Anyone Ever Shop At Aldi's?

[rufuspaul]

I've been getting more and more frustrated with getting ripped off at the grocery store. There's a Trader Joe's near me, which is reasonable, but they don't carry everything I need for the week. So I have to get the remainder from other stores. The other stores near my house range from grossly overpriced (Harris Teeter) to obscenely overpriced (Whole Foods). In the warmer months I get a lot of stuff from the farmer's market, but even that is getting pricey. So the other day I thought I'd give Aldi's a try.

The place is small, there are no name brands, and you have to bag stuff yourself, but I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of what was there, especially the produce. Here's what I bought: 1 lb bacon, 1 pkg Tuscan Lettuce (4 small lettuce heads in a pkg), 2 English cucumbers, 1 pint blackberries, 1 pineapple, 3 avocados, a bag of yellow onions, a 3 lb bag of Fuji apples, 2 cans black beans, 2 lb bag of jasmine rice, 8 oz brie cheese, 1 box generic Trisket like crackers, and a 6-pack of a German Pilsner I'd never heard of. Total cost: $36 and change. I couldn't believe it. I would have paid 3 times as much for poorer quality stuff at Harris Teeter.

Needless to say I'm a fan.

[niko]

I don't think they have them in NY. For me, it's Costco for the bulk items (and some meat and fish), Whole Foods for the organic stuff (milk, eggs), and the local chinese supermarkets for a lot of the meat and most vegtables (that you'd get the same day). And pathmark for the normal non bulk items, ketchiup, pasta and such.

It would be nice to have one place for everything but that's not possible.

[Thorpesaurous]

There's an Aldis's a town over from me, and I've only used it once, but my secretary at work lives pretty close, and she swears by it. It's certainly cheaper. But even she says she's choosey on the meat and produce. The quality isn't always up to par on that stuff. So she'll hunt for sales in those departments, but otherwise uses other sources for that stuff.

I'm pretty sure they're owned by the same people as Trader Joe's. There's one of those a town over from me in the other direction. I like Trader Joe's, but for specific stuff.

[netsfan549]

I went to trader joes yesterday pretty expensive..

[rufuspaul]

There's an Aldis's a town over from me, and I've only used it once, but my secretary at work lives pretty close, and she swears by it. It's certainly cheaper. But even she says she's choosey on the meat and produce. The quality isn't always up to par on that stuff. So she'll hunt for sales in those departments, but otherwise uses other sources for that stuff.

I'm pretty sure they're owned by the same people as Trader Joe's. There's one of those a town over from me in the other direction. I like Trader Joe's, but for specific stuff.

Yeah I wouldn't buy meat or milk there, although I did go for the bacon. I'm very picky with produce so I was pleasantly surprised with the selection.

[moaz]

There's an Aldis's a town over from me, and I've only used it once, but my secretary at work lives pretty close, and she swears by it. It's certainly cheaper. But even she says she's choosey on the meat and produce. The quality isn't always up to par on that stuff. So she'll hunt for sales in those departments, but otherwise uses other sources for that stuff.

I'm pretty sure they're owned by the same people as Trader Joe's. There's one of those a town over from me in the other direction. I like Trader Joe's, but for specific stuff.

If u mean this ALDI:



Then no, they are German. Actually their owners, the Albrecht brothers, are the wealthiest 2 persons in Germany. You can search them in Wikipedia to have an idea how powerful is aldi in Europe. For example the never carry a brand name product, so a lot of companies began to produce an unnamed version of their named product to be sold by ALDI. They also began the non grocery weakly special sales with themes from PC's to clothes to cell phones and now every one does it there. When I live in Germany I used to go to their special sales, and for groceries I went to their main rival LIDL.

[LJJ]

There's an Aldis's a town over from me, and I've only used it once, but my secretary at work lives pretty close, and she swears by it. It's certainly cheaper. But even she says she's choosey on the meat and produce. The quality isn't always up to par on that stuff. So she'll hunt for sales in those departments, but otherwise uses other sources for that stuff.

I'm pretty sure they're owned by the same people as Trader Joe's. There's one of those a town over from me in the other direction. I like Trader Joe's, but for specific stuff.

There's actually two seperate Aldi corporations and in the US one of them owns Trader Joe's and the other owns the Aldi's in the US.

[EnoughSaid]

I love Aldi's. The selection of chocolate they have is the best. My parents often buy certain things like eggs or other refregiratable items there and it's all at a great price and tastes great.

[Rose]

Fantastic store. Great produce section, and its ridiculously cheap especially for the quality you get.

[KobesFinger]

They're quite common in England. Not as common as a Tesco or ASDA (WalMart) or maybe even a Morrisons, but there is at least one in every big city here. I just got back from there

[DeuceWallaces]

The one I went to about 6 years ago didn't have produce, just lots of low grade frozen meats. Trader Joe's has a good price to quality ratio but you can't get other stuff like toiletries and they don't have a good selection of protein, only pre packaged lunch meats, etc.

We end up going to 2-3 damn stores just to get everything on our list. Wegman's is probably the overall best but the most expensive so we have to throw in Target for toilet paper, household goods, pet supplies, etc.

[rufuspaul]

If u mean this ALDI:



Then no, they are German.

Interesting. That explains the obscure pilsner.

[rufuspaul]

We end up going to 2-3 damn stores just to get everything on our list.

Same here. I drive in a circle and hit, in order, the farmer's market, Aldi, Sams, Target, Trader Joe's, and Harris Teeter.

They're building a Publix down the street. It's got a lot of white folks excited for some reason.

[ArbitraryWater]

Yeah of course they're good, they're German FFS!!

All over the place here

[LJJ]

In the US they have different sources than here, but a lot of fresh products are pretty sketchy at Aldi I think. Milk, bread, produce, cheese, meat.

Produce and bread are better at their competitor Lidl, but the other stuff I'd rather just pay more for the quality.