well as how PepsiCo allegedly provided a large retailer with unfair pricing advantages.
“Shoppers are concerned with ‘surge pricing’ or retailers changing pricing quickly in certain markets,” Cloyd wrote in an email. “It’s a hot topic right now, and we can anticipate that more retailers and grocers will do work to prove out consumer value for their purchases.”
Generally, retailers are leaning into storytelling using in-store signage, social channels and advertising platforms to highlight value-driven narratives, Cloyd said, such as those about sustainable sourcing, new product innovations or unbeatable savings.
“At the end of the day, value is about more than just the lowest price tag — it’s about the overall experience and relationship a grocery retailer builds with its shoppers,” Cloyd said. “Customers want to feel like they’re making the right choice for their wallets, their families and their values. Grocery retailers that can clearly define and deliver value across these dimensions are the ones who will not only survive but thrive in this competitive landscape.”
CEO Hart identified several factors that play into how Aldi works to deliver on low prices: 90% of its products are private label, its “quarter cart” system — where customers insert a quarter to take out a shopping cart and get the coin back when they return it — helps save Aldi on labor in the stores, its stores are smaller than other grocers’ and they offer a more focused range of products.
“Consumer preferences are evolving,” Hart said. “They just don’t need the huge stores, fancy displays, tens of thousands of SKUs and different national brands to choose from. Everything that I described about Aldi is different than that. When they experience a more efficient, a simpler way to shop that saves them money, they change their shopping habits.”
Hart said the company operates the same way regardless of inflationary effects, but that value is especially important during challenging macroeconomic times. And as customers chase lower-cost products, that could create long-term customers.
“Value is always on trend,” Hart said. “It’s not as if all of a sudden the unemployment situation stabilizes or inflation lessens and they go back to where they were shopping before; that’s just not the case. They stay, they shop with us. They like the quality, and they really like the savings. The growth is sticky for us, for sure.”