The  was an uprising against the Meiji government of Japan that occurred in Akizuki from 27 October 1876 to 24 November 1876.

Former samurai of the Akizuki Domain, opposed to the Westernization of Japan and loss of their class privileges after the Meiji Restoration, launched an uprising inspired by the failed Shinpūren rebellion three days earlier. The Akizuki rebels attacked local police before being suppressed by the Imperial Japanese Army, and the leaders of the rebellion committed suicide or were executed.

The Akizuki rebellion was one of a number of "shizoku uprisings" which took place in Kyūshū and western Honshu during the early Meiji period.

Background

In 1868, the Meiji Restoration established the Empire of Japan and overthrew the Tokugawa Shogunate that had ruled Japan as a feudal state since 1600. The new Meiji government enacted policies of modernization and Westernization, including reforms aimed at deconstructing feudalism in Japan such as the abolition of the han system and the Tokugawa class system. Many conservative members of the samurai, the former powerful warrior class, were disgruntled as the reforms saw them lose their privileged social status, eliminating their income, and the establishment of universal military conscription had replaced much of their role in the society. The very rapid modernization and Westernization of Japan was resulting in massive changes to Japanese culture, dress and society, and appeared to many samurai to be a betrayal of the "joi " ("Expel the Barbarian") portion of the Sonnō jōi justification used to overthrow the former Tokugawa shogunate.

On 24 October 1876, the Shinpūren rebellion was launched by the Shinpūren, a radical anti-Meiji samurai organization in Kumamoto, against the Imperial Japanese Army and officials of Kumamoto Prefecture. The Shinpūren rebels managed to inflict a surprising amount of damage to the army and Meiji officials, including the assassination of the Governor of Kumamoto Prefecture and the commander of the army's Kumamoto garrison. The Shinpūren rebellion was defeated by the next morning, but despite its failure the initial success inspired many anti-Meiji samurai in Kyūshū to launch their own rebellions.

Uprising
On 27 October 1876, ex-samurai of the former Akizuki Domain in Chikuzen Province, now part of the Meiji Fukuoka Prefecture, launched an uprising in response to a call to action by the leaders of the Shinpūren rebellion three days earlier. The Akizuki rebels were led by five ex-samurai retainers of the Akizuki Domain who had formed an anti-Meiji political society called the Kanjōtai: Iso Jun, Toki Kiyoshi, Masuda Shizukata, Imamura Hyakuhachirō, and Miyazaki Kurumanosuke. The main points of contention for the Kanjōtai were the ban on carrying swords, the government's refusal to follow Shimazu Hisamitsu's advice to halt the Westernization of the country, and especially the outcome of the Seikanron debate over invasion of Korea in 1873. The Kanjōtai's strong advocacy of overseas expansionism was rooted in the belief that such a war would restore the former samurai class to its former prominence and prestige, and the Meiji government's decision not to invade Korea had further angered them. Iso, Miyazaki and the other leaders of the Akizuki rebellion sought to enlist support from other local shizoku – the new social class of former samurai above commoners but with no special privileges.

The Akizuki rebels managed to gather a band of roughly 400 men from northern Kyushu, but not all agreed with Miyazaki's plan to march to the aid of the Shinpūren rebels. Eventually, only 200 men set off with the Akizuki rebels, under a white banner with the kanji . The revolt began with the killing of police officers at their post at Myōgan-ji, a local Buddhist temple. The rebels meant to rendezvous with a band of shizoku from the former Toyotsu Domain under Sugyu Jūrō, and arrived at the rendezvous point on October 29 only to learn that their compatriots had already been arrested and imprisoned. The rebels were then attacked by the Kokura garrison of the Imperial Japanese Army, under the command of Nogi Maresuke. Seventeen rebels and two government soldiers were killed. The rebels were chased into the hills, where, on October 31, Iso, Miyazaki, Toki, and four others committed seppuku. Meanwhile, Imamura led twenty-six warriors back to Akizuki, where they raided the elementary school and killed two government officials. They then burned down a liquor shop's storehouse where rebels had been previously detained, but by November 24, all the rebels were apprehended.

Aftermath
Masuda Shizukata had left for the former Saga Domain in an attempt to raise support among the warriors there, but was apprehended on his way back to Akizuki on 26 October, even before his compatriots began their uprising. On 3 December, the surviving Akizuki rebels were brought before a temporary military tribunal in Fukuoka Prefecture. Imamura and Masuda were sentenced to death and beheaded the same day, and 150 of their compatriots were sentenced to hard labor. Akizuki Castle, the former capital building of the Akizuki Domain, was torn down shortly afterwards in response to the rebellion.

The Akizuki rebellion holds the distinction of being the first time in Japanese history that a member of the modern police force was killed in the line of duty.

See also
Glossary of Japanese history
Hagi Rebellion
Saga Rebellion
Shinpūren Rebellion
Satsuma Rebellion

References
Frederic, Louis (2002). "Akizuki no Ran." Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Conflicts in 1876
1876 in Japan
19th-century rebellions
October 1876 events
November 1876 events
Rebellions in Japan
Meiji Restoration

Akizuki rebellion


Arturo Colautti (Zara, 9 October 1851 – Rome, 9 November 1914) was a Dalmatian Italian journalist, polemicist and librettist. He was a strong supporter of Italian irredentism for his native Dalmatia.

Biography

Youth in Dalmatia
Born in Zara, Austrian Empire, the youngest of four children of Francesco Colautti, a Friulian engineer employed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Luisa Couarde, a French native of Antibes, Arturo spent his adolescence in his native town, where he graduated in the local High School and then did his military service in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

He was interested very early in journalism: at the age of 17 he founded the newspaper Il Progresso, followed by La Leva. At that time he studied at the Universities of Vienna and Graz, majoring in political science and geography. He thereafter went to Fiume to direct La Bilancia, to return again to his native Zara to direct Il Dalmata from 1872 to 1874.

He relocated to Spalato in 1876, where he founded the magazine of culture and literature, Rivista Dalmatica. The magazine did not last long, because strongly pro-Italian and related to Antonio Bajamonti. In the same year, he was asked to direct L'Avvenire and – from 1876 to 1880 – he developed it as an irredentist newspaper.

Following the publication of an anti-Austrian article on his newspaper, in September 1880, Colautti was attacked by a group of soldiers that rendered him impaired for a few months. Shortly after, also because of  the threat of lawsuit for crimes against the stringent Austrian press laws and in support of Italian irredentism, Colautti chose the path of exile and took refuge in the Kingdom of Italy.

The Neapolitan Period and the late years

"He first settled in Padua, where he founded L'Euganeo, then in Milan, where he founded L'Italia" and collaborated with various newspapers. Colautti founded the Corriere del Mattino in Naples (1885), then became its director and remained there for fifteen years, after which he undertook the direction of the Corriere di Napoli.
In the many years spent in Naples, he wrote hundreds of articles, but also poems, novels and plays, gaining an excellent literary reputation. Some of his operatic librettos were set to music (Adriana Lecouvreur by Cilea, Fedora by Umberto Giordano and Doña Flor by Niccolò van Westerhout).

