How to Grocery Shop at ALDI (Beginner’s Guide!)

Today we are talking all things ALDI! In case you’re unfamiliar, ALDI is a discount grocery store known for CHEAP CHEAP prices but great-valued products. What’s the catch? The stores are pretty no-frills as far as customer service and aesthetics. More on that later!

ALDI’s story began in the German town of Essen in 1913, where the Albrecht family started their grocery business.Throughout the century, ALDI has grown from a small family business into an international retailer, with over 10,000 stores around the world, serving millions of customers in over 10 countries.

—The Aldi Story

I’ve already shared my love for Trader Joe’s on this blog, and that love runs deep. I shop at a few different grocery stores, though!

For most of my adult life, I haven’t lived close to an ALDI… but when we moved back to the good ol’ U.S. of A., I finally lived close enough to see what all the hype was about! And now that I’ve figured out the system, I grocery shop at ALDI about once a week. (There, and Wal-Mart. Costco is every other week. Trader Joes once a month, or whenever I need pure joy 😉 ).

Why Shop ALDI?

Good question. There are 2 main reasons that I personally choose to grocery shop at ALDI:

1. Insanely Low Cost!

You just can’t beat those prices. Their website boasts it’s been the lowest priced grocery store for 6 years running!

2. Small, Manageable-Sized Stores

Sometimes I just need milk. Or bread and bananas. I want to be in and out of there before my toddler can sing the chorus of “Let it Go”. ALDI is not like a Wal-Mart or Costco where I have to wander a massive warehouse and wait in a forever long check-out line –for just a handful of items.

What to Expect:

Once you get the flow of an ALDI shopping experience, it’s great. It can be a little jarring though if you aren’t sure what to expect. I’ve got you. AKA Let me help you avoid my rookie mistakes:

Quarters are Everything

I know in this age people aren’t really used to carrying around cash, let alone coins. But in the world of ALDI, quarters are still alive and well and –dare I say — necessary.

You need to place a quarter in the grocery cart in order to unlock it for use. Why? Well, people are much more incentivized to return their carts in order to receive that quarter back. If everyone is in charge of returning their own grocery cart, that’s one less employee’s salary to pay (thus keeping your shopping costs low).

Extremely Limited Staff Assistance

Some grocery stores have employees wandering around that are ready & excited to answer any of your questions. ALDI is not really this way.

Granted, it’s a small store and it’s well-organized and labeled. So it feels less necessary here. And to be fair, whenever I’ve asked an employee that’s restocking shelves a question they do try to offer help. However, it’s very clearly NOT what they are trained for/ hired for. I hope that makes sense.

Limited Options Offered

ALDI has a pretty remarkable selection of different foods, given how small the space is. I can do the vast majority of my weekly shopping at ALDI and find most things I need.

However, you should know that there aren’t (usually) multiple brands on the shelves to choose from. IE Don’t expect to walk in and choose from Sara Lee sandwich bread, Wonder Bread, Nature’s Own, and Pepperidge Farm. There’s ALDI’s store-brand sandwich bread. It comes in white, whole wheat, honey wheat, etc…..but it’s just the one brand. (There are some exceptions, though. For instance, they carry Oreo’s AND chocolate/vanilla store-brand sandwich cookies.)

I also can’t always find specific spices or baking ingredients here. And my location often has either navy beans OR garbanzo beans on the shelf at any given time. Not both. And often ingredients (I’m looking at you cilantro) are just all bought up and out of stock.

None of this is make or break, but it’s something to mentally prepare for and be aware of.

Bring Your Own Bags

Shopping at ALDI means you need to bring your own bags from home…

OR be ready to buy a reusable or brown paper bag there in the checkout line. They are about 10 or 15 cents a bag, depending on your location. The reusable bags are usually $1.99.

PSA: Their brown paper bags are pretty flimsy. Have I learned this the hard way by overstuffing them and trusting the handle to hold up the weight of it all? Yes, yes I have.

I stumbled upon an online forum once with all of the other ALDI shoppers complaining about the weak paper bag handles and felt so seen. 😉

Bag Your Own Bags

This is getting to be more common across ALL grocery stores as self-checkout becomes more and more the standard. In fact, my personal ALDI store is almost fully transitioned over to self-check out stations now.

However, this has been a defining feature of the ALDI check-out process for a long time. This is the typical order of events:

• The checkout worker scans all of your items and tosses them into the grocery cart like their life depends on it (or in other words, with excessive & arguably unnecessary speed)
• you pay for said grocery items
• the checkout worker sends your grocery cart flying over to the loading area
• you load up all of your grocery items into the bags you brought from home (you prepared person, you!)

Then finally, you return your cart and get your quarter back! Which, of course, you save for the next time you come back to ALDI. And you will want to come back! You just can’t beat those low low prices.

What about Grocery Pickup (Curbside Service)?

Great question. There’s a $10 minimum in order to complete a pickup order. Prices on the individual items tend to be just slightly higher if you order from the website or app. You’ll be charged a $1.99-3.99 fee per pickup order (since this service requires an employee… and we know by now that anything those employees are doing is reflected somewhere in the cost).

There’s a great article by the Krazy Coupon Lady that goes into great detail about this service.

ALDI Grocery Delivery Service

I have not personally used ALDI’s same-day (!!) grocery delivery service, but here is the official link where you can find out how.

It has been partnered by Instacart, which is true for ALDI’s Grocery PIckup service as well.

That’s it!

I hope you feel armed with confidence to make the trek out to your local ALDI now!

Did I forget anything? Do you have thoughts on ALDI?

Let me know in the comments below!

Cover Photo by Marques Thomas on Unsplash

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