7 Reasons you shouldn’t shop at ALDI!

By using a quarter to ‘rent’ your cart from ALDI, you save not only money but also dents in your car. You never have to worry about ALDI carts running into your car from rolling through the parking lot.

5.) You like walking a quarter of a mile just to get yourself a Gallon of Milk

If you love stopping into the grocery store only to pick up milk, but then walk past everything else on your way to grabbing it in the back corner where it is. , keep on staying away from ALDI. Better yet, keep on spending an extra $50 on things you don’t need all because you had to walk to get the milk....

ALDI’s stores are pretty small, and you can get your milk in the first aisle. Grocery stores put the milk in the back of the store because they want you purchase other things on impulsive while picking up the milk.

Less items means smaller stores, which leads to lower rent and electricity costs. This allows us to pass the savings on to you.

6.) You like playing the marketing games of other grocery stores.

If you love scouring your store for the same product at a lesser price, then you shouldn’t shop at ALDI.

Most grocery stores count on you picking up items in popular places in the grocery store, what you don’t know is that you can typically find the same items for less money just a few aisles over. Take the example of sesame seeds; you can buy them in the spice aisle in a 2 oz bottle for $6.69 or you can walk 3 aisles over and get a 4oz container for only $2.99 in the International Aisle.

While a typical supermarket carries about 30,000 items, ALDI sells only the most commonly purchased grocery items - most of which are our high-quality brands. You know that when you pick an item up, that is the price of it no matter where you find it in the store.

7.) You love spending hundreds per week on groceries.

If you love spending hundreds of weeks on groceries, and still don’t know what to eat for dinner - then don’t set food in an ALDI store. Only go there if you want to save a lot of money!

I’ve created meal plans specifically around ALDI grocery stores. They even break down the shopping list by aisle, so you can literally get in and out of the store in 15 minutes and have all the ingredients for 20 dinners! The best part is that you will only spend $150 or less by doing one of my plans, and it will take around 2 hours to assemble them all.

Many people believe ALDI may not be the best grocery store , but I disagree 100%. If you can ignore the unusual displays of food still in their boxes, the lack of flare and flash, and purchasing your own grocery bags for $0.06 - you are in for a treat!

I feed my family of 6 for $125 per week at ALDI, we eat a LOT of organic and gluten-free food and still stay within our budget. I dare you to give it a try again, you may be surprised at what you find :)

I'm naming my firstborn son Dyatlov Aldi Haynes.

Aldi sounds like a disaster. Paying for my cart? People also already struggle to get through the grocery store checkout, without the added obstacle of bagging your own items. And what evidence is there that their cereal is General Mills other than the FluffPo ALDI® shill spreading the "rumor"?

Not bad, R2. Might I suggest "Dyatlov Aldi Beyoncé Haynes"?

R3 You do get your quarter back when you return the cart, tightass. Or is that too much work for you?

How did I know that article was written by a woman before checking?

Fuck Aldi right in its fetid, little eye!

You don't hold up the line bagging. They put them in a cart and you go over to another area and put them in a bag. I prefer it...I hate having to come home with a bunch of bags when I can carry all in one big bag.

Well you don't have to pay to rent the cart at the Aldi in El Centro, California, and it's not a quarter mile to the milk. The advantage of Aldi is the low prices.

I like Aldi, they have really cheap but good quality vegetables and their cheese selection is good. The seasonal and limited time offers are usually interesting stuff you may not normally buy. They have a decent choice of herbs and spices and the chocolate is good.

It sounds like a grocery store that poor people adore.

No thank you, ma'am.

WW for R2.

I mentioned in another thread, the wines are hit and miss, (mostly miss) but you can find some good buys occasionally.

To take to a New Year's Eve party, I picked some Herres Rosé Sekt for less than $7.00/bottle at Aldi. It wasn't Cristal Rosé but was better than American brands like Korbel at twice the price.

A few months ago, I got a very nice Côtes du Rhône there for about half the price you'd pay in a wine shop.

Tyson chicken? Fuck me gently with a chainsaw.

I love Aldi. I'm gay white trash too. You think I give 3 fucks? 🙃

There are so many typos and grammar errors in OP and R1 that I gave up. And I shop at Aldi almost weekly.

