Aldi Portugal, Spain and Poland, while Aldi Süd operates in Ireland, Great Britain, Hungary, Switzerland, Australia, China, Italy, Austria and Slovenia. Both Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd also operate in the United States with 1,600 stores as of 2017. The earliest roots of the company trace back to 1913, when the mother of Karl and Theo Albrecht opened a small store in a suburb of Essen. Their father was employed as a miner and later as a baker's assistant. Karl Albrecht was born in 1920, Theo Albrecht in 1922. Theo Albrecht completed an apprenticeship in his mother's store, while Karl Albrecht
Perekrestok (supermarket chain) connected. In November 2017, X5 introduced machine learning to bolster targeted marketing at the Perekrestok supermarket chain, and developed personalised offers for all members of the Perekrestok Club loyalty program. The company leverages machine learning to group customers into segments based on common features and create offers for them. The system analyses groups of customers and designs personalised marketing campaigns based on demographic and several hundred behavioural factors, such as: frequency of purchases and ticket size, customer preferences, lifestyle fundamentals, acceptable price levels, favourite product categories and preferred shopping hours. Customer sensitivity to offers is predicted using various analytical models.