18 reasons you should be grocery shopping at ALDI, including insider tips and what to expect before you. See why everyone raves about ALDI!
For a long time, I got jealous anytime someone said they shopped at ALDI. These people were loving the options and quality from ALDI – and saving money at the same time! – and here I was, a frugal foodie at heart, feeling like I was stuck in a no-ALDI zone, 126 miles away from the nearest store.
And then we moved to Georgia, and GUESS WHAT!! There’s an ALDI less than 2 miles from my house. 🙂
Needless to say, I understand why people love ALDI so much and over the years, I’ve learned the ins and outs of ALDI and how to incorporate it into my shopping routine that already includes Costco and Walmart and Kroger… WITHOUT feeling like I’m constantly at the store. That’s why I’ve created this Ultimate Guide to Shopping at ALDI – so you can save money and get the most out of your ALDI trips!
Ultimate Guide to Shopping at ALDI: Before You Shop
Store Hours
As much as I’d like to change this, ALDI isn’t open 24/7. Their store hours operate according to most peak business hours, which is typically 9am to 8pm Monday through Saturday, with a later opening and earlier closing on Sunday.
This might not be a big deal, but it’s important to take into consideration with your schedule. For example, our school drop-off is over by 8:15am and I usually head straight to the grocery store from the school. However, by the time I get to ALDI, the store doesn’t open for another 30 minutes. And honestly, I don’t want to sit and wait in the car for 30 minutes for the store to open.
If I want to shop at ALDI on any given week, I have to make time for it outside of my normal grocery shopping hours.
Weekly Ads
ALDI has two sets of circulars:
- The Weekly Ad: This comes out every week, runs Wednesday to Tuesday in our area, and focuses mostly on food items.
- ALDI Insider: Also known as the In-store Ad, this also comes out every week on Wednesday, but it comes out TWO WEEKS early. The ALDI Insider (a.k.a. In-store Ad) focuses on “Special Buys,” non-food things that are usually themed according to a holiday or season, like exercise equipment during the start of the year or gardening tools in early Spring.
There are five ways to get your hands on a copy of the current weekly ads:
- Visit their website.
- Download their app.
- Sign up to have the ads emailed to you.
- Get one in-store. You can grab a copy right when you walk in the door (and the next week’s ad is posted on the door as you’re leaving!).
- Find it via the weekly junk mail dump. This might not happen in all areas, but I get the ALDI weekly ad in my weekly delivery of junk mail so I’m including it here in case you do to0, but you just never paid attention because it was lumped with the junk mail!
Meal planning tip: plan your meals based on the sales! If a roast is on sale, be sure to add that for your slow cooker meal. If you see tortillas and salsa on sale, plan a taco night!
Bring a Quarter for the Cart
ALDI is known for their low prices, and one way they keep prices low is by NOT hiring someone to chase down grocery carts all day. Instead, you “rent” a cart for a quarter. When you’re done shopping and have loaded up your car, you return the cart and get your quarter back.
You’ll Bag Your Own Groceries
Another way ALDI keeps prices low is by NOT giving you bags or paying someone to bag your groceries. You’ll sail through the checkout line, but it’s up to you to do the rest.
Bring Your Own Bags
Speaking of ALDI not giving you bags, you have four choices when it comes to getting your groceries from the cart to your car:
- Bring your own bags. This is the most reliable option. (A set like this would work great!)
- Use an empty box from the store. You’ll notice that the shelves are stocked with the groceries still in their shipping boxes or on a pallet (as opposed to a typical grocery store that has items individually on the shelf). I’ve been known a time or two to shuffle a few jars around just so I could snag a solid empty box for my groceries! This is the most affordable option, but empty boxes aren’t always available.
- Buy a bag. ALDI has bags you can purchase for 99¢. They’re great bags, but there’s no need to buy them if you remember to bring your own.
- Go commando. There have been times when I’ve forgotten my bags, wasn’t able to find a box and didn’t want to buy more bags. Instead, I put the groceries in my car bag-less. This isn’t the best option, but it can work if you only bought a few things. I wouldn’t recommend this for containers that open easily, like pints of blueberries or things that bruise easily!
