Aldi Food Stores Review

I have heard lots about the Aldi stores.  I finally took my first trip there a few weeks ago and I was pleasantly surprised.  This place rocks!

One of the first things I noticed is when you arrive you must A: bring your own bags (or buy some from the store) and B: you must put a quarter into the cart in order to access it.  No biggie, you get the quarter back once you return your cart, and one of the reasons they are able to keep such low prices is by cutting the overhead on stuff like that.

This place is GREAT for certain things, and they need improvement in other areas.  Personally I will not buy milk, eggs, flour, sugar, pasta anywhere else.  They are DIRT cheap there.  The store is small, and the food items are kept in the boxes they are shipped in, but if you can get past that, you will save some major money there (especially if you have kids).  They do a good job keeping up with the current trends you can find quite a bit for more than half of what it would cost at a local grocery store.  Their Fit and Active line is great for 100 calorie snack packs, yogurt and cereals.  Concentrated fruit juices, cream soups, and canned goods are also a major steal.  If you buy juice pouches, or fruit snacks for your kids, then you can pick those items up for super cheap at Aldi.  All of their cereal is under $2.00 per box which is great considering cereal can run upwards of $4.00 nowadays.

With all that being said, there are a few things I would not purchase.  First and foremost, their meat.  If you look closely all of their meat is "Select Grade".  I prefer Choice or Prime cuts of meat.  I also noticed that all of their meat contains a certain amount of water/solution added and it's actually quite a bit (between 10-29%!)  Thanks but no thanks.  I also tend to shy away from the produce, because although it is cheap you need to eat it relatively quickly.  Since I live alone, that's hard to do and I've found myself throwing away fresh fruit.

When all is said and done, Aldi is definitely a place to go and check out, especially if you're looking to tighten your belt a bit (and who isn't).  It's a wonderful place to pick up 'pantry staples' and I think you will be like me...pleasantly surprised.