I do! I buy lots of staples there, like chips, dairy, canned goods. If you prefer brand name products, you might be disappointed. I don't really care, so I go there regularly. Their weekly produce specials are sometimes terrific. Last week they had avocados for .49. Their produce seems to not last as long, and some of it comes in quantities that I don't need, but I just watch it week to week.

The cart thing isn't a charge. You put the quarter in, but when you return the cart to the corral, you get your quarter back. But take your own bags, you have to pay for those. Which is fine by me, I have lots of cloth bags.

Our Aldis just started taking credit cards last week. Yay! I don't use a debit card, so every time I went there I had to conjure up cash. No more!

We have one that just opened a few months ago and at first I felt like you that there as nothing there. However, I find their produce specials VERY Good (and cheap) and their own brand of Greek Yogurt and Cottage Cheese is very good and quite a bit cheaper. That's about all I buy but I do buy it regularly.

I understand that they have common ownership (? not 100% clear on this ) as Trader Joe's....so I suspect their own brand on things might be worth investigating. Ours too says they will soon be taking credit cards.

I don't shop there regularly because ours is inconvenient for me, but I agree with aok about canned goods and produce. It's not a place I'd buy everything, but they do have some very good deals, although they're like Trader Joe's in that you can't rely on their always having the same things.

EDIT. Yes, they are owned by the same folks who own TJs.

Love Aldi's. Go there weekly. Can't beat the produce, cereal, milk, eggs, cheese... I don't buy everything there. I'm fussy about my peanut butter and a couple of other name brand items. But I save so much money by shopping at Aldi's that I can't NOT go. Plus they have weird stuff that is fun to buy, household items, toys and seasonal items. The shopping cart system is to save money for us all. By getting our cart and returning it to the stall, and bagging our own food in our own bags, it saves on their overhead charges. I don't mind. I like bagging my own food because I put all like things together in one bag.

This is timely.. as yesterday I was just thinking this a good time of year for aldi. My aldi has great prices on great looking produce in spring and summer (apparently not all are as good). Baby mixed greens, lemons, avocados, berries, onions, peppers, zucchini are all good. I like to go to the farmer's market come summer but it's great for this time of year and good for a quick stop.

I don't buy a lot of dairy but their prices on dairy and butter are good. I also buy their hummus and tortillas.

Was not at all impressed with their salad dressings.. trying to remember other things I didn't care for but I am drawing blanks.

There was a thread here about 2 years ago with many people weighing in on what they like/dislike..

I have 3 Aldi's within a reasonable driving distance, but haven't shopped there. I believe it's owned by the same corporation that owns Trader Joes.

Here are some helpful articles that compare the 2.

http://www.kiplinger.com/article/spending/T050-C011-S001-5-reasons-you-should-shop-at-aldi.html

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-aldi-stacks-up-against-trader-joes-for-your-grocery-dollars-2015-07-24

Student gave me a bag of pistachios from Aldi as a Christmas gift. Best pistachios ever! We have one store nearby. I need to make a point of going there!

Well after reading the two articles above I see why I didn't find much there. Don't eat a lot of meat, cheese, gluten free, organic, chia seeds or other trendy foods. Next time I drive by one I think I'll check out the produce though and take another look in general. I like Trader Joe's even though I only buy a few things there so maybe I'll find a few things I'd want at Aldi.

I have never been, but some of the master gardeners I know regularly shop there for produce.

I love ours. We shop there as well as two other places occasionally to fill in the gaps (they're all near each other so it's not out of the way). I've seen posters comment the food was horrible and I don't get it unless you're comparing to certain processed name brands (chips, mayo and salad dressing come to mind). Even at that I haven't tried too many gross things. I've actually seem the same bags of lemons and sweet potatoes in other stores priced higher. Our store is very clean and consistent with having things well stocked and fresh. Maybe they're not all like that. The people are also very nice. The savings is quite phenomenal compared to other stores.

Some things we buy:

Different nuts and seeds, chocolate, maple syrup, vanilla, brown sugar, pretzels, corn chips, salsa (like both the fresh and jarred), chia seeds, some spices, white sugar, rolled oats, organic ketchup, mustard, unsweetened almond milk, olive oil, Greek yogurt, unsweetened applesauce, butter, different cheeses, lots of organic fruits and vegetables, whole wheat bread, potato buns, organic brown rice, lentils, dried beans, different dried pastas, tomato sauce, garlic hummus, canned tuna and salmon, frozen veggies (We've had guests get down right excited over their frozen green beans that I steamed. DH and I still laugh about it.), they have bottles and cases of Coke, pizza (large refrigerated ones). We buy eggs and most of our meat locally but I think their whole chickens and frozen (raw) chicken breasts are good. That's what I can think of off the top of my head.

Aok - At first I thought you were saying those box of caramels were gross. My DH really likes them!

