I've been a regular Aldi shopper for 10 years or more. Great store for me as I don't need 10 kinds of ketchup or several brands of canned goods. Just sell me good food at a fair price and get me in and out quick. They do that. The stores in the Louisville area have wonderful produce and the vacuum packed meat is good too. Dairy is supplied by Deans and Aldi's gallon milk price beats every other store in town, as do their eggs.

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No, Target is not French owned.

When you pronunce the store name the way it was intended to be pronounced, you may think differently. Of course, the "correct" store pronunciation is "Tarjey..."

Insignificant details like world HQ in MN, are just inconsequential details that muck up a good story.

The good thing about Aldi is you don't have to dodge carts I. The parking lot most of the time!

The Aldis coffee is pretty darn good, and has an excellent price.

I carry my concealed German but made in America pistol when I shop at Aldis.

Aldi is my "go to" store. They have a great business model and it works. Excellent products and super low prices. What's not to like? Besides all that, I love the stolen they get in in the fall, through Christmas.

I tell people who haven't been to Aldis, that it's like Seinfeld's Bizarro World. Many of the products are packaged like brand name products but are generics. Cereal boxes for instance, look like Kelloggs but are off brands. Mayonnaise jars have the colors and design of Hellmans but on closer inspection may say something like "Spellmans". On the other hand, I did get my quarter back.

If you're going to dislike anything because of its country of origin, you're going to have a rough time. Like Michelin tires on your car? French. Bayer aspirin? German again. Cheap ammo to shoot in your guns? Much of it is Russian or the countries making up the former Yugoslavia. Volkswagen? Guess
who commissioned the original Beetle that made
them famous. For that matter, the very forum you're asking this question on is about a German product.

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Originally posted by SigJacket:

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Originally posted by reloader-1:

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Originally posted by bendable:
does the fact that they are owned by a German company ( according to the local news caster)
make any difference at all ?

Same with target and the french owners.

Fun fact: Trader Joe's and Aldi's are owned by the same company - the Aldi family trust in Germany.

They were founded by two German brothers who carved up Europe and the rest of the world into territories where each chain could operate...

No, Target is not French owned.

We have a Trader Joe's and Aldi not too far apart, so if they carved up the world, they didn't do a great job.

The US is the exception, Aldi Nord (owner of Trader Joe's) has countries in Europe that Aldi Süd does not (and the "North" & "South" refer to the HQ locations, not georgraphic split.

For example, you'll find Aldi Nord in France, Spain, Poland etc - and Aldi Süd is in the U.K., Austria and Hungary.

I believe the Aldi's and Lidl's are owned by the same company. We have 2 Aldi's in the area one is not due to open until October. Never been in the other one. Another way they keep the prices low is they are direct warehouse to store. No DSD (Direct Store Delivery) so no products are allowed in that are vendor serviced. No Frito Lays, no Brown Berry bread no Pepperidge Farm and many other products that use the DSD system.

As these stores become more prevalent and take consumer market share from the Wal Marts, Targets and other grocery store chains it's going to force those stores to do the same.
This is a large part of the reason Amazon buying Whole Foods shook the grocery industry.

Kelloggs was the first by going warehouse just this summer and dropping the DSD portion of their business.
Of course a whole lot of people lost their jobs as well.

Of course what this will mean for the consumer is a lot less choice. Once these name brand products leave the DSD system and go warehouse you will probably have about a third of the choice of that product line from what used to be in the store.

Like your Pepperidge Farm dark chocolate Milanos? Oh, all we carry are the mint Milanos
sorry.

So if you like the choice of things at Aldi's keep buying there. But if you still go elsewhere for those favorite things you like that they don't have don't be surprised when you no longer have the option.

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Originally posted by Phred:
I shop at Aldi as my regular grocery store. We also have another German grocery store, "Lidl", opening soon that I want to check out.

