The middle aisle at Lidl, and why every business should have one!

Apology: Before you start I just wanted to make an apology.?I did my first ever body pump class Friday evening so am having to type this update incredibly slowly. I hope that does not reduce your reading enjoyment.

So, to be 100% transparent.?I love everything about Lidl.

I remember the very first visits when they opened in Newbury. Taking shopping bags from Sainsbury’s or Waitrose to disguise from neighbors the ignominy of shopping in a discount supermarket. In my own homage to Hyacinth Bucket?I once repacked my entire shop in the car park as I had left my posh shopping bags in the car. Those crazy days of shopping snobbery long gone, I like most of the country proudly take my Lidl shopping bags everywhere, the ultimate display of intelligent retail frugality.

Lidl combines the simple offer of hyper efficient shopping, just enough options, and some luxurious delicacies that provide a drop of deluxe dopamine when popped into the trolley.

Lidl has just enough options, sometimes only one for some things, but hey, who needs a dozen types of olive oil or a dozen types of chopped tomatoes. Selection dithering just slows your shop down. At Lidl, you need some more brown sauce, you pick up the one option available for brown sauce.

And as its evolved to be a national destination for deals, Lidl has just enough extravagance to make it a destination for decadence.?I once indulged a very good German friend on holiday in the UK with Lidl Deluxe Black Forrest ham, getting very excited about the quality and seeing if he could guess where I bought it from.?Lidl was the answer, ‘We have lots of them in Germany,’ was his bemused response. I also bought my first Christmas Deluxe Serrano Ham leg from Lidl when the kids were younger, coming complete with stand and long bladed knife which remains a treasured family possession. I overestimated my ability to eat a whole leg of cured meat so it came with us to a New Year break with friends to Cornwall.?A rather hung over wife and friends tied its remains to a tow rope without my knowledge and went crabbing with it in the harbor.?Lidl makes memories that last also.

I love the people who shop in Lidl.?Even after 18-years it still feels like a secret club nobody else knows about, even though most of the country use them every week. But it still feels good as we all gently and slowly navigate the aisles of shopping simplicity, the odd knowing nod as we recognise a fellow smart shopper. Never a cross word, or a kerfuffle as we linger over aisle where Lidl does have a mind-blowingly huge selection; cheese and hams.?I think I was a full Atkins dieter when I first started my Lidl love affair and this endless carb-free corridor of cheeses and exotic cold meats grabbed my for life.

Of course, I am not exclusively a Lidl shopper.?I do have a regular Saturday morning assignation with the butcher in our local town square market. He popped a 1.35KG black pudding in my bag just before Christmas and winked and said, ‘that’s on the house’. My wife rolled her eyes when I said I think we may have moved from butcher/customer transactional relationship to something more akin now to acquaintances. ?Mervin’s generous conferring of a coagulated Christmas contribution to our table made my festive season.?But I digress.

I love the staff at Lidl.?They roam effortlessly, industriously, but always felicitous in their service.?And of course, who doesn’t love the check-out.???One has to ensure you load the belt with a careful order in preparation for the Olympiad like speed trial at which your purchased goods will fly from a checkout operatives hand to scanner to your waiting grasp.?Get this bit wrong and of course the Lidl team still smile at you and wait patiently, before revving up to full speed again. But you feel na?ve, and berate yourself in the car on the way home for looking a novice by taking your eye off the prize in those precious last moments, the way Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent may have felt if they had reduced their stroke rate by a fraction too early in an Olympic final and only brought home silver.

But, of course, and the point of this weeks blog, is that I love the middle aisle at Lidl the most.

Yes, Lidl is a well ordered, consistent, seamless machine.?During the toilet roll wars of 2020 Lidl never panicked.?They just don’t do that kind of thing.?I could probably shop in the London Road Lidl in Newbury blindfold and come home with a decent attempt at a well rounded set of meals for the week.?Order is of the day. In fact, if I close my eyes now I can recite inch by inch the location of every item around the store.?A possible music hall memory act for the Corn Exchange at Christmas.

In a Lidl store, each department flows seamlessly to the next, with each core function well defined and easy to engage with. ?In fact, business leaders could do no better to think about their entire business as visit to a Lidl store. It is process perfection. Streamlined, efficient, doing the job it is designed to do with minimal fuss but maximum customer and I hope employee satisfaction.??Of course all of this simplicity and efficiency is driven by what sits behind Lidl to make that experience happen day in day out. There is clearly a huge amount of operational excellence in action.

But like all businesses, Lidl needs its space for disruptive thinking, for innovation, for surprise, for taking the wind out of you with something you didn’t quite expect.

That my friends is the middle aisle.?My blindfolded roam around Lidl works perfectly until I come to the middle aisle. Imagine arriving back at your car with a weeks shop and a small diesel generator and thermal walking boots next to your aged Edam. All because you wondered into that disruptive middle aisle unsighted.

In most companies today, digital is the middle aisle.

I get the sense the middle aisle team at Lidl use an agile methodology to fill those shelves, not knowing what their product might look like in two weeks but that it will delight and entice engagement.?But I also sense they know exactly what I will be tempted by next Christmas right now.?A tree strimmer, thermal pants, and a jigsaw of the Alps. Exactly what I came in for. All disruptive innovation needs to feel spontaneous in some way, but of course to deliver that week in week out needs perfect consistency, methodology and planning.

The cornucopia of chaos doesn't appear in the middle aisle by magic; that aisle is as operationally excellent as every other bit of the store, the same way those amazing digital experiences that excite us have the very latest in operational excellence behind them to keep them delivering with delight.

The middle aisle is the cornerstone of innovation and disruptive that creates those exciting new experiences and what all companies must have as they strive to differentiate.

The foundations must be there.?You cannot get me to the middle aisle without the whole Lidl offer being perfectly tuned to the customers needs.?But it is the middle aisle that takes the whole shopping experience up a notch.?And that’s what we all want today. Something that surprises and delights us.

So, if you are can’t quite think of a good way of describing the spark you are looking to create for your customers through digital or any other product or service innovation then here’s my top tip.

Call it the Middle Aisle at Lidl Moment.