This afternoon Vince took off work and we took the car over to Pittsburg because the gizmo was in to make the radio play and charge the iPod. It took them about 20 minutes to install it and while they were doing it, we walked down to the closest restaurant which happened to be a Chinese buffet type place, and had lunch. Not what I would have chosen but it was close.
From there we went to Dillon’s, which is really Kroger to me since this is the first place I’ve lived where they called them Dillon’s but they take the Kroger card and have Kroger brand stuff. Kinda weird, huh? We got the few things we needed for Thanksgiving, including the turkey. We bought a lot of things that were on sale that we’ll add to our food stash. Summer savory is a spice that goes in my fricot and I have been out for a while. I won’t normally buy it because it’s too expensive and I had planned to grow some but never could find a plant. I happened to be looking at the spice row and they had it on sale. Regular $9.99 for $3.99 so I got one. Vince said “get two” but one will last me a long time and I really would like to plant my own.
Dr. Pepper were on sale but it felt good to say . . No, thanks! I don’t need them any more!
They had dried pinto beans, Kroger brand, 4 pounds for $3.09 (I think that’s what it was) so I bought several bags of beans. The coffee Vince likes was on sale so he bought lots of that. I think we officially have a lifetime supply of coffee and Dial soap.
From there we went to Aldi’s. This is the first place I’ve ever lived where there were Aldi’s. There’s one in Pittsburg and one in Joplin. Do you shop at Aldi’s? If so, what do you think of their brands?
Until lately I haven’t paid much attention to prices. Their prices are pretty unbelievable. McCann’s steel cut Irish Oats were on sale at Dillon’s for $5.19 I think. At Aldi’s, their brand, same size, same everything was something like $2.99. We bought one of each and we’ll compare taste/texture and see what we think. We bought peanut butter and mayo to taste test too. Dillon’s had their brand of butter on sale for $2.97 for a pound and Aldi’s regular price on a pound of butter was something like $2.19. Sugar was on sale at Dillon’s but cost less at Aldi’s.
If we like their brand, I’m guessing a monthly trip to Aldi’s will be on my agenda for the future.
Donna says
Judy, there used to be an Aldi’s in Nevada. But, it closed a few years ago. My folks used to visit my Aunt who lived in Nevada and always stopped at Aldi’s to stock up on stuff. I don’t know for sure why they closed.
Maria Stahl says
Love ALDI brands. Depend on them for our budget. Do you drink wine? If so, try the Winking Owl line (it’s bottled for them, though I think it’s actually Gallo). I like the Mama Cozzi line, too.
Kinda funny: ALDI in Minnesota does not sell alcohol. ALDI in Wisconsin does.
bev/mo says
Aldi’s brands are great……!!!
Jeanne Bishop says
I shop Aldi’s occasionally since a friend told me about their great prices and overall good quality. I haven’t been disappointed in anything I’ve bought there. The only thing I find offputting is that it costs 25 cents to use a cart in my town. You get it back when you’re done, but I still think it’s strange.
Goblinf Lois says
You’re lucky it’s only 25cents – in the UK our shopping trolleys take a one pound coin. And you frequently can’t find anywhere to attach it to at the end in London (so nice not living there anymore) so you have to take it into the shop for them to sort it out to get your pound back…
It’s to stop people wandering off with them (although they do anyway) and keeps costs down. Which is Aldi all over really, their prices are so cheap as they don’t have all the added extras re customer service/ nice shelving etc that you get with other shops. Pile it high & sell it cheap!!
Peggy says
Judy I like Aldi Brands. I don’t go there as often as I used to, because trips to Paducah are few now. When we did go there I would usually spend over $100. and that was at least 8 years ago. Sometimes they have sales on odd stuff, so I bought my metal shelving there at about half of the price at the warehouse lumber/garden centers.
Sandy K says
We shop at Aldi’s all the time. Once a month or so we go to our brand of Kroger, Hilander. Here we pick up the things Aldi’s does not have. One thing is you can get in and out faster spending less money. You only have one choice not ten in the regular store.
