The 'hard decision' Aldi had to make on Special Buys
Aldi has revealed the difficult decision the supermarket had to make amid the coronavirus pandemic.
As people flocked to supermarkets to panic buy groceries during the outbreak, Aldi had to suspend its famous Special Buys that in the past have sent shoppers wild.
In a Facebook Live interview with Yahoo News Australia on Friday, Aldi Australia’s customer experience director Adrian Christie said the supermarket had to make “a few changes” amid the pandemic.
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“One thing we set out – we set out very early in the piece – is that we can’t have lines outside our stores that are created by high-demand Special Buys,” Mr Christie told Yahoo News Australia.
“I just don’t think that would have been appropriate. It would’ve been a safety issue.”
Mr Christie added “anything like that, we removed” and a number of furniture items had to be “done away with”.
“I think if you were going in to shop for your groceries in the middle of March and you saw someone blocking an aisle with some large piece of furniture that would have been a bit concerning,” he said.
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Aldi Australia also got rid of its luggage sale, Mr Christie said.
“Nobody needs to buy a suitcase at the moment,” he said.
“So it would have been quite cruel of us if we put suitcases on sale. I don’t think anyone would have appreciated the irony in us doing that.”
Aldi also made the decision to postpone its annual ski sale which has proved popular among shoppers in the past ahead of winter.
“This year we had to make the hard decision to postpone that to next year,” Mr Christie said.
He added a number of customers were “quite upset” about the postponement but the supermarket “needed to prioritise” food sales.
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