This is a no frills place. The carts are all outside, making more room inside. As soon as you walk in, you are in the snack and chips aisle. I decided to look around first to see what kind of stuff they had because I felt kinda like I was in the Big Lots of grocery stores. But, it's not like that at all. Aldi, I recently learned, is actually pretty consistent with their offerings. This is the type of place my dad would like because they only have one or two choices in brands of items. If you want noodles, you get Aldi store brand egg noodles, elbow, spaghetti, bow-tie or one or two other types, but only one brand, which I don't mind. At first I thought that would cause a monopoly on prices, and it sort of does - the cheapest prices! When I saw how much a bag of flour tortillas was compared to the other places I shop, I got so mad that I almost swallowed my tongue. At Aldi I paid just about $2 and at Kroger or Walmart I know they are more than that. The only place I can think of to get tortillas cheaper is either Fiesta market or some bodega in the Hispanic neighborhoods (which I sometimes shop just to try to practice speaking Spanish). The only thing I bought that I'm not completely happy with is the coffee. I'm a little bit of a coffee snob, but I decided to give this "Donut Shop" brand a try. It's just okay, better than Foldgers (blah!!)
Anyway, I enjoyed this place, not only because I got what I normally get from my list plus a few treats and paid lots less dollars ( I only spent $50 today and expected to spend almost $75!), but it was also calm and pleasant and CLEAN in there. I didn't get any bad looks from anyone shopping, like "what are you doing here?" And, the checkout girl, Bridget, was very pleasant and helpful.
I found this blog post from the girls over at "Gimme Some Oven" about shopping at Aldi. It's a lot more verbose than my post, but a good read.
1 comment:
We have an Aldi. My dad used to call it All-Die. He would travel an hour each week to get groceries because they were so much cheaper there, but I know it was just an excuse to come and see his only grandchild.
I should shop there more, but it's on the other side of town. The produce is so much fresher than at WallyWorld or County Market.
Liked the cartoon. It has to do with the cart corral, doesn't it? The carts are locked up. You put in a quarter and release a cart from its holding pen. Then when you unload your groceries into your car, you return the cart to it's pen and get your quarter back. I can't be bothered with that. I just shove it at the next person to arrive on the scene and they're always so happy to get a free cart.
Anything to make folks happy...that's me!
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