My phone broke

[lxskllr]

Aldi's my primary store. I have zero problems with their quality. At the worst, I find their stuff "acceptable", and comparable to mass market brands. At their best, it's boutique items at discount prices. A lot of the crap in a regular grocery store is shit like having half an aisle dedicated to fucking ketchup. Huge swaths of space for a single product, and many times, a single brand. I like wegmans a lot, but the one near me keeps getting progressively worse. Less of the cool stuff, and more typical shelf crap you'd find at a safeway.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I am picky about a lot of stuff, e.g. hard cheeses and other diary, so their store brand quality does not appeal to me. Don't buy fresh meat there either. Sam's Club gets a lot of my biz for meats, eggs, and diary. Scan&go is the killer app that won me over. Don't even get me started on the huge $5 rotisserie chicken I can get just as an example; chicken pot pie, chicken salad, and chicken tortilla soup out of a single bird. Crazy good value.

 

[lxskllr]

Aldi's stock cheese is acceptable. Pretty much like Kraft(might be Kraft). I get them occasionally as a generic cheese to have on hand. What I really like are the specialty cheeses that come and go. I got hooked on manchego when it started turning up at aldi. They've also had some good alpine cheeses. some of which I got super cheap when they became short expiry.

 

[Exterous]

I learned a relevant tactic from a ~90 year old customer: He had all his marbles but his mobility was fairly shot and he had carers coming in who did his shopping. He typed up a generic shopping list on his computer of all the things he was likely to ever want, then before they arrived he printed out a copy then ticked the items he wanted them to get on that occasion.

On my phone, I have the generic list then next to an entry I'll usually write how many I have or sometimes I'll write how many I want. When I do a stock-take, I re-write the have/need bits of information and leave the item list intact.

The other advantage is when I'm either preparing for a shopping trip (though these days we tend to do online deliveries) or I'm going to a supermarket without prior planning, the content of the generic list serves as a reminder of items I ought to consider.

My wife does this. But the downside to her generic list is, if I'm going, she sends me the generic list but then a second set of ways to interpret the list. This sunday the list had "2 red peppers" on the list along with "cold brew and creamer" but the text message said "Get the 3 pepper bag and I only need creamer". Cool - thanks for the list that's not the list

I would not miss it at all. This is the local Aldi, quite small for the U.S. - 360 view

I am always impressed with how much they have without all the wasted space. It is true you have to learn what to buy and what not to quality wise. We quickly developed seasonal favorites. Dig the biz model too. Must suck to work for though, as the employee churn is crazy.

I type out the shopping list in gmail on the PC, then send it to my phone. Easy Peasy

Man there's something wrong with our Aldi's. Lots of people talk about how they love their Aldi's but ours sucks. Very small, generic selection. There's an Aldi's in a much more rural area of Michigan that is way better than ours here in suburbia

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Aldi's stock cheese is acceptable. Pretty much like Kraft(might be Kraft). I get them occasionally as a generic cheese to have on hand. What I really like are the specialty cheeses that come and go. I got hooked on manchego when it started turning up at aldi. They've also had some good alpine cheeses. some of which I got super cheap when they became short expiry.

That's the Aldi shopping magic. All of the items that are seasonal or limited time and quantity. I have even gotten Dubliner Irish cheddar on occasion. One of my favorites. The Mrs is in that FB Aldi Aisle of Shame group, and they always have the scoop on the best stuff. Got to snag it fast or it's OOS before you get any, in these here parts.

 

[sdifox]

My wife does this. But the downside to her generic list is, if I'm going, she sends me the generic list but then a second set of ways to interpret the list. This sunday the list had "2 red peppers" on the list along with "cold brew and creamer" but the text message said "Get the 3 pepper bag and I only need creamer". Cool - thanks for the list that's not the list


Man there's something wrong with our Aldi's. Lots of people talk about how they love their Aldi's but ours sucks. Very small, generic selection. There's an Aldi's in a much more rural area of Michigan that is way better than ours here in suburbia

I demand pictures of actual chemicals. Tired of getting yelled at for getting the wrong product but it was what she specified.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Man there's something wrong with our Aldi's. Lots of people talk about how they love their Aldi's but ours sucks. Very small, generic selection. There's an Aldi's in a much more rural area of Michigan that is way better than ours here in suburbia

Corpos make the decisions I think:? Probably have little or no control over stock at the store level. Publix, the upscale full service supermarket is right across the street on the other side of Barnes Blvd, so I surmise that is why our Aldi is kind of pimp. Have to compete on some level since service is not an option. The 2 of them usually have a price war on Butterball Turkeys every Thanksgiving. 🤣

 

[lxskllr]

Man there's something wrong with our Aldi's. Lots of people talk about how they love their Aldi's but ours sucks. Very small, generic selection. There's an Aldi's in a much more rural area of Michigan that is way better than ours here in suburbia

I drive out of my way to hit the aldi in the ghetto cause I like it better than the one that's close to me. I go to a couple other stores, so I'm not needlessly burning gas. Might just be a matter of numbers in the store, but the ghetto aldi is always cleaner, and there's fewer people clogging the aisles. They otherwise have about the same stock(though not identical). I just find the ghetto aldi a more pleasant experience.

 

[Exterous]

Corpos make the decisions I think:? Probably have little or no control over stock at the store level.

I feel like they must have some control? We'll go to a friends for dinner in that rural area and she always has all these great things from Aldi's. So we go check ours and can never find whatever it was she bought. They seem about the same size and are both in SE MI

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I feel like they must have some control? We'll go to a friends for dinner in that rural area and she always has all these great things from Aldi's. So we go check ours and can never find whatever it was she bought. They seem about the same size and are both in SE MI

Perhaps you are experiencing the aisles of shame effect? When that group raves about items they love, they go OOS quickly.

 

[BoomerD]

I've never even seen sn Aldi's...but have shopped at Trader Joe's. (same corporate overlords) Never been inside a Sam's Club, although I think I saw one once while driving down the highway.

 

[JulesMaximus]

So I had to write my grocery list, with a pen, on a physical piece of paper.

I guess this is how it felt to live in the 1700s. BoomerD, can you confirm?

I still do that. I guess that makes me a boomer. I’m actually borderline between boomer and GenX. Like 3 years from being a boomer. Makes me feel quite old…