The real scoop on Aldi's

There are a few things at Aldi that I prefer over the name brands. I love their salsa and won't buy anything else now. The solid white tuna is still solid white. The bagels are a wonderful treat and much better than our bakery. Their tomatos with green chiles have made quite a difference in my chili.

I do not like their condensed vegetable soup but I haven't found a store brand yet that I like and I don't like their frozen pizza's.

Ach, you are right, shows how much I pay attention to private label "brand names". I just think of it as Aldi orange box. Now I am trying to think of the old name they used for the blue box, whether Astra or seems like something else, they dont use that name anymore whatever it was. It was ok, but not super great, about like the store brand at Dollar General. Tandil is cut above that though. I have noticed Aldis is slowly offering bit higher quality versions of some of their products.

Their premium coffee isnt horrible, but still nothing to compare to premium stuff that shows up once in a while at salvage grocery for generic coffee price. The salvage grocery just doesnt always have the good stuff in stock. People caught on and snap it up soon as it gets on the shelf.

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We stopped in there last week and it was small and I am so use to buying certain brands, but the food was good, did not try the meat yet.

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Samantha, Carol and the gang
PL Purely Percentages
Quality Boer, Boer Crosses, Border Collies, and Beagles
Quality not quantity

I have also had a couple of bad experiences, but in the 10 years we have shopped there, a couple of experiences isn't bad in comparison. I simply take it back, get it replaced, AND get my money back!

We shop for about 90% of our food at Aldi...I can feed our entire family of 6 on about $200-$300/month from Aldi, plus the other 10% of food bought elsewhere. There are things I just won't buy there, but a lot of our meals are planned around what we can purchase at Aldi. (If I truly wanted to cut my food bill, I could cut out the other store shopping, and completely plan meals with the things I can buy at Aldi).

I keep a quarter in my change holder for my Aldi cart at all times. I keep bags with me, and try to shop when most other's won't be so I don't have to wait in line forever. I even plan my list by aisle so I save time, and don't forget anything!

We are lucky and have 2 within a 10 minute drive (opposite directions from each other). If we didn't have that luxury, I would plan a shopping day to incorporate the drive just to shop at Aldi!

ALDI ROCKS!!!

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Michelle

"I have learned that 99% of the time, when something is broken, one of the kids did it."

For many years my other half leased his truck to a whare house that was an in house carrier for Aldi .... he would haul from producer to whare house as well as from whare house to stores ....

As far as producers/ packagers are concerned most of them are brand name
like a good majority of their canned goods come from heintz... or did at the time he drove for them .. most of their dairy in the newyork /penna/ ohio are came from dean dairy .. I am sure other regions had other suppliers
one thing i know that aldi was doing many years ago one time when they needed tochange their bread bakery .. they found a small bakery in kentucky that was getting ready to close upfor bankrupcy purposes .. negotiated with them to provide breads exclusevly for aldi .. and kept all those folks working
Not that I think of aldi as the end all as far as groceried are concerned .. I rarely shop there i feel that save a lot has better quality items , a little more choice .. and offers a wider variety of things with pretty much the same prices ...
I do know Aldi sugar is worth only making cool aid with .. it is not worth a bean for baking any kind of decent baked product and totally useless as far as jam and jelly making are concered
And i would have to say the same as far as their flour is concerned .. its a poor grade of flour ... try a bake off for yourself
most of their other products are fine .. ohh their pasta .. yes its cheep ... buy a good grade and compare when you cook it against aldi pasta/noodle and see how much ---- is in the water ... when its done ....

But those things can be said of many of the :generic" products I have mentioned .. so its caution or budget will tell you where to shop
In Ohio we have a marc's ... they carry many brand name (as well as imported ) items their prices can be quite less than well known chain stores such as giant eagle ,etc I tend to shop at marcs most and pick up other stuff I know i can get a better price on at save alot ... even though aldi is reasnably close to either store

Paula
Hyde Park Farm

Some of you might not appreciate this, but they are closed on Sundays which I consider part of treating employees right.

Their quality has gotten better in the 10 years we've been shopping there. They frequently have one or two different qualities of something so you can choose between the absolute cheapest with lesser quality, or pay a bit more for better quality. They have three grades of American cheese, about three grades of hot dogs, two grades of bologna, you get the picture. And they have been improving on items that were not so good. We used to leave Aldis to buy toilet paper somewhere else, but now they have a nice two ply double roll so we don't do that any more. Can't say that there is anything we have bought recently that we didn't like.

