Aldi is "shockingly cheaper" than Walmart?

[drnickriviera]

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

Ours has standard metal ones, smaller than the gigantic walmart ones. I usually go ferengi and collect carts from the parking lot while i'm taking mine back. Sometimes there are none, but others, there will be 3-4. Free money

 

[bigrash]

I've shopped their a couple of times. Don't care for their brand of items, but they are cheap.

 

[corwin]

I buy my milk and butter there, about half (or less) the price of anywhere else...their produce is usually pretty good too but very limited selection

 

[Jeffg010]

Let see them do this with Dollar General. I have a Aldi and a Dollar General across the street from each other and Dollar General has way better prices. I really tried to to give Aldi the win but came out disappointed. There is no way that you can do better then $5 off of $25 with the phone app.

 

[Cerb]

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

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

Shockingly, no. Better, yes.

But, Aldi survives like say, The Fresh Market, just at the opposite end of the spectrum. I could buy every foodstuff I care for at Walmart or Kroger. I could not do so at Aldi. So, I buy a good bit there, but not everything, and they won't replace nearby grocers, even if they put some pressure on them. That's also part of why they don't end up, "shockingly," cheaper: unless you change your diet to match what they sell, you will not end up with 1:1 comparable receipts. Just buying produce and a few of the better boxed goods, though, you should be able to save 15-20%.

All of the packaged store brand goods are like other store brand goods: some as good as name brand, some better, some worse. Produce selection is limited, but around here, Walmart and Kroger both seriously lack in produce quality, making Aldi by far the best value for produce.

What's really great are the seasonal items. Their sliced salami packages aren't the best salami, but for $6/lb, damn good (I love preserved pork, and I regularly buy small qty of >$20/lb salami, and it's worth it...but not as an every day snack). They get in brats, small and large, that are unlike typical U.S. sausages. They get in varied cheeses at relatively low prices, some of which can be found in higher-end stores for 2-3x the cost. The seasonal cookies and condiments are to die for. Etc..

 

[DrPizza]

The average number of different products in a grocery store is over 35,000. Stop for a moment in the toothpaste section of a larger grocery store. One store that consumer reports visited had 27 varieties of Crest and 25 varieties of Colgate. Aldi's might have 2 or 3 choices on their shelves. A limited inventory helps keep costs lower at Aldi. The downside is a lack of variety. But, it makes an awesome first stop to stock up on staples and common items.

A lot of their products are indistinguishable from their name brand counterparts. I've found this true of several types of cereal. Sugar is, well, sugar. Many of their products are actually made by the big names, and just labeled with their private labels. A friend of mine used to work for Strohmann's bakery. They made a lot of the private store label stuff. Sometimes the formulation was different, sometimes it wasn't. The important thing to realize though was that they didn't "we're going to make an inferior product for the stores." In some cases with private brand stuff, the store actually dictates a higher quality product. Some stuff seems to vary a little bit by region. The closer Aldi store to me is about 25 minutes away. (I live in the sticks) But, if I travel about 40 minutes to go grocery shopping, the other store is in Aldi's next region (I asked a clerk about it) - the produce seems to be superior there to any grocery store within that 40 minute drive. And, it's cheaper, much cheaper than even Walmart's produce.

And, oddly, they have one section in the store for "other stuff." You never know what you'll find. As pointed out in this thread, years ago, they had a Medion computer. It was basically the Dell of Europe at the time. At the time, you could part out the Medion computer, sell the components separately, and make a profit. I've purchased several small appliances there (Crofton brand) - they had a rotisserie; I think we paid $30 or $40 for it. It was identical in every way to the Ronco rotisserie that was sold on infomercials for $170. It has cooked a LOT of roasted chickens, roasts, etc. over the years. When I was there the other day, I saw king sized heated mattress pads for $59.99. I just replaced mine a couple months ago. I looked at the quality, thinking that I could just store it in the closet for a couple years until it's replacement time again. You can't touch that quality for under $100, and we shopped at quite a few places. I think mine was $110 on Amazon - and it killed me to see it for $60.

