What’s the Deal at Aldi?

We didn’t have an Aldi locally until a couple of years ago.  There was one an hour away and I had heard that people made special trips up there to buy groceries.  I even went and looked around once when I was in that town for work.  I wasn’t impressed because I didn’t recognize anything, I remember thinking it is just a lot of ‘off-brand’ stuff and I didn’t get a basket because I didn’t know they were outside.  So I wasn’t excited when I heard we were getting one.  I didn’t go to the grand opening or even visit there the first month or so.  I am really not sure how long it took me to try it the first time.

The milk and eggs were what got my attention at first.  They were considerably cheaper than they had been at the local stores.  We made a point to go there to get just milk and eggs at first, we go through a lot of milk and eggs.  Then I started trying a few other items here and there, some I liked, some I didn’t.  I really haven’t noticed any quality differences in the basics like milk, eggs, butter, sugar, flour, and evaporated milk.

They don’t accept coupons and most of the items are their own brands.  They do have a small sale ad each week, it will have some sales on their standard items, but mainly it contains special purchase items.  These items come through the store and once they sell through, they are gone.  I usually don’t buy much on the ‘deal’ aisle, but I do enjoy looking and have found several items there that I haven’t seen anywhere else.  The store is smaller than a traditional grocery store since they usually only offer one brand of each item and they stock items in the case box.  This means that it requires fewer employees to operate the store.  The baskets are outside and you have to put a quarter in to unlock one, you get the quarter back when you return it to the corral, so the employees do not have to retrieve baskets from the parking lot.  They do not provide free bags for purchased items, you can bring your own, use boxes from the store, or they sell reusable or paper bags to take your items home.   These are some of the ways they save money and then they are able to pass the savings on to the customers.

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Even though I am not able to use coupons, and very rarely, the money back apps at Aldi, I still feel like I save money by shopping there.  They have better prices than most grocery stores regular prices, sometimes even better than the sale prices.  I tend to buy the same items on every visit, the basics like milk, eggs, bread, and butter, but now I also have started buying can biscuits, shredded cheese, sliced cheese, yogurt, hamburger meat, bagels, and taquitos regularly.  I have also bought their paper goods a few times, napkins, paper plates, paper towels and most recently toilet paper.  I really didn’t see any difference in the paper plates or paper towels and have been impressed with the toilet paper.  We have always been Charmin people until the prices got higher than my frugality would allow me to pay.  I have tried a lot of different brands in the last few years.  The Panda brand at Aldi is one of the best I have found, soft but still pretty strong, it reminds me of Charmin Ultra Soft.

I am not usually impressed with the quality or the price of the fresh produce at Aldi, but I do like the bagged Italian Salad.  I don’t buy regular pasta like spaghetti there, but specialty pastas like spaetzle and pumpkin gnocchi are available sometimes, which makes my son very happy.  Each person is going to find different items that they like and items that they don’t like.  Sometimes I spend time looking around to and just enjoying the shopping trip, but if I am in a hurry I can get in and out very quickly.  My local store closes at 9pm, and on our last trip we arrived at 8:45.  My daughter and I were able to do a full Aldi visit and get everything we needed and a few things we probably didn’t need in less then 15 min and I did not feel rushed.  If you haven’t tried Aldi before or didn’t like it when you did, I would suggest giving it a try with an open mind.  Buy the basics and what you know you like and then pick out a few new items each time to see if you like it.

If you would like to see other ways that I save money, visit my Savings page.

Do you shop at Aldi?  What do you like or dislike at Aldi?  Leave a comment below and let me know.

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