If you choose options 1, 2 or 3, ALDI has a long shelf just past the checkout line where you can bag your own groceries before you head out to the car.
Adjust Your Expectations
ALDI isn’t like most grocery stores. First, they don’t carry everything possible. ALDI will never be your one-stop grocery shop like Walmart or Kroger will be.
Second, there’s usually just one brand and size for each item on the shelf. You won’t find 10 different brands of flour or even five different types of flour. There’s just one.
Knowing both of these things before you go shopping will really go a long way, because it will help you plan better and save time in the end.
Personally, I recommend shopping at ALDI first to get as many of the basics you can – things that don’t necessarily need to be brand name or super awesome quality (like baking soda or pepper).
Then you can finish off your list with the other stores in your area.
Cart at Checkout
Your groceries will be loaded into the grocery cart of the person before you in line. This caught me off guard the first time I went shopping, because the cashier started scanning before I was even done putting my groceries on the belt! I was in a panic, thinking I needed to hurry up and load the belt so the cashier had a place to put my groceries, but I was wrong! They were being loaded – with gusto – into the cart of the person before me.
Just know this going in, and when you’re done putting your groceries on the belt, bring the cart to the end of the belt and ask your cashier where they’d like it. They’re happy to tell you, and you’ll look like a shopping pro.
Ultimate Guide to Shopping at ALDI: While You’re There
Shop for the Basics
When I say “basics”, I mean things like flour, sugar, butter, potatoes, onions, bananas, apples, canned beans, pasta, nuts, milk, eggs, chicken, ground beef, and cheese. The things that make up the core of almost every recipe you make or that you routinely buy week after week.
From frozen foods, to baked goods, to dairy, to produce, to meats, to beverages/wines – ALDI is a great place to buy your basic kitchen items.
Buying your basics at a rock bottom price is one of the core principles I teach in Grocery Budget Bootcamp (enrollment is currently closed, but you can join my FREE 5-day Crush Inflation Challenge and start saving money on groceries tomorrow!). The more you save on the items you buy most often, the more you save overall!
Shop for Non-food Items
Typically I don’t recommend buying non-food items at the grocery store, but as we’re learning, ALDI isn’t your typical grocery store. They carry a handful of non-food items like paper towels, toilet paper, sponges, aluminum foil, aspirin, and baby wipes with a price tag that’s hard to beat.
Definitely walk down the non-food aisle(s) and see if there’s anything you need. While you’re there, update your price book so you know for sure whether it’s a good deal or not.
Shop “Special Buys”
Every week ALDI has items listed as “special buys.” These are typically themed around the seasons like camping in the fall (tents, flashlights, hiking gear) or swimming in the summer (floats, swimsuits, sunscreen), or holidays like Christmas and Valentine’s Day, or even specific events like the Superbowl (football shaped plates and themed napkins) or back to school (backpacks, lunchboxes, thermoses).
You can score REALLY good deals on these things, paying significantly less than you would at Target or even Amazon.
Look in the Nooks and Crannies of the Store
ALDI stores aren’t that big, but they pack a lot of good deals in places you wouldn’t ordinarily think to look. For example, I often find special markdowns in a very tiny section that seems off to the side, near the restroom.
There’s also a section of big things – think folding tables and gardening planters and mattresses – that are used as a divider between the shopping aspect of the store and the walkway out the door. You might overlook them, thinking they’re just controlling the flow of foot traffic, but they’re actually THINGS that are on sale that week and things you may need.
The end cap of the registers also carries things that need to go (i.e. things that were on sale a week or two ago) or special seasonal items.
Ultimate Guide to Shopping at ALDI: What Makes ALDI Unique
Most Items are House Brand
About 95% of the items on the shelves are ALDI-brand items. It’s another way ALDI saves money and in turn, passes the savings on to you.