Yeah, we have a Lidl opening up here soon, too. Wife shops aldi all the time. I was buying stollen from there in batches of 6 at a time. we now have 3 of the Aldi shops within easy driving distance.

Be careful with the meat. the beef seems OK, but the chicken I bought was "enhanced with a solution of ..." I hate when I miss that detail. I don't want to pay for 15% of something I won't put in there myself. Same goes for the pork there, but I already knew to check that. otherwise they have great prices on some things. Produce is good. Wine is good, pet supplies are good.

Comparable product offerings to major chain grocery stores.
However much better pricing.
Shop with confidence and remember to bring your own plastic bags.

The fact they are German owned really doesn't mean anything. The fact they were started in Germany and have a different take on things, does. And that's in a good way, I think.

I went there for the first time recently, looking for (and finding!) the pretzel buns mentioned here (yum!). Came in, and looked for the shopping carts. Nope, outside. Well, OK, back out I go.

And the damn things are hobbled together, each to the next like convicts doing roadwork in a bad '70s movie. Hmmm....maybe these are the company's spares, kept locked up, but separate as a sort of reserve for some Teutonic mass resupply operation?

Nope. That's all they had. Since my bolt cutters were elsewhere....nothing for it but to ask someone in the store who actually had one in use how/where they'd gotten it. "Ah, look where the cable loops from, and put in a quarter and the cable comes out. When you're done, put the cable back around and your quarter pops out."

Ah. Got it. Parole the carts for the loan of a quarter.

Also, with your cart-jailbreak quarter, bring bags, as they don't have any. At least the Durham one doesn't.

So now, when I'm looking for pretzel buns (and surprisingly good prices on some other eclectic stuff) I know what to do.

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Originally posted by joel9507:

So now, when I'm looking for pretzel buns (and surprisingly good prices on some other eclectic stuff) I know what to do.

Rules are important. "No pretzel buns for you. One year!!"

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does the fact that they are owned by a German company make any difference at all ?

Love me some Germans!

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Since my bolt cutters were elsewhere....nothing for it but to ask someone in the store who actually had one in use how/where they'd gotten it. "Ah, look where the cable loops from, and put in a quarter and the cable comes out. When you're done, put the cable back around and your quarter pops out."

Ah. Got it. Parole the carts for the loan of a quarter.

German efficiency. It's like Tom Sawyer: Get the people to do your work for you and convince them they like it.
Besides.... No cart boys goofing off outside, pretending they are working while all the carts pile up around the parking lot, putting dings in your car.

Aldi and Lidl are competitors and are not in any way the same company - think McDonalds and Burger King.

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Originally posted by joel9507:

Also, with your cart-jailbreak quarter, bring bags, as they don't have any. At least the Durham one doesn't.

Bags are usually under your side of the checkout conveyor. But you have to pay for them.

I work in a small Virginia retail store located in suburban Washington, D.C. A perfectly dreadful ("I can walk into an empty store and still have to wait for a checkout cashier") Safeway closed last year, which reduced the amount of foot traffic, as it was the "anchor" store in this center. Recently it was announced that an Aldi was opening, and construction has already begun. I've shopped at Aldi a few miles away, and what they have, I love. As others have said, it doesn't have everything, but I can walk out of the store with a lot of groceries for $20.

Curiously, a Lidl (one of Aldi's German competitors) is said to be opening across the street. Lidl's U.S. headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia, and the company has stated its intention to open locations nearby.

This should be interesting. A Fresh Market locally closed after only about three years in business. There is a thriving, almost cut-throat grocery business in this area: Ethnic (Korean, Chinese, Hispanic) groceries are plentiful, there are Whole Foods, Wegman's, Giant, Harris Teeter, and Safeway stores all over the place. Some of these will not survive unless they up their game.

I love Aldi for that exact reason. After living in Germany and getting over it being different, I've always enjoyed going in. It brings back good memories and I can get German food that I couldn't otherwise.