Aldi Cycle Gear.

[youngoldbloke]

I shop there regularly anyway, and I have come to accept that here will be very little for me in their cycling events. If the clothes come in small sizes (and all too often they don't) there won't be any in stock . (This applies to Lidl too). Also to offer a 'Pro' range without smaller sizes is crazy. Their store stocking policy is crazy too - yesterday loads of shoes in size 10 and 11, but just 2 pairs in 8, in only one of the colours - too big for me anyway of course. They hadn't sold out - I was there 3 minutes after opening (against my better judgement - every time I swear I won't bother next time - all the Garmins had gone BTW). Hey ho - more business for Wiggle from me I suspect!

 

[totallyfixed]

I'm happy with the bits and pieces I picked up - lights, base layer, socks always a bargain but have yet to try the bibs.

On the Garmin issue FB posts from cycling groups and clubs across the north-west report stores sold out in minutes though I did see one in Knutsford around 12.15. Four is the consistently quoted stock level often ALL purchased by person at head of queue. To me that's poor management on behalf of the store and selfish greed by the purchaser though I'll concede they could be for friends.

I know an Aldi supplier, the volumes for her products are enormous. As I understand it Aldi work on a 14% margin. If the email above is to be believed with around 600 stores Aldi felt they could only sell 1200. I find that hard to believe.

I didn't want the Garmin and would have gone regardless but I can't help feel this will make the Aldi talk negative amongst cyclists when previously it has often been very positive.

Poor marketing.

From the few comments I have heard elsewhere, this is indeed the case.

It drives footfall, which is great as long as you can convert footfall. When something like this happens you don't necessarily get the conversion and it can create a loss of trust. Confidence is something that Aldi lack in some respects with people suspicious of their off as it is different to the mainstream. The experience leaves a bitter taste.

SWMBO was so miffed about this that she promptly went next door to Morrison's for her grocery shop. so the point of the special buys driving other sales didn't work.

Places like currys and pc world, count people in and out, they are required to convert a certain amount of footfall to sales.I would expect other retailers are the same and as such these marketing exercises are produced, but they must work and lead to satisfaction.

Next time we probably won't bother getting up and going.

Not everyone lives close to an Aldi, if not it could mean a substantial round trip. I had a 30 mile journey and because all individual Aldi stores are ex-directory it was impossible to find out if any Garmins were in stock, customer service was inundated with calls. From what I can gather there was little uniformity in the numbers of Garmins stores received. We have a friend in London who picked up one without any problem and said there were plenty available.
I needed some other stuff but walked out in disgust, I suspect I wasn't the only one. Poor marketing Aldi.

 

[ColinJ]

Aldi and Lidl seem to just guess whether their special offers will be popular or not. I have seen some cycling kit sell out in a day because they didn't get enough stock in, whereas Lidl in Todmorden yesterday still had about 30 boxes of cycling glasses on sale several days after the offer started. (Glasses with 3 interchangeable lenses for £3.99 - not bad! The only reason that I didn't buy a box is that I got 2 pairs of glasses last time they sold some.)

 

[JoeyB]

Picked up a turbo trainer, waterproof socks, merino base layer and a Garmin 500 to use on the turbo trainer bike with my heart rate monitor and cadence sensor that I've never used that came with my Edge 800

 

[Steady]

At the moment my Aldi just isn't reducing their old stock. My local Aldi had a lot of the stuff left from Spring, and then their last event and now this event. I typically wait for the reductions but it seems it gets taken into the back and brought out again later.

No turbos to be seen, or Garmin, just the clothing, I picked up the arm warmers, a lot better than the previous arm warmers from aldi since these ones actually look warm.