Dia to emulate LIDL by selling bulk baked goods

Today I was walking on Scalabrini Ortíz and I spotted the newly refurbished Dia supermarket (Scalabrini Ortíz 918). I had some bottles of beer from Coto so I didn't want to enter the store, but I have noticed that they have adopted the same strategy as LIDL in Europe, i.e. to sell bulk baked good that customers can take by themselves from a nice window display.

I could see very cheap bread in several formats and medialunas.

All I could read was a $2,49 sign under the fugassas, so I guess that is a per-piece price.

Quote from Rice

I'm encouraged simply that the Scalabrini Ortiz Dia has been refurbished. It was awful, and promoted long checkout lines that prevented shoppers from seeing the shelves. We've actually bought both medialunas and croissants from that store, and they were both good.

And to say it was one of the biggest and best furnished! They did the reno in about two weeks. It is in a prime location but the lack of parking space plays against them.

@UKman I think there are Dia and Dia Market, where the Market are supermarket-like, while the just 'Dia' are minimarket/convenience store.
But I may be mistaken.

Maybe nobody wants to invest there. What I have noticed is that here the stock is minimal, hence small shops take over big supermarkets.
I suppose that big supermarkets take the most toll when the exchange rate fluctuates, hence the higher prices.

It always surprises me how things get out of stock quickly, nobody can predict when it will arrives, once it is restocked the stock is so ridiculous that it runs out... you ask to be alerted an nobody calls you. Nobody gives a damn about money here...

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Quote from Rice

I think it could be a question of none of the employees giving a damn about the company's relationship with its customers. The employee (even store manager) seems to have the attitude of "will doing this make a single peso more for ME?" if not, then that's the end.

But I think that they are missing so much business... maybe I am seeing business where they are seeing troubles.

Example #1 - Serafina's been eating a new brand of dry food called Küme. It has been on the market for a few years, but they are launching it with the wider publish only recently (in the past, it was advertised only among dog breeders, and now they have added a cat food line).

It is sold in about 20 stores in Buenos Aires, which you can check on their website. You don't run into Küme food at every pet store.

In Palermo, there is only one store selling it, and the second closest one is in Almagro and the third closest one is in Recoleta.

A 1.5 kg bag goes for 530 pesos right now, which is about €11. I go to the Palermo distributor and they say they have run out of stock and it should arrive on Wednesday. I go back on Friday and there is only ONE bag left. What kind of stock is that? I doubt they have sold 20 bags in two days...

Example #2 - We were watching lamps in a big store in Tigre. Lamps selling for 4,000-5,000 pesos (about 100 USD). We go back to one big store 5 minutes before it closes to check the lighting (in full bright daylight it was impossible to tell). We try to enter the store and the employee says 'Sorry, it is already closed'. I told them they just lost a 10,000 pesos sale, but they couldn't care less.

Example #3 - I wanted to buy 15 kg of dry pellet used as cat litter from a store where I have already bought the same bag/quantity two months ago. I message them on whatsapp to know if the product is available and they replied saying that they are sorry but it is out of stock. I then ask when it is going to arrive (not that they would ever offer this information themselves!!!) and they say 'on Saturday'. The next week I text again to know if it is available now, and they are still replying just 'No'. No one is telling me when it should arrive, no one is wondering to alert me once it is in stock, nobody is asking if they should set a bag aside for me once it is in stock... I understand I am buying maybe just 300-400 pesos worth of stock, but they are a small store... what do they expect? Thousands of pesos for every sale?

Breads (various types: baguettes, flautas, figazzas, mignones) and facturas (mostly, medialunas de grasa y manteca)

In Europe LIDL sells bread, pizzas, focaccias, bretzels, bread with cheese or olives, whole flour bread, croissant, pain au chocolait, etc. from nice windows where, with the aid of a metallic spoon, you can drag the piece you want outside the window (without ever touching it with your hands) and bag it in a paper bag. The paper bag has a clear strip of plastic that allows the casher to see what goods you put into the bag and charge you accordingly.