I don't think I've been in an Aldi more than twice in 3 or 4 decades (save for when I was stationed in Germany, where I went occasionally). I've heard they've gotten better over the years.
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I think I've been in an Aldi once. I went in to check it out, as it was new to me. I probably have 4-5 within 5 miles of me now. I also found it small, didn't have really anything I wanted or needed, and I haven't had any interest in going back. Feel same about Trader Joe's.Comment
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We have both an older and a brand new store near us. I agree, the older stores are small, cramped, and dingy feeling, like a back corner of a Home Depot. The new stores are a breath of fresh air, super clean, well lit, roomy, dare I say gorgeous for a grocery store. -
Yes! For some reason one of my daughters and her husband rave about Trader Joe's, but I think it's mostly for a big assortment of frozen convenience foods that are probably bad for you. I've been in there twice, and it was just a slightly upscale version of Aldi's, and if anything, I felt it had less that I would want to buy. -
TJ's has a handful of products I really like (their low-sodium soy sauce comes to mind), but not enough that I shop there more that 2 or 3 times per year. TJs is apparently affiliated the other Aldi's, not the one we see in the U.S., but its sister company that operates in certain areas of Germany (both operate in Germany, as I understand it).
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I go weekly to our closest one. It's fairly well managed and clean. Same for the next closest one. I buy either lettuce, arugula mix, or spring-mix, blackberries, avocados, green olives, parmesan crisps, bacon bits, canned tuna (sometimes), one of the cheap packaged cheeses (varies by what's on sale), whole milk yogurt (been out of stock lately), cottage cheese, eggs, and occasionally some of their frozen steam-pack veggies, like broccoli florets, brussels sprouts, or cauliflower.
Every once in a while I'll pick up a spice or two, if I'm running low and they carry it.
I usually walk out of there for about $30-$35 although prices rose for awhile (but at least eggs are coming down).
Side note: The blackberries and yogurt I eat mixed together (or sub cottage cheese for the yogurt), the rest becomes my salad for what I call "the meat delivery system". This is my lunch everyday, with the protein being whatever I may have cooked over the weekend or have vac-sealed in the freezer, or the canned tuna.
Most times I just buy a pound of gyro meat from a local Greek restaurant and add that in to the salad. My boss is on roughly the same food choices, so we go together on the gyro meat. We've dubbed it "Mystery Meat". They know us by name and number now when we call for pickup.
That adds $9.00 to my grand total making it between $30 and $40 per the 5 day work week to feed me. Been doing this for the past 2 years.
I've been to a couple, in rougher neighborhoods, and yeah, ain't going back to those. Dirty and disorganized. Plus, they'll be out of something at the one store, but the other will have it. And not all the stores carry the same things, so it can be frustrating if you're looking for that one thing.
Other than buying their prepackaged beef sausage once in a blue moon, I don't buy their meats. Of the few prepackaged ones I've tried, they seem kinda bland. Our local Kroger usually has better prices on chicken, pork, and sometimes beef.
Another Side note: My wife's uncle's nephew is one of their executives. Had to move to England for awhile and was featured on House Hunters for an episode. Now he and his family is back in the states. We'll probably see them this coming weekend.Comment
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I like Aldi, shop there once a week. Ours has fresh produce and is very clean and well-stocked. Employees are always hustling in there cleaning and restocking. I agree that other stores in less desirable areas are definitely lacking in cleanliness and stock. I like their salmon and occasionally buy a skirt steak. Bagged salads are good for my lunches where I'll add a protein. Great cheese selection and their take n' bake pizzas are pretty good too. One thing I always stay stocked up on is ziploc style freezer bags. Super cheap and work extremely well. They have a white cheddar bagged popcorn that is awesome and a solid nut selection too. Always pleasantly surprised how much my total is after checkout, way cheaper than any other grocery store here.Last edited by Hulagn1971; June 11, 2025, 11:52 AM.Comment
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I regularly buy their corned beef to make pastrami. The prices are good and the meat is decent. Sometimes I'll buy stuff like spaghetti or marinara sauce and dried noodles. The one near me is a nice store; large and clean.Comment
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We use Aldi. My wife got some good "never frozen" salmon a couple of weeks ago that had beautiful color and taste. She usually will stop there first to get good prices on staples and deals then finish up at Publix or Walmart.Comment
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I've had repeated great experiences with their steak, ribs, and salmon.Comment
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I've shopped in two different Aldi's, one back in Alexandria and one here in Pittsburgh. Both are exceptionally clean and the employees are really helpful. You cannot beat their everyday prices, unless another store has a sale.
We shop at the one here in PGH a couple of times a month. Last trip they had grass fed skirt steak on sale. It made some absolutely baller fajitas. I've also had good luck with their chicken and pork.
The biggest problem I have with them is that they seem to have a hard time keeping things in stock. That gets annoying.Comment
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A new one opened near me about 5 months ago. Haven't made it over there yet.
It's on my to do list, but I'm a master procrastinator.
Maybe this weekend.....or maybe not
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I was just there to buy a pound of breakfast sausage. They had three pound chunks of pork belly for $2.99/lb, which I think is $1.50/lb less than Costco was a couple weeks ago, and Large/Grade A eggs are down to $2.72.Comment
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All of the Aldi stores I've been too here in Huntsville are clean and pretty well kept. I agree that their stock is limited - its a small store - but what they have that we have tried has been good. I feel the produce is sometimes sub-par however.
The biggest thing that has me check them on occasion is that being a German owned business (Aldi in the US and many other countries is operated by Aldi Sud), they often have true German sausages for sale, especially towards Oktoberfest season.
Trader Joes is owned by Aldi Nord.
Story I read online is that the brothers split the business into two halves (Nord/Sud) back in the 1960's because of a disagreement on whether or not to sell cigarettes in the stores.
I bought a nice steak there once, but do not recall it being anything especially cheap.Comment
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We are huge Aldi fans here and buy most of our food there. I usually don’t buy meat I smoke there as I prefer Costco, but the regular meat we use for other meals is certainly very good. Anything we cannot get, we use Meijers.
We also use Instacart+ to get discounted car pickup and free Peacock sub.Comment
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Other than Aldi, I consider it the best “local” big supermarket. It is a very good grocery/market store. Jerod Broussard -
Correction, the closest Aldi is an hour from me. Meijers is MULTIPLE states from me.
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Been to two here in Tyler, both clean cheap and actually good product.
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Made my first trek to Aldi yesterday.
I was looking to take advantage of the sales on meat. Not much in stock. They had no tri tip, or skirt steak in stock. Maybe i need to get there earlier in the day 🤷♂️
I did pick up a few packs of the grass fed ground beef for the freezer.
Their non sale prices looked to be pretty good.
I picked up a few other items that caught my fancy as I walked the aisles.
aisles.Items that I don't see in other stores.The cantaloupe that I bought was good.
The store was pretty clean and organized, overall.
I can definitely see this being a place that will supplement my normal shopping routine for certain itemsComment
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Finster The best day to shop that I've found is Wednesday mornings about 10am. I stopped by yesterday for some skirt steak and tri-tip. Found 3 skirts but no tri-tip. The skirt steak was grass fed and I almost missed it because it was in a different part of the meat section, not with the other skirt steaks. The sale stuff will have a red price tag attached to the cooler instead of the usual white one. That makes it easier to spot when looking for special sale items.
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