I’ve fallen in love with the deep-discount grocery store, Aldi, and I talk about it with such enthusiasm that you could call me an Aldivangelist. The store has been around for a couple decades, and I actually remember my mom shopping there when I was in middle school. My impression of the chain back then was that it was a kind of weird, Eastern-European store of generic goods that was appealing only behind the Iron Curtain. My dad described it as having aisles of plain-labeled cans, all of which said “food.” The place sounded scary.
When Aldi first moved to Omaha, however, I decided to give them a try. It was a very different store from what I expected. While many of the items that I used regularly were simply not available (frozen spinach for instance), I was surprised at what was available — things like sweet potato fries, whole lobsters, brie, and a wide variety of wine. This was far better than the rows of nondescript staples I’d grown up hearing about. Of course, almost every item on the shelf was a “private label,” so I had to buy Millville, Happy Farms, and Mama Cozzi’s instead of General Mills, Kraft, and Prego.
What many people love best about deep discounters like Aldi are the low prices. Here are a couple tips:
- Keep your eyes open for anything hand-written. Items on clearance that need to be moved out the door can go for a fraction of their original price, which at Aldi was probably a deal to begin with.
- Find out when fresh meat will be coming into the store. Our Aldi restocks in the middle of the week, so that means meat on the shelf goes for half-price the day before. I try to buy in bulk and freeze it in plastic bags when this happens.
My favorite feature of Aldi, however, isn’t the price — it’s the efficiency of the store itself. You’ll notice that an Aldi store is small and compact. You won’t find an entire aisle dedicated to condiments — you’ll find just a few feet of shelf space and one choice per product. This saves me a great deal of time, because I don’t have to walk for miles going from one end of the store to another, and I don’t have to waste time comparing labels on multiple brands — I just grab the one available and move along. The aisles are laid out so everyone travels in rapid progression toward the checkout aisles, and there aren’t giant crates of distracting goods sitting everywhere to interrupt the traffic flow.
So if you’re lucky enough to have an Aldi in your area, give it a try. Before you go, however, there are a few things you’ll want to know in advance:
- To use a shopping cart, you’ll need a quarter. You’ll get it back when you’re done, but by inserting a small quarter as a “deposit” when you take one of the carts, you’re pretty much guaranteed to bring it back. This keeps the cashiers inside and ringing people up instead of corralling carts all day.
- Bring bags or buy your own. Aldi had pretty sturdy plastic bags that cost ten cents each, and they can be re-used several times. I also have a collection of canvas bags that work just as well.
- You can only pay with cash, a debit card (with PIN), or in some cases Discover. Don’t get your groceries and then discover in the checkout aisle that you can’t pay for them.
Happy shopping!