I love shopping at Aldi’s. The only things I won’t buy there are household and personal hygiene products. They have some great European brands and their price on meat is only bettered by one other store in the Metro area. I must disagree with the comment that their meat is a bit processed. Their fresh and frozen meats are comparable to the quality of Schnucks and Dierbergs but much more economical. They are cheapest in town for frozen salmon, tilapia and shrimp. Aldi’s quality and variety of food has improved since they purchased Trader Joe’s. Aldi’s history and philosophy is a fascinating read and their ecological and business practices is something to be proud of.

We spend about 80% of our grocery budget at Aldi, with the balance spread between sale items at Shop ‘n Save and an occasional trip to a Walmart Supercenter when we’re near one. I could afford to shop wherever I want, but why would I spend $4 for a gallon of milk when it’s $2.89 at Aldi?

While it is true that Aldi doesn’t carry organic produce, our family eats more fruit than most, and almost all of it is from Aldi. Yes, there’s plenty of prepared, frozen food, but we don’t buy that junk. Over the past month, Aldi had strawberries for 99 cents, cherries for 1.79, and even oranges for $1.19 a bag. The fresh meat is pre-packaged, but surprisingly, not so bad. And I think the block cheese is fine. We get our shredded cheese at Sam’s - we use a lot of it, and it’s even cheaper there. And actually, while some of the cereal is lousy (I can’t stand generic Cheerios), we actually prefer the raisin bran to the brand name ones.

As a regular participant in stltoday forums, I often hear complaints that food stamp benefits are insufficient. I once averaged out our family’s grocery bill over six months, and we actually spend less than the food stamp allotment. Thanks, Aldi!

Aldi’s has decent olive oil, but the cheese is just terrible. Schnucks carries many private label items that are just as good as name brand, but canned pineapple is not one of them. I do like to indulge in organic milk, but I think it tastes better because it is sold in cartons. Light affects milk and those plastic jugs let light through.

“authentic” Doritos? Isn’t that an oxymoron?

They don’t sell food at Aldi, but I understand the attraction to such stores, as people feel they are getting a good deal (what they are really peddling is obesity and heart disease with all the processed foods).

Why don’t you encourage people to head to their local farmer’s market, especially Soulard where people can at least get a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables to munch on?

I have actually given thought to visiting the Aldi’s close to my job, there is not one where I live. So they don’t take debit cards or checks?? Don’t like that…
I must admit that I am a brand name junkee, not that I think I am too good for generic brands it’s just that I don’t want to spend the money on something and then not like it. It always seemed hit or miss for me. For example, some of the generic canned goods that I have bought like green beans (mainly the ends of the bean), corn, (not much corn in the can actually)just were not worth dragging home.
I did stop buying paper towels all together, seems like such a waste. I bought a big package of cheap wash cloths ( I think there were 20 in the bag at Target) use those for spills and just throw in the wash. I have plenty of cloth napkins I inherited from my granny and use those at meal time, they are easy to wash as well.
Speaking of wash, I have a realitive that works for Proctor and Gamble in the plant in which they make Tide and other “off” brand laundry detergents like the Schnucks, Xtra and other store brands. He said the only difference between Tide and say the store brand of laundry detergent is that the store brands are diluted (more water than cleaning solvents). I still buy Tide for my kids clothes and other dirty stuff but have started buying the store brand for items such as bath towels and clothes that really just need freshing up.
Keep the suggestions coming on the generic brands!!

Soon as those damn kids learned to read the generic ride was over for me lol, they won’t touch em so I’m not really saving any money if I buy it and the won’t eat it. As for non-perisables the shop-n-save brands are decent.

Schnucks brand Wheat Thins. They’re called Thin Wheat (imaginative) but they are fantastic—taste EXACTLY like the brand name!

I would challenge anyone who loves boxed stuffing to NOT love Great Value brand of cornbread stuffing sold at Wal-Mart. Beats Stovetop, hands down. My family prefers boxed stuffing to the package mixes (my mother and grandmother would role over) but loved Stovetop until I tried the Great Value brand. Now they ask for it many times throughout the year, not just the holidays. In fact, outside of their sour cream (it’s a little watery), I cannot find anything wrong with the Wal Mart brand of anything! Saves us money without compromising quality or test.

I had a problem with my kids not wanting to eat the generic cereal so I just slid the bag of generic in the box of the name brand–problem solved. Kids are idiots LOL. Eggs are eggs, milk’s milk and I don’t see the point for paying for all the advertising. The one thing I will buy no matter what the cost is the new Tide stain removing pen–OMG!! I’ve saved so many blouses by using it–it totally rocks!!!!!!!!

From Aldi’s web site:

* Taking checks also slows down the line and saddles us with bad check costs, so we don’t mess around with them.

* By avoiding credit cards, we avoid the extra time it takes to sign a slip and the hefty processing fee charged by credit card companies.

What ALDI does accept are cash, food stamps/EBT cards, and PIN-based debit cards—the lowest-cost forms of payment for us—and the fastest ones for you.