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Aldi Süd is introducing digital price tags in all 2,000 branches.
While the company emphasizes increased efficiency, consumer advocates express concerns.
At Aldi Süd, the era of analog price tags is a thing of the past.
The grocer has made a major shift to digital pricing and is equipping all of its stores with this technology.
While this step is praised as progress by the company, there are also critical voices about this development from consumer advocates.
The discounter recently added the influencer product Prime Hydration to its range, as NEXTG.tv reports.
Aldi Süd is introducing digital price tags in all 2,000 branches.
While the company emphasizes increased efficiency, consumer advocates express concerns.
(Symbolic image).
© Michael Weber/Imago
Digitalization at Aldi Süd: Focus on efficiency and convenience
The switch to digital price tags in all 2,000 Aldi Süd branches marks a significant step towards digitalization and efficiency in retail.
Ralf Buchczyk, Managing Director of Aldi Süd, highlights the advantages of this technology: “The digital price tags bring great simplification, especially for our colleagues on site.” The previous practice of printing, cutting and replacing paper labels individually, will be replaced by central control of price labeling via Wi-Fi.
This allows prices to be adjusted quickly and flexibly directly via an app.
Recently there have been critical voices about the company because customers at Aldi are being deceived by “shrinkflation”.
Advantages of digital price tags |
Disadvantages of digital price tags |
|---|---|
Fast and flexible price changes |
Potential short-term price fluctuations |
Increased efficiency for employees |
Skepticism among consumer advocates |
Central control of prices |
Risk of technical errors |
Elimination of printing and replacing paper labels |
Privacy and surveillance concerns |
Improved environmental sustainability through less paper consumption |
Need for technical maintenance and updates |
Critical voices on digital price labeling
Despite the obvious advantages for retailers, consumer advocates are skeptical about the introduction of digital price tags.
They fear that the new technology could be used to cause short-term price fluctuations, which would be to the detriment of consumers, especially during peak periods.
Armin Valet from the Hamburg Consumer Center points out potential risks: “It may be that shortly before closing time or if you want to buy beer before the football game, the prices are set correspondingly high.” Furthermore, digital price tags are not automatically guaranteed that the price information is always correct, as ultimately there is always manual control in the background.
Outlook: Digitalization in retail
The introduction of digital price tags at Aldi Süd reflects an industry-wide trend towards digitalization, which brings with it both opportunities and challenges.
While efficiency and flexibility for retail are obviously improving, it remains crucial to keep consumers' interests in mind and ensure transparency and fairness in pricing.
There is also an important change for drivers when shopping, as there is a new rule in supermarket parking lots.