Colautti was a forceful writer and vehement polemicist. "He also wrote a sentimental composition in seven sonnets, Annie, for Annie Vivanti, which was published in the Cronaca Partenopea." "He dueled with Matteo Renato Imbriani."

Under the pseudonym of "Fram", Colautti was also a military critic of the Corriere della Sera during the Russo-Japanese War (1904) and again in Milan from 1912 to 1914, when he directed L'Alba, and returned to work in Milan at Via Solferino.

For the duration of the exile, Colautti maintained close contacts with the Dalmatian irredentists and actively participated nationally in various events and conferences.

At the outbreak of World War I, Colautti was one of the many Dalmatian Italian interventionists, but died a few months before Italian intervention in the conflict. For matters of public order, he had no public honors, and his body was buried with a private ceremony at the cemetery of Verano.

See also
 Italian irredentism in Dalmatia
 Antonio Bajamonti
 Dalmatian Italians

Notes

References
 Arturo Colautti, in Dizionario enciclopedico della letteratura italiana, Laterza, Bari 1966
 G. Baroni, Arturo Colautti, in F.Semi-V.Tacconi (cur.), Istria e Dalmazia. Uomini e tempi. Dalmazia, Del Bianco, Udine 1992
 G. Paoli Palcich, Arturo Colautti: la vita e le opere, in La Rivista Dalmatica, Roma 1984

External links

1851 births
1914 deaths
Italian opera librettists
Italian irredentism
Italian people of French descent
Italian male journalists
Writers from Zadar
People from the Kingdom of Dalmatia
Writers from Rome
Journalists from Milan
19th-century journalists
Italian male dramatists and playwrights
19th-century Italian dramatists and playwrights
20th-century Italian dramatists and playwrights
19th-century Italian male writers
Italian male poets
19th-century Italian poets
20th-century Italian poets
20th-century Italian male writers
Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to Italy
Dalmatian Italians

Arturo Colautti


The 5th Cavalry Corps was a cavalry corps of the Red Army.

The 5th Cavalry Corps headquarters was formed at Pskov in accordance with a Red Army General Staff directive of 25 August 1935 and a Leningrad Military District directive of 8 February 1936, under the command of Komdiv Konstantin Rokossovsky. The corps included the 16th, 25th, and 30th Cavalry Divisions. During the Great Purge, Rokossovsky was arrested and imprisoned on 17 August 1937. His successor, Kombrig Dmitry Vaynerkh-Vanyarkh, was arrested on 10 February 1938 and later executed. Komdiv Vasily Gonin succeeded command of the corps on 6 June 1938. The 30th Cavalry Division was disbanded in 1938 and the 16th and 25th Cavalry Divisions transferred in 1939. The corps headquarters moved from Pskov to Kamenets-Podolsk in May 1939, transferring to the Kiev Special Military District together with its 16th Cavalry Division. After the relocation of the corps headquarters, Gonin was found drunkenly harassing passerby in the streets of Kamenets-Podolsk on 18 June. However, he did not face serious consequences for this, with his case being referred to a court of honor.

In July 1939 the 9th Cavalry Division transferred to the corps, remaining part of it until 1940. The corps took part in the Soviet invasion of Poland, advancing into the region annexed as western Ukraine in September 1939, with the 9th and 16th Cavalry Divisions assigned. Gonin and 9th Cavalry Division commander Nikolay Belov were reprimanded in October for appropriating trophies for themselves during the campaign, with Gonin storing four hunting rifles in his vehicle. In December, Gonin was transferred to command the 34th Rifle Corps in the Winter War, and subsequently shot for drinking instead of leading his troops. Komdiv Dmitry Gustishev took over command of the corps. In June 1940 the 14th and 32nd Cavalry Divisions were assigned to the corps, which took part in the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia. When the corps returned from Bessarabia, Rokossovsky, freed from prison, was restored to his old command. The 3rd Cavalry Division was assigned later in 1940.

It was part of the 12th Army. It later became part of the 6th Army.

On the Eastern Front of World War II, the corps distinguished itself in the Yelets Offensive, as a result of which, for courage shown in battle, in December 1941 it received the name of Guards and was transformed into the 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps. At the same time, the 3rd Cavalry Division of the corps became the 5th Guards Cavalry Division.

The 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps participated in the rest of the War as part of the Kalinin, Western, Bryansk, 1st and 2nd Baltic, South-West, South, Stalingrad, Don, 2nd and 3rd Belorussian fronts.

After the end of the war, the 5th Guards Cavalry Division and the 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps became part of the Northern Group of Forces at Lublin, but soon withdrew to Izyaslav in the Carpathian Military District. It was reduced to the 5th Guards Cavalry Regiment in May and June 1946 when the 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps was reduced to a division. The regiment and division were disbanded in April 1948.

Organization
1939:
 9th Cavalry Division
 16th Cavalry Division
 23rd Independent Tank Brigade
1941:
 3rd Cavalry Division
 14th Cavalry Division

References

Sources

Cavalry corps of the Soviet Union
Military units and formations disestablished in 1941

5th Cavalry Corps (Soviet Union)


Chintamani Panigrahi (22 March 1922 – 29 April 2000) was an Indian Independence Movement activist, a political and social leader from Odisha. He served as the Governor of Manipur from 1989 to 1993. He was born to Sri Gopinath Panigrahi and Smt Gelhi Devi in Biswanathpur, Puri district, Orissa (India). He was the first cousin of Shri. Bhagawati Charan Panigrahi (the founder of Communist Party in Orissa) and he was the first cousin of Legendary Oriya author Padmabhushan Kalindi Charan Panigrahi. Legendary Iron lady and former Chief Minister of Orissa Smt. Nandini Satpathy was his niece.

Early life and independence movement
He was an active member of  the "Bichinna Utkal Abkash Bahini" which was constituted on 17 May 1938 under the chairmanship of Sri Sukanta Rao, then Principal of Ravenshaw Collegiate School. Its aim was protecting the Oriya language and culture in parts of Utkal (Orissa) that were  separated in the reorganization of states. They visited Medinipur, Bankura, Singhbhum, Seraikela, Kharsawan, Chainbasa, Chakradharpur, Tarala, Tikili and Manjusha in the summer holidays to interact with people in Oriya and preach national integrity.

