Discounting the competition

News of the 'permanent' discounts (i.e. price cuts) by ailing supermarket chain Morrisons made it onto the Today programme news agenda.  Typical of the chattering classes, they lumped Aldi, Lidl and Netto together as the 'discount supermarkets' that Morrisons was trying to combat, the kind of places that BBC higher-ups and their projected audience would never frequent.  It reminds me of the immature comedian Russell Kane being disparaging of Aldi in the manner of selling items fallen off the back of a truck and I thought, "Someone's mum goes to Waitrose."
And it is Waitrose, Marks & Spencers and Fortnum & Mason where this media elite shop, occasionally slumming it with Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda and the Co-op.  If you want a real bargain-basement store look at Nisa, but they aren't as prominent as competitors in the grocery business like Aldi.  And why is Aldi prominent?  Because they sell quality products - award-winning products - at reasonable prices, mostly by focusing on a line range of 2,000 items rather than the 10,000 that the more established companies operate.  People will choose quality and value-for-money over choice every time, something New Labour never understood.  Indeed, Aldi has won 'supermarket of the year' from Which? in 2012 and 2013.
I can't comment on Lidl as I haven't shopped there and the nearest one is on the other side of the River Medway, making it a non-starter when it comes to a weekly shop.  I have been in Danish company Netto many times as a student and it was always a joke how horrendous it was as a place, with products labelled 'meat' without any obvious qualification as to its nature.  But the fruit juice was usually up to scratch and they had hilarious 'limited edition' Scotty Dog long-life bags as their excuse for charging for them.  I haven't been in one of their stores for over a decade and I can't assess how things have changed, if at all.  Yet if we were to lump the 'discount supermarkets' together, I would have to rank Aldi at the top, with Lidl in the middle and Netto bottom.
It is a slight and incorrect to call such places discount joints, given that all supermarkets discount certain ranges for a temporary period.  These three chains have managed to make a splash because their business model adds up, not because they cuts prices by cutting quality (at least in the case of Aldi) or by undercutting the older supermarkets through dubious means; it helps that they are all foreign-owned, with both Aldi and Lidl German and Netto already mentioned as Danish, allowing them to manage the immense start-up costs.  That Sainsbury's has announced a partnership with Netto shows that it doesn't think it will be tainted by association.
Of course, when you are obsessed by the Westminster Bubble, it is not usual to broaden one's horizons. However, perhaps the BBC wouldn't be so patronising if their editors and newsreaders paid a visit occasionally and realised these chains were legitimate outfits with sustainable economic approaches that were not the sole reserve of the proles.