Aldi's - keep that quarter and those shopping bags in your vehicle.
Pro:
Packaged cheese slices are good for sandwiches
Cool German food around Christmas
Frozen veggies are decent
bread/bagel products are decent
Produce department is outstanding- prices good too
Con:
Frozen pizzas are weak if Aldis brand
fake Pringles are awful
mouse eating cereal box rumor from 1987 still in my head
Datsun310Guy said:
mouse eating cereal box rumor from 1987 still in my head
Tell me more about this cereal box! Seems like it would be better to have that at the shop versus a cat.
Poor sentence structure- cereal boxes were chewed up from mice eating the boxes to get inside. Back in 80's - wife still mentions
My wife and I have been shopping primarily at Aldi since 2008ish. There are things you learn not to buy there..the fake Pringles being a good example. The produce is usually very good at amazing prices but occasionally will be not great. I've had very good luck with their bread products lately. I occasionally will find something I love and stock up on it as sometimes things will go away. I'm really missing my cracked red pepper rice crackers right now.
I do 90% of my shopping at ALDI and have been doing so for years. If you need a specific thing a run to the regular grocery store might be in order, but thats not every week. A town further south closer to work has a LIDL, which feels like a slightly bigger nicer ALDI.
My sons Aldis near Peoria, IL put in a self check out area. Now you can move the merchandise 5 times. (Shelf to cart, cart to belt, belt to cart, cart to bag, bag to your shelf)
The Harbor Freight of food. (Minus the communism)
2/3rd the food at half the price. I shop there almost exclusively.
Aldi and Lidl are across the street from each other about a mile from me. I drive between them to go to my local Redner's as my primary store. Locally and employee owned, with far better selection and equal prices to Aldi. I haven't been in Lidl yet, they've only been open about 3 years....
In reply to Datsun310Guy :
Rep the German food, you might want to keep an eye out for when they have German week - used to be twice a year, but it's been a tad odd recently.
Lots of German non-Christmas foods. I usually stock up on some staples that are otherwise pretty hard to get.
Good- breads and most of the health foods are decent and stupid cheap comparably.
The bad- once is gone it's gone. The aisle of shame. They only have the steak and chicken out after a truck shows up if the shelves are bare, until then, if you needed it, you're SOL. Product consistency is lacking. One time is great the next can suck and I won't buy/eat it.
Its a much better option than sav-a-lot, but still not better than the local grocery store.
Show me the "S" in Aldi. Please. And don't try to throw a "Süd" out there. Doesn't count.
We love it. Shop there probably 50% of the time (the other 50% being, in descending order, Costco, Jewel, Whole Foods, Target, and others). I am constantly impressed.
When we first moved to the house we are in now, our German neighbor Deiter was excited to tell us where he got his German chocolate and his brats: "it's a GREAT German store called 'Aldi'"
The S is said implying ownership, as in Aldi's. That store belongs to Aldi. Aldi's grocery store.
I know what you're saying, but good luck getting Chicagoland to change.
I've had great luck with their fish! I'm almost exclusively an Aldi guy. It's the fact that it is good stuff and I can be in and out in mere minutes. Produce is hit or miss but getting better recently.
Good prices on fruit, though sometimes the quality is a little lacking but still our go to for berries and such. Some amazing condiments, kung pao, etc but often some good stiff disappears in a month. Worth shopping, but still need a trip to the regular market too.
Datsun310Guy said:My sons Aldis near Peoria, IL put in a self check out area. Now you can move the merchandise 5 times. (Shelf to cart, cart to belt, belt to cart, cart to bag, bag to your shelf)
My Aldi put in self checkouts recently, they have fairly large bagging areas so it makes it less complicated. Shelf to cart, bags in bagging area, take stuff from cart as you scan and straight into the bag.
Appleseed said:I know what you're saying, but good luck getting Chicagoland to change.
it's a Chicago thing. Sorry about that.
Some people cant handle aldi. Just like southwest airlines.
why do i have to pay for a cart?
where is my seat number?
paying for bags grocery bags??
i love aldi and southwest.
Aldi's best thing, its not walmart.
the food quality is very good. Its a small store yet i can get like 98% of what i need.
the eggs are consistently good. they boil and peel great too.
the meat is better quality than walmart and cheaper. Publix meat is nasty and costs double.
seriously i have spent more time cleaning a publix chicken "breast" than it takes me to clean and fillet a whole catfish.
The employees are friendly, they dont appear to hate their life. They have humans at checkout. The whole process is fast and easy.
OH, the ISLE OF SHAME! I love the random stuff isle. Ive gone in to get chicken breast and left with chicken breast and a new chainsaw. Generator, christmas lights, trenching shovel, plants, rocking chair, fake crocs, on and on, these are things i have bought from the isle of shame.
In reply to TJL (Forum Supporter) :
You say it's a small store - that's one thing I like. If I forget an item you easily stroll back to that aisle - 25'.
There is a store called Woodman's in Wisconsin where if you forget something it feels like you're walking a 1/4 mile back. That's a great store too.
The Aldi's near me was just remodeled. The only issue is they put the fresh veggies right inside the door; now as the wife is searching for the perfect green pepper, the unknowing bored husbands stand around right in the middle of the aisle just beyond the threshold.
Family of 9 here...Aldi is our game. There are things we can't get there that we have to go to Walmart for, but we try to get as much at Aldi as possible. My wife is a pro...she avoids the aisle of shame like the plague to keep our budget in check.
Closest grocery store experience to being back in the EU. I hit it and Lidl several times a month. In and out in 15 minutes or less.
Gotta love Aldi. The calzones are great for lunches as are the 5 pack of egg rolls (from the fresh, ok, partially frozen section). Chips and snacks are usually very good.
Aisle of shame? Well, I once bought a desktop PC there for a ridiculous low price that served me well for quite a while and recently picked up an air fryer for $30 that, it turns out, we used constantly.
Appleseed said:The S is said implying ownership, as in Aldi's. That store belongs to Aldi. Aldi's grocery store.
I know what you're saying, but good luck getting Chicagoland to change.
I don't like Aldi,
but I dislike this more.
My Grandmother, who had no affiliation with Chicago, would add "the" before and "s" after everything.
The Paneras
The Aldis.
It drove me crazy. It still does.
Stop it.
for the Aldi shoppers among us, y'all ever try Aldi's nuts?
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:for the Aldi shoppers among us, y'all ever try Aldi's nuts?
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