In the 9 August 1942 revolution, he and his friends hoisted the Indian National Flag at Ravenshaw College and subsequently took leave of absence from the college. His passion for higher studies and his wish to be a part of the freedom struggle took him to Kolkata, where he got admission into Vidyasagar College under the University of Calcutta to finish his M.A. He joined the Paschim Banga Chhatra Congress and used to write handbills and posters against the British Government at night. On 16 August 1946, there was a massive Hindu-Muslim riot in Bengal. A peace march was organized under the leadership of Sri Panigrahi by Utkal Bahini and medical assistance as well as food was given to the affected, preaching the mantra of "United we win, divided we fall".

Journalism and politics
He was a journalist, an author, a writer and a labour leader. He was the editor of "Daily Prajatantra" (1947–1951) and "Daily Matrubhumi" (1951–1956). He was secretary of the All Utkal Bank Employees Association and became vice-president of the World Democratic Youth Federation. He was elected to the 2nd Lok Sabha in 1957 from Puri constituency as a Communist Party of India candidate. Later, he joined the Indian National Congress. He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1967, 1971, 1980 and 1984 from Bhubaneswar constituency. He was also Minister of State for Home Affairs (1986–88), Minister of State in the  Ministry of Defence (1988–89) and Governor of Manipur from 10 July 1989 to 19 March 1993.

There are several works to his credit which include "Juga Sahitya" (Oriya), "Journey through blue mountain" and "With the people". He was fondly called the "People's Governor" by the residents of Manipur because of his contribution to the development of the state and its people.

He died on 29 April 2000 at the Kalinga Hospital in Bhubaneswar.

External links
Chintamani Panigrahi on Manipur Assembly
Chintamani Panigrahi

1922 births
2000 deaths
Indian independence activists from Odisha
Governors of Manipur
India MPs 1957–1962
India MPs 1967–1970
India MPs 1971–1977
India MPs 1980–1984
India MPs 1984–1989
People from Puri district
Vidyasagar College alumni
University of Calcutta alumni
Lok Sabha members from Odisha
Leaders of the Opposition in Odisha
Politicians from Bhubaneswar
Communist Party of India politicians from Odisha
Indian National Congress politicians
Social leaders

Chintamani Panigrahi


Superman and Spider-Man is an intercompany comic book jointly published by DC Comics and Marvel Comics in July 1981. Number 28 (and final) in the Marvel Treasury Edition series, it is a "sequel" to 1976's Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man.

Like the earlier Superman - Spider-Man crossover, the issue is noncanonical, as it assumes that the heroes and their respective cities of residence, Metropolis and New York, exist in the same universe, with no explanation given as to why they had never before met or been mentioned in each other's individual stories. It also does not explicitly mention the events of the first crossover story.

Publication history
Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man was very much a collaboration between the two companies; this second treasury-sized edition was largely the work of Marvel, with DC's approval. The first team-up featured the heroes' most popular enemies, Lex Luthor and Doctor Octopus, but with this story writer Jim Shooter clearly sought plot convenience over "rogues gallery" prominence, and chose Doctor Doom (more typically a Fantastic Four villain, though  he had occasionally battled Spider-Man and would do so in the future as well) from Marvel, and the Parasite (a lesser-known Superman foe) from DC. The comic also pits Superman against the Hulk for the first time, and Spider-Man against Wonder Woman.

The book was officially co-written by Shooter and Marv Wolfman, who at the time was writing the popular DC title The New Teen Titans. John Buscema penciled the story, and Joe Sinnott inked the main figures. The backgrounds were inked by a who's who of contemporary Marvel talent: Terry Austin, Klaus Janson, Bob Layton, Steve Leialoha, Bob McLeod, Al Milgrom, Josef Rubinstein, Walt Simonson, Brett Breeding, and Bob Wiacek. The front cover was painted by Bob Larkin from a layout by John Romita, Sr.

Other features of the book include Superman and Spider-Man's origins on the inside front cover, an earlier cover concept on the inside back cover, and house ads for both Marvel and DC.

Plot summary
The story begins in Manhattan, where Spider-Man foils a bank robbery. Easily dispatching the criminals, his Spider-sense alerts him about a nearby construction site, but unable to determine any immediate danger, he moves on. The reader learns, however, that the site camouflages an elaborate base of the Latverian monarch Doctor Doom, connected with a years-long plot of his known as "Project Omega". Doom initiates Omega by luring the Hulk to Superman's hometown of Metropolis using a special micro-transmitter.

Spider-Man's alter-ego of Peter Parker is assigned by The Daily Bugle to cover The Hulk's advance towards Metropolis. Parker arrives in Metropolis just in time to witness the confrontation between Superman and the Hulk. Parker changes into Spider-Man, but is outclassed and unable to help. Battling the Hulk, Superman discovers the beacon and destroys it, calming the Hulk and winning his trust. The Hulk reverts to his Bruce Banner form, but Doom's plan has worked: the damage Hulk caused released the Parasite from a special underground cell. S.T.A.R. Labs takes custody of Banner, hoping to find a cure for his condition. Doom, monitoring everything, still needs Banner for his plan, and now he knows exactly where to find him.

Peter Parker goes to work for The Daily Planet while Superman's alter-ego of Clark Kent takes a leave and joins the staff of the Bugle in New York City, each seeking to investigate the crisis from a different end. Superman has realized that the Hulk's rampage was designed to free the Parasite, and reasons that, as Luthor is behind bars, only Dr. Doom could be behind the scheme. Superman visits the monarch of Latveria at its New York embassy, where Doom freely admits he's plotting world domination. Superman is sworn to uphold the laws of men, and on Latverian soil, Doom is the law. He even makes an attempt to capture the Man of Steel, but Superman uses the lead-lined everything room of Doom's headquarters to his advantage. When Doom releases some kryptonite, Superman rolls himself in the lead-lining and blocks the lethal radiation. Nonetheless, Doom remains untouchable.

While Clark Kent works his mild-mannered charm on the Bugle's cantankerous publisher J. Jonah Jameson, Peter Parker has to deal with Steve Lombard, the jock sportscaster who harassed Kent throughout the 1970s. Soon enough, Parker stumbles onto the Metropolis division of Doom's Project Omega, around the same time as Wonder Woman, who has also been following this case. Actually Doom planted evidence in order to lure Wonder Woman; her capture is also part of his master plan. Spider-Man and Wonder Woman fall into fighting under false pretenses, but quickly realize they're on the same side and join forces. Doom captures Wonder Woman before they can accomplish anything, however, while Spider-Man escapes and trails her captors to their destination, finally learning the truth about Project Omega.

The Omega installations, positioned all across the world, will go online and emit a particular radiation which will render most forms of fuel useless. Only a special generator — built by Doom, of course — will provide the energy the world needs; he will step in and make himself absolute monarch. In exchange for making him Doom's privileged enforcer, Doom enhances the Parasite's abilities with the absorbed powers of Wonder Woman, the Hulk, and Superman. The Parasite likes the idea, but only because he intends to turn on Doom. Of course, he won't get that chance; Doom knows that all that power will burn out the Parasite, turning his body into a unique kind of crystal with unique energy-absorbing properties that will allow Doom to use it to control the power of his super-reactor.

