Aldi takes Bargain Booze to court

Discount supermarket Aldi has issued a High Court writ against Bargain Booze over its recent “Aldi Shmaldi” campaign.

The supermarket is suing the supermarket over a print campaign which pitched Bargain Booze’s products against Aldi’s, dismissing the latter with the tongue-in-cheek tagline “Aldi Shmaldi”.

The campaign’s aim was to highlight that that many big brands at Bargain Booze cost the same as Aldi’s own-brand counterparts, through a mocking series of images that encouraged customers to “shmile”.

The four-week campaign ran in The Sun, Liverpool Echo and Manchester Evening News. However Aldi did not take kindly to the jibes, launching legal action against the off-licence chain.

Aldi has filed a writ in the High Court in London against Bargain Booze, which is owned by Conviviality Retail, demanding an end to the campaign, as well as £100,000 in damages.

Discount supermarkets such as Aldi have been successful in taking away market share in recent years, not only from the UK’s major supermarkets, but smaller retailers and local shops, including Bargain Booze. Aldi recently overtook Waitrose to become the UK’s sixth biggest supermarket chain with a 5.35% share of the market.

Neither company has commented on the ongoing legal action.