ALDI beer knockoffs

Only until money is involved...

Yeah, that was my impression the first few times I visited an Aldi. I say "visited" 'cause I just looked around, didn't really "shop" was just there to look at all the products that almost looked real - like being on a TV or movie set that doesn't make product placement deals with big food and beverage companies. Have never been in one that sold alcohol but I get great deals on eggs (often under a buck a dozen- cheaper than chicken feed!) and pick up their whole bean coffee if I'm low.

 

Glad you posted this. I immediately thought of Dr. Pepper generic brand rips. The rips on Mt. Dew are comically obvious too. I don't know anyone can protect a trademark in that kind of environment/precedent.

 

I’d bet that ALDI buys some of their "knockoffs" from the original producer. They buy in volume and get the approval from the original to tweak the packaging. ALDI's German cookies are exactly the same as Bahlsen.

 

Watch for the Feldschlosschen (sp?) line of beers -- usually seasonal. Great German imports.

 

Well, I love the music of Electric Wizard, who are very open that they named themselves after two Black Sabbath songs, make doom metal songs about drugs, the occult, and misanthropy (pretty much Black Sabbath's first four albums) and their EP "Legalize Drugs and Murder" cover is a blatant rip off of Black Sabbath's "Master of Reality". In no way do I confuse the two.

Sleep's "Volume 2" EP cover art is a rip off of Black Sabbath's "Vol. 4", and even has a Black Sabbath cover on it ("Lord of This World"). No one is actually confused.

If you are duped by rip offs, you deserve to be.

Basically, all I'm saying is "These folks are just trying to appeal to folks who want something like a known product. The folks purchasing them would have to be complete morons to not know that this isn't the same product, especially since it's at such a lower price point."

So far as me being a troll, I guess I am for asking "If this bothers you so much, what are you going to do about it?"

When I have a poor customer service experience, I don't take to the internet and bitch about it. I simply stop going there, and if the place ever comes up in conversation, I tell folks that I don't go there and the reason why.

Do you really think that the people on this website are duped by Aldi's tactics? Are you an IP lawyer willing to take up New Belgium's case against Aldi over Boot Tread pro-bono? I used a bit of hyperbole when saying y'all should take up picket signs, but what are you actually going to do?

 

So, you want to go back to 19th century laissez-faire capitalism?

 

No, I'd actually like to move into some sort of Democratic-Socialism.

Oh, shit! That's the type of system used in Aldi's biggest markets!

I guess that I just have more faith in the average intelligence of humanity than y'all do.

 

The post I was replying to was about about knocking off SNPA not their packaging.

 

Makes me less inclined to purchase something with an Untitled Art label in the future.

 

I kinda feel that a lot of the stuff we're subjected to regarding the state of things is the blinders folks prefer to put on instead of actually dealing with the problems of the future.

But that is not the subject here.

I suppose I'm an optimist in that sense, and it would explain why I'm so frequently dissappointed,

 

You're either for a regulated market protecting the consumer from his own ignorance or you aren't.

Personally, in many ways, our current system has gone too far toward protecting ignorance (read any warning labels recently?), but I am opposed to loosening up the trademark and IP laws to allow anyone and any company to try any deceptive name or packaging they can dream up. Having the trademark laws require an informed or educated consumer is ... well, they might as well not exist, IMO. This includes statements along the lines that "anyone who goes into an Aldi's store should know what they are getting."

 

This whole thread is about packaging.

 

Have you existed in current society long?
After working several years in food production, I am fully aware of how messed up guidelines are for consumers. You don't ever really know what you're getting.
It's worse for produces. The fact that the USDA and FDA are subject to two different arms of the federal government (Dept. of Ag and Dept. of HHS) just means that making any sort of food stuff is a mess. (Frozen cheese pizza is subject to FDA inspection, but frozen pepperoni pizza is subject to USDA) The fact that they are subject to politics more than science for how they write and enforce guidelines only makes matters worse.

I totally feel that IP is subject to how well you can protect it, and whether or not you actually had that original of an idea, and whether or not it's actually worth it. Shit, most stores told are just the things Joseph Cambell outlined.

If the Aldi products are unsafe, that is one thing, and regulators should take care of it If, say, Heineken, feels that sales of Holland beer has been cutting into their market share, then they should have their lawyers take up a C&D lawsuit. The fact that they haven't shows that they don't consider it a threat to their sales, well...

If the company that produces the product that is being ripped off doesn't consider it enough of a threat to pursue legal action, why do you actually care?

 

Many posters don’t seem to care.

 

Quit reading after that.