Our store is really dirty and has an awful smell. I don't shop there. It is All Dees.

In my area, it's referred to as Al Dee (no "s"). Yeah, very "low rent" appearance inside -- dirty, poor lighting, products stacked in their cardboard shipping boxes with one side cut away stacked to create aisles, zero help finding anything. Bring your own bags.

I would feel a little unsafe going there by myself even though it's actually in a decent part of town. My oldest loves it because the cheap prices works with his food budget.

They just put in several around here. They are in nice areas so pretty well kept. I went a few times but just didn't find enough to draw me back regularly. On occasion I see something in the flier I will go for. I do like their own brand of products like chips, cereal, crackers etc. Produce is always iffy and not a very good selection of meat. They are very small stores and not really easy to get around in.
Worth going by to check it out.

One just moved into a former Office Depot space in Northern Virginia (there are a couple others in my neck of the woods). I've not shopped there myself yet. But my sister has gone to one where she lives in Missouri and likes the product variety and prices. I had seen msgs on another forum about it being dark, dreary, overripe produce, a mouse problem -- I didn't see those issues in the Missouri store.

One thing I liked when I went with her is the grocery cart system: To keep down on stray carts in the parking lot, I think you pay a quarter to get the cart and then when you return it, you get the quarter back (if I understood my sister correctly). It's so annoying to start to pull into an on-the-diagonal space at other grocery stores only to find that someone left a cart between you and the facing car!

Pammy, a number of our stores have the locks where you have to pay, and then get your money refunded. They run anywhere from a quarter to a loonie ($1 coin)

Other stores have magnetized locks on the wheels where they automatically lock up if people try to take them off the property. It doesn't help with them taking up parking spaces though.

I am a Kroger shopper too, but when I am in the neighborhood where the Aldi's is, I often stop there. The store is nice and clean. They just added a liquor section, though I didn't stop to see what they had.

I like their brand snacks too, and their fudge stripe cookies are as good as Keebler's. They have good mini croissants too. And I like their bread.

I don't always remember to bring a bag with me, but you can buy a plastic or paper bag if you need it.

I don't have an Aldi close to me, nearest is 50 mi. but I do like them and make an occasional trip to stock up. The ones here, in Missouri, are very clean, produce is excellent and priced well.
If I forget to bring my own bags, I usually can find an empty box to fill with my groceries or buy one of their readily available bags.
Guess it depends on where you live and the management of the store on some of problems.

Here's how it's pronounced (their own commercial), so there's no guessing.

:)

Here is a link that might be useful: Aldi's commercial

We have 2 in my area and they are both cleaner than most other stores around....In fact, I try to only shop there but there are some things they don't carry....It really bothers me to go to another grocery store (Walmart included) and see the same item priced a lot higher....Bananas are bananas and our Aldi has them for 39 cents a lb. but Walmart has the same banana for 59 cents a lb....
You use your own bags and "rent" a cart for 25 cents and I'm sure that helps keep down the costs...But, I have met the nicest people shopping at Aldi and there's always someone who will, when done with their cart, just give it to you and say, "pass it along".......

I don't care how it's pronounced, they get my business and we love them......

I absolutely love Aldi. Our store is spotless all the time, and the employees are very nice and efficient. I always go there first and buy everything I can there. I've been very happy with the quality of everything, and the prices are much lower than anywhere else. Our Aldi is packed every time I go there, and that's a testimony to how popular it is here.

I think cleanliness, etc., depends on the manager, Our Aldi is very nice. My son-in-law used to be a snob and wouldn't shop there, but with a business reversal thinks it's okay! Most of their products are great, you just don't usually find specialty items or diet food in abundance.

Have a friend that purchases fruits and veggies there.

I go occasionally,

We now have 3 fairly close and they are always neat and clean.

I know a few people who look down their noses at shopping at Aldi, and do all of their shopping at Publix. Well, good for them, but I can get three times as much for my money.

I don't understand why so many people insist on making it the possessive or plural. It's Aldi, pronounced "All D". People don't say "Walmart's", "Target's" or the like. FWIW, it stands for Albrecht Discount. And you don't rent the carts, it's simply a small deposit to encourage people to return the cart. It's funny what people will do for 25¢.

