Aldi Markets is a national grocery chain started in 1976. You will find them mainly in the eastern US. I have been able to shop at a few of their stores, having lived in New York and Pennsylvania. All of the stores basically are the same. If you have never shopped at Aldi’s here are the pros and cons of shopping at one of their stores.
Variety
The stores do have a good variety of essential food items. The chain does carry an assortment of fish, meats, fruit and vegetables. Flavors and dietary needs are not lacking at Aldi’s. You can find low-fat, and low-sodium items if you look for them.
One of the biggest negatives I found about this store is the lack of fresh meat. Everything is either frozen or pre-packaged with limited shelf life. While they do have fresh vegetables and fruit, often you must pick carefully because produce does start to spoil and they don’t keep it chilled. If you are looking for local produce, there is no way to tell where produce comes from either.
Access
All of the Aldi Markets I have been in are very accessible to disabled persons. A big plus is that you don’t have to reach far to get an item. Almost everything in the store is within arms length without stretching for it. Items are stacked not shelved in Aldi stores and you can see over most stacks. The layout of the stores make it easy to navigate because the entire store is only five aisles wide so there is no need for overhead signs telling you what is in each aisle.
While the size of the store makes it easy to get around, it is a smaller layout so there is less room to make turns or stop. The aisles are narrower than normal stores and you almost need to hug the stacks to get two people with carts passed each other. The layout also has the problem of being one-directional, meaning that if you need to turn around to go back for something it isn’t as simple as turning around mid-aisle. You have to continue through the store and make a loop back around to reach another section. The stores also have a “one way in, one way out” setup so if you must go outside you would need to go through the entire store again to reach where you were.
Selection
Aldi’s does provide choices for different items in regards to size, flavor and bulk items for families. If you are not a comparison shopper or a “brand snob” you won’t miss the lack of national brands. There are some national brands, such as Millville in cereal, and Stroehman’s Bread. Perdue and Hatfield can be found in the meat section.
If you are used to comparison shopping, you won’t be allowed that here. Almost everything in an Aldi store is store-brand. There are no national brands, which is how they most likely cut back on pricing. But there is no way to tell the quality or the value of the item by comparing it to another similar item. They sell one brand of each item such as Farmville, or Golden Goose, or Hometown which are all store branded items. So if you think the salt or sugar content for an item is too high, you’re out of luck. There is also a lack of alternative foods such as “organic”, “diabetic” or “kosher”. Yes they have Mexican and Chinese foods, but they are mass produced frozen foods.
Layout
One plus they do offer at Aldi Markets is the plain sight pricing of everything. There’s no need to guess what item is on special, or what the price of a certain item is. Huge clearly marked black-on-yellow signs tell you what the item is and what it costs. The parking lot is sizable to the store, meaning you do not have to walk far to reach your car. There is also two entrances to the lot so you won’t find a traffic jam often.
A big problem with any trip I’ve taken to Aldi’s is the backlog at the checkout stations. While the stores do have multiple checkouts they always seem to be short of open stations. You notice this when you run into the lines of people waiting to buy their items; because of the size of the store, these lines often run into the aisles and clog the entire front of the store. Another issue I have with the layout is the placement of certain products. When you first walk into most other food stores you are in the fruit, vegetable or sale item section; at Aldi’s, you walk right into the chip and candy section, and there is no way to avoid this. The healthy food is farther back and around a corner. If you have kids, this becomes a problem.