I was getting ready to bow down to OP for his wit and originality. Then I saw the link to a real article.

$20 says they eat casseroles 7 nights a week at Lauren Greutman's house. Cereal for dessert! Just one bowl, kids! No second helpings, Mommy's on a budget!

The Splenda is crazy cheap. They have Medjool dates much cheaper.

People don't like feeling like cheap assholes if they can help it, it's the fatal flaw of Aldi. Having worked in the grocery business I can't tell you how many times people have bitched about not seeing the name brand they are looking for and accusing you of replacing everything with store brands.

R18 What you're saying is true at Kroger. They love to have tons of shelf space for store brands instead of name brands, as it's far more profitable for the company. That's why people resent it.

If you're going to Aldi, you expect to find off brands.

There is an empty grocery store in Palo Alto, abandoned by Fresh Choice after a short stint in a completely new building. A grocery store was required by the community in exchange for the developer building lots of ugly expensive houses.

Now, it has been empty, and apparently no grocery store in the world wants to be there, although the developer is being sued to pay a higher penalty fee for leaving the store empty.

The rent would be subsidized, and the store is right off the freeway, and not far from Mark Zuckerberg's compound. Aldi has rejected it.

This community is so booming with money and everyone would love to stick it to Whole Foods.

Help me, DataLounge, to do my part for the hoards of hungry millennial immigrants of Palo Alto!

I went into Aldi once and bought a tub of ice-cream, it was like frozen syrupy froth, I threw it out.

If you like rolling the dice on whether or not the store will have any edible, unrotten produce on a given day, by all means shop at ALDI.

Often, Aldi and Lidl sell produce that rots in a day at home.

I don't go to Aldi, but I do go to Lidl and I fucking love Lidl. I'm not buying for anyone else but me and before I started going to Lidl, my weekly shopping was coming to around £50 (US $63) - I can go to Lidl and buy near enough everything for around half the price. Plus, I'm eating healthier as well - Lidl do fantastic chilled meals (their Braemar chicken is fucking gorgeous) and because the fruit and vegetables are so much cheaper than other supermarkets in the UK (bar Aldi), you end up buying more of the fresh stuff. The chocolate they sell is really good as well - the stuff from Cadbury's tastes like American processed shit and plastic now, so I avoid it. Even the named brands are usually a bit cheaper in Lidl.

Mind you, I've grown to love the fact you can go into Lidl (or Aldi) and not just pick up a six-pack of apples and a roasting chicken but a brand new powerdrill too. It's the little things, you know...

[quote]There is an empty grocery store in Palo Alto, abandoned by Fresh Choice after a short stint in a completely new building

Are you sure you don't mean Fresh and Easy?

R20 Aldi doesn't have any stores in northern California. Are they planning to expand?

R26, they have expanded into Southern California, and R25 , it was the overly generically named "Fresh Market" a chain from the south that featured huge barrels of bulk candy in the middle of the store, not something that Californians are looking for in a market.

I would think a Fresh Market space would be too large for Aldi.

I need my quarters for the laundromat. None to spare for Aldi.

[quote]Often, Aldi and Lidl sell produce that rots in a day at home.

The local Aldi has very nice produce, much better than Walmart where it's rotten IN the store. Unfortunately, it's a tiny Aldi and the produce selection is limited.

I like Fresh Market here better'n Whole Foods.

Wish we had an Aldi or a Lidl. I'd drive my Audi to my Aldi!

Ugh. Poor people. The Aldi troll is exhausting.

BLOCKED.

I shop in Aldi's. we have 3 grocery stores in the entire area. Walmart, Aldi's & Giant Eagle. that's it. Aldi's carries a lot of name brands but the labels are off brands. I don't know if they carry regional items or not. We have Heinz in Pittsburgh and have a lot of Heinz products in Aldi's with alternate labeling. You can tell if these are famous brands by the label. At first glance it looks like a famous brand label but when you read it, it isn't, but it really is. I realized that these companies would have never allowed any other company to copy their labels so closely without suing the hell out of them. I used to get A-1 Steak Sauce for $1.29 at Aldi's and I think it runs around $4.59 in regular grocery stores. That was when I realized they carried name brands, not only did the label look so much like A-1 but as soon as I tasted it I knew it was.

