Trader Joe's meets Aldi in Berlin

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Trader Joe's is a U.S. supermarket chain, mostly known for its varied but rarely comprehensive offerings. It is owned by Aldi, a German discount supermarket chain. So it was only a matter of time until you could buy Trader Joe's warez in Germany. As you can see below, the result is kind of funny, at least from a language perspective.

On the left, you see a staple of German food, vanilla pudding. In the back, you see Bratheringsfilets, which is even more (North) German. (But what does the 's' have to do in the middle of Bratheringsfilets?) In the front then, finally, the Trader Joe's stuff, "Californische Trocken Pflaumen" (dried California plums). Except, that California is spelled "Kalifornien" in German. There doesn't seem to be a single correctly spelled word in this picture.

Adding insult to injury I saw the following new product at Aldi's: Würstchen Balls. (Sausage Meat Balls, kind of.)

That's about as offensive as it gets, language-wise. Does anyone notice that they even spell it out using CamelCase? Well, what can I say. The German language hasn't cared in ages for what I think of her, so why should she start doing so now?


Turned out, in May 2006, the Würstchenballs made a reappearance as Kicker-Balls, see below.

Long live marketing! (In 2006, the soccer championship will be held in Germany).

Copyright (©) 2007 Dirk Riehle. Some rights reserved. (Creative Commons License BY-NC-SA.) Original Web Location: http://www.riehle.org