PS Their store brand milk chocolate bars remind me of the one time someone bought me Godiva.

We love their 12 grain wheat bread. And the amazing thing is that it is about 30 cents a loaf cheaper than the regular wheat bread.

Yes even employees deserve a weekend!

I have also shopped at Aldi's for years. Everything I purchased was of good quality. I think some of the savings can be accounted for by the fact that most of the items are not brand names. However, sometimes they do have a few items that are brand names. You also either buy or bring your own containers to carry out your purchases. Aldi's didn't used to take anything but cash, but that has changed in recent years, I notice they have a debit card machine.

Our Aldi's recently opened on Sundays. I think they are prepping to compete with the new Super WM going in down the road. I am grateful, since I am often in the town with the Aldi's only on a Sunday.

I like the frozen steaks (IQF) and fish (tilapia, salmon and orange roughy frozen filets).

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Doesn't Chick-Fil-A do that too?

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We have Aldi's and Save A Lot. My wife prefered Aldi's. Now we have a new Save A Lot and the selection is a lot better then Aldi's and now Save A Lot is her favorite. I think it depends on the local stores which is best.

I like the Aldi's stores for the canned goods. Reasonable prices,lined cans last with no chance of metal can tainting the flavor of the vegetables & fruits. They've had particularly good peaches at a good price,and usually 6-8 halves(3-4)peaches per can.Really good in the middle of winter when there's no fresh available.Usually in heavy syrup though,but in winter it's easy enough to burn off a few extra calories shoveling snow.

Jack,
Is there an Aldis in Va?

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ChuckinVa


Authentic Appalachian American

I absolutely love their pancake mix. Also their BBQ sauce and salsa. Buy a lot of their canned tomatoes and tomato juice. Butter is usually cheaper there also. You just can't beat most of their prices anywhere, although their meat isn't usually too much lower. The exception is ground turkey, which is about half what you pay at most other groceries - we use a lot of it both for cost and cholesterol.

Their 'fresh' veggies are nothing to write home about. Pick them out carefully. Their bread, and bagels, are fresh, tasty and inexpensive.

We used to live in Omaha where there was an Aldi across the street from my office. Now we have to drive 3+ hours so we don't go that much. Last trip dw spent over $180 stocking up - for just the two of us.

The cart rental system means you never get a cart with wobbly wheels.

I was surprized when I looked Aldi's up on-line and discovered it is a German company, originally founded in Essen, Ger. with stores all over Europe and the UK. Wish there were more in Arkansas.

I was not surprised to find out they were a European company. I first saw the locked shopping carts in the UK, but it was £1 (over $2) to get the cart. Their cashiers also sit, and if you have noticed their cash drawers the money is on end, not lying flat, all things they do in the UK.

I wish we had one here in the Florida Panhandle - you can shop anywhere for anything - if you find you don't like Aldi's you can always go to another store, but please give them a chance. I miss the store and their Spartan set-up.

Chuck,
There's one in Danville, and a couple up around DC/Maryland. Just google Aldi's and use the store locator. Put in your ZIP and it will tell you which ones are closest.
3ravens

Same here...they started opening on Sundays maybe a month ago. Something else I've noticed here,is that Aldi's isn't listed in the phone book. They've been here for years now and have never listed their number. Not a big deal,but it's still something unusual that they do.

Aldi is owned by a german guy who is one of the top 5 richest people in the world. what can you say about a company that gives you good products at a honest price. no frills, just common sense. i wish every place had cart retention.

they paid a great wage. but they also said to me that they would work my butt off and burn me out. which they did. it was a high pressure place to work. they worked me hard. but they paid well. my supervisor was a jerk or i would still be working there.

on the down side. i worked in a ghetto store and there was alot of pressure to not lose inventory. we got shoplifted alot, what do you do. well the other aldi managers at other stores would pad the bills. this was back when you memorized the prices. when someone would check out a big order. it would be easy to hit the button an extra time to a .99 cent item to the bill. the people didn't realize it, especially the people taking stamps. when you are being compared to other store so closely and being threated to lose your job because people were stealing you blind, what do you do. my district manager put so much pressure on me about inventory, it was crazy. extra audits and crap. he didn't say cheat the people, but thats what he wanted.
i finally had to leave, because i couldnot win with him. i don't think that is normal with aldi, i just had a bad supervisor, in a bad area.

they have great products. i still shop there (check my reciept)they paid me well.
randy