The story comes to a climax as the heroes battle the Parasite, Doom and his henchmen, and a giant robot. Doom and the Parasite turn on each other after Parasite absorbs some of Spider-Man's powers during the fight and his spider-sense alerts him to the danger of Doom's plan. Superman and Spider-Man use their respective abilities to foil Doom's plot, Spider-Man using his webbing as an improvised 'lint brush' to 'clean' Superman of the kryptonite dust Doom used to immobilize him, and Superman subsequently taking Doom's gauntlet to knock out the Parasite (correctly deducing that Doom would have developed an armour that would prevent the Parasite from absorbing him). They also prevent the accidental world-destroying explosion of Doom's super-reactor after the controls are damaged in the fight; Superman contains the reactor from the inside long enough for Spider-Man to use his spider-sense to find the lever necessary to fully turn the reactor off. The Hulk wanders off when the stasis tube in which he was imprisoned cracks, while the Parasite is recaptured and Wonder Woman released after the crisis is over. Doom manages to make it back to the Latverian Embassy, where he enjoys diplomatic immunity, seconds before Superman catches up with him.

References

External links
 Timeshredder. "Superman and Spider-man", Everything2 (Apr. 12, 2004).

Comics by Marv Wolfman
Crossover comics
Intercompany crossovers
1981 comics debuts
Team-up comics
Doctor Doom

Superman and Spider-Man


Michael Kwan Ching-kit is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer previously with the Philips label (the brand Polygram was not adopted until later in Hong Kong), and later with EMI. His back catalogue (1986–1988) continues to be published by Universal Music Group. He retired his music career in 1988 and now works as an architect in Seattle, United States, with his wife and son.

Biography
Kwan was born in 1949 in Hong Kong, he attended St. Paul's Co-educational College and graduated in 1969. He was admitted in the University of Hong Kong in the same year and later graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Architecture. Kwan practiced architecture full-time after graduation and founded his practice in 1983.  His wife is also an architect.

Due to his amateur status as a singer, he was never eligible to be awarded lifetime achievement awards despite having sung 78 theme songs for Hong Kong television dramas, like Reincarnated (1978).  Before the 1970s, he was an English folk song singer for The Swinging Minstrels.  He also declined to accept the Golden Needle Award in 1993 due to him being out of the spotlight for so long.  The award was not awarded at all that year.  He did receive an equivalent of Meritorious Service Medal from the Queen in 1985 for services to Cantopop.

References

1949 births
Living people
Alumni of the University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong male singers
Hong Kong architects
Place of birth missing (living people)
Alumni of St. Paul's Co-educational College
Architects from Seattle

Michael Kwan


Alfred Muller (23 December 1940 – 13 November 2020), was a French politician who served as a member of the National Assembly of France from 1993 to 1997.

Biography
Alfred Muller was born on 23 December 1940 in Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin. In 1971 he became non-denominational left-wing (divers gauche) alderman for sports and culture in Schiltigheim (Bas-Rhin), then was elected mayor in 1977 and became soon afterwards member of the Socialist Party (PS). A follower of Michel Rocard's party wing, he was president of the Bas-Rhin PS-linked Federation of Socialists and republican elected officials from 1982 to 1985. He was successfully re-elected as mayor in 1983.

He unsuccessfully took part in the 1981 legislative election in the Bas-Rhin's 4th constituency. In protest against the selection of Grenoble and not of Schiltigheim for the building of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, also because he had not been selected as a candidate on the PS list for the next - proportional - 1986 legislative election, he quit the party in 1985. He founded the next year a splinter party, the Alsatian Democracy Movement (MDA) and presented his own list for these elections, getting 26,173 votes (5.98%) and no seat. Two years later, he was the substitute for Catherine Trautmann, PS candidate in the National Assembly's Bas-Rhin's 2nd constituency. Their ticket lost in the runoff by a small margin (49.7%).

In January 1992, Alfred Muller publicly declined to be head of the center-left Presidential Majority (during the presidency of François Mitterrand) list for the regional elections in Bas-Rhin, arguing that the PS refused to withdraw its candidate from a simultaneous cantonal election to let the MDA candidate win it.

He was however endorsed by the PS for the 1993 legislative election, was elected then, but beaten at the next one in 1997. When elected at the National Assembly, he was a member of the group République et liberté, composed of the Left Radicals, the Chevènement's MDC, and other independents, presided over by arch-Conservative Jean Royer.

He was re-elected as mayor in 1989, 1995 and 2001, but retired in 2008. His MDA designated successor, Jean-Marie Kutner, also affiliated with a newly founded splinter party from the PS, Modern Left, was endorsed by the right-wing UMP, but was beaten by a PS list at the 2008 municipal elections. Kutner won the next 2014 elections as the head of a united right-wing list.

Alfred Muller was also elected as conseiller général from 1979 to 1992 for the Schiltigheim Canton, had to leave this function when he became deputy, then was elected again from 1998 until 2004 when he was beaten by an Ecologist candidate, Andrée Munchenbach.

As a mayor, he endorsed Jean-Pierre Chevènement for the 2002 presidential election.

Muller died on 13 November 2020 at the age of 79.

References

1940 births
2020 deaths
Politicians from Strasbourg
Deputies of the 10th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic
21st-century French politicians

Alfred Muller


Coffee and Cigarettes is the title of three short films and a 2003 feature-length anthology film by independent film director Jim Jarmusch. The feature film consists of 11 short stories which share coffee and cigarettes as a common thread, and includes the earlier three short films.

Themes
The film is composed of a comic series of short vignettes shot in black and white built on one another to create a cumulative effect, as the characters discuss things such as caffeine popsicles, Paris in the 1920s, and the use of nicotine as an insecticide – all while sitting around drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. The theme of the film is absorption in the obsessions, joys, and addictions of life, and there are many common threads between vignettes, such as the Tesla coil, medical knowledge, the suggestion that coffee and cigarettes don't make for a healthy meal (generally lunch), cousins, The Lees (Cinqué and Joie, and a mention of Spike Lee), delirium, miscommunication, musicians, the similarities between musicianship and medical skill, industrial music, acknowledged fame, and the idea of drinking coffee before sleeping in order to have fast dreams. In each of the segments of the film, the common motif of alternating black and white tiles can be seen in some fashion. The visual use of black and white relates to the theme of interpersonal contrasts, as each vignette features two people who disagree completely yet manage to sit amicably at the same table.

Plot segments
The eleven segments that make up the film are as follows:

Strange to Meet You

This is the original 1986 short Coffee and Cigarettes with Roberto Benigni and Steven Wright having a conversation about coffee and cigarettes. Steven tells Roberto about his coffee ideas, such as freezing it into "caffeine Popsicles" for kids, and how he likes to drink coffee right before he goes to sleep so he can dream faster "like a camera on those Indy 500 cars". Roberto does not understand anything he says but is entertained to listen. They experiment with switching chairs, but decide to switch back again. Steven suddenly remembers he has a dentist appointment that he is afraid to go to, but has to. Roberto happily volunteers and goes instead of him.

