I just recently moved to north Lakeland and decided to finally give Aldis a try.
Initially, I was somewhat put off by having to pay a quarter to get a cart but keeps people from just dumping carts in the parking lot like I see elsewhere.
I'm a big salad eater and prefer spring mixes over head lettuce along with seedless cukes and radishes and maybe a few onion slices. Tomatoes, if I can afford them, are nice, too.
I was used to paying $5 for a small tub of spring mix at places like Publix and I could expect to pay $2 to $4 for a single cucumber and radishes would cost $3 a bag or bunch. Tomatoes (cherry) could easily cost $4 a container but that beat $1 a tomato any day.
And don't get me started on the price of onions, eggs and other essentials.
Imagine my surprise when I found a huge container of spring mix (enough for 4 days) for less than $5, radishes at $1.39 for a large bag and seedless cukes for 69 cents (hey, Publix! How come you charge $4 for a single cuke?).
Unfortunately, no diced onions, but I can live with that.
Then I find lower sodium salad dressings for less than $2 a bottle. Eggs for barely over a buck a dozen. Coffee creamer that's less than half the price of Publix and tastes just as good. Fruit cups that are roughly two packs for less than $3 when any other store considers it a good sale when they are two for $5.
You want bread? They got bread, ranging from inexpensive loaves on up to exotics hitting close to $5 a loaf.
While it's true their stores are smaller, they do seem to pack quite a bit in there. You've got a meat and freezer section along with dairy and dry goods. They even have half an aisle dedicated to odd items (one recent one was a bar cart for $99).
My only gripe is that when I went to buy a reusable bag it was clearly marked 25 cents (in fact, it's part of the logo on the bag) but it rang up as 69 cents as the register. Need to correct that!
Oh, and get there early. I swear the local mobile home parks must clear out and head to Aldi's (don't be surprised if you see a golf cart or two in the parking lot). read more