Continuing runner-up from alphabet series into 2021. 2021 had 9 businesses that were out of town…read moreas Chicago/Wisconsin trip was noteworthy that year as well as a couple of other trips. Representing local DMV runner-up for the letter A for 2021, A is for Aldi. This is my local Aldi to where I live since November 2020. For over 5 years, I've gone to my local Aldi in Corridor Marketplace.
Aldi is a mix of good & bad. Like a lot of grocery stores, I have my share of compliants with many of them. In terms of my options within a mile of my home, I have Aldi, Shoppers, Wal-Mart, & Target. For quick comparison, I don't like Shoppers and may at some point get to giving a 2-star review of them. Wal-Mart has issues too, but they have the most variety, so I sometimes go over there. Target isn't very good for groceries as it's more limited. Aldi is good and best price, better than even Wal-Mart, but the downside is options are limited. For convenience, I much prefer going into Aldi than into Wal-Mart, but Aldi doesn't always have everything I'm looking for. So, it depends on what I'm looking for to determine which grocery store I choose. And if I'm in another area, I'll go to Lidl in Columbia or Harris-Teeter in Laurel (but I don't like going to Laurel Town Center in general) or Fulton, or other various stores.
Although I had been to an Aldi prior to me living over here, it was quite rare as it wasn't convenient. When I first went in to my local one in late 2020, I was in sticker shock at the low prices! That was great; although prices have certainly gone up in the past few years, Aldi remains much lower than other stores on average including my local Wal-Mart. The low prices is their strongest aspect. Since the store is relatively small, it's easy to get around and a less stressful grocery experience than Wal-Mart, Wegmans (another huge grocery store), or even a standard grocery store. Aisles are well organized and pretty easy to find stuff.
Some negatives are the produce is hit or miss in terms of the quality. And the other day, I was annoyed they only had organic blueberries, which were more expense. So, Lidl in Columbia got the win for the blueberries this past time. In general, they've been in good stock for things. Meats aren't a wide variety, but I make do with Aldi has.
Dairy is a mix of good & bad. When egg prices got really high in early 2025, Aldi remained much lower than others, so I flocked to Aldi just for eggs. But now while Aldi remains the cheapest for eggs, it's only a small difference. One area where Aldi is lacking is turkey bacon. Their one variety of turkey bacon when in stock is very expensive, so Wal-Mart butterball turkey bacon, or other grocery stores will get the win on turkey bacon. Some of their yogurt has aspartame, which is bad, so I get the ones without, but their have their brand (the more expensive kind without aspartame) but still cheaper than even Wal-Mart. They have some Chobani yogurt, which I like but is no value here. So, if you want variety for yogurt, Wal-Mart is a better bet.
Another thing is Aldi has a lot of their brands and may not even offer an alternative or limited. For example, you want potato chips, you can get a couple of the name brands but at a not so great value, or you can pay like a third of the cost for their "World famous" Clancy's chips. But Clancy's is just Aldi chips, but they don't want to put Aldi chips, so they come up with some nice name like Clancy's to get people to buy. I used to enjoy their kettle chips (close to as good as Cape Cod), but the last couple of times, it was too salty. I recently gave their Ruffle chips a try. Wow, those are amazing, better than Lay's Ruffles or any other ruffle chip I've ever had.
More of a negative is checking out. Sometimes there's just one checkout lane open, and the line has been backed up 10+ deep. They try to do a decent job quickly getting a 2nd lane open, but that's hit or miss. Also, it's a bit chaotic and should be more clear signage on where people should stand in line. For example, when there are 2 checkouts open, I never know if they want people in 2 lines, like one coming off frozen food side & one coming off that next aisle, or they want all the people standing in one long line. It's confusing, and they need to do a better job of making it clear because people end up getting ahead that shouldn't get ahead.
Cashiers themselves are generally pretty nice or at least cordial, better than most grocery stores. Also, it's very rare they ever get the price wrong, but like at any grocery store, I ALWAYS check the receipt before I leave.
In summary, I'll keep coming back to Aldi for the convenience & low prices, but I don't have the highest expectations.
