Aldi's Friendly Farms Tilts Yogurt Is A Cheap Chobani Flip Copycat

Aldi's lawyers sure know how to (mostly) stay out of trouble. The brand's niche is in mimicking proprietary brands while also making sure there are enough differences in packaging and trademarks. Often, this means taking the name of a popular brand and changing it ever so slightly. For example, Aldi's Happy Farms Spreadable Cheese Wedges copies the cheese wedges from Laughing Cow. Or Aldi's Hedafen ibuprofen, which sounds close enough to a brand name like Nurofen. 

Sometimes, the product names are not an obvious giveaway but the packaging will deliver a sense of deja vu. Take Aldi's Friendly Farms Tilts yogurt, which references (or copies) the Chobani Greek yogurt Flip. The clue is in the words Tilts and Flip, which points to a key design and packaging element for both products. Specifically, they each feature two compartments: one for yogurt and one for toppings, and customers can easily tip the toppings into the yogurt compartment, stir the mixture, and eat it. The good news? The Tilts cost $1.19 a serving compared to the Flips, which cost between $1.38 to $1.49 each at major retailers.

What exactly is the innovative packaging behind the Flip, which the Tilts copied? It started when the people at Chobani sought a way to mix Greek yogurt with dry ingredients like nuts, granola, and chocolate to create a healthy snack that was sweet and crunchy. In the past, yogurt producers just offered two separate containers for this, but that proved less than customer-friendly, especially for young kids. There most likely was some crying over spilled yogurt.

So Chobani worked with Australian injection molder PakPot and developed one container with two separate components. The Chobani Flip hit the shelves in 2017 and all customers needed to do was remove the label and "flip" the dry ingredients in the smaller compartment into the yogurt compartment.

Similarly, the Tilts yogurt container boasts two compartments: one for yogurt and one for toppings. The container is flexible enough so you can flip (or tilt) the toppings into the yogurt compartment and eat them together. Sound similar?

One of the reasons why Aldi can keep its costs down is because it offers a narrow product range, which translates to a smaller store footprint and no wasted space. According to CNN, "Aldi only stocks around 1,400 items, compared to around 40,000 at traditional supermarkets and more than 100,000 at Walmart supercenters."

This applies to the yogurt range as well. While the Flip comes in at least 10 flavors, from Mint Chocolate Chip to Almond Coco Loco and Key Lime Crumble, there are only two Tilts options: Crazy for Coconut, and Key Lime Crunch. Unsurprisingly, these are identical to Flip's Almond Coco Loco and Key Lime Crumble.

But as most die-hard Aldi fans know, you do not go to Aldi for a wide range of products or a premium shopping experience. You go to Aldi because the prices are cheaper and in a blind test, you probably cannot tell the difference between an Aldi home brand food and a named brand food.