In Praise of Aldi

This is just my humble tribute to that pint-sized money saving German powerhouse, your local neighborhood Aldi store.

For those of you who are not already converts, Aldi is a chain grocery store found mostly in the Central and Eastern time zones that specializes in saving you ridiculous amounts of money on your groceries. It does this by managing to run the entire store with what appears to be only one person, eschewing most mainstream brand names, and thinking outside the box by avoiding other unnecessary costs like shelves, plastic bags, and advertising. They also choose cheap locations, because they get their business by reputation, not being at the biggest intersection.

For an idea of exactly how cheap Aldi is, I offer you a comparison. In the United States of Box Stores, Wal-mart is generally considered to be the Goliath of cheap groceries. Yet, in a highly scientific study I conducted in a grocery run for some of the most basic kitchen staples, David beat Goliath—Aldi was 8% cheaper. In fact, looking at the six area grocery stores, Aldi was the cheapest option for milk, olive oil, yogurt, cheese, bread, eggs, bananas, broccoli, onions, yams, and pasta. They have five-pound bags of flour for $1.49, forpetessake. At Aldi, the $50 grocery list becomes the $40 grocery list.

And, unlike Wal-mart, when you buy Aldi brand, you don’t feel like you’re buying food that’s been augmented with the bones of Chinese children. Although you may miss some of your favorite name brands (no Oreos, Kraft Mac & Cheese, or Pepsi here), they make up for it by having delicious European chocolate, mini quiches, fancy cheese, and baklava trays—all on the cheap. A couple of my particular favorites are dried cherries, honey goat cheese, and tri-color pepper tray. Yum!

Ok, I know you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, so here it is: They could stand to improve their produce section. The selection is limited and most of it is not in a cooled section, so while the peppers are great, the moister produce like fresh berries and greens get spotty.

But the thing is, you don’t shop at Aldi for the produce. Here’s what my partner and I do: We make a list of what we want. We start at Aldi and get everything we can from the list. Then, we go to Wegmans (king of produce) and I get my apples and kale. We also get name-brand stuff there, as well as specific things like blackberry jam or cumin. Generally, $40 is spent at each store. We eat deliciously.

If you’re a person of principle as well as penny-pinching, you will find two other benefits to shopping at Aldi. Because they run the store with so few people, they can apparently afford to compensate their cashiers quite well–$11.50 an hour is what the store advertises when they’re hiring here. And these people are so well trained, too. They have a smile for everyone, and their hands are an absolute blur at checkout. Environmentalists, you will be thrilled to learn that Aldi does not even OFFER plastic bags. People who left their own bags at home can purchase cloth ones or re-use one of the store’s cardboard boxes. Excellent.

So, have I sold you yet? If you’re ready to jump on the Aldi train, there are two things you should remember to bring: your own bags and a quarter. Bring your own bags for the reason mentioned above, and a quarter so you can “rent” your cart. But also make sure you bring a list and a full stomach–you’re going to see a whole lot of delicious food and Aldi isn’t cheap anymore if you go overboard on chili chocolate and Brie.

For further reading, the Times did a story on them in 2011.