A few of ALDI’s brands include:
- Earth Grown (plant-based foods)
- SimplyNature (organic line)
- liveGfree (gluten-free line)
- NeverAny! (line of meat with no antibiotics, hormones or animal by-products)
- Little Journey (baby line)
- Elevation (better for you bars and protein powders)
- Fit & Active (healthier options)
- Pueblo Lindo (Hispanic foods)
- Specially Selected (ALDI gone gourmet)
Organic and Gluten-free for Cheap
Because the organic and gluten-free brands are HOUSE brands, ALDI can better control prices and in turn, offer very affordable options. Here are some of the best gluten-free finds at ALDI.
Very Limited Selection
If you get overwhelmed with choices at the grocery store, ALDI makes it easy because there are no choices. For most of their items, they only offer one brand (likely their house brand) in one size.
Going Beyond Organic
SimplyNature is ALDI’s organic line, but they also promise to NOT include over 125 artificial ingredients and preservatives, including artificial flavors, artificial colors, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and partially hydrogenated oils. You can see the impressive, full list of ingredients you WON’T find in SimpleNature products.
Specialty Buys
I mentioned this before, but one of the reasons why I enjoy shopping at ALDI so much is because of their limited-time, specialty buys.
A couple of my favorite finds are a three-tier spice rack and glass storage bowls. I needed both, and they were so much more affordable than Target or even Amazon. I’ve seen leggings, underwear, shoes, water bottles, luggage, bedding sets… ALL KINDS of fun stuff. You name it, and ALDI has probably carried it at one time or another.
What makes it more fun though, is that ALDI isn’t trying to sell you junk. These items are “off-brand” but practically identical to the popular name brands. Have you ever purchased Costco-brand underwear but realized it fits just like Hanes? Or picked up Costco-brand jacket and realized it’s eerily similar to NorthFace?
It’s just like that, without the yearly membership.
Fresh Produce, Daily
ALDI gets deliveries of fresh produce every morning, so chances of produce sitting out for a long period of time is slim.
Of course you always have that off-chance of a head of lettuce being a bit past its prime, but for the most part, you can count on quality produce on a daily basis.
Double Barcodes
Fun fact! Almost every item at ALDI has two barcodes, letting cashiers scan your foods at lightning speed and toss your groceries (sometimes with gusto) into another shopping cart.
Pallets and Boxes on the Shelves
This caught me off guard the first time I shopped at ALDI because at every grocery store I’ve ever shopped at employees unpack boxes and stock the shelves with food. Not at ALDI!
This is another way the company saves money and passes the savings on to you as the consumer – they simply leave the food in the boxes and/or on the pallets. It might look primitive when you first walk into the store, but snag an empty box when you see one and be thankful because those low prices don’t happen on their own!
Curious how ALDI compares to other stores? Find out here: ALDI vs Walmart // ALDI vs Costco
Not sure what to buy at ALDI?
Click here for a FREE one week $50 meal plan for ALDI! Complete with Shopping List and Recipes!
This is really helpful information! My closest Aldi is 27 miles. Not terribly far…but not exactly close either, so I don’t shop there unless I am visiting family elsewhere, where they have one close by. I am curious about a store called Lidl. Our daughter shops at one near her home. Been in there once while visiting her recently. It’s set up just like Aldi, same size, and great prices. Anyone have any insight if they are related somehow to the Aldi stores?
Aldi and Lidl are both small-stock German grocery companies that came to the US. Lidl stores are MUCH larger, have more staff and some fresh bakery items…much more like a traditional grocery store. The overall set-up is generally the same though. They have very good prices on staples, overpriced national brand items, and random seasonal stuff that’s hit-or-miss. Locally, they have the best price on nuts by FAR…like up to 50% cheaper than even websites that only sell nuts. Well worth checking out for good deals.
I absolutely LOVE Aldi! I haven’t found anything in their brand that I don’t like. Their Keurig pods are preferred by my 19 year old which saves a ton of money, not to mention the baby soap, dish soap, Girl Scout cookie knock offs, and the occasional sugary cereal that is asked for. I could list all my favorites that I dropped huge name brands for but I’m sure most of you have found the same. I shop for everything I possibly can at Aldi and then try Food Lion before going to Walmart. Usually it is for veggie meat because they rarely have veggie crumbles at ours. We eat TONS of fruits and vegetable and shopping Aldi saves us money in that department alone. The bonus is that, like you said in your post, you can get many items at Aldi that would send you to a big box store ordinarily. There are always distractions at Walmart, isles and isles of toys, housewares and clothes, but at Aldi there is one isle of these extras and it’s all combined and my kids typically complain if I go anywhere near it! They have come to like quick shopping trips and that isle slows me down!