 

[Cerb]

Let see them do this with Dollar General. I have a Aldi and a Dollar General across the street from each other and Dollar General has way better prices. I really tried to to give Aldi the win but came out disappointed. There is no way that you can do better then $5 off of $25 with the phone app.

There are Dollar Generals with groceries? There are, I think 3 around here, now, but none with more than chips and a small cooler of misc. cheese and meat.

 

[DrPizza]

Oh, and you don't need grocery bags - When Aldi's stocks the shelves, they put the stuff out in cases. They allow, encourage even, you to use the boxes that are nearly empty. So, when I'm done getting my groceries, I take a quick walk up an aisle and grab 3 or 4 large boxes. After the cashier rings everything up - which is far quicker than it is in line at any other place where the cashier also has to bag things, I take my cart up to the front bagging counter, and divide all my stuff into the boxes. Frozen stuff in one box, refrigerated stuff in another box, cans/boxes in a 3rd box. It's a hell of a lot easier just sticking 3 boxes into the trunk of the car, rather than 20 plastic bags. And, taking the groceries into the house is far easier as well.

 

[sourceninja]

...

 

[lxskllr]

Then what do I put my cat poop in?

The neighbor's mailbox.

 

[Cerb]

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.

The ones near me are both new, I think <3 years old. They only scan the weird "other" section items, and a small subset of seasonal. The rest they just put in the keypad with one hand as they transfer it with the other.

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.

Can't account for taste. :awe: I dislike their club/Townhose, Triscuit, and Wheat Thins knock-offs, but I like their Ritz knock-off better than Ritz. I also prefer their cereals to any name brand that have gone to usingf polydextrose (I think some are now moving away from that, though).

Though that reminds me: they and Publix are the only stores around that carry mini shredded wheat, and as you might imagine, it's cheaper at Aldi . That alone is worth the trip every several days.

if you really wanted to save you'd shop around and do extreme couponing/exploiting. maybe pick up gift certificates off cardcash to save an extra couple of %.

What do you use the coupons for? Very few coupons are for anything that costs much, over time, and of those, it's been a decade or more since I've seen any store do double or triple couponing. If you're in a state where that is done, and have all the free time those people on that show do, maybe. But then you still have to go back, to buy food, for which you might be lucky and have a few coupons per year for a free pack of eggs or something.

 

[IronWing]

Then what do I put my cat poop in?

Sell it as chewing tobacco.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

The ones near me are both new, I think <3 years old. They only scan the weird "other" section items, and a small subset of seasonal. The rest they just put in the keypad with one hand as they transfer it with the other.

Can't account for taste. :awe: I dislike their club/Townhose, Triscuit, and Wheat Thins knock-offs, but I like their Ritz knock-off better than Ritz. I also prefer their cereals to any name brand that have gone to usingf polydextrose (I think some are now moving away from that, though).

Though that reminds me: they and Publix are the only stores around that carry mini shredded wheat, and as you might imagine, it's cheaper at Aldi . That alone is worth the trip every several days.

What do you use the coupons for? Very few coupons are for anything that costs much, over time, and of those, it's been a decade or more since I've seen any store do double or triple couponing. If you're in a state where that is done, and have all the free time those people on that show do, maybe. But then you still have to go back, to buy food, for which you might be lucky and have a few coupons per year for a free pack of eggs or something.

i don't usually bother with coupons personally unless it's an electronic version. the idea is to stack coupons (manufacturer + store) to get a better deal. if the store has rewards you can take advantage of you that's even better. target for example actually has multiple ways to save. you got their electronic coupons, cartwheel app, manufacturer coupons, red card.

they all stack. safeway in this area does gas rewards. everyone needs gas so i'd say that's like getting cash back. if you're on a budget you would shop around because sticking to just one store means you're getting some deals and missing out on others. there's a reason sites like the grocery game exist and have been around for a while.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=1234734

i'm not really pinching pennies so i just go to whatever store is convenient and has what i need at a price i'm willing to pay. aldi/costco usually fit the bill but they're not open at midnight/24 hours either.

