Author Topic: Aldi experiment  (Read 27252 times)

soccerluvof4

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Re: Aldi experiment
« Reply #50 on: July 16, 2014, 12:27:19 PM »
It took me a year to figure out the whole shopping thing when i took it over from my wife BUT with 90% of our groceries coming from Aldis i have knocked our grocery bill for a family of 6 into a third of what it was.

KBecks2

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Re: Aldi experiment
« Reply #51 on: October 21, 2014, 01:57:14 PM »
I am falling in love with Aldi!  I have two that are close to my home and it beats the heck out of our "normal" grocery store.  I need to try Woodman's though, and Costco -- but both of them require serious driving to get to and from.  I might be better off staying close to home and/or using coupons.

I pretend I am in Europe when I go to Aldi, by the way. 

MayDay

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Re: Aldi experiment
« Reply #52 on: October 21, 2014, 02:16:16 PM »
I'm a big fan of Aldi.  They should pay my wife for the free marketing she does.  She originally said she was looking forward to moving back to Iowa to get back to Hy-Vee.  I told her we should try out Aldi and she saids he liked the "experience" of Hy-Vee.  In college, when she shopped there routinely, she wasn't paying her bills.  It's funny how, even when she wasn't trying to "live it up" on her parents' dime, Aldi becomes so attractive.  We do pretty much all of our grocery shopping there.  The exception will be if we need a specific kind of produce - big grocery stores have good options year round.  At Aldi you definitely have to buy based on what is in season.

Man I miss HyVee.  Not the message you were going for, I know :).

Bob W

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Re: Aldi experiment
« Reply #53 on: October 21, 2014, 02:19:19 PM »
Good for you!  Perhaps the most important part of this post is the team work developing with the wife!

Leverage this my friend.

In my experience after living in a town with both an aldis and Walmart supper center is that I never ventured into an Aldis after the first few tries.    Their selection was very limited where I live so I might find one or two items cheaper than wally world.   It just wasn't worth the savings.

Here is a couple of hints to keep your Paleo like diet in the way below $400 range.

Shop at walmart at Monday morning around 6:30 a.m..  Their meat cuts are tagged for discount if they didn't sell on the weekend.

Use loss leaders to your advantage.   (if the drive is on your way or nearbye).   We usually buy our paleo eggs for $1 a dozen and buy 15 dozen at a time when they hit sale price.

Last week a local HyVee store featured 1 pound rolls of 80/20 ground beef for $2.  I bought 30 pounds.   Roll with the loss leaders!

I'm pretty paleo so I just pop in walmart twice a week for the veggies.

Potatoes can be had for $1 for 5 pounds many times as a loss leader.

I go with frozen veggies when ever possible.  (never ever canned).   Lots of stores will feature 1 pound bags of frozen veggies for 1  - 1.5.

Remember,  Walmart will match competitors prices on anything.   No ad or proof is needed if it is less than a 50% mark down.   

cavewoman

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Re: Aldi experiment
« Reply #54 on: October 21, 2014, 02:35:00 PM »
I remember Aldi from when I was a kid and I feel like the quality wasn't as good back then... maybe it was just being a kid and wanting name brand snacks.

I miss Winco in California...

In Illinois I was on Wal-Mart only partly for convenience of 24 hours, but when my work schedule normalized, I started checking out Aldi.  I'm a convert, I love Aldi and tell everyone.  It's definitely been trial and error like someone upthread said, but I feel like the more we shop there, the more we get at Aldi instead of having to make a different trip to Wal-Mart. 

The only things we have to get at Wal-Mart now are Almond Milk (haven't seen it at our Aldi, but sometimes I think things are hiding) and coffee.  We tried their brand, but get whichever is cheaper of folgers/maxwell at WM or the even closer store Shop N Save.

CSA has ended for us so I'm not sure what that will mean for produce shopping... we are the last 2 workers to still get our shares so we've still been working for veggies a couple of weeks after the paid shares are over.  Then again we will most likely be moving in a month or so... oh no, we'll have to learn a new grocery store layout!

teen persuasion

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Re: Aldi experiment
« Reply #55 on: October 21, 2014, 02:54:51 PM »
Aldi is my main grocery store; I'll pick up a few loss leaders at Tops, and a very few items that are cheaper at SaveALot when I'm nearby,  but 90% is from Aldi.

