ALDI beer knockoffs

I actually dropped in there the other day and saw that kettle sour and first glance thought it was DFH's sea quench. But honestly people shopping at Aldi are not going to confuse that with DFH. Same with the Bock beer the first time I went there. I don't really see how an industry can get all up in arms about this type of thing when a good bit of them rip off other products for their labeling whether it be cereal, comics or many of the other multitude of things that they copy.

 

Blatant and intentional? Yes. They’ve done it with lots of labels.
Ethical? I don’t believe so.
Anything new in the marketing world? Nope.


If these more egregious examples have survived, so will this one.

 

I thought this was like a Trader Joe's thing where name-brand companies provide Aldi with their products, Aldi uses their in-house branding, and then it gets sold at a cheaper price.

If they're not getting their Holland beer direct from Heineken they are doing a damn good job of knocking it off--tastes very similar.

 

I've never purchased alcohol from Aldi but I will say I always leave Trader Joe's with a bomber of their Unibroue collab either Audaciter or Vintage. Awesome stuff for $5-7.

 

This must just be ALDI USA. I've been to one of their stores in Frankfurt, Germany and they had/have a killer selection of traditional German beers with no US export imitation stuff that we may see here. Wonder if it's two distinct companies? I'm sure research would shed light on that.

 

It's not two companies so much as two distinct markets.

 

I have only stepped inside an Aldi's once, and left empty handed because they did not have the product I entered to purchase, cheese from a deli.

Assuming I work through all the beers on hand by Fall, I may stop into Aldi a second time and pick up a few of their beer offerings, as a result of this thread.

Prost!

 

Aldi's lawyers know EXACTLY where the line is.

 

Well, if the fonts are just different enough, the colors just different enough, and overall look are just different enough, then the whole package is different enough to survive a suit.

 

That warsteiner RIP off isnt even subtle.

 

I'm not a lawyer, so IDK if trade dress infringement is enforced & and decided in the same way as trademark, but if it is...

Similar is only one of the tests. Consumer confusion is a major test. With some of these, showing that should not be hard. Trademark lawsuits are not decided on the basis of caveat emptor.

 

That makes complete sense to me. Company's marketing dept's aren't stupid an know what will work in their distinct markets.

 

It’s pretty clear they target stuff like Heineken and Corona etc with the bootleg stuff, most have been named. I’ve never bothered, but they also sell some Foothills beers that’s legit from the brewery.

 

Thanks for confirming that.

 

Hah! Naturally. How else could they so expertly stick their big toe over it?

 

Faygo kind of does the same thing at least with the color schemes.

 

I really would not call it rip-off. Rip-off is when you sell something for a lot more that it is actually worth. That is not the case here. It is a knock-off discount product. And ALDI has proven to have a good price/performance (read: price/quality) ratio. Something we Germans are totally nuts about. A friend of mine buys the Wernesgrüner all the time and I gladly drink it when she offers it to me. Yes, it looks like some high quality German beer but it's a discounted ALDI beer. OK with me! That beer is a better than other big brands you pay a lot more for.
I just can't think of the big brand beer that Wernesgrüner looks like.

 

Yes, I agree. It's not a noble thing to take somebody's work, twist it a little, and sell it for your own profit. But it is not THAT bad. I mean, it is not sold in stores around the country next to the "real brands". They just sell it in their stores and people know it is not the brand name they buy.
I have had so many products from ALDI that remind me of the real thing. But it's not, it's not as good, It it is different, and I pay different. When I walk into ALDI, I know I will not buy the brand name craft beer. As long as it does not show up on shelves in other stores, all good to me.

Now please help me to find the "real" Wernesgrüner!!! I have been googling like crazy, It does not come to me...