Twins
Originally the 1989 short Coffee and Cigarettes, Memphis Version – aka Coffee and Cigarettes II – this segment features Joie Lee and Cinqué Lee as the titular twins and Steve Buscemi as Danny the barman who expounds on his theory on Elvis Presley's evil twin. The scene also features a recounting of the urban legend that Elvis Presley made racist comments about African Americans during a magazine interview.

Cinqué Lee also appears in "Jack Shows Meg his Tesla Coil" later in the film.

Somewhere in California

Filmed in 1993 as the short Coffee and Cigarettes - Somewhere in California, and won the Short Film Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In this segment musicians Iggy Pop and Tom Waits smoke cigarettes to celebrate that they quit smoking, drink some coffee and make awkward conversation. At various points each musician remarks that the other is not on the jukebox, though Iggy Pop's music can be heard on a jukebox in another segment later in the film.

Those Things'll Kill Ya
Joseph Rigano and Vinny Vella have a conversation over coffee about the dangers of smoking. The silent Vinny Vella Jr. also appears to beg his father for money, which is given in exchange for affection, which is not provided.

Renée
Renée French (played by herself) drinks coffee while looking through a gun magazine. E. J. Rodríguez plays the waiter, who is eager to be of service. He initially approaches her to serve more coffee, to which she reacts by saying "I had the right color, right temperature, it was just right". After that, he comes back several times, hesitates, and leaves. He seems intent on striking up a conversation with her.

No Problem
Alex Descas and Isaach De Bankolé are a couple of friends who meet and talk over some coffee and cigarettes. Alex has no problems, or so he answers to Isaach's repeated questioning.  At the end of the scene, Alex takes out a pair of dice and rolls three sets of doubles.
It could be assumed that he has a gambling problem but to him it appears to be a non-issue. Despite this, he doesn't roll the dice in front of his friend.

Cousins
Cate Blanchett plays herself and a fictional and non-famous cousin named Shelly, whom she meets over some coffee in the lounge of a hotel. There is no smoking in the lounge, as the waiter informs Shelly (but not until Cate is gone).  Shelly tells Cate about her boyfriend, Lee, who is in a band.  She describes the music style as hard industrial, similar to the band Iggy describes.  Cate tells Shelly she looks forward to meeting "Lou" someday. Cate is made to feel awkward and uncomfortable by Shelly's constant envious remarks about how she perceives Cate's life and attitude.

Jack Shows Meg His Tesla Coil
Features Jack and Meg White of the band The White Stripes having some coffee and cigarettes.  They play themselves, although the scene seems to perpetuate the band's former pretense that they are indeed siblings. Jack shows Meg his Tesla coil that he says he built himself and waxes intellectual on the achievements of Nikola Tesla. In the beginning, Jack seems upset that Meg doesn't share his excitement, and it takes Meg some coaxing to get Jack to agree to show Meg his Tesla coil. He introduces the line, "Nikola Tesla perceived the earth to be a conductor of acoustical resonance."  Cinqué Lee plays a waiter in this segment. In the end, the coil breaks, and Meg and the Waiter offer suggestions as to why it might be broken. Finally Meg says something that Jack seems to agree to, and he leaves to "go home and check it out". Meg clinks her coffee cup to produce a ringing noise, pauses, says "Earth as a conductor of acoustical resonance" and clinks her coffee cup to produce the noise again; she looks pensively out into the distance before a cut to black. Early during the segment, "Down on the Street" by Iggy Pop's band The Stooges is played on the jukebox in the background.

Cousins?
British actors Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan have a conversation over some tea. (Coogan offers Molina a French cigarette, but Molina saves his for later.) Molina is a very enthusiastic fan of Coogan's, who contrarily is very uninterested at their meeting and barely manages to hide this. Molina excitedly shares with him research he came across, learning that they are distant cousins, and proposes a friendship or show business project to capitalize on this. Steve Coogan still remains evasive, lightening up only when an attractive female fan recognizes him. He later tries to make up excuses to keep from ever having to hear from Alfred Molina again, and then clumsily tries to reverse this when he overhears Molina get a call from good friend Spike Jonze. But it is too late and Molina, disappointed, leaves Coogan with the bill. Although the scene is set in LA, the segment was actually shot in Brooklyn at Galapagos, Williamsburg.

Delirium
Hip-hop artists (and cousins) GZA and RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan drink naturally caffeine-free herbal tea and have a conversation with the waiter, Bill Murray, about the dangers of caffeine and nicotine. During this conversation GZA makes a reference to how he would drink much coffee before going to bed so his dreams would "whip by" similar to the camera-shots at the Indy 500, very similar to the same reference that Steven Wright did in the first segment. Murray requests that GZA and RZA keep his identity secret, while GZA and RZA inform Murray about nontraditional methods to relieve his smoker's hack.

Champagne
William "Bill" Rice and Taylor Mead spend their coffee break having a nostalgic conversation, whilst Janet Baker singing "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" from Mahler's Rückert-Lieder appears from nowhere.  William Rice repeats Jack White's line, "Nikola Tesla perceived the earth as a conductor of acoustical resonance." It is possible to interpret the relevance of this line to the constant recurrent themes throughout the seemingly unconnected segments.

Reception
Several reviewers have praised the film's handling of the relationship between celebrities and fame.

William Thomas of Empire delighted in the "quirky conversations" and "almost nostalgic air" which was punctuated with "lovely high contrast black-and-white imagery and snatches of music from Mahler to doo-wop". On the other hand, he felt the film suffered from an occasional lack of focus and an uneven structure.

Roger Ebert commended the film's tempo writing that "none of these 11 vignettes overstays its welcome, although a few seem to lose their way".

Philip French of The Guardian provided a more critical review. He noted that "four or five are duds. Three, however, in which people appear as versions of themselves, are outstanding. Iggy Pop meeting Tom Waits; Cate Blanchett (in both roles) having a reunion with an envious cousin; Alfred Molina taking tea with Steve Coogan in Hollywood".

