Aldi is the German discount supermarket brand founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht.
The brothers took over their mother’s grocery business in Essen in 1946 and expanded it through a tightly controlled low-cost model. They emphasized limited store sizes, inexpensive operations, minimal advertising, and the rapid removal of products that did not sell. By 1950, they owned 13 stores in Germany’s Ruhr Valley.
The name Aldi was introduced in 1962 as a shortened form of “Albrecht Diskont,” meaning Albrecht Discount. The business split into Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd in 1960, and the two divisions later became legally separate. Theo led the northern operation, while Karl led the southern one.
Lidl is the most familiar answer people confuse with Aldi because both are German discount chains. Lidl, however, was founded separately by Josef Schwarz’s business and is not the Albrecht brothers’ brand. Edeka and Rewe are German grocery retailers with different histories and business models.