Why I Love Aldi

This may seem like an odd post on an urbanist website, but I promise it fits. I love our local Aldi for several reasons: price, convenience, speed, the random little items you can only get there, regional English cheddars, etc. But one of the biggest is this: I can bike there and back, and they expect me to and make it easier to.

This might seem counterintuitive. After all, Aldi famously doesn't do anything for shoppers, not even free bags! But one thing they do, at least at all our local Aldis, is bike racks.

And that's not a little thing. Here's a Hy-Vee, one of our largest local chains of grocers, with a huge parking lot even though this is in central-west Davenport, surrounded by residential zoning:

And here is the best spot to park a bike there, as already claimed by another bike:

Having a bike rack is not a small consideration (I ended up locked to one of the cart racks you can make out in the background). It means I can safely leave my bike to go shop at your store! And it means I don't have to worry about me, my bike, anything on my bike (since I'm commuting with it), or any passengers (since I often take the kids to the store) while I'm doing that: not while I'm parking and not while I'm in the store. 

It makes me more likely to shop there, more likely to stay longer and get more, and more likely to feel valued as a customer.

And that's why I love Aldi. I don't hate Hy-Vee (and there are Hy-Vees with bike racks). But I like that part of the Aldi store design seems to be a willingness to imagine that wherever you are, someone might decide to come with a bike.