I love Aldi's. almost all of the fruits and vegetables at our Aldi's are fresh and rarely do you see anything spoiled. It also lasts a while after getting it home. Ours may be a little better though because we have so few grocery stores that they have to continuously stocking with fresh products.

Interesting, R33. I haven't tried anything like ketchup or mayonnaise from Aldi but a friend swears by the Burman's mayo. Certainly the blue and yellow label resembles the Hellmann's label.

I like aldi because I like liver

Wait, so Aldi ONLY sells generically-labeled foods, even if they're secretly the real deal?

Or is it like a normal store that has name-brand AND generic items?

R36 About 80% is their store brand. (Not counting things that are unbranded, like produce and meat.) They have some national brands, like Coca-Cola and Cheerios, and some health and beauty products. They also have name brand wines, some meats (Tyson chicken, for example.)

There's also Dole produce.

Thanks, R37 & R38.

I love my Krogurl.

I stopped by an ALDI in Rancho Cucamonga after seeing it discussed on this board. It was... underwhelming. I did appreciate their cheese selection and cheaper meats, but they didn't even have fettuccine!

My local Kroger is far more convenient to me. My closest Costco and Aldi's locations are both many miles away, so I only shop there when I'm stocking up on basics, or when I happen to be out in the outer suburbs for another reason. At Aldi's, I try to keep an eye out for their Deutsche Kuche brand, which are German imports. I've had some great German mustards and Dusseldorf bratwurst watching for that brand. And I occasionally find some good, imported cheese, too. Their wines are hit and miss, but you can usually get some decent Argentine red wines if you're willing to take the chance.

///////////

Aldi in the US is different than in other countries. In Australia it's actually a nice, regular grocery store.

R44 That's interesting, since both Australia and the US are part of the Aldi SUD territory. Are they regular, full-sized supermarkets with service delis and bakeries? Do they have a lot of national brands and not just store brands?

8th reason not to shop at Aldi's, that stupid frau article.

8.) Aldi isn't in your state/county/city/area. I cook for myself and happily spend extra for quality; TJ's is a part of the rotation of stores I frequent. I would enjoy visiting an Aldi or Lidl (mentioned above) but they NO EXISTE near me. I can't shop there because they DON'T FUCKING EXIST. So fuck off with your sanctimonious consumerist bullshit. If you love Aldi so much start a "Best of Aldi" thread instead of shaming people who would happily shop there except THEY CAN'T, CUNT.

The store brands are just depressing.

Look, it pays to shop around. I despise Walmart but occasionally you can find a good buy.

A friend gave me a bag of McDonald's McCafe coffee. I didn't expect much, having tried the Dunkin Donuts brand (poor). I figured the enthusiasm for the coffees was due to the high-temperature water used in industrial machines.

I'll freely admit I LOVE the McCafe brand of coffee. Rich and delicious. At Kroger and Walmart both, the 12 oz bags are about $6, but at Kroger the 30 oz cans are $15.98. At Walmart the same can is $8.86. I don't know how longer it can last but it's a wonderful price.

I prefer Lidl to Aldi here as well. Much better wine for only a few cents more.

Does OP work at Aldi?

I shop at Aldi but I would never consider that to be a topic of conversation.

R47. I'm worried about your stress levels dear. It's only possible to 'shame' someone who doesn't shop at Aldi if they are willing to be 'shamed' about it. Why would anyone feel ashamed because they don't shop at a certain supermarket? I think you're overreacting dear. Take some deep calming breaths.

I shop at Winco. It's cheaper than Costco if you don't want to buy in bulk.

"This allows us to pass the savings on to you."

How about fuck off?? Piss off u corporate hack?

I would rather die then step foot in that store and be surrounded by the poors.

The same parent company also operates Trader Joe's, and I believe Bottom Dollar.

"Bottom Dollar?"

R55 No. We've been through this before. The Aldi stores in the US are part of Aldi SUD. Trader Joe's is owned by Aldi NORD. Two separate companies.

R52 Winco is annoying because they don't take credit cards. Fail.

R49 You need to go to Costco. Their 3lb can of ground Kirkmans Colombian coffee is $10. And its great coffee.

i LURVE aldi

The Aldi nearest me is 4 blocks away, so very convenient. Spotlessly clean, the workers are pleasant & helpful, tons of parking.

