November 11, 1999 Web posted at: 8:41 a.m. EST (1341 GMT) by Mary Lisbeth D'Amico

From...

(IDG) -- It's that time of year again. Twice annually, German discount supermarket chain Aldi holds a sale on personal computers, and normally staid German consumers go a bit mad trying to angle one. The next such sale begins this week.

The Aldi sale has taken on a cult quality since its inception in the mid-1990's. Eager shoppers endure long lines and even camp out in front of the store on the eve of the sale. In one notorious case in 1997, one customer reportedly threatened another with a gun in a scuffle over the last specimen on Aldi's store shelves.

MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE

IDG.net home page

Make your PC work harder with these tips

Download free PC software fast

IDG.net's personal news page

IDG.net's products pages

Reviews & in-depth info at IDG.net

E-BusinessWorld

IDG.net's Windows software page

Questions about computers? Let IDG.net's editors help you

Subscribe to IDG.net's free daily newsletters

Search IDG.net in 12 languages

News Radio

Fusion audio primers

Computerworld Minute

IT analysts even talk of an "Aldi effect" in the German PC market.

When second-quarter PC sales were lower than usual this year, it was largely because the discount chain held its legendary sale in the first rather then the second quarter, according to Thomas Reuner, European PC analyst with Dataquest in the U.K. Other vendors like Fujitsu and Siemens often time promotional sales around the Aldi sale, Reuner said.

The mystique of the sale owes a lot to Aldi's image, more Russian bread-line than supermarket, where customers forage through products still stacked in cardboard shipping containers. Consumers don't give a hoot about glitzy presentation or large selection, just as long as the prices are rock-bottom.

The cult has also been fed by the secretiveness of Aldi, which waits until the very last minute to release details of the sale, or releases them furtively to select computer publications. Local Aldi outlets do not even list their telephone numbers with directory assistance.

Add to that the wide popularity of no-name computers in Germany. Consumers here pride themselves on being so technologically savvy that they can forgo well-known brands. Instead, buyers go for low prices -- under 2000 marks (US$1,064) -- and look for fancy components, like Intel Pentium III chips, or 14.2GB hard drives.

Large U.S. vendors like Compaq have struggled with this stubborn element in the market. Besides striking a deal with local components assemblers to make low-end PCs, Compaq also recently entered the fray with its own supermarket PC entry at Aldi competitor Liddl, where it held a sale in October.

But while other vendors have copied the low-budget concept in recent months, even undercutting Aldi prices, the cachet of the Aldi name apparently still reigns supreme.

The chain sold some 200,000 units over the course of a few days in the first quarter, and Dataquest expects this week's sale, timed for the Christmas season, to generate even higher numbers.

"They manage to sell more computers in one or two days than some dealers do in three or four months," notes Karlhorst Klotz, editor of PCWelt Online, an IDG publication. PCWelt readers follow Aldi sale notices closely. An exclusive item on this week's sale was the most visited story on PCWelt's Web site last week, Klotz said.

"Perhaps it is the idea that when Aldi tells you something is low price, it really is," Klotz said.

Mary Lisbeth D'Amico is Munich correspondent for the IDG News Service.