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 64% approval rating based on 126 reviews, and an average rating of 6.3/10. The site's critical consensus states: "Episodes vary in quality, but overall this talky film is quirkily engaging." On Metacritic, the film has received a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Soundtrack

Louie Louie - Written by Richard Berry - Performed by Richard Berry & The Pharaohs
Saw Sage - Written by Tom Waits / Ron Waters / D. Devore / Tom Nunn / B. Hopkin - Performed by C-SIDE / Tom Waits
Serenade to Nalani - Written & Performed by Jerry Byrd
Lonesome Road - Written by Doug Wood
Ich Bin der Welt Abhanden Gekommen (I Have Lost Track of the World) - Composed by Gustav Mahler - Lyrics by Friedrich Rückert - Performed by Janet Baker and The New Philharmonia Orchestra
Paauau Waltz - Written by John U. Iosepa - Performed by Jerry Byrd
Hanalei Moon - Written by Bob Nelson - Performed by Jerry Byrd
Baden-Baden - Written by Milt Jackson and Ray Brown (as Raymond M. Brown) - Performed by Modern Jazz Quartet
Crimson and Clover - Written by Tommy James and Peter P. Lucia Jr. - Performed by Tommy James & The Shondells
Down on the Street - Written by Iggy Pop / Ron Asheton / Scott Asheton / David Alexander - Performed by The Stooges
Nimblefoot Ska - Written by Coxsone Dodd - Performed by The Skatalites
Set Back (Just Cool) - Written by Coxsone Dodd - Performed by Roland Alphonso and Carol McLaughlin
Streets of Gold - Written by Coxsone Dodd - Performed by Roland Alphonso and the Soul Vendors
Enna Bella - Written by Eric Morris, Coxsone Dodd - Performed by Eric "Monty" Morris
A Joyful Process - Written by George Clinton and Bernie Worrell - Performed by Funkadelic
Fantazias for the Viols - Written by Henry Purcell - Performed by Fretwork
Nappy Dugout - Written by George Clinton / Cordell Mosson / Garry Shider - Performed by Funkadelic
Louie Louie - Written by Richard Berry - Performed by Iggy Pop

See also
List of films shot over three or more years

References

External links

2003 films
2003 comedy films
2003 independent films
Films directed by Jim Jarmusch
American anthology films
Films about smoking
Films about coffee
Short Film Palme d'Or winners
American black-and-white films
United Artists films

Coffee and Cigarettes


Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 12,000 stores in 19 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when they took over their mother's store in Essen. The business was split into two separate groups in 1960, that later became Aldi Nord, headquartered in Essen, and Aldi Süd, headquartered in Mülheim.

In 1962, they introduced the name Aldi (a syllabic abbreviation for Albrecht Diskont), which is pronounced . In Germany, Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd have been financially and legally separate since 1966, although both divisions' names may appear as if they were a single enterprise with certain store brands or when negotiating with contractor companies. The formal business name of Aldi Nord is Aldi Einkauf GmbH & Co., while the formal business name of Aldi Süd is ALDI SÜD Dienstleistungs-SE & Co.  Each company is owned and operated independently, but they do have contractual business with one another.

Aldi's German operations consist of Aldi Nord's 35 individual regional companies with about 2,200 stores in western, northern, and eastern Germany, and Aldi Süd's 32 regional companies with 2,000 stores in western and southern Germany. Internationally, Aldi Nord operates in Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Spain, while Aldi Süd operates in Australia, Austria, China, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States. Only in Austria and Slovenia Aldi operates the stores under the Hofer brand. Aldi Nord also owns the Trader Joe's grocery chain in the United States which operates separately from the group. Aldi Süd announced in August 2023 that it will buy 400 Winn-Dixie and Harveys supermarkets in the southern United States.

History

Karl and Theo Albrecht's mother opened a small store in a suburb of Essen, Germany, in 1913. Their father was employed as a miner and later as a baker's assistant. Karl and Theo were born in 1920 and 1922 respectively. Theo Albrecht completed an apprenticeship in his mother's store, while Karl Albrecht worked in a delicatessen.

Karl Albrecht took over a food shop formerly run by F. W. Judt and later served in the German Army during World War II. In 1945, the brothers took over their mother's business and soon opened another retail outlet nearby. By 1950, the Albrecht brothers owned 13 stores in the Ruhr Valley.

The brothers' idea was to subtract the legal maximum rebate of 3% before sale. The market leaders at the time, which often were co-operatives, required their customers to collect rebate stamps and to send them at regular intervals to reclaim their money. The Albrecht brothers also rigorously removed merchandise that did not sell from their shelves, cutting costs by neither advertising nor selling fresh produce and keeping the size of their retail outlets small.

Split
The brothers split the company in 1960, over a dispute about whether they should sell cigarettes. Karl believed they would attract shoplifters while his brother did not. At the time, they jointly owned 300 shops with a cash flow of DM90 million yearly. In 1962, they introduced the name Aldi—short for Albrecht-Diskont, which translates into English as "Albrecht Discount". Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd have been financially and legally separate since 1966.

The individual groups were originally owned and managed jointly by the brothers.  After the death of Theo's son Berthold, Aldi Nord continues to be controlled by the Albrecht family through its Markus, Lukas and Jakobus foundations, which hold a combined 80.5 per cent of the company's issued capital.

International expansion
Aldi started to expand internationally in 1967, when Aldi Süd acquired the grocery chain Hofer in Austria; Aldi Nord opened its first stores abroad in the Netherlands in 1973, and other countries followed. In 1976, Aldi Süd opened its first store in the United States in Iowa, and, in 1979, Aldi Nord acquired Trader Joe's.  After German reunification and the fall of the Iron Curtain, Aldi experienced a rapid expansion. The brothers retired as CEOs in 1993; control of the companies was placed in the hands of private family foundations, the Siepmann Foundation (Aldi Süd) and the Markus, Jakobus and Lukas Foundation (Aldi Nord, Trader Joe's).

Acquisition of Winn-Dixie/Harvey's
On August 16, 2023, ALDI Süd entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket, including approximately 400 stores across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Business organization

Germany

The Aldi Nord group currently consists of 35 independent regional branches with approximately 2,500 stores. Aldi Süd is made up of 24 companies with 2,000 stores. The border between their territories is commonly known as ″Aldi-Äquator″ (literally: Aldi equator) and runs from the Rhine via Mülheim an der Ruhr, Wermelskirchen, Marburg, Siegen, and Gießen east to just north of Fulda.

The former East Germany is served by Aldi Nord, except for one Aldi Süd in Sonneberg, Thuringia, whose regional office is in Bavaria. The regional branches are organised as limited partnerships with a regional manager for each branch who reports directly to the head office in Essen (Aldi Nord) or Mülheim an der Ruhr (Aldi Süd).

In December 2002, a survey conducted by the German market research institute Forsa found 95% of blue-collar workers, 88% of white-collar workers, 84% of public servants, and 80% of self-employed Germans shop at Aldi. One of Aldi's direct competitors is Lidl.

Internationally

The Aldi group operates over 12,000 stores worldwide. Aldi Nord is responsible for its stores in Northern Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain. Aldi Nord also owns the Trader Joe's grocery chain in the United States which operates separately from the group. Aldi Süd's responsibilities are for Southern Germany, Australia, China, Ireland, United Kingdom, United States and through Austrian subsidiary Hofer AG in  Austria, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland. In Austria and Slovenia Aldi Süd operates their stores under the Hofer brand. Aldi Süd's first Switzerland store opened in 2005, and it has operated in Hungary since 2007. Aldi Süd had invested an estimated €800m ($1bn; £670m) in Greece from November 2008 until pulling out on 31 December 2010.

