Fantastic! You were lucky.

Well, I went to my first Aldi today! It was the one in Saint Cloud... I have a mail box there from when I used to live there so I stopped because I was in the area anyway doing errands. It was very clean! Of course it is brand new. I was a little overwhelmed and only spent about 15 minutes in there. The problem for me is that if I see junk food, I will buy it. If I buy it, I will eat it! So, at a regular grocery store, I COMPLETELY skip the cookies/crackers/chips aisles... I don't even look down them! At Alidi, junk and convenience food abounds! It is right in your face because the store is so small. It's in colorful packages at cheap prices, and it's very hard to resist buying! I managed to walk out with a ham for half the price I saw them for at Wal-mart and a gallon of moose tracks ice cream. I wanted to make split pea soup, and have been waiting for a better price on hams (20 bucks is jut too much for me to be OK with spending for one ham!). The young lady who checked me out at the register was friendly and fast. She was sitting on a stool... and had blond hair, half of which was spray painted pink! Certainly not your typical supermarket! I told a friend about Aldi, and he said he'd shop there just because they let their cashiers sit down! I caught myself wishing that some dominatrix had been standing at the door ready to apply manacles to me before crossing the threshold so I wouldn't have snagged any junk food during my Aldi endeavor. Alas, my self control was enough... after all, I only bought the ice cream for medicinal purposes. I woke up with a sore throat today (really I did!), and bought the ice cream solely to numb the pain.

Good old GOOGLE! I found 3 Crate and Barrels in our area. Will check them out on Monday.

I have found Aldis can vary greatly. For many years I'd avoided them like the plague--because the one near me was absolutely disgusting. Filthy, produce rotting (and smelling), etc. Then I moved and on the recommendation of a couple of other local food writers, I checked out a couple in this area. They're wonderful--clean, bright, easy to shop in. They are a good place to get imported goods at a good price. But I do need to add this--the local Walmart is also quite clean and decent as well. I have noticed that in this 'new' area, people take a lot more pride in doing their jobs well-even if they do work in a discount store.