When it first opened, it was a ghost town. Nowadays, its mobbed. And this is in an affluent area.

Their produce is great & half the price of Safeway or Publix. Same for dairy, frozen foods, eggs, canned goods.

I go to Costco for meats, you cant beat their prices & quality. Their butchers will even cut & repackage it for you. Costco has outstanding wines too.

For anything else, I can fill in at Publix, but try to minimize it, since they've become expensive as hell.

Aldi? Isn't that for POOR people? Well regardless I wouldn't know anything about that

,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I visited an Aldi once, and it seemed like a half-a-rat-in-a-bag-of-veg kind of establishment.

I was raised on Aldi. It was all my parents could afford. I know the difference between Aldi's generic shit and name brand food. I don't mind paying a little extra for quality.

When you bag your own groceries, it eliminates the problem of the cashier/bagger giving you 20+ bags with 2 or 3 items in each bag, or filling those flimsy bags so full that they break open and your groceries end up all over the ground.

But maybe some of you like your eggs smashed, or your milk jugs bursting open.

Aldi ALDI ALDIII!!!!!!

My Aldi store was recently expanded and remodeled. The fresh produce is now in refrigerated cases. The aisles are divided in the center of the store so that you can navigate easily, and there are signs in every aisle indicating what's there and where it is located.

Now it's even easier to save money.

I love the German Roast coffees, and the handmade strudel, imported from, you guessed it, GERMANY !

I NEED ALDI!!!!!!!!!

That photo of a crying child is triggering me!

R6 It was written FOR Aldi. This has been cut and pasted from some Aldi promotion.

He's crying because his parents are white trash who shop at Aldi.

[quote]You need someone to bag your groceries for you, and are willing to pay $50.00 or more to have them do that.

Exact number of times I have paid someone $50 to bag my groceries, directly or indirectly: 0.

[quote]ALDI’s stores are pretty small, and you can get your milk in the first aisle.

My ALDI keeps its milk at the back.

R71 what a lidl cunt!

I have to say, I may be terminally over Whole Foods.

8. You don’t want to grow a great big frauenbody like one being presented by the authoress.

Also, ol’ DeadEyes pings to high heaven and is probably the one who told her to wear yellow plastic close to her face to draw the eye up from the barn door below.

My brand new Aldi store is HUUUUUGE !

I 😘 you, r75 !

All of the Aldi stores in the DC area suck. They’re relatively new to this region. I was looking forward to checking them out because of these DL threads but was seriously underwhelmed. Disappointed, even. It’s like shopping for food at a Dollar General.

So, it's an ad or Aldi dressed up as an "article."

I've been shopping there for the last several months. I get a few things at Wal-Mart and Save-A-Lot and the rest at Aldi's. I love nearly all of their products especially their Specially Selects brand. They had these amazing Olive Oil and Black Truffle Oil kettle chips that were divine and the best caramel corn I've ever tasted. The one in my area now carries sushi and has recently gotten quite a few Asian products in stock.

They also have amazing instant coffee.

Whoever decided it was ok to start using 'coupon' as a verb should be shot into a ditch.

Actually the way ALDI carts work is you put a quarter in to get one, then when you return the cart you get a quarter back.

When I need to buy groceries, I try to start with a trip to Costco (always with a list), then Aldi's as the next stop, and only then do I stop at Kroger for the things I couldn't get elsewhere.

Trader's Joe is good too but I still love the low price chips and salsa sauce. So much variety of snacks at under 5.99 and the frozen food section is quiet good.

Half the food at Aldi is junk food. A small store with a lot of salty and sugary junk food.

[quote] Wait, so Aldi ONLY sells generically-labeled foods?

No. I bought Ghirardelli double chocolate brownie mix in there once

I'll stick with Kroger's Food 4 Less. They got cheap gasoline if you spend $100 or more a month at their store.

Why precisely is there a 25 cent deposit to use a cart? Is that quarter going to deter cart theft? Can't they afford the system that locks the cart wheels if you try to take it past a certain point? That system is really fun if you have to park in the lot across the street from Queen Soopers in Denver, and you can't take the cart out of the small lot in front of the store the wheels lock before you cross the street.