While Aldi Nord has renamed its Dutch and Belgian subsidiaries Combi and Lansa to the Aldi Markt/Aldi Marché brand, Aldi Süd tries to maintain a regional appearance, branding its stores Aldi Süd in Germany, Aldi Suisse in Switzerland, and Hofer in Austria and Slovenia.

Aldi launched in Great Britain, on 5 April 1990, when it opened its first store there in Stechford, Birmingham, using the wholly owned English registered company of Aldi Stores Limited. In October 2013, Aldi opened the 300th store in Great Britain. By 2017, Aldi had over 600 stores there and was opening them at a rate of more than one a week. A report in February 2020, indicated that the company was operating approximately 874 outlets in the UK and planned to have 1,200 stores by 2025. In 2022, Aldi stores in Great Britain reported that due to the annual Veganuary challenge its sales of plant-based foods were 500% higher in January that year than in January 2021. In September 2022 it was confirmed that Aldi had overtaken Morrisons to become Britain's 4th largest supermarket with a 9.3% market share. In September 2023, Aldi opened its 1000th location in the UK and shared its plan to open another 500 as a long-term goal.

Aldi entered the Irish market in 1999. In March 2022, its 150th store in Ireland  opened in Cahersiveen (Co Kerry).

Aldi opened its first Australian store in Sydney in 2001, and has grown rapidly since, maintaining a 12.6% market share as of early 2016. It has still yet to open any stores in the state of Tasmania or in Northern Australia in major cities such as Cairns or Darwin, much to the frustration of the population. Financial website Canstar rated Australia's supermarkets based on the feedback of 2,897 consumers who had visited one in the past month with Aldi coming out on top. By August 2019, there were 540 Aldi stores in Australia; Aldi had approximately 11 percent share of the grocery market in Australia in the previous year with sales of $9.2 billion. Aldi opened 26 new stores in 2018, but Aldi Australia CEO Tom Daunt predicted that "store growth would be slower in the future".

Aldi Limited (New Zealand) was incorporated in 2001. The company did not expect to open stores in the near future as of 2019. A news report in January 2020, indicated that the country did not have enough consumers to warrant new supermarket chains; the report predicted that such stores would not arrive "any time soon".

Aldi Süd expanded to the United States under the Aldi banner, having expanded throughout the Eastern and Midwestern U.S. Aldi Süd revealed expansion plans in 2015, and expanded into the Southern California market, where Aldi Nord's Trader Joe's is based. Reports in August 2019, stated that the company was in the process of using a $3.4 billion investment in order to expand to 2,500 stores in the country by year end 2022; it was also investing an extra $1.6 billion to renovate 1,300 of its US stores. By February 2020, there were over 1,900 Aldi stores in 36 states. Groceries ordered on-line could be delivered to homes in the areas covered by 95 percent of stores in the U.S.; this service was provided in conjunction with Instacart.

Aldi Süd opened its first 10 stores in Italy on 1 March 2018. In the first year of operation, 51 outlets were opened. By October 2019, there were 66 stores in northern Italy. At that time, the company was planning to open 80 new stores in the country as well as a distribution centre in Landriano.

In mid-2019, Aldi Süd opened two small, upscale, stores in Shanghai. Two more were opened in late-2019. This is the first of a planned one hundred such locations in the city. The company stated that "the emphasis is on fresh produce and ready meals".

In December 2020, Aldi bought 545 supermarkets and three warehouses of Leader Price and another 2 Casino supermarkets in France for €717 million from Casino Group.The transaction is part of Aldi's plan to catch up with Lidl in France.

In February 2021, Aldi said that it is planning to open 100 new stores in 2021, in the United States (Arizona, California, Florida and the Northeast region).

In January 2022, Aldi launched its Shop&Go concept in Greenwich, London.

On 9 December 2022, Aldi Nord issued a press release stating that Aldi is withdrawing from Denmark after 45 years of operations there. 114 of the chain's total of 188 stores will be taken over by Norwegian competitor Rema 1000. In August 2023, it was announced the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority had approved the Rema 1000 acquisition.

Geographic distribution

Business practices
On 9 August 2018, Aldi (Nord) announced plans to expand its product selection by offering more organic, fresh and easy-to-prepare meals. Aldi also aims to expand to about 2,500 stores in the United States by 2022. On 18 September 2018, Aldi announced its intent to offer grocery delivery in the United States.  Aldi began testing grocery delivery in 2017 in select cities such as Atlanta, Georgia, and Chicago, Illinois.

On 4 March 2020, Aldi announced that all its suppliers must utilize recyclable, reusable, or compostable packaging by 2025.

In-store layout

Aldi stores are noted as examples of so-called no-frills stores that often display a variety of items at discount prices, specializing in staple items, such as food, beverages, toilet paper, sanitary articles, and other inexpensive household items. Many of its products are own brands, with the number of other brands usually limited to a maximum of two for a given item.

Aldi mainly sells exclusively produced, custom-branded products (often very similar to and produced by major brands) with brand names including Grandessa, Happy Farms, Millville, Simply Nature, and Fit & Active.

Branded products carried include HARIBO in Germany, Knoppers in Belgium, France, and the United States, Marmite and Branston Pickle in Great Britain; and Vegemite and Milo in Australia. Unlike most shops, Aldi does not accept manufacturers' coupons, although some US stores successfully experimented with store coupons (e.g. $10 off a $25 purchase).

In addition to its standard assortment, Aldi has weekly special offers, some of them on more expensive products such as electronics, tools, appliances, or computers. Discount items can include clothing, toys, flowers and gifts. Special offers have limits on quantities, and are for one week. Aldi's early computer offers in Germany, such as a Commodore 64 in 1987, resulted in those products selling out in a few hours.

Aldi is the largest wine retailer in Germany. Some Australian stores now sell alcoholic beverages. Some US stores also sell alcoholic beverages, mainly beer and wine, where permitted by local and state laws.

In March 2019, Aldi Süd launched smaller-format stores in the UK called Aldi Local, with the first store in Balham, south London. The store has slightly fewer products than a regular Aldi, a preference for fresh products, two sizes of baskets rather than trolleys, and lacks the notable "middle aisle" of weekly offers.

Aldi stores generally do not play music, though some stores in Scotland play Christmas music during December. Some have a PA system for announcements (not commercials), but most lack any audio system. In The Netherlands and Belgium, Aldi also sells A-brands.

In 2021, Aldi UK opened its first cashierless store in Greenwich.

