quote:

Originally posted by 400m:
Personally I’d be shopping for different guests to invite to my next cookout.

Yeah... I wouldn't be inviting anyone who would complain about where the FREE to them ribeye comes from. Entitled and petty is how I would describe them.

My wife loves Aldi - However our savings are reduced due to all of the 'deals' in the 'junk isle' (as I call it). She LOVES that stuff. I strongly dislike that I can't find everything I want/need there so have to usually make another stop to get everything.

Often their house brands are decent, but sometimes they're really off and for many things there are no other choices. Not being able to buy produce by the piece also pisses me off. No I don't need a 50lb bag of limes so I can through away all but one when they rot in 3 days.

I have never seen a 50 POUND bag of limes.
I freeze the lemons when they are on sale using a freezer bag.
Their organic eggs are the lowest price around, $3.55.
Several weeks ago, the cashier gave me three coupons for $5 off $30 minimum purchase.

I dislike when I just need to buy like three things and get stuck in the back of someone with 150 items and there’s only one checkout person working, but they are pretty fast. They are installing self checkouts in the Aldi’s around here it seems, Lidl had them first, and it seems like they are trying to catch up.

It’s my understanding that Aldi does pay pretty well for what they do and the lean, minimal staffing model is how they do that.

Our local Aldi now offers self checkout so I can speed through with my Nürnberger sausages. And of course the Advent calendars

My quaint little town was fortunate enough to get an Aldi recently. My wife and I both love Aldi!

Their red bag chicken breasts taste pretty dang close to chic-fil-A’s chicken if you cook it in an air fryer.

Their produce (especially their apples) are also fantastic.

I forgot something at the store yesterday, seeing this thread this afternoon reminded me why not try Aldi. Hadn't been there in a long time.

What I quickly found was nothing changed. One register open, 12-15 people on line, all with full carts. I didn't even bother looking for what I came for.


That aside, the store was a disaster. Maybe because of the three day weekend, I dunno, but LOTS of empty shelf space and the general disarray.

Oh well.

They have some decent items, the Brioche Buns and the red bag frozen chicken breasts are a fine substitute Chic-fil-A sandwich, although haven't seen the spicy pickles you need, seems they are always out of stock. Produce is a step above most other local grocers.

As for negatives, as others have said....

1) Never enough cashiers, and when they see a line, nobody comes up to open another until the lines already shortened. They are fairly quick.

2) don't carry everything we buy, so it's always
double trips, two stores, even when Publix is across the street it's a PIA in FL since you can't leave cold items or perishables in a car unless you like melted ice cream

3) My 85 year old dad says the potato salad is killer, and the milk cheaper, I think he just likes going through the store and making embarrassing comments to people about their groceries just to mess with me.... (I feel like a Teen LOL)

Ditto on the tater salad

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
Ditto on the tater salad

That's a "starter kit" for me. I add celery, onion, relish,and couple tablespoons vinegar.

Just green onions and celery for me.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

1) Never enough cashiers...

Today the ONLY employee I saw in the store was the one woman on the register.
There was one guy in the parking lot wrangling carts.
Again, maybe because it's a holiday. But maybe they shouldn't open if there's no one to work.

quote:

Originally posted by cas:

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

1) Never enough cashiers...

Today the ONLY employee I saw in the store was the one woman on the register.
There was one guy in the parking lot wrangling carts.
Again, maybe because it's a holiday. But maybe they shouldn't open if there's no one to work.

They’ll have 3 people each making $25 or so an hour per shift instead of 8 people each making $9 an hour per shift. That’s their business model.

We don't have Aldi around here, but I love Trader Joe's. We've been shopping there for almost 20 years. Good food, a pleasant shopping experience, and significant savings.

When I was living in Syracuse (Lafayette actually...just south), I used to drive by an Aldi fairly frequently. One day I decided to drop in and see what it was all about. What I found could best be described as a (very) poor man's Walmart. Food stamp city. I expected to see government cheese in the cooler. Somewhere along the lines of a Dollar Store grocery store. I don't think that I'd even eat the canned goods out of that place. Not saying they're all like that, but if that was an indication, I'd pass.

Green Hills Farms was my go-to grocery store, just up the block from them. That was a great grocery store. A close second to Wegman's.

I shop at Aldi whenever I can. Some things are a good value. Some things are not.

Their house brand equivalent of Cheerios is pretty bad. But they have plenty of house brands that are great.

I buy their house brand Greek yogurt a lot.

Around here they have stawberries longer and cheaper than the other grocery stores and they keep longer before rotting.

I haven't tried their steaks. But now that we have a new gas grill I really want to give them a try.

I met a guy at our local dog park whose wife is a manager at a local Aldi. The efficiency of their stores in incredible. They typically only have four staff in the store. They stock and when the line gets long they go up front to check people out. Then they go back and stock again. They don't have to worry about staffing people for the deli, or the meat section, or the seafood section or the bakery. You need a quarter to get a shopping cart which means that they don't need someone to police up the shopping carts and the homeless people don't take them. If someone does leave a shopping cart in the parking lot, they know someone will grab it to get the quarter. The 10 cent bags they used to sell, before our county started their bag tax, would last several months. People, like me, will also grab the empty shipping boxes which reduces the amount of trash they have to throw away.

Sooo, how'd the Ribeyes turn out?

Yes, curious minds want to know…

re the meats at Aldi,

take this from someone that is or was a journeyman meat cutter and dept head,


the Strips and Ribeyes are quite good,

the cube steak, is not, they only seem to (or whoever they buy it from) run it thru the cuber once or maybe 2 times,
we did several when I was in the biz, turning the piece 90 degrees each time

the burger is good, preformed patties, are decent too,

the ground turkey is dry if you go for the lean stuff, the 85% makes fantastic burgers

the chicken I have had is as good if not better than any name brand,
however keep in mind it may be made by or processed by a name brand and the aldi label added,


pork has been good too (chops, bone in an boneless, as well as tenderlions) all are fluid added,

I have not tried a roast yet,


seafood, Coho, or Atlantic Salmon, Tilapia, Cod have all been good,


frozen shrimp is usually a good price,

the Gluten Free frozen and fresh stuff is generally good,


the cauliflower crust pizza suck , but the GF (different crust) and regular pizzas are ok,

one item I did not like is the canned corn, it tasted like field corn, not sweet corn

I tried one of the non-frozen take and bake pizzas tonight. It was good, not great but as good as any frozen/take and bake grocery store pizza I’ve had.