I don't know if any of you have those Aldi grocery stores in your area, but they recently built one that is about 15 minutes away from my house. There was something that I saw in their Sunday flier that I was interested in looking at, so yesterday, I drove out to Aldi's to check it out.

The first thing that struck me odd about this store is that the shopping carts are all locked together. You have to pay 25 cents to be able to use a grocery cart in their store. I didn't know this until I pulled on a cart so that I could take it into the store, and discovered that it was locked. Another gentlemen who was there told me, "You get your 25 cents back." I was like, "Uh uh, no thanks!" and went into the store without a cart. I can't believe that they actually charge people to use a shopping cart, like you're renting it from them. WTH kind of nonsense is that? I guess they're afraid that people will steal them or something.

I walked into the store, and immediately did not like it. It had a warehouse look about it, and I was not even able to find the item that I was thinking about buying. They had a limited selection of items, and the items that they did have were made by companies that I had never even heard of before!

After walking around for about 10 minutes, I decided that I had wasted enough time, and left the store, with the store flier in my hand. An older lady stopped me and asked me if she could borrow the flier. I told her she could have it to keep, since the item that I came looking for was not in the store. She told me, "You can always get a rain check." I looked at her, made a face, and said, "No thanks." That was another thing I noticed, almost everybody who was shopping in that store were older, in their 70s and 80s. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but usually a grocery store has a wide variation of different ages shopping there. I guess the older people don't mind buying never-heard-of-before brands, and with them living on limited income, they probably feel like they're getting more bang for their buck.

Overall, a very disappointing experience, but at least I know now not to go there anymore. I would rather stick to Trader Joe's, or another well-known grocery chain here in town, thank you very much. I wonder if all of the Aldi's are this bad? I imagine they probably are, and wonder how long they will even stay in business, with the economy being as bad as it is.

psychodelicide said:

that sux hun, there is another supermarket that makes u pay 25 cents as well cant remember what it was though, was years ago.

missmad said:

Really? Isn't that nuts that they make you pay 25 cents for a shopping cart?

psychodelicide said:

It's so you'll take it back and they (you!) don't need to pay a trolley-boy to do it for you.

Also, these guys, LIDL included, are big business. Global Top Ten

mcmeekle said:

@ trolley boy. I never knew that Aldi's was in the top ten.

psychodelicide said:

You also pay for carrier bags at Aldi, whereas most others, in the UK at least, give them away. But you pay for everything that's "free" somewhere down the line.

OMG when i was little my mom did all kinds of shopping at Aldi

psychodelicide said:Really?

They make you deposit 25 cents into the cart. Once you are done shopping and return the cart to the front of the store, you insert the metal key from the cart in front of you into the back of the coin device on your cart and lock it up, and then the quarter is ejected out so you can get it back.



Those companies you are talking about are Aldi house brands. I'm sorry that you don't like the store. I actually think that it's an awesome place to get basic staples like cereal, rice, flour, and some frozen foods, but I would not get any meat or produce from there. Fortunately, one of the Aldi stores near me has a European-style meat, deli and produce market next door, so I can get some one-stop shopping when I go out for groceries.

psychodelicide said:

yea it is crazy but i think its cause they get stolen. i remember i was with someone as they put money into the trolley and i was like u have to pay for a cart WTF?
[Edited 2/17/09 16:38pm]

mcmeekle said:

mcmeekle said:

You mean the bags that they put groceries in? Yes, they are still free here, but I heard recently that some stores in other states are now actually charging people for them. I always take my own bags to use at the grocery stores, because I have so many of them already. The one store close to my house actually gives you a credit for bringing your own bags, which works out pretty well.

ehuffnsd said:

728huey said:

Yes, I know that you get the money back, but I still feel strange about paying 25 cents to "rent" a grocery cart.



Aldi house brands, that makes sense. An European-style meat, deli and produce market Aldi's would be nice to check out, just to see what they had in their store.

imagining nancy trying to fit her dollar bill in the carts that require $1 deposit here.

i have a kart koin on my keychain instead because invariably i never had change

We have it here in Austria everywhere. It goes by a different name, but is exactly the same as the original Aldi in Germany. I really enjoy shopping there as it is way faster to pay there than in any other supermarket in the whole world I have ever been to. And if there is anything wrong with anything you bought you can always give it back if you want to without any problem. I had a computer screen from them and after 2 1/2 years it had problems and they gave me the money back in cash without even looking if there really was a problem .

missmad said:

That was my reaction too.

emm said:

Hey emm! I know what you mean, I never seem to have the right amount of change either.

psychodelicide said:

Tesco give you "green points" for each bag you re-use. Asda here caused a stooshie recently by giving cashiers only 50 bags per shift! After they're gone you had to buy a re-usable one.

Good for the planet I guess!

Serious said:

Wow, that's great that they took the computer screen back and gave you a refund, no questions asked. Not too many stores do that if so many months have passed.

728huey said:

Yeah that's just a deposit and here in continental Europe 99% of the supermarkets have that system. And what you say about just getting basic staples there was very true for our Aldis and Hofers (as they are called in Austria) until some years ago. Today nearly all their products are good quality, sometimes even a lot better than the ones from other more expensive supermarkets. But of course it might be different for the ones outside Europe.

mcmeekle said:

Good for saving the environment, and all that stuff.

Serious said:

I shop at Aldi's whenever I am making Christmas treats It's a real money saver.

JuliePurplehead said:

They do seem to have pretty reasonable prices.

psychodelicide said:

I was very happy about that .

Its so funny to see you describe Aldi Nancy.

We don't have them out here (Tesco has taken over), but I've done some shopping in Aldi and Lidl when I was in the UK. I think if you just choose what you're buying very carefully you can get some very good deals. I just could never see me doing all my food shopping there. Sometimes the food appears to be not on a shelf so much as in an open cage. That makes me suspicious.

mcmeekle said:

If Thailand is anything to go by it'll be sooner than 5 years that Tesco will surpass Carrefour. It seems Tesco are expanding massively overseas. Certainly here Carrefour aren't building any new stores, while Big C are still expanding a little, but Tesco are putting up new supermarkets every few months. Now they're opening all these Tesco Express stores and the once all-conquering 7-11 are in serious jeopardy. There's one every 100 metres in Bangkok, but they can't compete with Tesco's low prices. They've even been charged with selling under cost price here before.

Fauxie said:

Here in Austria Lidl has much worse quality than Aldi/Hofer. I shopped there just 1 or 2 times, but never again.

Serious said:

Yep, it was a Lidl in my parents' village that had the cage-like display arrangement going on.

I confess, I bought a pack of 8 Frankfurters for 1GBP in there and they were alright.