Which store carries the cheapest stuff must depend on region.  I keep hearing about Wal-Mart and Target for groceries, but I've found them to be very high whenever I'm in an area where I can shop in those two.  Our Aldi matches nearby competitor's prices on items like milk and eggs.  I've noticed the differences in those prices by town, and cashiers told me it is all about the local competition.

Stellar

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Re: Aldi experiment
« Reply #56 on: October 21, 2014, 03:19:48 PM »
Has anyone in Texas compared the prices of Aldi to HEB?  Also, no credit card but they do allow debit card purchases... so that is cool.

GardenFun

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Re: Aldi experiment
« Reply #57 on: October 21, 2014, 03:53:27 PM »
I am falling in love with Aldi!  I have two that are close to my home and it beats the heck out of our "normal" grocery store.  I need to try Woodman's though, and Costco -- but both of them require serious driving to get to and from.  I might be better off staying close to home and/or using coupons.

I pretend I am in Europe when I go to Aldi, by the way.

I used to shop Festival/Copps and then tried Woodman's.  Was floored by the price difference.  Recently tried Aldi and they definitely have their good options too (this week was fresh mushrooms or 3lb bag of onions for $0.49 each - wow!). 

Woodman's definitely has better selection, but the store is big and it can take time to get thru.  Aldi is much quicker and a good stop for mid-week staples (milk, bread, fruit).

DollarBill

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Re: Aldi experiment
« Reply #58 on: October 21, 2014, 10:35:35 PM »
I can't believe the price difference when you pay more attention.

Stlbroke

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Re: Aldi experiment
« Reply #59 on: October 21, 2014, 11:54:10 PM »
Aldis take n bake pizzas are the best

Neustache

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Re: Aldi experiment
« Reply #60 on: October 22, 2014, 05:54:28 AM »
Whenever I'm at Aldi, my kids get complimented on their behavior.  I think it's because we are only there for 20 minutes due to the size of the store.  Ha!  Or my alternate theory, Aldi customers are super nice. 

Hannah

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Re: Aldi experiment
« Reply #61 on: October 22, 2014, 06:08:29 AM »
I love Aldi for two reasons:

1. There food is awesome (even the produce which you have to buy seasonally)
2. They have excellent store segmentation strategies. The store near my place is heavily hispanic foods (which I love), but the one out in the burbs has more fancy dairy products.

However, loss leaders around these parts at normal grocery chains blow, so its almost not even a fair comparison. When I lived in Minneapolis, Wal-Mart decided it was going to compete with Aldi on price, so for an entire summer we were getting eggs for $.79 a dozen and milk for $2.29

I don't have time to got to many grocery stores, and I don't coupon except on consumables which I buy at Target

happyfeet

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Re: Aldi experiment
« Reply #62 on: November 12, 2014, 04:17:52 PM »
Double Money Back Guarantee at Aldi.

My unexpired swiss cheese I opened had mold.

Returned it to store without receipt.  They replaced cheese AND refunded my money. 

How about that for customer service?

DollarBill

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Re: Aldi experiment
« Reply #63 on: November 12, 2014, 07:18:27 PM »
I normally shop in Aldi's in Kansas but on a trip to my parents in Maryland I stopped to pick up some groceries at Safeway. I had sticker shock on almost everything I bought...about double the price! Then I took my Mom to Aldi's and I expected that the prices would be higher as well because of the location. Everything we bought was comparable to Kansas. I was surprised that they didn't have some mark up. I'm taking the receipt home with me to see if the prices are the same. I'm impressed!

GardenFun

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Re: Aldi experiment
« Reply #64 on: November 13, 2014, 04:01:36 PM »
Our local Aldi was clearing out 8oz bags of chopped walnuts.  Marked down to $0.99/bag!  I quickly grabbed 6 bags and danced through the rest of the aisles over the find.  Definitely keep a lookout for the yellow tags with hand-drawn prices. 

justajane

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Re: Aldi experiment
« Reply #65 on: November 15, 2014, 08:12:51 PM »
Our Aldi recently closed for a one month expansion/renovation. Right before they did so, they had tons of things on clearance. I was buying cans of green chilis for 25 cents a piece, blocks of cheese for a dollar or less, etc. etc. It was awesome! Now that the new store is up and running, I see less of this, but still in general, if you keep an eye out, you can usually get things that are marked down.

We recently have been buying their brie cheese and prosciutto, and they are both good quality.