After opening 10,000 stores and crushing Walmart, Germany’s most formidable supermarket has won over Jack Ma—will China’s retail industry tremble once again?

By Max (WeChat Official Account: Jincuodao) Last year, Dao Ge introduced Aldi—the German ‘budget supermarket for the masses’—and many readers left comments urging Aldi to enter the Chinese market as soon as possible! Yet Aldi clearly isn’t welcome anywhere it goes. Why? Because in the retail world, Aldi’s business practices are downright ruthless! Every time Aldi enters a new country, local retailers or suppliers rally to resist it. For example, when Aldi entered the UK market, domestic British retailers jointly pressured suppliers not to supply Aldi. But Aldi ignored them entirely—and swiftly swept across the UK market. In 2016, Walmart closed 269 stores globally; yet even in Walmart’s home turf—the U.S.—Aldi thrived. By 2014, Aldi had expanded to over 1,300 stores in the U.S. Its current goal is to open 100 new stores annually in the U.S., aiming for 2,000 locations by 2018. In a U.S. consumer survey titled “Supermarkets’ Popularity Among Shoppers,” Aldi ranked first—far ahead of national giant Walmart. Aldi once faced off directly against Walmart in the German market; crushed by Aldi’s ultra-low prices and powerful brand loyalty, Walmart suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in losses before withdrawing from Germany in 2006. Aldi’s entry into any city is enough to trigger a frenzy. In Germany, though classified as a discount supermarket, Aldi enjoys exceptionally high brand loyalty among both rich and poor alike. It’s common to see luxury cars lined up outside Aldi stores, their owners waiting patiently in queues. It’s also typical to see shoppers carrying designer handbags in one hand—and Aldi shopping bags in the other. ▼ Aldi: The Obsessively Frugal Supermarket What stunned Dao Ge most about Aldi was its almost pathological obsession with cost-cutting! With over 10,000 stores worldwide, Aldi’s success stems solely from grasping retail’s essence: delivering high quality at rock-bottom prices—and pushing that ‘low price’ principle to the extreme. Here are just a few examples of Aldi’s low pricing: • At Aldi, credit cards aren’t accepted—because Aldi believes credit card usage encourages overspending. • Large cans of soft drinks cost as little as $0.59—and have held that price for 20 years. ▼ 1. Ultra-Low SKU Count & Dominance of Private Labels Across Retail Aldi operates on a radically different philosophy than other large supermarkets: it abandons the ‘one-stop-shop’ model, stocking only the most essential daily food and household items—and offering just one or two fixed brands per category. Although Aldi continually adds new products, it carries only around 900 SKUs (Stöckle, 2012)—roughly 1/150th of Walmart’s inventory (Walmart carried approximately 140,000 SKUs in 2005). With such limited product variety, Aldi achieves massive purchase volumes per item, granting it significantly stronger bargaining power with suppliers—and enabling strict control over costs at the source. Beyond cultivating stable, trust-based relationships with reputable suppliers to secure the best wholesale prices, Aldi’s most aggressive tactic is its extensive use of private-label brands.

£5 billion! The UAE announces post-pandemic investment in the UK—betting big on this sector...

As the UK gradually emerges from the pandemic, Middle Eastern billionaires have arrived. On March 24, 2021, the UAE government announced an investment partnership with the UK spanning healthcare, technology, clean energy, and infrastructure—set to deliver a major boost to the UK economy post-Brexit and post-pandemic. Upon the announcement, major UK media outlets rushed to cover the story: Financial Times: Abu Dhabi agrees to invest billions of pounds in UK businesses BBC: Abu Dhabi to invest “billions of pounds” in UK enterprises City A.M.: UK and UAE sign post-Brexit investment partnership The UK government also confirmed the news on its official website. Specifically, Mubadala Investment Company—the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi, a UAE member state—will inject £800 million into the UK’s life sciences sector over five years, and £200 million into a UK government fund. This deepens the existing £32 billion trade and investment relationship between the UK and UAE established in 2019. It is expected that similar—or even larger—investment amounts will be achieved over the next five years in three additional sectors: technology, clean energy, and infrastructure. Reports indicate that total UAE investment in the UK will reach £5 billion by 2026. Reportedly, this agreement marks the UK government’s first sovereign investment partnership since launching its “Office for Investment” in Downing Street last year. In November last year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson spearheaded the creation of this new department, led by Investment Minister Lord Grimstone, tasked with securing support for infrastructure projects worth hundreds of millions of pounds—and showcasing the UK’s openness to global investment. Lord Grimstone previously served as Group Managing Director of Standard Life Aberdeen, a leading UK investment management firm, and participated in the UK’s privatization reforms under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. Regarding this bilateral cooperation, Lord Grimstone stated that the UK government hopes to leverage this agreement as a “catalyst” to attract the world’s top venture capital funds into the UK’s life sciences sector—and extend that growth beyond London to regional clusters. Additionally, Lord Grimstone aims to secure investment for UK green energy projects ahead of the 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26), scheduled for Glasgow in November. Beyond partnering with the UAE, Lord Grimstone is also pursuing a similar agreement with India. UK Deputy Trade Secretary Liz Truss likewise welcomed the UAE’s investment, calling future investment opportunities “very, very large.” Khaldoon al-Mubarak, CEO of Mubadala Investment Company, expressed strong confidence in the investment: “This [investment amount] will be a substantial figure—we aim to achieve solid returns through appropriately scaled investments.”

Aldi to invest £900m in UK and open 40 more stores next year

Sep 28, 2026

Aldi plans a £900m UK investment to open 42 new stores, citing climate impacts on crop yields and aiming to strengthen local supplier agreements amidst food inflation.

theguardian

2026-09-27

Aldi to invest £900 million in Britain in 2027

2026-09-28

Aldi to invest £900m in UK and open 40 more stores next year

Aldi to invest £900m in UK and open 40 more stores next year

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