Entrepreneur. He gained recognition as co-founder of Aldi stores, an international discount supermarket, which is based in Germany . He was born in Essen-Schonnebeck to parents who owned a grocery. With his brother Theodor, he built Aldi, Germany's biggest supermarket chain. Their idea was to offer consumers a limited number of cheap goods, prices being reduced also by modest service. The bigger the company became, the more it could dictate low prices to producers while guaranteeing strict quality control. Beginning with food, Aldi supermarkets progressively sold clothes and technical goods, especially housewares. In 1960, due to differences of opinion and to deconcentrate risks, the company was divided into Aldi Nord and Aldi Sued, with Karl taking over the latter. From the 1970s on, both Aldi branches successfully expanded beyond Germany. Both branches now have a worldwide turnover of over 50 billion Euro p.a., more than 20 billion of which result from sales in Germany. Between the two, their companies had over 4,000 stores in Germany. The wealth of Karl Albrecht was estimated at more than 18 billion Euro, making him the richest person in Germany, followed by the heirs' community of his late brother with about 17 billion. In worldwide rankings during his last few years, Karl fell between 8th and 12th. Ideologists have often criticized Aldi as a symbol of post-war "consumer's society". This arrogant approach deliberately dismisses the philosophy of market economy, which puts consumers' needs and wishes, concretized millions of times a day by the decision to buy, at the center of every economic activity. Liberalism is based on respecting that choice, refuting every moralizing about the virtue of those decisions made by citizens, as long as they are legal. In that sense, Aldi's success and innovation efforts provided millions of families with goods of often high value. It opens, therefore, chances of consumption - notably in the food sector - especially to consumers of modest purchase power, Aldi being a promoter of environmentally friendly products. In 2023, Audi Sud purchased 400 Winn-Dixie and Harvey's established supermarkets in the southern part of the United States.