Melbourne woman Laura Madson was today weighing up whether to wait for a pause in the conversation to declare that she could never go back to Coles and Woolies after shopping at Aldi, or to just interrupt the current discussion in order to get the important information out sooner.
“It’s always hard to know what’s socially acceptable,” Madson explained. “On the one hand, there is this expectation to introduce yourself before you explain where you get your groceries. On the other, it’s just so important that people are aware of the massive savings you can get by changing to a totally different style of shopping that’s disrupting the big duopoly. So it could be considered rude not to let them know straight away”.
She said waiting too long before dropping Aldi into a conversation could leave you short on time to explain how it all works. “There’s a lot to get through. The way they don’t have brands you’ve heard of, but how they do have almost identical, legally dubious brands that are definitely just as good. The way the check-out system seems at first glance to be total fucking chaos but is actually a really clever part of the cost-saving philosophy. And that’s before you even get to Special Buys. If you spend too long on other unimportant topics of conversation, you may run out of time to explain it all,” she said.
In the end, Madson said she decided to do the right thing and interrupt the conversation. “I think everyone else was pleased that I did. A lot of people didn’t know that Wheat Biscuits are just as good as Weet Bix. Maybe better. And cheaper …”