Cindy Kuipers says
We do most of our grocery shopping at ALDI. The 25cents for the cart is standard, you do get it back when you return the cart. I love their ‘special items’. I recently found out that any prices in black are the regular ALDI items. If the price is in red it is a special or limited offer and they may not have it again. Sometimes they are testing an item to see if it sells well. Then it might become a regular item. The town we shop in has 2 ALDI stores. Some items are carried at one store but not the other, which I found to me weird. We have also found that if there is something we really like we stock up on it because the next time we shop they no longer carry it, or are out for a really long time. If you try something you like, stock up.
Connie says
Haven’t done a lot of Aldi shopping but may have to start. I know they often have great prices on produce and I hear their produce is good quality.
Deb says
We shop at Aldi about every other month. Now that the kids are not here we do not go thur the junk food like we did back then. And now that I have time, I make alot more things from scratch then before.
I still by staples like flour, sugar, milk, cheese and such. (My husband works for Dean Foods, and the Aldi brand comes from the same plant – it all comes from the same bulk tank) I also like the produce.
karyl says
We love Aldis ! They also have an email flyer for their specials. I like that there isnt 20 of the same product on the shelf. If you want a can of corn there it is. The 25 cent for carts helps keep them in one spot not allover the parking lot.
owlfan says
I love Aldi. I’m there several times a week, it seems – even though I try to keep it to once a week. I go there first, then to Kroger or Publix to get what Aldi doesn’t stock. We like pretty much all their brands, but I especially like their chocolate bars – good German chocolate, for less than Hersheys!
I don’t mind the 25 cents for the carts – it does keep them in one place. In the 8 years we’ve had an Aldi, I have seen exactly ONE cart out in the parking lot. I sent my son after it – he was delighted because he got to keep the quarter for returning it (he was about 7-8 at the time). I manage to find a quarter in a cart almost once a month myself.
Sarah B says
I used to shop at Aldi in central Ohio and I loved their brand foods. However, in the last three years they have been slowly jacking up the prices of things so they are higher than Kroger! For instance, shredded cheddar cheese was always cheaper at Aldi so it was a brainless thing to just grab a couple bags, then all the sudden you notice the price creeping up and now it’s about twice as high as Kroger. Same thing for half the store! The other half is still a real deal but I can get cheaper, on sale, at the local Meijer or Kroger and when you factor in the savings in gasoline to use the cards, well, it was easy to stop shopping at Aldi when we can save $0.30 per gallon of gasoline!
Sandra Clarke says
The shredded cheese is 12 oz. , not the usual 8 oz.
tammy k. in illinois says
we are fortunate to have an aldi and a super wal mart with a grocery section in the next town over – where i work 5 days a week. i like aldi for the basics. their produce is great. the turnover at that store is so fast that the items are always really fresh. the milk is inexpensive and so are the eggs (although i get my eggs from a friend who has chickens and i know you ‘grow your own’ eggs!). their canned goods, especially their canned fruit, is inexpensive and so is their cheese. there are a few things we don’t care for from there. i’m not fond of their tea and ev does not like the coffee.
if you find an item at aldi that they normally do not carry and you like it – buy a lot of it because they won’t have it again for a long time! i’m waiting for them to bring back the sherbet they had a couple months ago.
that said, you do have to watch prices a little bit because the wal mart store will match prices from the aldi sale flyer and sometimes wal mart will have the same or lower prices. there are only a finite number of items aldi carries, so it’s not an everything store. like their commercial says, it’s the ‘stock up’ store. the meat is okay. no great shakes, but okay.
and the fit and active brand ice cream products are wonderful, by the way. they let me have my ice cream fix and not feel guilty!
Laurel H. says
I. LOVE. Aldi’s!
I always begin my shopping trip with a stop at Aldi’s. With a few exceptions, Aldi’s prices are lower for the same items that are sold at other stores, yet their quality is great! Granted, just like other stores, there are some Aldi items that we don’t particularly care for (i.e., my younger daughter doesn’t like the apple juice), but by and large, it has saved us a great deal of money, and we are happy with the quality of the items. We try to get as many of their Fit and Active items as we can (i.e., ground turkey, cheese, chicken broth, etc.)
Sandra Clarke says
Hi Judy, Love your quilts, recipes and stories. I really like Aldi’s and shop there
often. I like their brands and have been well pleased with items I buy there.