Aldi’s is pretty much my one-stop-shop. I might need a couple of things elsewhere. I do shop at Tx A/M for my meat.
Love Aldi, especially since I try to buy mostly organic. I will say, you have to keep price comparisons handy with other stores AND the ads themselves. AKA sometimes Aldi’s will advertise a regular price as if the item were on sale, when it’s really a regular price. BUT they do a great job of offering discounts throughout the store. Also, if you love something, be sure to leave a review with the company website to keep it in stock. Some things are seasonal though.
Great tips, Tamra – thanks for sharing!
Tiffany, I’m enjoying your recipes, found via Google search. Thanks. I’ve been shopping at Aldi 18 years now.
“These items are “off-brand” but practically identical to the popular name brands.” The Aldi-branded items ARE actually the popular name brand items. Aldi’s FAQs: “ALDI exclusive brands allow us to provide the same high-quality product without passing on all of the hidden costs associated with the national brands, such as marketing and advertising.” Aldi (and most chains that sell “store brands”) has the same product packaged with their labeling, usually at the end of a production run. Tandil is Tide, btw. There are many other P&G products, too (Dawn, Cascade, Ivory, Olay, Folger’s). I also see lots of ConAgra items with Aldi labeling. Millville products are General Mills, and so on.
I would drop kiddos off at school, hit one of my grocery stores that was open early, then head across the intersection to Aldi at 9:00 on the dot. It was science + art, a beautiful thing back in the day. Now I have more than one to choose from, depending on how my week gets planned out.
I Love LOve LOVE Aldi. I bought tights for me (even fleece lined ones) and they were 1/2 the price I usually pay and way better quality. I went back to buy more and they were gone. Their Simply Nature brand cannot be beat. Europe has much stricter guidelines for food manufacturers (such as corn syrup is banned from food items). Here in Southern California my store offers frozen wild caught, sustainable seafood (seasonally). I can get two lobster tails for under $10. There is also a Shrimp Fajita or Shrimp Taco frozen packet with a simple list of ingredients. It comes with a spice packet (spices are listed, but it does have sugar so I just save the packet for my DiL). I snap up all the fajita shrimps whenever I see them–can you say dinner in a flash? Two servings the package says and is enough for DH and I to split (because I make a side of cauliflower rice), but if you eat OMAD or have teenage boys you will need more.
Produce is hit or miss. Kerrygold butter is the best price I have ever seen. Sorry for writing a book here. Great getting the need to know info out!
Never apologize for sharing awesome grocery tips Cty – thank you so much!
To make life easier, there is a free app called flipp (w/ to p’s). You put in the zip code of the store & it pops up all sales ads for that zip code. If your store isn’t listed, then you can email them & they will tell you where to find it or try & add it to their list. There is even a shopping list feature so you can easily save the sales items that you want to buy. It is an extremely useful app.
I want to give a shout for the diapers…..they are just as amazing as pampers but without the price!
Even in sunny Southern California where produce is super fresh we get some “bad apples.” Even in large supermarkets, the produce looks good but often turns out to be pithy, old, tasteless or “unripe forever.” Aldis is no exception. Sometimes a potato or two from the bag have dark centers. This is from a lack of a mineral in the soil where they were grown. Sometimes the apples in the middle of the bag are a bit bruised, and often the oranges are cosmetically challenged but fine inside. The best and most consistent produce were I live is from Sam’s Club (like Costco) but I let my membership lapse in favor of Costco because of political reasons–Costco treats its employees better and contributes to charity. Trader Joes has been better in the last few years but I still get the ocasional flat of peaches that won’t ripen. Fortunately Trader Joes has a super generous return policy. I get as much produce as I can from my own land where, even here, I have a a surprise or two.
All in all, Aldis says it gets shipments of produce in everyday and they do their best to ensure that it is all good.
