Tell me about Aldi Grocery Store?
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Anonymous
| Is it really that much cheaper? Does it do organic? What do you buy there? One opened in Gaithersburg today and I am thinking about checking it out. |
Anonymous
| Yes and yes. Go in and check it out. You need a quarter for the carts, can only use cash or debit and bag it yourself. I buy everything but meat there. |
Anonymous
| The parent company of Aldi also owns Trader Joe's from what I hear. |
Anonymous
| I LOVE Aldi! As far as meat, I only buy organic grass fed beef when they have it. Their fruit can be hit or miss. I buy organic milk, a bunch of gluten-free food (which is almost 60% less than other stores) and chips. I shop there and WF. |
Anonymous
| Tremendous savings on staples. Yes, some organic offerings. You take your own bags, pay a quarter for your cart (refunded when you leave), and pay cash or debit. There are some things I don't buy there (bread, coffee) but otherwise it is pretty amazing. You save money b/c they sell store brands and only one type of each item (so, no 33 selections of olive oil, for example). For me, this is a plus, as it saves a lot of time! Otherwise, it is like any other grocery: some processed items, some not. |
Anonymous
| Be careful with the quality on their fruits and veggies. It's seems that they buy "aftermarket" fruits and veggies and then discount them. In other words, the avocado tastes rather bland, the oranges are sweet kinda thing. As a previous poster stated, it is hit or miss. |
Anonymous
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It is cheaper than regular grocery stores by a long shot. I'm not ready to switch to meat-buying from there, but I have enjoyed the produce and some of the various pre-packaged goods like cereal, bread, etc.
BUT - it quite often doesn't have everything I'm looking for so I end up having to go to Wegmans to finish up my list. I'm taking to a "go to Costco and Aldi once a month, then Wegmans once a week" strategy. |
Anonymous
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OP here, so it sounds like if I get all my fruits and veggies and meat at WF or Farmer's Market, I could sub in Aldis for all the other stuff and save quite a bit. Thanks! I am definitely going to try that!
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Anonymous
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When I lived in Germany, I used to go to the local Aldi to buy wonderful halved salmon that was pre-prepared with spices. It is still the best salmon I've had anywhere. I wish I knew what was in the spices. Also, they had the BEST "American" jellybeans, which were only stocked occasionally; news that "Aldi's got those jellybeans in!" resulted in floods of expats thronging the Aldi after work.
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Anonymous
One brother started Trader Joes and the other started Aldi. |
Anonymous
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I've been regularly shopping in the DC one for several years and love it and am constantly telling people about it. Yes, the prices are generally significantly cheaper than even sales prices at mainstream places. They have an increasingly large selection of organic products. However, you do have to check the labels, especially on the prepared foods (e.g, ready to eat frozen dinners), as some of them do have large amounts of sugar/fat.
Some of my regular purchases: all kinds of cereals (Cheerios equivalent is about $2/large box), crackers, cookies, fresh pizza, peanut butter, preserves, honey, breads (again quality varies, check labels - I get the 100% whole wheat sandwich bread for $1.79, and the small, dense, german-style rye and pumpernickel), cooking oil, cheese (mostly basic things like shredded mozzeralla, but they also have a few nicer cheeses; I got a very good Vermont cheddar last time, and they have fresh mozzeralla). All the basic produce is usually (but not always) good, and almost often much cheaper: baby carrots for 49 cents/bag, large bags of oranges and apples, cantelopes, etc. For pasta, make sure you find the nicer made-in-Italy stuff. Small selection of flowers, but usually $3.99 for a basic bouquet. And there's an aisle of "special purchases" - time-limited, often name brand stuff. Always fun to check it out. I usually get around 8 very full bags for under $100. |
Anonymous
Wrong. Founded by a regular American Joe (in fact, his name was Joe) then bought by Aldi in 1979: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trader_Joe%27s |
Anonymous
You do know that Wikipedia is written by every day folks and is not heavily researched or fact-checked like , let's say, Encyclopedia Brittanica? |
Anonymous
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Just go beyond the first google entry - Der Speigel is likely a better source...
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/king-of-discount-aldi-founder-theo-albrecht-dies-a-708881.html |
Anonymous
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And then here is the story about Trader Joes:
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/07/opinion/la-oe-morrison-joe-coulombe-043011 Started by a guy named Joe - who sold it to the Trust owned by the Albrecht brothers. |