Aldi

My friends and family are all now officially sick of me waxing poetic about Aldi.
So now I shall do it here.
Aldi is a godsend for cheap, single gals. Like me. :) It’s where you go for dirt dirt cheap canned goods, household products, meats, and then even items like specialty cheeses that are constantly changing, and huge boxes of K-​cups for under $ 5. There is literally no other grocery store that can match their prices. Their everyday price on canned beans is 59 cents. A double jar of salsa is about $ 1.75. Their organic products are more affordable than their non organic counterparts at Walmart. There is literally no other grocery store where I can buy a whole week’s worth of food, and at least one random thing I didn’t need, for less than $ 12.
Aldi can afford to have such low prices by employing several tactics.
–Be super short staffed. There is typically only one cashier on, and one shift manager. This is not a problem because Aldi is a small store, where one person can generally keep up with the customer flow.
–Forcing customers to return carts to the store themselves. This sounds like a simple concept, but it again allows Aldi to severely slash labor costs by not employing $ 18 year olds to constantly run around a parking lot grabbing left out carts. Customers have to rent a cart by putting in a quarter, which releases the locking mechanism and allows you to take a cart. In order to get your quarter back, you have to return the cart and lock it back in place, which releases the quarter. And us Aldi customers do not want to lose their quarters. And generally, we don’t want to be terrible, lazy customers who can’t walk 50 feet to return a cart.
–Having a constantly rotating product list. Staples stay the same every week, but my guess is that a quarter of the store is different every time I go. By having a lot of space dedicated to rotating items, they can simply offer whatever is a great deal that week. This also means that there are tons of new products every week at great prices.
–The store is small, there is a smaller selection of each item, and less things go to wasgte. There is not an entire aisle devoted to soups, there’s just a small section of just a few shelves. This also helps to make sure that it all stays organized. The store is always organized, and things are never out of place.
–They have a very small produce section. While this is generally a downfall, because it means I have to go to a different store in order to have a balanced diet, it also means that they don’t spend a ton of money on wasted produce and can just have a small selection of what’s in season.

15 years ago, when I moved here from NY state, the first thing I searched for as far as food shopping goes was the closest Aldi’s. There are a couple of them, but not right in my own neighborhood. Brutal traffic patterns in my area makes shopping at an Aldi’s rather difficult, but because I love the store so much, I make the sacrifice. Prices are always more than fair, quality of products is just as good, if not better, than most big name brands, and the selection is wonderful! Their fresh produce is clean, really fresh, and very inexpensive compared to ALL other grocery chain stores. Their meat department is very competitive as well — and as I said, the quality of the foods is A-​one. I honestly can’t praise them enough!
I am just really sad that we don’t have an Aldi’s closer to where I live. You simply cannot beat Aldi’s for saving money yet eating very well. I even wrote to Aldi’s corporate HQ just this morning, asking them to please open up a store in my area. I hope they read my email and that I get a really good and positive response!

I wish this place is near where I lived in New York for like 100 bucks you could eat for two months granted the due date at maybe a little past due but you still be eating

I love love looooooooove Aldi. Whether the Trooper Road location or the E Norriton, I always feel like I am welcomed in this store. The cashiers are friendly and helpful. If you can’t find something, just ask and they’ll locate a store that can. If you go to their Facebook page, someone from customer service will contact you back. How is THAT for a customer friendly store!!! They sell all kinds of yummies here from your most basic to the extraordinary at times (chocolate infused cheese which is $ 8 at Wegman’s was only $ 2.99 here and Lifeway Keifer $ 4.99 at Wegman’s is $ 2.99 for the same at Aldi!!) Both stores are clean and offer a nice variety. Fruits in season are often on sale ($ 1.49 for strawberries, $.99 for blueberries in summer. great for those cobblers!) They charge .25cents for a cart (you get it back) and you need to bring your own bags or be charged .10cents for one. A small price to pay for big big BIG savings!

In the spirit of saving some money I decided two weeks ago to do my grocery shopping here. The result? A lot of spare change that I can now use for a meal at bluefin. Seriously this store is fantastic if you don’t care about getting all name brand products (they all taste the same to e except maybe cheerios. That’s where I draw the line). $ 1.49 for a container of pumpkin spice cream cheese, $.44/​lb for bananas, $ 2.19 for 32oz of cottage cheese, $.88 for a dozen eggs, $ 2.99/lb of deli turkey, $ 1.49 for 6 decent bagels (on par with pepperidge farm), $ 1.99/lb of boneless skinless chicken breast (fresh!), $ 1.49/lb for broccoli, and of course, who can overlook the $ 3.99 family pack of chicken nuggets? I probably spent about half of what I did previously and I am really loving the pumpkin spice cream cheese. Farewell genuardis. Why spend more when you don’t have to? This is one experiment that I am glad I tried because these results are to a saver what a Cell publication is to a biologist. cash or debit only so leave the Amex at home. Oh and everything is very clean and they do have name brand specials every week.