New England resident here. I find Aldi to be alright. The lower price point is definitely noticeable, especially when you compare with other big players in the area like ShopRite and Stop&Shop.
I switched over to Aldi since 2020, they are quite decent when it comes to the basics.
Good to know they are expanding. Aldi’s Sister concern Trader Joe’s is already heavily present in the New England region, although I suspect they have a more ‘niche’ group of customers.
Aldi and Lidl have done very well in the UK; they’re well run businesses. They’re private and focused, pay & treat their staff well and they have a focused but good product range. They used to have a bad reputation but when the financial crisis hit in 2011 people started taking them seriously and they’ve expanded rapidly. They really do offer good quality at good prices.
I don’t know what the US retail industry is like, but if it was anything like the UK’s (dominated by a few large supermarket chains with big stores, and bloated product lines) then they will do well. There are 1,020 Aldi stores in the UK - and we’re about 1/5 the size population of the US wise. 800 stores is a sizeable number and they apparently already have 2,400 stores there.
I’ve been waiting for them to finish the Aldi’s near me for over a year now.
In The Netherlands Aldi is one of the more expensive stores with subpar quality products.
I’m convinced this “pinch” people are still feeling is the result of people forgetting that the government gave them money to go out and stimulate the economy during a pandemic where they had few places to spend money.
With a handful of exceptions in the grocery store, all signals are suggesting the American economy is as good as, if not better than, it was prior to 2020. The items mentioned in the linked article have increased in cost just as they always have when environmental variables have an impact on goods and services - it’s not about the economy or inflation. If anything, we should be paying more attention to climate change in order to bring our grocery bill down.
If you’re trying to save money at the food store, I would highly suggest finding a local produce market or farmers market. I shop at this little local market in my city where my total weekly bill is usually around $80 (actually down from over $100 in 2021). I shopped at an Aldi once, the limited produce was literally nearly garbage and the prices were not great compared to what I normally pay. We all buy different things though so YMMV.
Sorry, you think a couple of thousand dollars over four years ago is causing high grocery prices now?
How does that even work? Why didn’t that happen sooner?
This sounds similar to Trump taking credit for the current stock market highs.
They didn’t say that the stimuli from years ago caused it. They said that we received the stimuli when we were already sitting around not spending money except as absolutely necessary. These two things combined made it FEEL LIKE the economy was a lot better then than it is now. If anything, to me this says we should have a UBI already.
Mate you and I are on the same side in this thing. The only thing I’m trying to point out is, if you’re going to argue against someone, argue against what they’re actually saying, not a non-sequitor, even if that non-sequitor is the normal argument you see in this situation.
But you were incorrect. You said the economy only felt like it was better than it is now. It was better. The consumer economy has been on a consistent decline for many years as prices have been on a consistent increase. The economy is “doing well” right now because the stock market is doing well and companies are making profits. That was true when the last round of stimulus went out as well, but grocery prices were still lower for consumers than they are now.
I agree that we need a UBI, but this is not a UBI issue. This is a price gouging issue. UBIs wouldn’t stop price gouging. In fact, without laws to prevent such price gouging, a UBI would be far less useful.
See, this is a rebuttal. Something that lets me know you’re reading words and not just dropping the first semi-relevant article.
Yes. I agree. The economy is worse now than it was. And I have never argued that it wasn’t. I currently believe it’s a bit of both of the above, actually. That corporations are shit and absolutely looking to extract any value they can, and that people in general rebounded a bit hard after covid lockdowns ended, but that was inevitable. I think that COVID lockdowns caused corporations to start increasing their prices, “well traffics down we have to stay afloat somehow!” Which they naturally don’t want to give up now. Combined with the rebounding I mentioned earlier where people temporarily more willing to spend, and here we are.
Absolutely regulation needs to be put in place. My intent with the UBI line was simply, people spend money when they have money, put money into people’s hands and (with a little regulation) the economy will start moving towards good again.
It was an extremely relevant article since my rebuttal was based on it. This makes me think you just rejected it outright because you decided it wasn’t relevant without even looking.
And finally German conquered the USA…
Friggen love aldi. I’m kinda disappointed every time I have to go somewhere else now. Just wish they had longer hours cause my sleep disorder means it’s hard to make it there before they close sometimes
Are they one-stop in the US, though?
In Germany you usually have a little shopping center with Aldi and/or Lidl, a DM and an Edeka. Once you have finished shopping at Aldi and DM you can pop into Edeka and get the 1 or 2 items you didn’t get at Aldi and DM.
Many people in Germany are doing it like that. Edeka seems to florish from the people who prefer branded products and/or can’t get into 2 shops because they don’t go grocery shopping by car and can’t really visit more than 1 shop, because you can’t enter a 2nd one with a bag full of goods from the 1st one.
Aldi is barely a 1st stop. It only reliably has the barest essentials.
Aldi for the essentials. Then Too Good To Go for fruit and vegetables and bread/ pastries.
It could be one stop, but their produce and baked goods are bare minimum.
The meats are the most affordable around me.
As a Kaufland guy myself I’m deeply disappointed you didn’t mention them.
For some people who aren’t too picky, it might be a one-stop shop. Also true for some basics, like bread, milk, eggs, some produce, or common frozen stuff.
If you are looking for extra variety or less-common ingredients, you’ll have to also shop at a bigger supermarket. But since we usually use cars in the US, it’s not too big a deal to do both the same day
I haven’t heard of half the us supermarkets mentioned in this article lmao
We have an amazing and diverse country. I highly recommends stretching out and seeing more of it!
Diverse is when different stores and soda names🙃
There’s this guy named Pepper who got his MD then went to every other possible school and/or job
For chain grocery stores, there’s only a handful of companies but you likely are familiar with the names they might use locally.
Does the US have Lidl yet?
Kinda. There’s not many locations. There was one near me, but it went out of business a couple years ago; they’re stock was pretty sporadic and I couldn’t rely on them to have everything I’d need, thus I would have to go to the regular grocery store anyway. The inconvenience of going to two stores took away most of the advantage off the (fairly small) savings they offered, and anecdotally I’m not the only one who felt that way.
I couldn’t rely on them to have everything I’d need
This is a problem with Lidl in Sweden as well - great prices and all, but there’s a large amount of things I’m interested in buying that they quite simply don’t stock. As such, I go to Lidl for all of my ‘primary’ grocery shopping, and supplement with secondary shopping in other supermarkets and speciality shops.
This is only really viable since I have a Lidl 10 minutes away by bike and another supermarket 2 minutes away by foot. Given what I know about the state of urban planning in the U.S, I imagine that having to go to two different stores will be a significantly higher penalty than here.
I have a lidl and I fucking love it! Best prices on groceries I’ve seen. I’ve also had issues where they don’t have everything, but there’s a bigger grocery store very close by that I’ll stop at if Lidl is missing something I need. Even my wardrobe is slowly becoming clothes from their rotating section.
I used to hate LIDL, but then I moved to a place where a LIDL was within walking distance, and started using it more frequently. Now I have to admit that I love it too. Fair prices and a fantastic selection of vegan options.
Fuck Lidl. I was close friends with a regional manager when they came to the US and they are fucking horrific about how they treat their employees.
Not in the US, which makes me think the problem is not with Lidl
No, this was definitely in the US. I met these assholes (the VPs and region leaders) personally and know all the shit they pull to break down and isolate employees and overwork them and literally tell them to choose between work or family, and spy on their emails and soooo much more. Like I said, I had a very intimate picture of their US launch, and the two years of logistics which preceded it, trust me when I say that these people are legitimately monsters like I’ve never seen in any other industry.
smaller European entrant
I like how from the perspective of outsiders, Aldi is “small”. They’re huge here in Europe along with Lidl. The two make a meme of establishing shops next to each other wherever either exist.
I am glad that Aldi is setting up shops in US. The chain is pretty cheap though the food quality is okay compared to others. I haven’t really heard anything bad about Aldi so they are pretty good employers unlike many American shops like Walmart.
Where I am in the US all our supermarkets suck, and are over priced. Aldi offers a clean environment with inexpensive food at decent non farm stand quality. When your alternative is double the price in a run down store or Walmart. Aldi is a very nice alternative.
I really don’t think it takes much for Aldi to compete in a large part of the US market. Even if they’re not the best because we have so much of the worst in supermarkets.
Its strange that they couldn’t get a hold of Denmark. They closed all their shops here last year, even shops that opened that same week! Must have been a very abrupt decision!
They suck so much, im glad they closed all their stores in Denmark
We have better alternatives with equal or better prices etc.
Such as Netto
Scandinavian bubble I think
I had a cut of gruyere from there a few weeks ago that was top notch. They got some real bargains for what some people would see as luxury food.
The Aldi Brie is very good.
They’re not a small company but their locations do typically have a very small footprint compared to the typical US grocery store… Much lower square footage.
They’ve been in US markets for decades at this point. They just don’t have locations in every region of the US or so many locations even in the regions that they do exist as to be considered ubiquitous.
IL native, so maybe its regional, but Aldi aint small here either xD
Not only are they everywhere, everyone i meet raves about the stark differences in prices between them and their other local stores.
Aldi is fairly new to much of America. Kroger in America is much, MUCH bigger. And of course Walmart dwarfs both.
Not in all of Europe, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Aldi in Czech Republic or Poland
Aldi definitely isn’t small in the US. This is like calling Publix small just because you don’t live in Florida, or Love’s small just because you don’t live in the massive swath of the US they cover.
I love Aldi but it’s where you need to grocery shop first since they’re likely to not have everything you need. I wish it was more one-stop.
If they tried to be one stop, they would have to raise prices to cover a larger store with way more items. That is part of how it works.
Thanks! I just figured their cost cutting measures would scale a bit more
Aldi is great. Walmart has been robbing small towns in America without competition for long enough. I hope more Americans shop at Aldi and save more money while getting healthier food at a fair price.
I drive 20 minutes out of my way to shop at aldi rather than win-dixie (which they’ve bought recently) down the street for my monthly large shopping.
Does Aldi provide better deals than Walmart?
I used to shop there, but the prices were comparable and everything went bad fast.
That is what fresh food not overloaded with preservatives will do. You should really make fresh produce shopping more of a daily activity as you need it. But not everyone has that kind of time understandably bi-weekly also doable for truly fresh produce along with you plan out your meals for the week
You should really make fresh produce shopping more of a daily activity as you need it.
Are you fucking joking? You expect a single parent working two jobs to go shopping daily as well?
If you actually continue on to read the entire message you’ll notice the part where I mentioned that not everyone has that kind of time
And my point was almost no one has that kind of time and that it’s not realistic to expect vegetables to only last a day or two when that has never historically been the case.
I don’t they last a day but they shouldn’t last a month either.
Aldi’s produce ”going bad” is on par with my local farmer’s market.
So… like over a week. Which was my initial point to the person I replied to. You don’t have to buy vegetables every day unless you’re buying vegetables that are about to go off, which pretty much no reputable place sells.
Calm down, that was a general statement that is true. If your circumstances don’t allow it, that sucks.
I gave an extreme example, but very few people’s circumstances at this point allow them to go shopping every day. Even people working a single job are far too exhausted by it at the end of the day to be expected to go shopping after work. If Aldi can’t sell vegetables that last more than a couple of days, people are less likely to shop there and more likely to shop at somewhere like Walmart. If for no other reason than sometimes you don’t get to cook as quickly as you want to and you end up losing more money on the cheaper vegetables than you would have if you just bought the longer-lasting ones.
Even back before supermarkets where you had to go to multiple individual shops to buy food, no one went to the greengrocer on a daily basis. That is not how vegetables are supposed to work.
I don’t comment often and I do know you Squid but you’re wrong on this. Aldi had great food and especially great produce. I’ve been going there for more than 3 years exclusively.
I wasn’t commenting on the vegetables at Aldi except going with what other people were saying about them I was talking about this, which I found to be ridiculous:
You should really make fresh produce shopping more of a daily activity as you need it.
That is beyond what most people should be expected to do and it is beyond what people have done historically and it’s just not how most vegetables and fruits work.
I’m not surprised that isn’t true of Aldi because it would be bad business to buy old produce that was on the edge of turning rotten.
Unfortunately, the American society is just not great for accommodating healthy living. Everything must be done by car and in bulk. And everything must last long because people also want to go once a week. So things are pumped full of unhealthy preservatives as gasses.
It’s not good.
Sure, but vegetables that only last a day or two has also never really been a thing for most vegetables we eat. Is there any Western country where people have to buy fresh vegetables every day?
That is what fresh food not overloaded with preservatives will do.
What are you talking about? Kroger is not injecting their apples with preservatives.
Aldi provides way better working conditions than Walmart, that’s for sure. Imagine being able to sit during a job that doesn’t require standing – in America!!!
everything went bad fast.
Yeah, that’s because the food is fresh and less treated than what most Americans are used to. Going bad fast is not necessary a bad thing.
No, it’s because it’s old produce that is close to expiring.
The aldi simps here are insane, but another reason why I don’t take the masses seriously anymore.
