Something tells me great minds think alike.

Specifically the minds of ALDI Nord and ALDI Sud.

I am not close enough to a Trader Joe's (ALDI Nord) to feed an addiction to their Avocado's Number Guacamole.

There is an ALDI in Palm Springs near where I had to run an errand at FedEx Office.

They sell guacamole.  Like Avocado's Number it is five avocados mashed up and spiced up in one package.  It also tastes about the same, and I suspect they use the same supplier.

Did I mention I enjoy seeing German Engineering at its finest there?  What really impressed me about ALDI is that they brought their packaging standards to the US so that the boxes do double duty as shelves.

And another aspect of both ALDIs in the US reminds me about Rick.  You see, most of what they stock is their own brand.  Because it is their own brand they have bigger margins.  Rick understood it and really backed off when I mentioned why grocery stores REALLY want you to buy the house brand of a product.

Now, if Soriana did a better job of recognizing that they would make more money by putting some effort in making a product that exceeded the quality of a national (in Mexico) brand, they would give me fewer frequent shopper points and have greater margins.

As an aside here is how good a job Costco does on this one.  In San Francisco I saw a mom lecture her son in either Mandarin or Cantonese (my ear is not that good to recognize the difference.)  In essence she chided her son for spending good money on a national brand of an over the counter when the Costco house brand is just as good.  He was done for, and Costco managed to get greater margins out of him because he took the advice of his Mom.

And speaking of Costco, I need to go there tomorrow.