Aldi is "shockingly cheaper" than Walmart?

[RossMAN]

If you have an Aldi's near you, is this true?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/rapidly-expanding-grocery-chain-shockingly-210251979.html

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Aldi is target shopping.

 

[zerocool84]

Never heard of this place.

 

[RossMAN]

Never heard of this place.

I've only heard of them via SlickDeals, they seem to be mostly mid & east coast-ish.

https://www.aldi.us/en/services/store-locator/

https://corporate.aldi.us/en/suppliers/divisional-map/

 

[NoTine42]

Like the article, we can't exclusively shop at Aldis, but it is a regular stop for us.
Around here, Aldis seem to be in an outlet near Walmart and it's great having a small, easy in and out type of a store when you don't want to go all the way through a WalMart.
The worst thing is when I spend my "Aldi quarter" ...you have to deposit a quarter into the shopping cart locks to use a cart. You get the quarter back when you return the cart to their home née the front entrance.

 

[Captante]

Pretty good place to shop especially for prepared foods.

One issue to keep in mind is that they mainly sell Aldi-branded (or at least Aldi-exclusive) products and while most are decent quality there are exceptions, for example I don't care for the mayo or ketchup they carry.

 

[RossMAN]

Pretty good place to shop especially for prepared foods.

One issue to keep in mind is that they mainly sell Aldi-branded (or at least Aldi-exclusive) products and while most are decent quality there are exceptions, for example I don't care for the mayo or ketchup they carry.

I don't mind generic as long as they're quality (e.g. CostCo Kirkland).

 

[NoTine42]

Aldi's parent company? owns Trader Joes so there may be a few Trader Joes items in an Aldis.

It's amusing how Aldis has resisted "progress". They were probably the last national store to start using bar code scanners at their registers (they trained their decently paid clerks to type in SKU's faster than most clerks could scan goods). And they only started accepting debit cards in the past few years.

But they used to occasionally sell a decently-specefied desktop PC among other "special deal" items.

Like mentioned, it's mostly private label items. Some are quite good. Chips seem to have a lot of variability. Sometimes they are great, some times they are just decent.

 

[Captante]

If they open one near you I suggest checking it out. As mentioned its not the place to do all your shopping mainly due to lack of selection in fresh veggies/fruit.

I don't know about "shockingly cheaper" then Walmart though. Some things cost more and some less but its tough to do "apples to apples" because Walmart carries national brands.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I only ever buy a handful of items in Walmart's produce department. Onions, bananas, maybe peppers, celery, some seasonal fruit. Pretty much everything else is of better quality and cheaper elsewhere. Same with the entire meat department. No sales at Walmart and only a few bargains. Dairy, same thing... comparable pricing, but no sales, so selective shopping at one of the other four grocers in town will almost always give better deals in those departments.

Where the savings lie are in name brand packaged goods. Note that the price comparisons in the article cited are primarily between Walmart's house brand and some cheap house or no-name brand at Aldi. Few people shop that way. You may discover some great house brand items, but if you like Heinz ketchup or Newman's Own spaghetti sauce or Ben & Jerry's ice cream, that's what you buy. I've never shopped at Aldi, but I doubt that their pricing on many name brand goods comes anywhere near that of Walmart. It's commonplace for me to see things priced at the other chain grocers at two to three times the price of the same item at Walmart.

 

[RossMAN]

But they used to occasionally sell a decently-specefied desktop PC among other "special deal" items.

The Aldi's deals I've seen posted here and SD were typically PC's and odd things like memory foam mattress <--- WTF?

Interesting about the debit cards.

 

[GreenGhost]

Usually, the products made in Germany are the best (e.g their Deutsche Kuche brand), but they are often available for a limited time. They have the best cheap chocolate, great cheap Keurig dark coffee capsules. For the rest, they are like imitations of American brands, and the quality varies. For example, their Milano cookie is great, while their Ritz crackers suck. Some $5 wine are decent, better the cheap California/Chilean wines. In the old days, they had good PCs in the hot deals forum. I noticed that their clientele is most of people looking to save every buck, so they likely ignore the best quality novelty items.

I wish all grocery stores had their quarter system: no more dented car doors.

 

[RossMAN]

I wish all grocery stores had their quarter system: no more dented car doors.

Agreed. How is the quality of their carts usually? Old school metal with rambling wheels or new-ish plasticky Target?

 

[Elixer]

Overall, Aldi's is pretty good. Milk, eggs, and stuff like that is also cheaper than most other places. The limited fruit selection, and bananas are also pretty cheap & good.

