A fancy sort of person might have such a watch.
A fancy sort of person who wouldn't be shopping at an Aldi's.
We have those here in the US. My company actually does some training for their corporate offices. I had no idea it was international.
Aldi is a German company (well, actually two companies, but let's keep it simple.) See here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldi Their presence in Australia is most welcome. The Australian retail market is dominated - and I mean
absolutely dominated by two massive duopolists, Coles and Woolworths. Through fair means and foul - mostly foul - they have carved up the market and ruthlessly eliminated almost all competition. A favourite tactic (now regarded as illegal, but the damage is already done) is to "persuade" local councils to allow permits for only certain nominated shopping facilities. I wouldn't say that cash changes hands. (That would be actionable.) You figure it out. With a local monopoly on sites they then either point-blank refuse to allow competitors anywhere in the centre, or else provide only the worst-available building at a grossly inflated rent. Small retailers are allowed in, of course, and they are charged astronomically high rents such that the giant supermarket goes along practically rent-free.
But having eliminated their competition in this way, and having organised a very low cost base for themselves, they are now free to sell at very low prices, yes? No. They are expensive. In fact, the big two Australian supermarket chains are
the most profitable supermarket chains on Earth. They make
massive profits. Oh, and they use their monopoly power to shaft suppliers something terrible. Most of the small and medium size grocery suppliers in Australia have gone out of business because they can't sell to Colesworth except at a loss, and they can't sell to anyone else 'cox there
isn't anyone else. Well, not to speak of. Many years ago I used to work for the 2nd biggest clock importer in Australia. I ran the warehousing and shipping, so I saw all the figures as routine. Most of our sales volume was (of course) to the two giants. Mostly, we sold to them at a loss. On a good year, we would make that up by selling a much smaller number of items to small, specialist shops (mostly jewelers) at very high margins. The only reason we kept on supplying Colseworth at all was that the sheer volume of these large loss-making sales got us quantity discounts with the big manufacturers. The
only reason. No bloody wonder Australian shops are very expensive! No bloody wonder Australia is the nation that buys more goods from overseas via the Internet than any other!
Oh, and the big two have also done shonky deals with the giant oil companies. Now to pay the regular price for petrol you have to show a Coles (or Woolworths) supermarket docket. Otherwise you pay 4c a litre extra. Not to mention hardware, car parts, you name it they own it.
This is why so many Australians say "I don't give a bugger if Coles is an Australian company, I'm shopping at Aldi!" Aldi is a breath of fresh air. They have a limited range but cover all the main requirements, their quality is equal or better, and their pricing is way, way lower. Forget the 4c/litre extra you have to pay for petrol - that adds up to about $2 extra for an average tank. The same basket of grocieries that costs you $70 at Woolworths or Coles costs you $50 at Aldi. It's annoying that I have to drive across town because they don't have full access to locations the way the incumbent giants do, but so be it. Ten minutes extra driving to save $20? That's effectively paying me $120 an hour to
not shop at Coles.
(Sorry about your thread Dave. But I
did mention clocks in my post. Was that a help?)