I recently read that Aldi is going organic -- as much as possible and as soon as possible! :)

ETA: I initially resisted shopping at the local Aldi, but now happily shop there for some produce, dairy, and meat, as well as the other odd thing. Aldi is much smaller than the other grocery stores in the area, so it's much quicker to get in and out!

No. There is one in the two cities nearest me, but not really convenient. I really haven't heard enough good talk about it (like TJ's and wholefoods, fresh market, etc.) locally to try it out.

An Aldi's opened fairly close to us a little over a year ago. Some friends told me to go for the dark chocolate. It was fairly close to Christmas so I did, and it was very, very good. I tucked some into a few Christmas gifts. Other than the chocolate and a few other items, I haven't shopped there but a couple of other times as I didn't care for the looks of some things. But they stay busy, and the stores here recently announced they were now accepting credit cards.

There is one opening up soon near my work. I can't wait to check it out. I asked on the other board I post on asking about it...mostly good comments :-)

Here it's .25 to use the carts. You get your quarter back when you return the cart. I carry my own bags, they may charge a few pennies for their paper bags.

I stop in every once in awhile. They have good prices on wine.

Around the holidays they usually sell these great cast iron enamel coated dutch ovens similar to le crueset but for a fraction of the price. I no longer live near one but when I did, I liked their cheese selection, milk and eggs were very inexpensive, the produce was good too. I think one brother owns Aldi and the other owns TJ's, and they are German I believe. There were a few products that were very similar but named differently, like the Lemongrass Chicken Sticks from TJs - a very similar product was at Aldi for a while. I wish they would open one near me.

I shop there all the time as it's my closest grocery store, however, the prices are great and the quality is usually better than what I can get at the local grocery stores. I do not have access to tj's or whole foods in my town. They are an hour away, Aldi's is 5 minutes.

It is not one stop shopping by any means and I don't buy much processed foods there either but I do get most produce, dairy, nuts, wine, cheese, some meats, household items regularly.

I shop at Aldi's on occasion. I find there cereals just as good as name brand. If I make Chex mix I buy the nuts and cereal there. Love their version of rice Chex. I have gotten Quick Cook Oats as well. Nearing Thanksgiving I usually get my Peanut Oil there and buy enough for a year.

Our local Aldi's produce does not impress me and I have never purchased their meat.

I have one friend who does all of her shopping there and seems happy with their meat and produce. Another friend buys everything there except for meat. She shops there so she can afford to buy Organic/Grain raised meats from our wonderful local butcher. They raise their own Beef and source the Pork and chicken.

Oh, to live where you can get wine at the grocery store!

This is a great thread! It is encouraging me to try Aldi's, as I went there once and just nothing appealed to me. And it's a stone's throw from my house. I doubt that I will try the produce or meat, as they looked awful to me the last time I was there. But, then, who knows? It might just look better this time. I am anxious to try other stuff, though. Especially since they are related to Trader Joe's, just love that store! I'm very lucky, I have Aldi's, Trader Joe's, BJ's, Costco, and Whole Foods within minutes of my house! The only thing I have to travel a couple of miles for is a regular supermarket, like Stop 'n' Shop (that's my favorite, as they carry a lot of sugar-free items). Does anyone know if Aldi's carries sugar free stuff? This is important to me, as I'm diabetic.

I think ALDI is also great for people that cannot get around very well, the handicapped or elderly. I hear a lot of people complain that they cannot shop at the very large stores such as the supercenters. ALDI is very compact.

One thing I just bought that I was not very happy with was that Reeva dish liquid. I have been buying Dawn Ultra and all I need is a small amount to wash a dish, I like to squirt some on a sponge and just wash one or two dishes. With the Reeva I needed a large amount to just lather any at all. With the Dawn I need a tiny dab to lather. I would say that I probably need at least five times the amount of Reeva to equal one of Dawn so the savings is not there.

I like their grapes better than the other grocery store grapes. I've been buying them because they were so much cheaper but Marc's had a sale on green grapes so I bought them to save money. NO! The ALDI grapes are very small and aren't as pretty but boy are they delicious. The Marc's grapes had bitter skins and were sour but looked pretty. I'll stick with ALDI grapes from now on!

Arkansas_girl, I find that true of our local chain's dish soap, too. Publix does this annoying thing where they price their store brand at what the national brand should be, then price the name brand up (instead of discounting the store brand), and for most cleaning liquids the store brand is about a third the strength of the name brand.

I didn't like them at first. I thought their produce section looked unappealing. But on closer inspection, the actual produce is generally good, it's just the display. I don't buy avocados anywhere else, price is great. Raisin bread is cheap, and any baking needs are cheap. I don' t do all shopping there, but I havebecome accustomed to just buying certain things.

I generally go there for produce....especially the container of artisan lettuce. It is very good.

I have found that I never like the store brands or "off" brands of any dish detergent. For a lack of a better word, I would call them "watery".