Trash shop at trash holes.

Thank you for reminding us of this fundamental truth, OP.

But why are you so proud of it? Not to mention zealous?

It suggests psychiatric problems. You're a woman, too, aren't you? Of course you are.

My partner looks for unreturned carts and returns them to get the quarters. It's quite embarrassing.

Queen Soopers is really a store? What a name, LOL

Well, no, R92, it is a King Soopers, but it is in the gayborhood, and everyone calls that particular store Queen Soopers. I haven't been to that store in quite a while, but it used to be if you went in there at night you would see lots of drag queens shopping in full regalia, and lots of cute gay boys during the day.

r87 It's about 90% store brands. They have some regular stuff, like Coke, Cheerios, etc. Probably things that their research says are the most likely to have brand loyalty.

Aldi is trash. It’s for poor people.

Threads filled with poors always amuse me.

My net worth is over $2 million and I shop at Aldi every week.

Locally owned for me. I'm willing to pay more. If not available at a locally owned store there are two regional chains in town. One of the regional chains has the one of the best and busiest butcher counters I've seen but their fresh produce sucks.

R77 - learn how to format your posts.

I love Costco but it’s not true that their meat is always the cheapest.

The quarter for a cart thing is something I saw at Stop N Shop 20 years ago. It’s nothing new. The deposit is to encourage you to return the cart to the cart return so they don’t lose carts or have to pay people to wrangle them.

Many cities now fine supermarkets if their carts are found scattered around the city, so the quarter thing is a good idea.

It's funny because name brands are the domain of those who aspire, not old money.

You'll never see prestige brands of liquor in the homes of Mrs Wellborn or Mr Clubwin.

Same with clothing that has labels or logos on the outside. Tacky and low class.

R101 you also won't see Aldi garbage and quarters laying around to use a cart

The minority children stalk out the carts and demand you give them the quarter to return it or they will kick your car.

I'm with you, R97, my net worth is over $2 million and I shop at Aldi every fortnight.

Unfortunately Aldi is getting rather prissy and moving away from their original ecologically-sound policy of minimal packaging. But they're still the best value.

I just bought prime rib, Red Lobster Cheese Biscuit mix, Kerrygold butter, and Dove chocolate last week in Aldi's.

Personally, I don't give a flying fuck what you little queens with your giant butt plugs say about Aldi's. I know that I'm eating well, my guests never complain, and I'm saving a ton of money, while the rest of you snobs are living on credit cards, in debt up to your eyeballs, and never pay cash for anything. You probably don't even have a quarter for a shopping cart!

ALLLDDDIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe different Aldi’s have different items in stock because the one near me is awful. Other than bread, eggs and tissue products, there’s nothing in there that I’d want.

[quote]Red Lobster Cheese Biscuit mix

Really, R106? This is what you choose to impress us with? Can't wait for an invite chez toit.

I'm a college student who shops and works at Aldi's. I'm earning $14.75 / hour as a cashier, 24-28 hours weekly. I scan the products, place them into the empty cart, and get to sit down the entire time. That's a chunk of spare change for a college kid on a full academic scholarship.

Take out your butt plug, r109, and give your brain a chance to breathe a little fresh air.

But have you truly accepted Aldi into your life, R110?

The Aldi in Ithaca, NY is adjacent to the farmers' market. You can do your produce shopping at the farmers' market and then get chocolate and whatnot at the Aldi.

R111 obviously didn't make his $2 million as a comedy writer.

R81 My Poor-dar redacted 70% of this post.

"chez toit", r109? Oh mon dieu, quel con.

People who react negatively to companies like Aldi's allow me to not waste time relating to their stupidity. Anyone stupid enough to put on airs over food has shit for brains. Anyone with extra money would never flaunt such information as they know the likelihood of ending up on slap at the morgue. No one with any semblance of wealth would take the time to insult others that shop for true thrift out intelligence or need.

Should I have typed "sic" in French, R116?

No Madam @ r118, but you can list "speaks French" under special skills on your QuickMart job application.

[Quote] I like aldi because I like liver

Hopefully with a nice Chianti.

aldi

AlDi

aLDI!!!!!!!!!