It's really an interesting history. Two brothers, whose parents started the Albrecht store and the boys took it over, expanded it and got into a fight on whether to sell cigarettes or not so they essentially split the world in half. They became Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd. You can tell the difference by the logo. And a sister store is known as Trader Joe's. Even though they split up, they still share some things like distributing, purchasing power and the like. I guess your enemy can be your friend when it comes to money!

Stores vary on cleanliness like any other chain of store. Most of them in this area are pretty well kept all things considered. Keep in mind the business model is minimal staff. Often it's the manager and one employee running the store in non-packed hours. And they have to check people out, stock the store, clean and do everything else. Those people work hard.

I like that it's a small store. It's cripple-compatible in many ways. I can hobble around there and get out in a reasonable time. I don't see many people in there in wheelchairs but the aisles here are plenty wide for them. Most of the stores are comparable sized and laid out much the same. They don't have shelves stacked to the ceilings so I have no trouble reaching things. Some probably will I imagine. Boxes are available if you don't want to bring bags or carry things loose.

Of course it'll vary from area to area but around here produce is usually pretty good quality and cheap by comparison. I won't touch produce at Walmart, it's consistently bad but Aldi GENERALLY has much better quality.

Ironically, when I first started getting so crippled up, Aldi had canes for $6. That's less than a third of the W store and most any place else. And they are good quality. I bought two to have one as a spare. Little did I realize I would get more crippled and need both.

They have special purchases from cookware (and most people are very satisfied with the coated cast iron they have a couple times a year). I've purchased USB drives, lawn chairs and more. I like Aldi. I don't shop there often but I'm glad they're around. And apparently a lot of people like it because they are a very fast-growing chain. Many think it would be in the low income areas only but they seem to do even better in the higher end parts of town. Most people like to save money.

It is NOT a store you go to for everything unless you are an unusually basic shopper. But then again, few stores are these days. I find myself having to shop several different places to get what I want.

It's a no-frills place and shopped correctly, you can save some money. If you want people to bag your groceries for you, provide bags and wait on you hand and foot, go elsewhere. It's not the Aldi business model.

All-D (no s)

And I rarely shop there.... mainly because they don't take credit. That and no name brands.
I can do just as well elsewhere for most things they carry.

I don't shop there I like brand names and it's to far out of the way to go there.

My sister loves those stores and gets good buys there.

Cynic, good to see you back, but sorry to know about your problems. I can sympathize with you to a great deal. When it opens here I will definitely give it a try, but since I don't use cash ever any more, it will have to be super good to get me as a customer.

Sue

cynic, you got the story about Trader Joe's a bit wrong. The chain was started and well developed by a guy in SoCal. Some years later he sold it to Aldi North. It's a subsidiary of North, not a sister company. The broad geographic expansion out of California has all happened since North bought it.

(Funny that you used the "s" and apostrophe with Joe's name without noticing. Many market names end in "s", some with the apostrophe and some without. In olden days, as I'm sure you know, grocery stores were often "Bob's Market, George's Market", and I think the habit sticks in use even when that's not part of the name as with Aldi.)

As far as not bagging your groceries, that's not an exclusively Aldi practice. That's the case in most all grocery stores in Europe. There too, the cashier will slide out a bag (and charge you for it) when requested if you didn't bring your own carrying implements, but upon completing the payment transaction, they'll put down a divider or otherwise separate your things from those belonging to the next customer, and simply move on. Aldi (South) operates its North American Aldi markets with similar practices as with its markets in Germany.

(edit for one misspelling)

This post was edited by snidely on Tue, Feb 3, 15 at 23:42

I've been to the one in Ocala, FL and in Cambridge, MN.
Both clean. Produce way better than WalMart. Milk way cheaper. We have gotten meat, very good.
We are very happy with both of the stores we go to.

I've tried shopping there a couple times and found nothing I wanted to buy. I have a friend who swears by it. She buys more processed foods like lunch meat and snacks - stuff I don't buy.

Okay, I think I have a pretty good idea now of what Aldi is like and I will check it out. Like every thing else "different strokes for different folks." I will check it out.

Thanks for the info.

Sue