It is odd that they sell computers, mixers, iron boards, and other things that don't really fit in with anything else they offer. These also only last 1 week or so, and are very limited in quantity.

 

[mrjminer]

I haven't been to Aldi in about 5 years since the two in town are both pretty far from where I am at now, but I used to shop there exclusively. They are a quality establishment.

Some of their private label items aren't very good (ex: their Little Debbie knockoffs), but the vast majority of it is as good or better than "name brands" (ex: lots of their frozen foods, their cookies -- which are fucking delicious unless they've changed them since I've been there). They used to have insanely good frozen pizza for like $2 each called "Mama Cozzi" brand or something like that, then they changed the sauce and lowered the quality slightly, so I stopped making the trip that far. Used to be significantly better than Tombstone.

 

[Captante]

Some of their private label items aren't very good (ex: their Little Debbie knockoffs), but the vast majority of it is as good or better than "name brands" (ex: lots of their frozen foods, their cookies -- which are fucking delicious unless they've changed them since I've been there).

Agreed ... The frozen prepared food they sell is the majority of what I buy when I shop there once or twice a month and most of the cookies they sell rock. Also as mentioned German style foods tend to be very good, I really like Aldi mustard's.

 

[tommo123]

Aldi (and Lidl - both german iirc) in Britain were responsible for the biggest stores (Tesco) profits dropping something like 90% due to price competition. it's not as nice in store, more of a "i'll drop a pallett of shit off here, you sort it out" but pricewise it's a no brainer for a load of stuff.

 

[Hugh Jass]

Didn't read the link but in my experience Aldi is awesome.

Used to do my grocery shopping exclusively at Wally World but then Aldi opened close by and pretty much across the street from the Wally World I shop at so now I do my shopping at both places and save quite a bit over when I was just shopping at Wally World.

And Aldi "house" brands are excellent for the most part. I've come across one or two duds but I'd say 99% of what I buy of those I have been extremely pleased with when comparing them to name brands and Wally World's "house" brand. In fact, most of the Aldi "house" stuff is better or at least on par with comparable Wally World "house" stuff and the name brands.

Takes a little more time for two stops but it's worth it for the savings. Now, if the two stores were further apart then it wouldn't make as much sense...but they are so it does.

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Aldi tends to be not as cheap as Lidl, and in the Netherlands Lidl keeps winning prices for their fresh vegetables and fruits. Both work in the same way, where lots of good aren't neatly stacked on shelves but instead put in the store on the pallet. They don't sell the big brands, but tend to have cheap brands which basically come from the same factories as those big brands. Which means the quality of the products is pretty similar, but they are much cheaper. Lidl's laundry detergent also won several times 'best buy' in several consecutive tests by third parties.

Both also regularly sell other goods which they can buy in bulk, including clothing, phones and even PCs. Aldi here sells Medion PCs, which are quite high quality.

 

[PastTense]

I've never shopped at Aldi, but I doubt that their pricing on many name brand goods comes anywhere near that of Walmart.

There are very, very few name brand goods at Aldi--Aldi is overwhelmingly private label.

 

[lxskllr]

I go to Aldi and BigLots for discount shopping, and Wegmans for premium stuff. I generally alternate weeks. because they're on different sides of town. Aldi is faaaar cheaper than Walmart, and none of the irritation. It might be due to my area, but Walmart isn't even cheap. Their prices are inline with the upper middle end stores. I can get groceries cheaper at other stores near me.

Aldi is definitely worth a stop. If it were closer, I'd go every week. They get limited runs of stuff, so it's fun seeing if there's anything new. You probably won't get a full shopping order there, but it has everything essential. The quality is on par with with the big national brands, and the lack of choice is oddly satisfying. You take what they have, or not. No decision making over brand, or size of container :^D

Definitely check out the cheese section. They frequently get interesting stuff there. My most recent acquisition was a trio of cheddar cheeses from Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Haven't tried them yet, but I'm sure they're good.

 

[Kaido]

It's quality discount shopping. They usually stick them in poorer areas, kind of like dollar stores, but as it turns out they have great prices & a lot of their stuff like the canned stuff & packet mixes are actually really awesome. Great prices on produce too, their avocados are like $1 in my area vs. $1.66 at the grocery store.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I've only heard of them via SlickDeals, they seem to be mostly mid & east coast-ish.

We have one in Ames, IA as well - for quite awhile now.

 

[nickbits]

Went there once and never again. Unless you are only eating frozen and processed junk, it didn't have much to offer. Produce quality was worse than Wal-Mart's.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Aldi sucks. Very little selection and their fresh food section is junk.