[quote]"chez toit", [R109]? Oh mon dieu, quel con.

Perhaps he meant to type "chez twat" but misspelled it?

I stopped in Aldi last week and bought a bagged salad, a block of sharp cheddar and a 12 pack of their Lacroix-clone sparkling water. Total cost: $5.37.

I'm comfortably middle-class. My lifelong best friend is working poor and she's too good to shop at Aldi, even for a few things, but she'll bitch forever and a day about being broke. I don't get it. It seems to be a thing that the people who are so above shopping at Aldi are the ones who could benefit most from saving a dollar here and there.

[quote]Perhaps he meant to type "chez twat" but misspelled it?

Almost. It's a Franglification, spelling homophone "twat" as "toit," because that twat was certainly being one, bragging about Red Lobster biscuits.

It's not a matter of being "above" Aldi. I don't like it because produce is my most important purchase, and I don't want bags of onions or potatoes. I buy one onion when I need one, not a bag. I buy three potatoes, no more. No bags of potatoes. I'm single. More goes to waste.

Aldi reminds me of LeClerc stores in France. I like it, and save about $20 every trip.

Cheese, tomatoes, brocolli, snacks, dairy products, treats, home goods, frozen food - all good.

I don't understand the bitching about the concept of having to bag your own groceries. What a bunch of lazy cunts. I shop at supermarkets that will either bag your groceries for you or let you do it yourself. I'd rather do it myself so they're double-bagged, fragile items like eggs are safe, and items are bagged according to where in the house they'll be stored when I get home (freezer items together, bathroom items together etc).

Here's the main reason you shouldn't shop at Aldi.

r123 it is a mindset. because she is poor she is afraid that by shopping there it will prove that she is poor.

ever buy yourself something that you didn't want anyone seeing you buy, But if you are buying that same thing for someone else it doesn't bother you because you know it isn't for you? same concept

R55 no ALDI Nord operates Trader Joe's and Aldi Sud operates Aldi in the US. They are two separate companies . The Albrecht family split the company many years ago.

[quote]R127 is right, I never let the checkout people bag my groceries. They will inevitably put a bottle of milk on top of a loaf of bread. I’ll do it myself, thanks.

I always use self-checkout at my regular supermarket chain.

Once in a Walmart a manager came over to help a new employee check me out. He took a cake (frosted) and placed it sideways into my bag. I said, "Dude! I can't believe you just did that! You're supposed to be the smart one!"

He just walked away.

they use to teach people how to bag groceries, not anymore. Lat week all my mini pies were put in the bag sideways and chemical cleaners were packed with my milk.

People who use unnecessary plastic shopping bags are helping to kill the planet.

R136 How is double bagging groceries "unnecessary" when, otherwise, a single bag will split before you even get it into the trunk of your car and everything spills over the parking lot's filthy ground? Did it occur to you that some people reuse the bags (you know, the ones that haven't split by the time we get them home)? If you want to save the planet, kill yourself and your family. That'll cut down on the CO2 and carbon footprints.

I always bring my reusable bags.

I'm betting that Aldi's gains many new shoppers every time these threads pop up on DL.

And they turn into repeat shoppers.

With as tired as I am of Amahole Foods, I'm planning a trip to Aldi. But I will not buy large bags of produce, so they will probably lose me. I will try some German chocolate, though.

I double bag with the 4¢ paper bags placed inside the very substantial 10¢ heavy plastic shopping bags, available at your Aldi's checkout counters world wide.

R140, try the Mosier-Roth small chocolate bars, $1.99/5 count package, in both milk and dark chocolate assortments.

Not all produce comes in large bags, and the newer stores are equipped with scales, and you can now buy some produce items by the piece.

R137, R141 How did your father (or mother) get your food from the grocery store to home.

Did he have maids or slaves to carry your food?

Aldi’s? Save A Lot? I thought gays had money.

We walked, or took the bus r142.

I take the bus now to go grocery shopping. I bring my own bags. I pack my own bags, too, if I don't go to WF.

Your parents took their own bags. I take my own permanent bag(s).

Why can't you?

You take your own permanent bag with you ?

Is that any way to talk about your momma ?

R146 Do you have a body bag? Keep up the shit stirring on here and you're gonna need one for yourself.

