I have noticed that a lot of our grocery stores in the US are very divided based on demographics and income level, at least in the larger metro areas. Trader Joe’s for example, I have never seen anyone older than 55 in there and rarely see a black person. Costco is almost always white middle class suburban looking people but the Sam’s Club down the street has tons of Hispanics. ALDI is mostly lower income people.
I haven’t noticed this as much in other countries because I guess they don’t have the amount of different stores we have.
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The prices and the availability of having a number of options
I’m poor-poor. Like, poverty stricken poor. Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Target, specialty food stores are not in my budget. Meijer and Kroger is pushing it. Like the rest of poor America, it’s Walmart/Aldi’s/Doller General/local discount store for me
It’s a fact that on average, black Americans and Hispanics Americans have lower incomes in comparison to their white American counterparts. And if there is anything I’ve learned from a life in poverty, people in poverty are really good at sniffing out deals when it comes to their food budget. They will seek out the cheaper choice even its less “aesthetically pleasing” or semi-lower quality. Personally, it’s crazy to the price difference between grocery stores in America. Even if someday I’m not poor. no way I’m ever going to pay Whole Food or Trader Joe’s prices
Because they target specific demographics to minimize competition.
Companies design their stores and products to fit a certain demographic, because they want to make money.
Different race, class, and geographic groups have different preferences and smart companies research their neighborhoods and adjust their products accordingly.
Self sorting by price. Whole Foods is expensive and luxury, Walmart is cheap. In Maine you don’t see a racial divide really because almost everyone is white but you see an income divide.
Trader Joe’s is a German chain. In Germany it’s called Aldi Nord. Aldi Süd is Aldi in the US. They were once the same store, but split after the two brothers who owned the brand had a dispute over whether to sell cigarettes or not in 1960.
As for not noticing it in other countries, it’s something I’ve noticed living in Germany. Netto is a store frequented by lower income people while Rewe and Edeka seem more frequented by those of middle income. They also have more kiosks than we have, which are also frequented by lower income people due to the types of items being sold, which are usually beer, cigarettes, and cheap sandwiches.
You’re simply noticing that certain minority groups have a disproportionate level of poverty when compared to others.
>Costco is almost always white middle class suburban looking people
False. You forgot Asians.
Maybe it’s just your area. The Costco near me was (I dropped my membership a few years ago) always heavily black with a lot of Asians, just like Sam’s .. or Kroger or Walmart.
Think this really depends on what area you live in as the demographics drastically change with each town.
But when it comes to price, Trader Joe’s is an expensive store, people with higher incomes will most likely shop there. Aldi is a low budget store, thus lower income shoppers are most likely to shop there.
>I haven’t noticed this as much in other countries because I guess they don’t have the amount of different stores we have.
Pretty much this. Most places will have stores roughly the same prices. This is the case in most of America, but there are specialty / expensive varieties in 1st world countries. So you’ll see such stores in Canada, the UK, Japan, etc.
Market segmentation is a very basic business strategy used in every industry around the world. You won’t find a lot of Ferrari dealerships in poor neighborhoods either.
There are differences between stores even within brands. My Kroger is in a predominantly blue collar area and 15 minutes away near Cincinnati airport is an upscale Kroger Marketplace that offers more expensive cuts of meat and higher dollar deli meats. They quite often will sell the exact same King Crab for 7 to 10 dollars a pound more than my Kroger.
Your anecdotal observations do not prove that such disparities exist.
That’s funny, the Trader Joe’s near me are crawling with old people.
Most stores here don’t specifically try to attract specific race/age demographics. Instead they try to target specific market segments, and those line up with race and age demographics to some extent.
Costco and Sam’s Club sell fairly similar products for fairly similar prices, but Costco bills itself as being slightly more upscale than Sam’s Club so you tend to see slightly more higher-income people shopping there and those people tend to be white more than minorities.
Aldi is low income people because their food is inexpensive.
Whole Foods makes their name selling a lot of “premium” specialty foods. Vegan, cage-free, organic, pasture-raised, gluten-free, etc. And those foods are expensive so you get a lot of high-income people shopping their because they can afford it more easily than low-income people. And white people tend to make more money than minorities.
Fuck I’m Hispanic and I’ve been going to BJ’s this whole time?? I didn’t know I was committing ethnic treason.