 

[FeuerFrei]

I used to live near one 10 years go. Aldi's is for those who have just enough money (food stamps?) to buy their own food. You pick your food off the pallet - who needs shelves? And you pay a quarter to use a cart. I felt poorer just walking in.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

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

Just because it isnt a giant name brand doesnt mean its junk, their brands are actually really good and from what ive heard are actually decent brands in Germany/Europe

 

[Cerb]

I used to live near one 10 years go. Aldi's is for those who have just enough money (food stamps?) to buy their own food. You pick your food off the pallet - who needs shelves? And you pay a quarter to use a cart. I felt poorer just walking in.

You'd hate a few of the places I used to love shopping at, if you can, "feel poor," walking into a grocery store . Due to changing work and the recession killing a couple of them, I pretty much only have one Indian grocer to supplement my chain store shopping, now .

 

[Cerb]

Just because it isnt a giant name brand doesnt mean its junk, their brands are actually really good and from what ive heard are actually decent brands in Germany/Europe

Their fresh food, which the other poster was talking about, is often even more brand name than bigger stores, because they don't take them out of the branded boxes they come in .

 

[dud]

I used to live near one 10 years go. Aldi's is for those who have just enough money (food stamps?) to buy their own food. You pick your food off the pallet - who needs shelves? And you pay a quarter to use a cart. I felt poorer just walking in.

I too felt a little poorer walking in the first time but I quickly got over it. I don't have ready access to a farmer's market to purchase "fresh" fruit and vegetables ... Aldi is the next best thing. The produce is close to the price at the market while it (for the most part) in trucked in from the local area.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Just because it isnt a giant name brand doesnt mean its junk, their brands are actually really good and from what ive heard are actually decent brands in Germany/Europe

It might be just my local branch, because I tried it once and it was just run down.

The food didn't seem fresh, the selection was poor, and the fridges were all half empty.

 

[Sonikku]

Walmart used to have the edge in customer service and more people on checkout (shorter lines). But in the past 3 years that advantage has evaporated with mile long lines and skeleton crews of people moving like sonic the hedgehog in a desperate attempt to get shelves stocked.

In Walmart's never ending quest to get increasingly fewer people to shoulder ever greater amounts of the work load, they forgot to pass the savings onto the customer. If that's how it's to be I might better shop at Aldi's and at least save a buck. The writing was on the wall when entire aisles remained empty for stretches of time.

 

[Berliner]

Just because it isnt a giant name brand doesnt mean its junk, their brands are actually really good and from what ive heard are actually decent brands in Germany/Europe

Their "brands" are mostly good products, but still not brands, even though they try quite hard to make you think so.

Just get over branding and advertisement of products and buy what is good.

 

[momeNt]

That company must have Wal-Mart executives furious.

Did a midwestern mom discover this store and is now a millionaire with all the money she saved?

Why is a yahoo finance news article written with clickbait headings?

 

[waggy]

Aldi's is ok. it's hit or miss on the products though. I used to shop there a lot. But it's not worth the slight savings over hyvee's generics.

also the "fresh" produce at the one near me is terrible. most stuff is on the edge of starting to rot.

The only good thing i get is the Frozen goods. they had some frozen chicken wings that are great.

 

[darkewaffle]

We used to have one here, I don't think I ever went in and I'm pretty sure it closed/moved out of town. My impression is that it was kind of a dump.

 

[Carson Dyle]

That company must have Wal-Mart executives furious.

I seriously doubt that.

Nobody (no matter how poor) shops and buys the absolutely lowest priced generic/off-brand version of everything. If it's close, sure, they buy the one that's 33 cents cheaper. If they feel it's even better than the name brand, then it's win/win. But don't expect to shop there and save $40 per week by buying a shopping cart full of SpaghettiO knock-offs and cans of Lithuanian tuna fish.