Aldi and Lidl looking to keep upmarket customers

During the downturn the German ’discounters’ were swooped upon by householders as a way of ’cutting your cloth’ but as the economy reignites the duo are making a play to keep discerning customers says Tommy Barker.

DESIGNED to host a high-end retailer like the homeware and fashion chain, Avoca the ground floor of Cork’s €150m Elysian tower instead has an Aldi, which will open on December 11. This is another example of changed times and of sharply-adjusted realities.

But much as it reflects the Elysian’s once-lofty hopes and its pragmatic acceptance of a paying tenant after five years of vacancy, it tells us much societally about the bedding-down and broad acceptance of German discounters like Lidl and Aldi, among initially-aloof Irish consumers.