Like someone else said, the stores fill different niches, but the clientele distribution might also vary by location. I’d guess that shoppers at metro Detroit Costco stores are at least middle class, given the membership fee, but the age and racial/ethnic diversity levels have been high every time I’ve shopped in one.
Aldi seems to be losing its reputation as just a “low-income” store. I know a lot of middle-class people (including me) who shop there because the products are as good as the more expensive branded products sold elsewhere, the local stores are generally bright, well stocked, and clean, and the staff have always been friendly when I’ve shopped there. Their recent ad campaigns have done them a lot of favors.
Trader Joe’s only seems to set up shop in upper middle class areas, at least around here.
I’m black and I love Trader Joe’s lol family’s got Sam’s club card not too much Costco. All the middle class, poor and rich people go to Aldis but the demographics change in the area the Aldis is in.
> Trader Joe’s for example, I have never seen anyone older than 55 in there and rarely see a black person.
I see retirement age folks there frequently. My grandmother shopped there until her early ’80s. I haven’t noticed an excess or dearth of any race, so there doesn’t seem to be an imbalance.
> Costco is almost always white middle class suburban looking people
Not in Alpharetta, GA. 1/3+ are from the Indian Subcontinent.
> ALDI is mostly lower income people.
Well, they shoot for the more “cost-conscious” market segment, so it’s not surprising, but I shop there and am not lower income (as do some friends and neighbors). There’s one in Alpharetta, but there’s no Dollar General, so that should tell you the demographics aren’t the same.
My GF and I are 70 and and we go to Trader Joe’s almost every week and have a number of items we always get. It helps that is right next door to Costco.
You just described the demographic all of those stores are aiming at. The stores attract those people because that really is what they are trying to attract.
It’s the meat caste system that actually drives it.
Pretty much every business targets a certain demographic. It’s why at one gym you will only see giant muscle clad dudes and the next one over you will only see middle age women.
That said, I also think you are kind of seeing what you want to see. When I go to Costco I see tons of non white people. Aldi isn’t really for the poors anymore either, 20 years ago sure. But they are actually a fairly good grocery store now. It’s more along the lines of for people who like value and aren’t brand loyal.
>Trader Joe’s for example, I have never seen anyone older than 55 in there and rarely see a black person. Costco is almost always white middle class suburban looking people but the Sam’s Club down the street has tons of Hispanics. ALDI is mostly lower income people.
This is not my experience with any of these places in New Jersey as far as age and ethnicity go.
Not saying you are wrong about your area, but my experience with those stores is much different than yours. I don’t think you are going to get the kind of answers you expected.
Aldi can really depend. In New England I feel like Aldi has very strong connotations of being “for poor people,” whereas here in Nashville, TN most people I know (college educated middle class people between 20-50) seem to do most of their shopping at Aldi. When I shop at Aldi it seems to be thrifty older folks and kinda hip looking younger folks. In general the whole class/supermarket connection here feels different from in New England. Whole Foods down here seems to attract only the absolute richest folks, Trader Joe’s and Publix the upper middle class, Aldi and Costco the middle class, Walmart gets the most working class and big families. Kroger kind of transcends race and class because it’s ubiquitous.
>Trader Joe’s for example, I have never seen anyone older than 55 in there and rarely see a black person.
I worked there years ago in multiple stores. The age of shoppers has never struck me as any different than other grocery stores. Maybe it’s just the area of the one you shop at or the time of day you’re going. Young people love cheap wine and snacks.
They do, however, very intentionally target wealthier areas, which of course tend to be whiter. They have no interest in solving the food desert problem. Which is too bad, because their prices can be very good.
>Costco is Almost always white middle class suburban looking people.
Costco is a very large store that needs to be in areas where they can rent a space that large and have a huge parking lot for people stocking up. Beyond that, there’s a few things that make it difficult for low income shoppers and city dwellers to shop there. For starters, you need to pay a membership fee up front and own a car because you’re buying everything in bulk. On top of that, you need to have a home big enough to store 36 rolls of paper towels. Even wealthier people in the city who can afford the upfront cost of buying a couple months supply of items at one time, don’t have basements and extra rooms to store it all in their high rise apartments.
>ALDI is mostly lower income people.