Anna Schneehagen says
Hi Judy,
it’s fun to read about Aldi in the US. It’s been a huge turmoil here in Switzerland when Aldi open the first stores here, selling its produce much cheaper and in the same or even better quality than the expensive Swiss grocery stores. I love that they have so many organic produce and I love shopping there. I remember when I was a kid, more than 30 years ago, visiting my grandparents in Berlin and we went to Aldi’s. The milk chocolate with whole almonds was/still is divine. Then I went back to Basel in Switzerland and my mother refused to go over the border to Germany and to shop at Aldi’s. She’s changed her mind in the meantime and regularly goes shopping there, though. Here, and in Germany, they have new special offers every Monday and Thursday. And if you’ve missed one it’ll be back, sometimes a few weeks/months later (food specialties or computers) or one or two years later (fridges, CD-players etc)
Melinda says
Personally, I don’t like Aldi that much. I would much rather shop at Save A Lot. I like their brands better, and the prices are comparable to Aldi. Save A Lot has been a budget saver for our family. I can fill up a cart there and spend $80. I can go down the street to finish the shopping (I don’t buy fresh meat there, and some things I simply HAVE to have name brand) and not fill even a quarter of the cart and spend $40.
It’s sort of a trial and error thing. You have to find the things you are willing to buy generic and pay less for. Aldi is good for a lot of people.
Hugs,
Melinda
Deputy's Wife says
Some things are good at Aldis. some are not. At this time of year, I get a lot of my baking supplies there. You can get pecans at a pretty reasonable price there. (Though I won’t have to this year. My neighbor brought me some pecans from Alabama! They are wonderful!!!)
Maria Stahl says
ALDI still bags their flour and sugar in 5-pound bags. The major grocery stores are starting to drop down to 4-pound bags. Sneaky.
Helen says
It’s funny to see Aldi mentioned. I talked to my mum yesterday, she had returned home to England after a 2 week holiday in Spain. She said she went to Aldi whilst away and “had” to buy some nuts there because they were “Trader Joe’s” brand. We shop a lot at TJ’s and she had been with us in the summer whilst she was visiting us. From what I could found out TJ’s and Aldi were founded by brothers and are separate, but TJ’s branded stuff is appearing in Aldis now. The only Aldi I have shopped in was in Banbury, England. I wish we had one near us.
Maria Stahl says
I heard that ALDI actually owns TJ’s, but that may be wrong.
Kris S says
I love Aldi also. I am fortunate to have one near my home. A friend started me going there when she was buying grapefruits for 33 cents apiece. I couldn’t believe the difference in price for so many things like cereal, oatmeal, produce, etc. I cook at the local homeless shelter once or twice a year and buy everything at Aldi. When I unload my cart at my car, I look around and hand off my cart to someone else and let them keep the quarter. It’s my little random act of kindness and they are always surprised. It only costs me a quarter and hopefully makes their day.
Katie z says
I’m a big fan of Aldi’s. Without it, we’d be broke. Once a month, I go there and spend about $140 and have most of our groceries for the month. My kids don’t like the mac’n’cheese, but everything else has been great!
Susan says
Judy, I know how you feel about living in the middle of no where. I am from SW MO small town of Granby. Grew up in small town of Erie KS , just hop skip jump from Pittsburg, KS. Yep I miss the area, I now live in north Indiana. Some of the Kroger’s up here are called Marsh. Nearest Aldi’s is 40 miles away.
Mary Jo says
I love Aldi’s. In our town you have to watch what day you shop for produce, because it usually gets pretty picked over by the time they are due for another shipment, but it’s worth a little planning. There are a number of items I buy regularly. As far as the quarter to get the cart, I like it because you never have a problem with some inconsiderate person leaving the cart in the middle of the parking lot like what happens at a lot of stores.
margeeth says
In the Netherlandsm we always have to put a coin (usually 0.50 euro’s) in the shopping cart, it stops ‘them’ from dissappearing. Fortunately, I have never had any problems returning my shopping cart and getting my coin back.
We also have ALDI’s, I guess in about every city (which makes sense, because it is a German shop, which lies right next to us). I do shop there occasionally, allthough it is a bit controversial, it has been in the news quite some time that their prizes are low partly because the underpay their workers. I also never buy fruit and vegetables at ALDI’s too much harmfull chemical residues have been found on them.