Rich Earn Wealth Slashing Prices for Poor

Chris EdwardsThe Albrecht family of Germany isone of the richest in the world. They earned their wealth from innovations in price-slashing for European grocery shoppers. Their Aldi grocery chain is now spreading across the United States and bringing savings to millions of lower- and middle-income families. I profiled Aldi inthis recent post.Rather than bashing the rich, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and other liberals should be praising wealthy entrepreneurs and corporations, such as Aldi, that are reducing poverty through aggressive market competition.Aldi was the subject of afascinating profile in the UKGuardian. Snobby British observers did not think Aldi would succeed because they assumed consumers didn ’t mind high prices. Aldi proved them wrong. UK grocery chains were used to fat profits. Aldi eliminated them. Sanders and Warren take note: open markets and intense competition transfers wealth from corporations to moderate-income consumers.Here are some excerpts from theGuardian piece by Xan Rice:On a Thursday morning in April 1990, in the suburb of Stechford in Birmingham, a strange grocery chain started trading in the UK. It only stocked 600 basic items – fewer than you might find in your local corner shop today – all at very low prices. For many products, including butter, tea and ketchup, only a single, usually unfamiliar brand was offered. To shoppers accustomed to the abundance of Tesco and Sainsbury’s, which dominated the British grocery sector with th...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs