Aldi has a pretty simple premise: Inexpensive food with absolutely no frills. Quite simply, if you do your grocery shopping here you will save money over shopping virtually anywhere else. Before you get super excited and decide that you have to shop at Aldi forevermore, you need to know that you will make sacrifices in the name of the lowest price possible.
Typical supermarkets have tens of thousands of products, they have dozens of types and brands of cookies, cereal, and usually include a full deli and on-site bakery. Aldi has none of this. There is no Kellogg's, Post or General Mills at Aldi. Here you get Millville. There is no Go-gurt, Yoplait, Dannon... there are Moo Tubes and Light and Fit Yogurts. Quite simply, you have ONE choice for most items you want to buy. Want Raisin Bran? Millville it is!
Okay, so you can deal with a whole store consisting of off-brand items, right? But that's not where it ends... oh no, my friends, that's only the beginning!
You don't get grocery bags at Aldi. It's strictly a bring your own or buy 'em affair. The person manning the cash register just dumps your food back into your cart and you have to take it to a counter off to the side and bag it yourself. With your own bags. (I like using those huge blue sacks you can get at IKEA) You have to put a deposit on your grocery cart. I'm not kidding, you put a quarter in a little slot on the cart to unlock it from the other carts, which you get back when you dutifully rechain it to the cart rack.
The selection of produce is, um... limited. There IS fresh produce, but what you have available to you can change with the season and is limited to staples. Example: last time I went I wanted to buy sweet potatoes, but there weren't any, so I got the yukon gold instead. There is meat available, but don't think you're gonna see a Purdue, Amish, or Tyson chicken.
So why am I a fan of Aldi? There's a certain satisfaction that comes with KNOWING at the end of the trip to the grocery that you paid less than you would have at Meijer, at Kroger, and probably about HALF of what you would have paid at Holiday Market or other premium grocery store. I shop at Aldi for the basics, for foundational elements of the meals I prepare for my kids and I, and if I need some special ingredient I can run up to Nino Salvaggio and pick it up.
Decide what items you won't compromise on (for me, it's Jif Peanut Butter), and buy the rest at Aldi. Just bring your own bags. And a quarter.
*DOES NOT ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS, but will take Debit Cards, Cash and (presumably) Checks* read more