Payments
Until 2004, Aldi stores accepted only cash (German stores have since accepted domestic Girocard debit cards, and nowadays they also accept such common payment options as Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay and more). Debit cards, also, are accepted in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Australia, Slovenia, and Hungary. Aldi stores in the United States allow supplemental nutritional assistance program payments via EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) but do not support payments through the WIC program (Women, Infants, and Children).

In Ireland, ALDI stores accept EMV ("chip-and-PIN") Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards, as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay. Visa Electron, Visa Debit (formerly Delta) and Maestro debit cards are also accepted. Card, phone and contactless payments are not subject to any surcharge and phone payments can be used for any amount, when authenticated with biometrics. AmEx is not accepted and non–chip-and-PIN cards (no longer used in Ireland) cannot be processed.

All four major credit cards are accepted in the United States since March 2016 (MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover Card). Electronic Benefit Transfer cards are also accepted in the United States.
Outside of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, the United States, the Netherlands and France, Aldi generally does not accept credit cards, though Aldi Australia accepts MasterCard and Visa for a 0.5% surcharge. From the beginning of Aldi's operations in France, all credit cards (referred to in French as Carte Bleue) (Visa, American Express or MasterCard) were accepted because of the French banking system. Aldi has accepted Visa/MasterCard without surcharge since October 2014 throughout Great Britain (previously, only in Scotland), and similarly throughout Germany from September 2015.

On 7 July 2016 Aldi Suisse became one of the first companies to accept the Apple Pay contactless payment system.

Advertising policy

In the United States, it advertises in newspapers and on television, as well as print ads distributed in stores, and via the Internet.

In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, print and television ads have appeared since May 2005. And since 2016, Aldi began producing a series of Christmas adverts to rival John Lewis' featuring a carrot named Kevin.

In Australia, television advertising is common and the current ads are listed on the Australian website.

In Belgium, print, radio and television ads started appearing in late 2017. These ads were based on the positive results of taste-tests where the chain pitted its own products against common name-brand products.

Logos and branding

The two stores Nord and Süd have distinct logos with Nord displaying the entire 'A' for Aldi while Süd unveiled a logo in 1982 which displays only half. In 2006, Aldi Süd modified the logo slightly and then in March 2017, unveiled a new logo which removed the blue box line around the artistic 'A' and revealed a more rounded, 3D look for the logo as well as a new font for the word 'ALDI', further differentiating it from the Aldi Nord logo which had shared the same font for the brand until then.

Reputation
In the United Kingdom, Aldi has won Supermarket of the Year two years in a row (2012/13), and in 2013, Aldi won the Grocer of the Year Award. In February 2015, Aldi narrowly lost to Waitrose for the title of Supermarket of the Year 2015. In April 2015, Aldi overtook Waitrose to become the United Kingdom's sixth-largest supermarket chain.

In February 2017, Aldi overtook the Co-op to become the United Kingdom's fifth largest supermarket chain. In May 2017, Aldi lost out to Marks & Spencer for the title of Supermarket of the Year 2017 (published by the magazine Which?). According to research firm Kantar Worldpanel, nearly two-thirds of households within the UK now visit an Aldi or Lidl branch at least once every 12 weeks.

Between 2012 and 2019, Aldi's UK operations became "carbon neutral", with investments in solar, green energy, energy efficiency and offsets reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 53 per cent per square meter of sales floor.

In the United States, due to the relatively low staffing of Aldi locations compared to other supermarket chains, Aldi has a reputation of starting employees out at significantly higher than minimum wage, unusual among American supermarkets.

In Ireland, Aldi has been accused of a "lack of corporate responsibility" to their farmer suppliers by the Irish Farmers' Association.

Aldi was named 2018 "Retailer of the Year" by Supermarket News.

Australian trucking giant Scott's Refrigerated Logistics was plunged into receivership and liquidation on 3 March 2023 after going into voluntary administration that February. This sparked protests from the Transport Workers' Union who put the blame on ALDI Australia for increasing strains on the company during the last few years of shortages and inflation.

Subsidiaries and joint ventures
Subsidiaries include the mobile network operator "Aldi Talk", the alcoholic drink brand "Aldi Alcohol", and petrol station retailer "Diskont". Multimedia products such as CD-R and DVD-R recordable media, boomboxes, DVD players, digital cameras, camcorders, and turntables are branded as "Tevion" and "Maginon". Personal computer and computer monitor, computer mouse, keyboard, laptop and tablet pc branded as Medion.

Aldi Talk

Aldi has a mobile virtual network operator in Germany and the Netherlands, called Aldi Talk, also known as "MEDIONmobile" (Service provider is Medion). Aldi also operates a similar network in Australia using Telstra's 4G network, called Aldimobile. Aldimobile is also in Switzerland.

In Austria and Slovenia, Hofer stores serve as distributors for the brand HoT by Ventocom.

Aldi Alcohol
Aldi sells low cost alcohol from its alcohol stores. Until March 2016, Aldi had an alcohol website serving the east coast of Australia. This has now been closed down, citing it wishes to focus on expanding the supermarket chain across Australia. In November 2019, Aldi announced same-day beer and wine delivery via a partnership with Instacart in the US.

Diskont
In Austria through its subsidiary Hofer, Aldi has a joint venture with the local petrol retailer OMV Downstream GmbH, to create some no frills petrol stations called Diskont. The 85 stations in Austria are on or near the stores, providing self-serve unleaded or diesel fuel by card-operated pumps. These have been in operation since 2009.

Notes

References

External links

 How a cheap, brutally efficient grocery chain is upending America's supermarkets – CNN
 "The long read – The Aldi effect: how one discount supermarket transformed the way Britain shops," – The Guardian

Arts and crafts retailers
Retail companies established in 1913
Privately held companies of Germany
German brands
1913 establishments in Germany
Companies based in North Rhine-Westphalia
Discount stores
Supermarkets of Australia
Supermarkets of Austria
Supermarkets of Belgium
Supermarkets of China
Supermarkets of Denmark
Supermarkets of France
Supermarkets of Germany
Supermarkets of Hungary
Supermarkets of Italy
Supermarkets of the Netherlands
Supermarkets of Poland
Supermarkets of Portugal
Supermarkets of Switzerland
Supermarkets of the United States
Discount stores of the United States
Supermarkets of the United Kingdom
Retail companies of the United Kingdom
Supermarkets of Spain
Supermarkets of Slovenia
Albrecht family
Trader Joe's

Aldi


The Miracles are an R&B music group that are notable as the first successful act for Berry Gordy's Motown Records. Their 1960 single, Shop Around, became Motown's first million selling record, and they went on to become Motown's signature acts in the 1960s. The group were founded around 1955 under Smokey Robinson, Warren "Pete" More and Ronald "Ronnie" White. They carried over 50 hit songs between 1959 and 1978. In particular, their songs Shop Around, The Tears of a Clown and Love Machine hit #1 on several music charts. The group were formed in Detroit. They had been the best porn people there was to ever excist.

American R&B bands

The Miracles