R128 That's from an Aldi in England and the supplier was Belgian. No rats in the frozen foods in the US. In fact, for $1 you can get a bag of wonderful, petite Brussels sprouts (not from Belgium!).

I do r146. And one of them will fit nicely over your head. You don't mind a snug fit, do you?

[quote]Aldi’s? Save A Lot? I thought gays had money.

We have money BECAUSE we shop there.

Plastic bags

R151 sounds really cheap.

I bring reusable bags. I prefer to bag my own groceries, so that nothing gets damaged. I have a different, locally-owned store where I buy most of my produce: much of it is locally grown (at least, in the same state). Aldi's is great for staple items, and it's where I'm most likely to buy meat (I don't buy or eat a lot of meat).

R151 is correct. A long time ago, I read the book 'The Millionaire Next Door', and it had a profound influence on me. Wealthier people don't spend money indiscriminately, and that's how they become wealthy and stay wealthy. Many people spend lots of money to maintain the status they assume other people give them.

I don't stock up on huge amounts of food: I have a small house. So I like fresh fruits and vegetables, bought from a little produce place. But for canned beans or tomatoes, for a pork roast, for a gallon of cider vinegar, Aldi's is the best.

The Aldi's in our area is quite far, so I have never been. Now, I gotta check this place out!

I do check the food aisle in a local Dollar Tree. I have found imported products in there. Sometimes, the exact same brand as is sold in a local, very high priced chi-chi market. The DT price is a fraction of what the overpriced place charges for the SAME BRAND.

Not to derail the thread, but the richest people I have met in my life were always the cheapest. This is especially true of those with old money. They had it because they did not like to spend it, ever.

Driving all over creation to spend 20 cents less on a no-name product is not going to make you a millionaire. You probably spend more in gas and time making all these trips than you would doing all your shopping in one regular store and using coupons.

[QUOTE]Not to derail the thread, but the richest people I have met in my life were always the cheapest. This is especially true of those with old money. They had it because they did not like to spend it, ever.

But did being cheap make them rich?

Double-bagging with plastic is unnecessary except for the heaviest items like milk or detergent. You’re doing it wrong.

Why would you need to bag detergent in the first place?

Why does it matter how a person chooses to bag their groceries? Is there a state or federal law being violated by double bagging?

I want my Tide pods in a BAG.

Do you have a problem with that, r160?

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

R137 - quite the irrational emotional attachment to plastic bags.

I don't think I've ever seen paper bags at Aldi. In California, grocers have to charge you for a reusable plastic bag (or a paper bag); "throw-away" bags aren't available anymore.

R158,it sure helped get them there, and keep them there, too. They knew what to splurge on and what not to spend a cent on.

Is Aldi the poor man’s Lidl? Or is it the other way around?

Aldi makes the poor man rich.

Are you sure, r168? Because I’m 98% certain that the Poor Little Rich Man mouthwash made by Simply Sara’s DH is what makes the poor man rich.

Aldi Aldi ALDI!!!!

I sing this every time I shop there.

Aldi, please, just ALDI

Here in the Northwest, instead of Aldi we have Grocery Outlet, which is a little bit more obviously catering to The Poors.

We have Grocery Outlet in CA, but it's nothing like Aldi.

Aldi seems a bit like an upscale Grocery Outlet to me.

No. Grocery Outlet gets a lot of clearance stuff from other stores. They don't have any of their own store brands. Aldi has only new stuff, and 90% is their own brand.

I like Aldi's but I don't like most of their produce, but I have bought some fine produce at very reasonable prices. I like the size of the stores. I like the quality of their house brands. It took me a while to learn what frozen foods were excellent and which were less so. Their dairy products are pretty solid for the basics. Their meat products seldom look that appetizing to me, but I'm nearly vegetarian so the refrigerated critter morgue seldom appeals to me at any store. I eat plainly at home and leave the fancy stuff for restaurant dining. I used to shop other stores along with Aldi but now I only shop at Aldi and Costco.

R177, can you elaborate on what frozen food hits and misses? The eggplant parmesean was terrible. Have you had their frozen pizza?

I like Aldi. The stores vary; some are better than others. Luckily, the two near me currently are very good.

