Monday, March 01, 2010

Aldi

I shopped at an Aldi today for the first time in, maybe, fifteen years. When I shopped there before I found some aspects of the place odd, and the place seemed like a very cut-rate version of a supermarket. Having been to Europe, I now recognize the European aspects of the place - the coin deposit for using a cart, the seated cashiers, the active encouragement of the use of reusable shopping bags. (Aldi has European characteristics because it is, in fact, a European chain - German, to be exact.)

One thing I forgot - or maybe never encountered before, because I had purchased only incidentals - was that Aldi does not accept credit cards. I do not, as a rule, use debit cards, so fortunately my mom and I had enough cash on hand to pay for our order. (I immediately stopped at an ATM and withdrew money equal to what we had spent, plus a little extra; I would have been better off using my ATM card as a debit card.)

I don't like dealing with cash-only businesses. I always feel like there's something shady and underhanded going on, like somebody's trying to keep a transaction off the books, maybe to avoid paying sales tax*, maybe so they can sell inventory that doesn't officially exist. Turns out my uneasiness may have a rational foundation: shell companies that take in payments in the form of cash are a fundamental part of any money-laundering scheme, as was helpfully explained on NPR last year. (No dictionary required!**)

So, anyway...Aldi. Yeah. Odd place. Kinda out-of-the-way for me. Not super convenient, and that offsets whatever savings I might realize there. Maybe I'll go there again if I'm looking for something specific that I know they have much cheaper than anywhere else. And I'll be sure to take a pocketful of cash.***


*Or maybe the opposite is true: To charge sales tax for things that are not supposed to have sales tax charged on them. Pennsylvania recently announced that sales tax exemptions would be ending on a number of items, including candy and magazines. Now, I'm a feller who has bought some candy and magazines in his time, and I don't rightly recall being not charged sales tax on these items. So if sales tax was collected on non-taxable items, where did it go?

**Just shows how quickly this movie became dated: If Office Space were taking place today, and the guys were wondering about the particulars of money laundering, they would JFGI. Or look it up on Wikipedia.

***One of the items we bought there today was a waffle maker for $12.99...because we've been looking for a waffle maker. And just down the aisle was a gas-powered portable electric generator for $399.99. I wonder how many people have walked into the store with enough cash on hand to purchase one of those as an impulse buy?

2 comments:

Michelle HD said...

Aldi's is actually owned by Albertson's I believe. If you have a check card you should be able to process it as debit or credit. I had an odd dream about you last night. I'll have to tell you about it later.

Betz said...

i love shopping at aldi. it is very conveinent for me and you get in and out really quick. also, the one by me is really nice and the people are great. they work hard, but from what they told me are paid very well...and treated well.

i miss you har!