My family gave grocery shopping at ALDI an honest chance for three months. Grocery inflation has skyrocketed over the last few years, and we’re always trying to get our grocery costs down.
The Shopping Experience
I don’t mind using a quarter for the shopping cart, since it keeps the carts stocked at the front. But my spouse hates that part. We don’t mind bagging our own groceries, since we often do that at other grocery stores. The checkout process is expedient, and everything rings up the correct price (not something I can say about most other stores).
ALDI stores are much smaller than regular grocery stores, so there’s less traversing when searching for the items on your list. There are fewer choices because they mainly carry their brand, except for a few name brands on the shelves. So no decision fatigue. And there’s no need to keep up with coupons there. It is less crowded than regular stores (at least early in the morning when I shop).
Quality
The quality is ok…but just ok. Here’s the rundown by section.
Produce
Occasionally, their produce spoils quickly, and citrus fruits can sometimes be a bit dried out inside. The flavor of some produce is disappointing, likely due to modern farming practices where crops are picked too early and chemically ripened later, which diminishes both taste and nutrition. ALDI certainly isn’t the only company guilty of that.
A large portion of their produce comes exclusively in plastic packaging, such as the broccoli pictured above. It’s on a plastic tray, wrapped in plastic wrap. The broccoli is cheaper, but I can get broccoli crowns without packaging at Publix or Whole Foods for not much more.
Cherry tomatoes, which are almost always sold in plastic packaging, regardless of the store, were cheaper at ALDI. One brand sold at both ALDI and Whole Foods was $2 more at Whole Foods.
Meat
The meat is ok, but questionable at times. The chicken seems fine, though not as flavorful as organic chicken. The ground meat has a lot of “sludge” in it, which I think is just water content. The “sludge” cooks off, but makes the meat seem pasty and less meaty. We’ve also seen some pretty extreme discoloration.
To maximize savings, we bought meat in bulk at ALDI, then portioned it out using plastic zipper bags before freezing it. Although I don’t like using plastic, it was a necessary part of our ALDI experiment.
But one time in those three months, we caught ALDI overcharging for chicken. They charged for the total weight of the package of chicken, including the plastic tray and absorbent meat pad. We purchased just over 3 pounds of chicken, and when we took it out of the package and weighed it with zipper bags, it weighed just 2 pounds 12 ounces.
What a rip-off! This means we should have paid just under $11, not over $12. This probably happens far more than I know, and at other stores too. I wish we’d checked every time. We’re trying to make a practice of checking now, regardless of where we shop.
Frozen fish
The frozen fish is ok…but not always. We bought a pack of frozen salmon like the one above. To my dismay, each fillet comes sealed in its own individual plastic pouch. Worse still, on one occasion, we purchased a pack and found an unidentifiable “mystery” fillet in it. It might have been tilapia or another type of white fish…but it was not salmon. It was a different color and texture. That’s why we called it the mystery fillet. Unfortunately, we forgot to photo-document this experience.
Cheese
Overall, they do offer a large variety of cheeses. However, we found most lacked flavor.
Eggs
We never tried the eggs since they weren’t cheaper than what we buy at our regular stores.
Pantry
Some items are not cheaper at ALDI. Organic pasta, for example, is about 30 cents cheaper at Whole Foods. But olive oil, avocado oil, and spices are cheaper at ALDI…at least sometimes. I think the quality is lower on these items, though. If you shop the sales at regular supermarkets, you can often buy name-brand equivalents for the same price.
Processed Foods
Crackers, chips, granola bars, cereal, and breads at most supermarkets are suspiciously full of too many ingredients, unless they are organic/non-GMO. ALDI’s brand is no exception. Here is the ingredient list from a pack of bagels:
Cost
Did we save money? A little bit.
But not much. We don’t buy many processed foods, which might be where the biggest savings at ALDI lie. Instead, we mainly focus on fruits, vegetables, nuts, cheese, and a bit of meat. Our greatest savings came from pantry staples like oils and spices.
That said, the prices are hit or miss. Some items are cheaper, while others cost more. I think it really depends on what other supermarket options are nearby and the sales they have running.
Shopping at ALDI also did not eliminate the need for us to go to other stores, simply because they just don’t carry that much variety.
Packaging
Everything comes in plastic packaging, often excessive packaging. This is not a place for zero waste and plastic reduction. This is a big deal for me, obviously. ALDI also has a section of household items, toys, etc., that are full of plastic packaging and likely chemicals. Those are not things we buy and therefore cannot save money on.
Will we return to ALDI?
There were parts we didn’t mind – like bagging our own groceries with our own cloth bags. We’d do that anyway.
Did we save enough money to warrant the sacrifice in quality? I don’t think so.
Last, the excessive plastic packaging is somewhat of a deal-breaker for me. We have to save money where we can, but at other stores, I can buy things like produce without packaging.
So, the answer is, we may shop at ALDI occasionally. But it will never replace our regular grocery shopping.
Have you tried ALDI? What was your experience? Feel free to leave me a comment about it. Thanks for reading, please share and subscribe!