ALDI has some great prices on basics like eggs, fresh chicken, off-brand chips, etc. It would be hard to do all your shopping for the week there as it’s very small and selection is limited. So you’re getting people for whom saving a few bucks on those items is worth the time and hassle of hitting up a second grocery store or don’t care about doing without some favorite brand-name products.
I live in Tampa. I go to Publix, like almost everyone.
I’ve never noticed lower-income people in ALDI, in fact I’ve seen their demographic base is closer to Costco’s. The only low-income grocery near me is Wal-Mart.
I live in a really diverse city. Huge first Gen immigrant populations from super low income to 6 figures. Loads of poor folks and rich folks of all races. Costco leans upper middle class white/south East Asians. Aldi is all the poor folks. But the true melting pot is Saraga . It’s an international grocery store. So immigrants from everywhere , Tesla’s and cars held together with coat hangers (and bicycles) in the parking lot. Hipster white folks, poorer folks who figured out the produce is cheap here . It’s wild .
Aldi is my god and I won’t tolerate you dragging it into your post
How well do you expect a grocery store to prosper if it doesn’t tailor itself to the communities surrounding it?
Well, it comes down to individual choice as to where they shop. Costco and Sam’s Club requires a paid membership to shop their, so people with extra disposable income are more likely to shop their when buying in bulk.
When people are given the freedom to choose they do as they please. In my opinion it is nothing more than that.
This may depend drastically on region and town.
In San Diego, CA (home of Price Club, which was a parent company of Costco), there really isn’t racial strife or stratification like this, and pretty much all deltas are explainable purely economically.
Some grocery stores are nicer than others. And it costs at least a small amount of money for a Costco membership. Target has higher quality products (usually) and a better reputation than WalMart.
*Within* each store though, I’ve never seen racial strife. People of all races shopping at Costco here are smiling at each other in the aisles.
I feel like Trader Joe’s really appeals to a younger audience. Maybe if you go during the middle of the day you’re gonna see older people because they don’t have work/school.
But I’m 22 and shop there fairly often especially for snacks.
>ALDI is mostly lower income people.
We don’t have trader joe’s here and I haven’t noticed the rest of those, but I would say this ALDI stereotype is false for my area. If anything, it’s the opposite.
> Trader Joe’s for example, I have never seen anyone older than 55
I’ll admit to not paying attention to the other shoppers, but my husband and I are both frequent TJ’s shoppers and in that demographic. But we’ve been shopping at their stores for 20 years or so.
Yeah, none of that sounds like the Trader Joe’s or Costco near me.
I don’t know where the closest Aldi or Sam’s Club is to me. I don’t think I’ve ever shopped at either, so I have no clue if those are accurate.
Supply and demand 🙂
You ever been to a Walmart lol? It’s truly a lower class melting pot
It’s far more complicated than I could explain here, but the entire organization of a grocery store is aligned to the customer they’re focused on.
There is no way that a Whole Foods works in a lower-income neighborhood. ople who are especially particular about their food. Organic. No high fructose corn syrup. Very few name brands. Their food is expensive. It’s all fresh. High-quality, good-looking produce. Their stores are designed as experiences to justify bringing in these higher-income people. Their supply chain is geared towards maintaining quality. There is no way that a Whole Foods works in a lower income neighborhood.
Now look at Aldi. Aldi is designed to be 30% less expensive than Walmart. They minimize the number of products they carry in a store, and the number of items per type of item, which requires fewer trucks and people working the store. Carts cost money to use so people return them (and fewer employees getting carts). Bags. They have minimal staffing. The quality of their food is good, but it’s certainly not gourmet. There is no way an Aldi could afford the rent in an expensive area. They’re about minimizing the margins to get below Walmart.
This is not unique to the US by any means. European countries all do the same. Aldi, Lidl, Sainsburys are all cheap in the UK. Waitrose and M&S are expensive.
Guess our area is different. We don’t have a costco but our Sams gets everyone. Same with Walmart.
Giant Eagle is our most expensive chain but I know so many poor people who shop there because they want name brands. We only go if they have something we use on sale as a loss leader. Aldi seems to get a good mix of people including the middle class. We have a local chain that has a few stores but it is mostly old people (65+) who shop there. We only go there for loss leader sales which can be really good.