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PSA if you live near an Aldi store

3K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  kaycemac 
#1 · (Edited)
We were at Aldi the other day and I'm amazed at some of the products they import for the price points. I picked up a 5.3oz 1,000 day aged Gouda for $3.69 . Ok I thought I'd give it a try and it's about as good as the $21 per 1/2lb. my local cheese shop sells 5yr. aged Gouda for. I went back the next day and bought three more, two 4yr. aged Cheddar, a Double Glouster, some Stilton from UK and Manchego from Spain. I see in next weeks flyer they are having spiral sliced hams for $1.19/lb. Perfect for our Christmas Eve party. I might even buy two and save one for our January Birthday party. I usually buy my whole spare ribs there because they are packaged fresh, never frozen and the price is right and whole chicken is always .95 cents/lb. So I guess what I'm saying is a lot of people think Aldi is a low budget operation. It's not - they get big orders from Germany several times a year and the stuff is excellent. They always have German chocolate in stock. Their produce and fruit are a great value - $1.29 Pineapples this week. Yes there are caveats as they don't constantly upgrade produce so if you want eggplant you want to pick through a fresh case, but hey - it is what it is and that is a place to save money.
 
#2 ·
Hi mike9,

I can relate to someone getting excited about a grocery store. I like Aldi for the memories of Germany. Aldi is a German company so the biggest difference is no women discussing something, passionately, in German... Layout is the same, but the products in German Aldi are even better, if you can envision that.

If you have relatives anywhere in Europe, go for a visit! I believe you would have great fun!
 
#3 ·
They used to be a real low budget store in the Netherlands (and I assume Germany), with boxes on the ground, looking like an absolute mess. But hey, they were cheap and I was a student at that time....
This is long long ago and nowadays, there stores are good, fairly well organised and reasonably priced.
They do run lots of specials which are a real bargain if you can get there in time :)
The Lidl is another such store.....
 
#5 ·
We have these all over the place and we love them. I have tried converting as many people in my family as I can as the prices compared to our big named grocery stores is such a difference. I can get almost a weeks worth of groceries there for less than $80, and the items I have to pick up at the chain stores may be around $50 for half a dozen items. Most of the items are pretty good if not better comparable to name brands, with quite a few being organic. They have quite a few fun seasonal/limited time items but I would view these (especially electronics) with a little more scrutiny. I did pick up one of their Crofton brand dutch ovens and it was pretty decent. The biggest complaint I had about it was the way the handle was attached to the lid. But consiering it was around $20 and basically did the same thing as a Creuset, it was worth the experiment. I do wish Aldi was allowed to sell liquor where I am (especially because I wanted to try their Scotch that was highly rated)
 
#6 ·
I went to buy two hams today and all that good cheese I told you about is gone. They had one double glouster and a couple of manchegos. They had other cheeses, but not the premium stuff. I bought the two smallest hams I could find as most people were going for the bigger ones.
 
#8 ·
I am a big fan of Aldi's, especially around Christmas, as they carry a bunch of great European sweets and baking supplies, but I have also found them to be somewhat "hit or miss," at least up here in Wisconsin. Overall, I am not a fan of most of their produce and some of their meats, especially chicken, are not really good. Of course, there are exceptions, but overall we use them for pantry staples and specialty products, and then pick and choose what else we buy from them.
 
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