I have received a number of emails asking about the ALDI stores. Many questions have been asked and it became apparent to me that ALDI is not in every state in America. I am going to use this post to answer these questions and explain the ALDI concept.
Where is ALDI?
Although ALDI is based in Germany, ALDI is currently in 29 states and has 1,000 stores in America. ALDI is huge in Germany and across Europe where consumers are much more likely to buy private label or “generic” brands of most grocery items. Many Americans haven’t caught on to the private label concept. Private label brands comprise over 50% of sales in Europe and it is well known that private label brands have a high quality. Americans are slow to catch on. When Con Agra’s Peter Pan brand of peanut butter was pulled from the shelves due to recall, it was no coincidence that Wal-Mart’s brand was also pulled.
What is ALDI?
The company started with a concept similar to that of Wal-Mart. They wanted to offer low priced goods all the time without a lot of frills. The guys that started ALDI are no-nonsense. Many of the business practices from their German stores are used in America. These practices include: turnstiles that guide customers out the door after shopping, charging for bags, allowing customers to bring their own bags or boxes, charging a coin deposit to use a cart (to encourage the return of carts), “bankers hours,” the low price policy, and no acceptance of coupons. The stores in America will accept cash, certain debit cards, and Discover cards. Visa and Mastercard are not accepted unless they are debit cards and part of ALDI’s list of accepted networks.
What is unique about ALDI?
Their stores contain mostly private label or “generic” goods that in most cases are identical to the name brands that are available. Some gourmet or specialty items from Germany are also sold under various ALDI brand names. Our local stores have carried prosciutto, chicken sausage, and various other items that cannot be found at other discount grocery stores. The stores are not decorated. Pallets of their products are stacked beside each other with most of these products being displayed in their own boxes.
The checkers are also very fast. The staff at the stores generally consists of a manager, a checker, and one other person stocking items. No assistance is provided to customers beyond answering questions. This is not the place to go if you want to chat it up with a clerk or require someone to carry your groceries to the car. If you are slow, you may want to consider going during non-peak hours.
How I use ALDI
I use ALDI for most canned goods, many seasonings, sugar, milk, butter, cheese, sausage, rice, certain pastas, breads, produce, soups, tortillas, and bread. We don’t shop for everything at ALDI. Some of their private label items are great and some are not. Most of their private label brands are just as good as the name brands. Their canned fruit is excellent and their milk is produced by the same people that make the name brand milk (I saw the name brand truck delivering it to the store!). Their private label version of cheese crackers is not an acceptable substitute for Cheez-Its. We love to eat Cheez-Its and those are so good that a generic is just not an acceptable substitute. I like their canned black beans. We occasionally buy some of their unique and seasonal items like chicken sausage, prosciutto, chorizo, Mexican cheese, and others. Their stores are known to make special purchases on name brands and they keep a big display of those boxes as well. I sometimes find things I like on display there. If you live in one of the 29 states that has an ALDI in America, give it a try and be open minded. If saving money is important to you and you are willing to put forth some effort, you will be rewarded with a lot of savings. Another thing I like about the ALDI store is that I can keep track of our 3 year old son in there. The stores are small enough that he can walk around and I can keep my eye on him.
I do not purchase meat, canned tuna, or cleaning supplies at ALDI. I like their frozen Salmon filets and their frozen stir fry vegetable mix. I encourage you to try ALDI if you need to save money on groceries. When you shop there the savings will pile up item by item. You will save approximately 20%-30% over other grocery stores. We end up using our savings to subsidize either a trip to a restaurant or a high end meat or fish market purchase.
Aldi is one of my favorite places to shop because of the low prices and their high quality store brand products. I do find that I miss items while shopping at Aldi though because of their store layout. Don’t get me wrong, the layout is what helps Aldi to keep their prices low by keeping their aisles stocked with product that arrives in its original shipping box on a crate. We’re not paying for pretty, nicely lined shelves of products at Aldi. We’re paying less because someone didn’t have to neatly arrange each item on the shelf and then rearrange it later after a dozen customers rummaged through the shelf looking for just the right product.