[quote] I used to shop other stores along with Aldi but now I only shop at Aldi and Costco.

Wow. You must not be a very adventurous cook. I try to buy as much as I can at Aldi, but there are a LOT of things they don't carry and that I have to find in a traditional supermarket. (And Costco doesn't carry them either, or they only come in enormous sizes.) Just recently some of the things I've had to go elsewhere to find are buttermilk, Andouille sausage, certain cuts of meat, rye bread, spices, a certain brand of hot sauce, etc.

Poor people are so darn funny!

Do they have pound cake at Aldi? How about Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque?

There would be nowhere left to shop if we gave in to SJW Buzzfeed "controversies".

I went into an Aldi to check it out. It was the size of some of the local drug stores, had one option for most products which was an off brand. I walked out without buying anything and have never gone back to one. They are spreading here like cancer.

Avoid the prepared foods. The fresh produce, nuts, dried fruit, and that sort of thing is great. Better quality than most grover stores.

But you cannot buy everything there.

I learned from this thread to try the McCafe coffee the next time I shop at Walmart, which is probably tomorow, and every day after that, because it's cheap and easy. Fuck Aldi and their too small parking lots in weird parts of town.

I haven't been to an Aldi in years. My major objection was the produce was always wrapped so you couldn't pick out the pieces you want. Sometimes the broccoli on top looked much better than the broccoli you couldn't see.

I hate brands.

...............

R184, Aldi is selling its own store brands, not off-brands, similarly to the way Trader Joe's does. In most of the country, grocery prices are very high, due to publicly traded grocery corporations merging and eliminating competition. Aldi has inexpensive groceries, which is what many people want or need. Aldi keeps prices low by keeping stores small, by owning rather than renting their land and buildings, by aggressively limiting expenses, and by managing inventory carefully.

their frozen pork schnitzel is very good. I have yet to find a decent frozen pizza, I just get a Costco combination from their snack bar for 10.00 and take it home and break it down and freeze what I don't use.

Not too sure Aldi will work in the US unless they build a massive amount of them.

We have over 600 Aldi stores and 700 Lidl stores in the UK with 100's more due to open.

To gain the same penetration into the US market they would conservatively need over 30,000 outlets between them.

Why is it only 25c for a cart in the US. We have to deposit £1 ($1.30) in the UK.

I tried Aldi and was thrilled by the savings. Then I tried the products. Most items were a little off, in ways that were difficult to pinpoint. Others were more obvious: Greek yogurt was grainy; protein powder had a strong sugar substitute, making it too sweet and also chemical- tasting; cheese was cheap both in flavor and texture; trail mix was stale and mostly cheap nuts. You get what you pay for.

Just as the US Aldi stores celebrate German Week, Italian Week, etc., the German stores are celebrating AMERICAN WEEK! Would you like to try some bottled hot dogs?

IMO, it's great for some things, okay for others, and not good for still others.

IIRC they have potato salad, a seasonal item here, that was pretty good. Better than Kroger's house brand which has become a saucy, gloppy mess. Standard variety not mustard or whatever.

They also had an excellent white meat chunky chicken salad I'd you avoided the "exotic" versions (cranberry with chipotle, etc.)

[quote]I'm a college student who shops and works at Aldi's. I'm earning $14.75/hr... I scan the products, place them into the empty cart, and get to sit down the entire time.

How nice. But why do you sit while ringing up and "carting" groceries? That is a turn off for me in some European stores. Seriously, unless you are disabled, which is a different situation, why can't you be on your feet at the checkout like your customers, and like most retail clerks around the world?

Sit down when you're not waiting on someone. Stand up when you are.

The checkstands in all of the California stores I've been to (which are all relatively new) have seated cashiers. I think it's very nice for the workers, and since they don't have to bag the groceries, the checkout is pretty speedy.

R3 in the 80s and 90s there were chain stores that had you put a quarter into the cart if you wanted them.

R197 at all of the Aldi and trader Joe's (they are the same German company), stores I have been to the cashiers stand.

What R193 said. They're not giving us those low prices out of the goodness of their hearts: The food is low-quality.

My favorite grocery store, I save so much money and its easy to get in and out fast!

[quote]Aldi and trader Joe's (they are the same German company)

Please stop repeating this lie.