Aldi cut its range to one item per category and won on price

Karl and Theo Albrecht took over their mother's small grocery store in Essen, Germany after World War II and by 1955 had expanded it to roughly 100 branches, competing in a market where German supermarkets grew by carrying more brands, more categories and more variety to give shoppers choice. The brothers instead built their stores around the opposite bet: stock only the fastest-selling item in each category, cut the rest, and pass the savings from lower inventory, smaller stores and minimal staff directly into the lowest possible price.

In 1962 the brothers formalized this limited-assortment discount format under the name Aldi, short for Albrecht Discount, running stores that carried a small fraction of a typical supermarket's stock-keeping units, displayed goods in their delivery cartons rather than on stocked shelves, and skipped advertising, credit and store décor entirely.

Aldi stores carried roughly a few hundred core items rather than the tens of thousands typical of a full supermarket, sold heavily under Aldi's own private label rather than national brands, and stripped out the overhead — large staff, wide displays, advertising, elaborate store fitting — that a wide assortment required, redirecting all of it into shelf price.

Cut the assortment to one item per category, eliminating the inventory, labor, and brand leverage that variety cost, and passed the savings straight into shelf price.

One item per category slashed inventory and restocking labor.

Fewer SKUs weakened national brands' pricing power.

Carton displays and no ads cut fixed costs.

Every saved dollar went directly into shelf price.

When customers prize price over choice, cut assortment to the fastest movers and convert the saved cost into lower prices.

By 1960 the brothers ran over 300 stores; today Aldi's two networks run more than 11,000 stores across 19 countries. Aldi's limited-assortment discount format became the template for hard discounters worldwide, later replicated by Lidl and copied in the US by chains like Trader Joe's, which the Albrecht family also came to own.