I so needed reminding to shop at Aldi first!
Such great value on all those essential items.
Crazy good prices.
It could be it’s because I’m in the Midwest, but I have to be very careful with buying produce. After buying several bad bags of onions and potatoes over a several year time frame, as in rotten in the centers and not noticeable/obvious on the outside, I only buy the veggies/fruits that are on sale that week. I also am not a fan of their remodeling. I’m blessed to have 6 within 20/25 minutes of me, so I can choose. The store 5 min from home is often out of specials by the end of day 1 and has very heavy traffic so I don’t frequent it.
I’m over an hour from the nearest Aldo (and Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and Costco!) but one my once a moth (or 6 week) trip into the city I always pack a cooler and go there 1st.
Before Aldi came to my area we had Save A Lot and they do the same thing with the shopping carts. It used to annoy me to have to have the quarter and one day I was at either Walmart or Kroger and there were carts piled all over the parking lot (not in the cart return bins) and it was like a light bulb went off. If you have to put a quarter in to get the cart you take it back to get the quarter back and viola no shopping carts crowding the parking lot dinging your car up! I wish all stores did this with carts now!
I don’t shop at Aldi as much as I used to. We moved out of town a few years ago and now we are close to 1 hr from the nearest Aldi. I miss shopping there although I have been in since the remodel and dont care for it as much. It is much junkier looking than it was before.
I totally get what you are saying about pay a quarter and no grocery basket in the parking lot, but may I suggest a different perspective? I am totally handicapped with degenerative disc disease. Every step is quite painful! There simply are NO WORDS to describe how grateful I am when I pull into the handicapped parking space and find a basket, or even better, an electric chair RIGHT THERE! I so often feel people are just a little too conscientious about clearing the parking lot of baskets/chairs, esp. around the handicapped parking spaces. Maybe you’all can think about it! Thanks!
I love Aldi’s and on grocery day (once a month) I go to Aldi’s first, then Trader Joes, then Costco, then any other store that has the few things not carried by the above, i.e. health food stores such as Sprouts, Roots, or very rarely Whole Foods. After that if there is anything else the No One carried, I hit up Amazon. i.e. for Brown Rice Syrup, Barley Malt syrup, specialty flours (I bake and teach baking, especially bread).
My Aldis in Southern California does put their items on shelves and in regular produce bins. I asked them once how they could have such high quality meats and dairy for so little cost and they told me that they have their own ranches and farms and do everything themselves. Wow! Their meats, cheeses, and such are really good quality and at 1990s prices! It is my Favorite store.
Wow! I thought the boxes/pallet thing was company wide. Interesting that it’s not!!
And I love that you just flat-out asked them. I didn’t know they had their own ranches ad did the work themselves!! Thanks for sharing Anita!
That’s what she told me, anyway. Of course I can’t go to Essen, Germany to check for myself but I believed her and it fits with the high quality and low pricing. Our store also has bags to by for 10 cents. It’s a state law, because stores are not allowed to give away plastic bags anymore to cut down on pollution. They are allowed to sell bags for 10 cents, though, so not sure how effective the law is. I often buy them because I repurpose them for things like lining trash cans, using them to carry used cat litter, etc.
You know what’s better for cat litter and the plantet . paper lunch sacks. I buy mine at the Dollar Tree. Thought I’d pass that on !
Aldi is a great place for me to buy ghee, which is at specialty prices in a lot of other places.
Yes! That’s a great buy at ALDI!
Hello Tiffany,
My son and I shop regularly at Aldi here in Portugal, it is my fsavourite supermarket here. We like the bread, Nice rolls, pumpkin or olive, baguettes, and a Pao Rustico loaf, Also the vegetables are good, and we can get organic grass-fed measfrom the Azores. I even bought a cashmere sweater there on one occasion! We bought some lovely
Christmas lights for the tree in the shape of little candels, the prettiest tree we have had yet! And some solar lights for a pine tree growing outside. Very good value altogether.
It feels weird buying Christmas decorations and sweaters at the grocery store, doesn’t it Amanda? But that’s ALDI for you, and like you said, great quality to boot!