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In 1913, Anna Albrecht founded her small grocery store on Huestrasse in Essen, Germany.
The shop occupied the ground floor of a brick townhouse, selling basic staples like flour, sugar, and coffee to the neighborhood's mining families.
When her sons Karl and Theo returned from prisoner-of-war camps in 1946, they found their mother's store still standing amid Essen's bombed-out streets.
The brothers took over the business, installing fluorescent lights and adding metal shelving to replace the old wooden counters.
Karl and Theo improved their mother's traditional shop by stripping away what they saw as unnecessary costs.
They removed advertising, elaborate displays, and even shelving—stacking products directly in their shipping boxes.
This bare-bones approach allowed them to slash prices while maintaining quality.
Their strategy worked.
By 1950, the brothers operated 13 stores throughout Germany's industrial Ruhr Valley, each store a model of spartan efficiency.
The people loved them for their low-priced bread, canned goods, and household essentials.
In 1962, Karl and Theo merged the words "Albrecht" and "Diskont" (discount) to create "Aldi" — a name that captured their business model: selling quality goods at rock-bottom prices.
The new name and stores soon spread across Germany and beyond.
In 1962, Aldi stripped away standard supermarket features—there were no shopping bags at checkout, no music playing overhead, and no shelves stocked with national brands.
Instead, shoppers brought their own bags and chose from 600 basic items—compared to the 25,000 products typical supermarkets carried.
Ninety percent of these items used Aldi's private labels, from canned beans to dish soap.
The stores displayed products in their original shipping boxes and operated from bare concrete floors in basic warehouse-style buildings.
This bare-bones model cut labor costs by 50% versus traditional grocers.
The result?
A box of pasta that cost $1.29 at other stores sold for 79 cents at Aldi, and a gallon of milk dropped from $3.29 to $2.49.
In 1960, Theo and Karl Albrecht fought over cigarettes.
Theo insisted on selling cigarettes in their stores, viewing them as a reliable source of revenue.
Karl refused, arguing that cigarettes would attract shoplifters and drain staff time.
The two brothers refused to compromise.
After months of heated debate, they split their growing chain of 300 stores into two companies:
The fight fractured their business partnership, leading both brothers to go their own ways.
On December 29, 1971, three armed men intercepted Theo Albrecht as he drove home from an Aldi store in Herten, Germany.
They forced him into their vehicle at gunpoint and held him in a wardrobe in Düsseldorf for 17 days.
His captors released him only after receiving 7 million deutschmarks (equivalent to about $2 million at the time) delivered by the Bishop of Essen.
The kidnapping made both brothers into recluses for the rest of their lives.
They refused any public events: no interviews, no photographs, no public appearances.
They traveled to work in armored cars using different routes each day.
Their homes became fortresses, guarded by dogs and security systems.
Theo died in his heavily guarded villa in Essen on July 24, 2010.
His brother Karl followed on July 16, 2014, leaving behind an empire of discount stores but having spoken to the press only once since 1971.
There is only a single published photograph of the brothers, taken in 1987.
In 1967, Aldi Süd purchased Hofer, its first international store.
Each store kept the Hofer name, a strategic decision that maintained local customer loyalty while implementing Aldi's efficient operating model.
Nine years later, in 1976, Aldi Süd expanded into the American market, opening its first U.S. store in Iowa.
Later, Aldi Nord acquired California-based Trader Joe's in 1979—a hip grocery chain known for its private-label products and maritime theme.
Under Aldi Nord's ownership, Trader Joe's maintained its separate identity, continuing to operate as an independent brand with its own product selection and store culture.
In the 1990s, Aldi stores launched across the United Kingdom, establishing what would become one of its most successful international markets.
In 2023, Aldi Süd purchased 400 Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket locations across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi—doubling its footprint in the Southeast.
In August 1987, Aldi added Commodore 64 computers on its German store shelves at 599 Deutsche Marks—nearly half the typical retail price.
It was Aldi's first step into selling consumer electronics, expanding beyond its traditional grocery business.
The Commodore 64 sold out within hours at many locations—convincing Aldi to make technology a permanent part of its product mix.
By the early 1990s, the company regularly stocked electronic items.
When the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989, Aldi seized a rare market opportunity.
Within months, the company began converting existing East German retail spaces into Aldi stores, starting in Leipzig and Dresden.
By December 1990, Aldi had opened 200 locations across the former East Germany, installing its signature metal shelving units.
East German shoppers, accustomed to limited product selection and variable quality under communism, embraced Aldi's combination of reliable quality and low prices.
The company's rapid growth in East Germany doubled its national presence by 1995, establishing a foothold that would shape German retail for decades to come.
In 1967, Aldi South began selling wine in its German stores.
By 1981, the company sold 21 million bottles annually across Germany.
Today, Aldi controls 25% of German wine sales, stocking 120 different wines that range from €3 table wines to €20 premium selections.
The company was able to keep its wine cheap by negotiating directly with vineyards to eliminate middlemen, limiting selection to proven bestsellers, and displaying wines simply in their original shipping boxes.
Between 2012 and 2019, Aldi UK cut its carbon emissions by 53% through three main initiatives.
The company installed solar panels on 240 stores and 12 distribution centers, generating 12.5 megawatts of renewable energy.
They upgraded all stores to LED lighting and motion sensors, reducing electricity usage by 35% per square meter.
Aldi also signed direct purchase agreements with wind farms in Scotland to supply 100% renewable electricity to their operations.
It saved the company £20 million in annual energy costs while eliminating 160,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.
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