Hofer

This is a nice no frills place to shop. Bring your own bags, you bag your own groceries too. Considering how pricey groceries can be, the prices here are cheaper because they don’t have any of the extras, they just open the boxes, since you bag your own the prices are less than at traditional grocery stores.
Later we learned that Hofer is the original Aldi’s which is where we shopped as price conscious newlyweds in Chicago.

So I am visiting my parents and my mom asks to go with her to the grocery shop, as we approach, I notice a familiar sign, but the name is different. It dawns on me that Hofer is the same as Aldi. I learned that Hofer is the original name of this German chain, which was changed to Aldi’s in the US. It is pretty cool to see how the concept is the same but the items are totally different.
Either way, it works. For those not familiar with the concept, the food is not stocked on shelves but rather everything is stacked in the original boxes, nothing has a price and the cashier knows all the prices by heart and you bag your own goods.
All this translates in some serious cost cutting by saving on stocking and labeling personnel and there is no need to program the register as the cashier rings the prices by memory, the end result is cheaper prices for the consumer. Cool stuff !