I’m an Aldi simp too!!! Aldi is far superior to Walmart, I never expect my fruits and vegetables to last more than a week and Aldi is good with that. I will never buy produce or meat at Walmart, the things they do to their meat is disgusting. I buy most my non perishables from Walmart, Aldi for other things, and then Costco every couple of weeks. I’m also a Costco simp. In my experience to get the best quality and price you gotta go to multiple places.
Side note, season, time of year changes where produce is the best. Cucumbers in summer at Aldi where I live aren’t good.
Aldi is far superior to Walmart,
That’s a really low standard to measure against.
Fresh is not necessarily better, there’s nothing wrong with frozen food if you don’t mind the texture. And no it’s not like Kroger is injecting preservatives in apples.
Almost everything at Aldi is private label, which is why it is cheaper (again you only find a few recognizable name brands). However, I will not by fresh foods from Aldi as most of the time as it goes bad fast. I do like their snacks and prepackaged deli stuff tho.
Learn canning and preserving like baba
Or just shop at Walmart.
That’s what fresh food is, not filled with preservatives and processed garbage that contributes to chronic low grade inflammation
Is their food really “fresher” than Walmarts?
Can you provide any sources to back up that claim?
The fact it goes off quicker is the key piece of evidence. Obviously, they sell items in preserves too, they are a supermarket, and walmart will sell fresh items, but aldis main shtick and selection focus is “fresh, good quality and cheap”, but stocks vary a lot, so you need to be comfortable with some items not being available sometimes.
For example, I wanted cherry tomatoes last week, but they had none so I had to have piccolo tomatoes instead.
Lol
Ironic, because the last time I went to an Aldi here in America is was a total rip-off.
Care to elaborate? Was everything more expensive than competitors in you area or just certain things?
A high enough percentage of the stuff there was significantly more expensive than nearby grocery stores (idk about Walmart, I don’t shop there) that it was clear that even if some items were the same or cheaper price, to be thrifty I’d have to shop at a second store and I hate doing that unless I have to.
I like Aldi overseas. When I lived in Australia and Europe, it was my favorite grocery store, and it was cheap af, so I didn’t go in with a negative attitude or bad expectations, just to be clear. I was really disappointed though.
In my area, they either have generic brands that are cheap af but at least similar quality, regular name brands, or expensive imported stuff. Their name brands and their imported stuff are both more expensive, but particularly the imported stuff gives good quality and variety.
The fact is, in the states, aldi is not a one stop shop regardless. Their selection beyond staples is poor and sporadic. I see a ton of value going there first, getting what I can, and maybe snagging something interesting while I’m there. If I had to, I could live exclusively off aldi well enough, but it’d be a bit basic. I wish they’d expand a bit, but the niche they’re in right now is nice in its own right.
For me, the prices were comparable to Walmart but everything was lower quality, especially the produce.
They also just, don’t have as much stuff as Walmart lol. With Walmart+ same-day delivery, I haven’t gone grocery shopping in months.
The produce could be better, especially lettuce, but I have not had quality issues otherwise. A name brand is not synonymous with quality, and I find Aldi brands better than Walmart’s Great Value.
You also don’t have to deal with the massive store, crowds of unwashed masses, and lazy staff.
Yeah the Aldi in my little town sucks. The produce is always in awful shape, their bread tastes awful, and if canned goods are cheaper, it’s usually because they are in a smaller size. It’s essentially just a dressed up Dollar General.
What kind of bread? The ones near me have over a dozen different kinds, including the sprouted 7 grain with organic ingredients and no enriched flours and that’s only like 3-4 a loaf. In my experience, their products were worse when they first came over decades ago, but now they are cheaper and have higher quality items - especially things like bread and chocolate. Their vegetables are like 25% of the cost of other grocery stores here and they’re great.
Right now i have whole grain sandwich bread that tastes too sweet and is too soft. I much prefer the Kroger brand sliced sandwich bread and fresh baked loafs.
It’s essentially just a dressed up Dollar General.
That makes a lot of sense, dude.
And Dollar General sucks (unless it’s the only store you have.)
Yeah, I agree.
Really had to figure it out for myself, because the useful idiots weren’t telling me.
Don’t shop at any of them. Their foreign and their food sucks.
And they have people with… Dark (!!!) skin colors and funny languages there, can you imagine?
The place has been ranked cheapest and best products for years, wouldn’t want to have that because the brands are not the known overpriced a level products, and as said, those weird foreigners there!
By the way, it’s spelt they’re
Signed, a foreigner
Murica! Fuck yeah! Let’s just created a walled silo where we fuck our cousins and praise our own superiority. /s
