Aldi

Selfishly, I hope people heed the negative reviews posted some time ago. I am a big fan of this Aldi and would like to figure out a way to make the lines shorter on weekends! This is my go-​to store for everything except weird grocery items like leeks, which lately I haven’t even found at my local Giant on York Road. I love the prices on everything –meats, cheeses, coffee, spices, Greek yogurt, frozen berries and seafood, etc. and am impressed with items under their Specially Selected and Simply Nature brands.
Arrive with a quarter in your pocket for the cart (you’ll get it back), bags from home so you don’t have to buy their plastic ones (less waste), and the sure knowledge that you are going to fall in love with a lot of great products that weren’t on your grocery list. Good news as of last week – they now take credit AND debit cards! And the cashiers are really friendly.

Aldi’s is my go-​to grocery store for all my staples at a lower cost. Some of the products are brands I’ve never heard off but the knock off are very similar to the brand. They also have plenty of brands like Bolthouse and organic brands as well. You can get produce, their Fit and Light line of food is also a great for low fat healthier fare as well. Try it out!

I find it shady that none of the Aldi’s have phone numbers. The only phone listed was a corporate number for a voicemail but not to contact the stores directly. Anyway, I have shied away from Aldi’s for years now because of all the unhealthy food selections offered but happened to visit this fairly new (about a year or so?) location near my house. It was after a visit to the Trader Joes so I was a little ticked once I realized this store actually had a pretty nice and fresh looking selection of produce and (added bonus)-NO GNATS!
The produce is fairly priced and they even have a small organic section. I love the fact that they also carry gluten free pasta at killer prices (beats out Barilla) so I load up on my rotini, elbows and spaghetti noodles. Customer service is average, you don’t bother them, they won’t bother you but floor staff are always visible.
Be aware when you visit this and any Aldi’s that they don’t accept credit cards-​cash or debit only. It threw me off and I felt like I should have found it mildly offensive (I want my 3% shopping bonus points!) so just come prepared.

I come here once every couple of months to stock up. Upon entering the store, it might initially seem unimpressive because it isn’t a huge store. However, if you look around you will find some amazing items.
First off, bring cash or a debit card because they do not take credit cards. Also, bring bags and bring a quarter to get a cart (you get the quarter back when you return the cart). While this may seem different, the low prices are completely worth it.
My latest scores:
32 oz organic, free range, low sodium chicken broth $ 1.79
Italian mascarpone torta $ 7.99
Sweet potato chips $ 1.99
½ gallon unsweetened almond milk $ 2.49 (a full two dollars cheaper than my neighborhood grocery store)
1 lb unsalted butter $ 2.19
I also like their parmesan and garlic pita chips, dried cherries, bratwurst, turkey ham (much better than Jennie-​O turkey ham), goat cheese, Beaumont coffee, and imported chocolates. They’ve got a small candy selection for Valentine’s Day, and it’s mostly European chocolate. Now I wish I hadn’t passed up those dark chocolate caramels with sea sat!
People on
recommend the sauerkraut and giardiniera, so I’m trying those next. The same people recommended the stollen, and it was delicious: moist, dense and fruity with a thick ribbon of marzipan in the middle. Some of those people said they bought the stollen to give away at Christmas. At $ 3, I can see why.
Go in with an open mind and an adventurous spirit!

What I saw when I came here:
— black bananas (no they aren’t some sort of special bananas! they were rotten)
— rotting nectarines
— rotting strawberries
— boxes thrown around all over the place
I would never come back here for produce. I’m assuming the packaged goods here are safe? Either way, I won’t be back.

A fantastic Aldi store! New, big, super-​clean and well-​stocked. They have fresh produce/​meat sections and extensive frozen foods. Even when I think the lines look long, the cashiers are unbelievably fast (plus they aren’t bagging). The store is always stocked up. Aldi sells their own ‘store brand’. I’ve tried tons of this stuff (I shop there 1x/​wk) and I have liked 98% of what I’ve gotten. Each week they have some items on sale, and they also have «Special Buys» which are things (many times name-​brands) that are not restocked (gone when they’re gone).
I have gotten my daughter hooked on Aldi-​brand stuff and some of those items you can only find at Aldi — thank goodness she’s hooked because I save a TON of money by shopping there. I can fill a cart for $ 90 and overfill one (having to literally hold the items in w/​my arms) for less than $ 150. I would never be able to feed my family as well as I am right now if it weren’t for the prices — REALLY. My jaw drops frequently when I see the prices above the groceries because I feel like I just went back in time 10 years. A HUGE BARGAIN!
What you should know if you’ve never shopped there:
Bring a Quarter! You’ll need it to ‘rent’ a cart. They don’t have lot/​cart employees, so this is said to make their groceries less expensive. One time I just did not have a Quarter or any cash and needed a cart. I went inside and asked the cashier what to do and she gave me a Quarter :)
Bring Cash, Debit or Food Stamps! They DO NOT take credit cards. Don’t get all the way to the checkout before you realize that. I would have been upset if I hadn’t known about the Cash/​Debit-​only policy in advance. You can ask for cash back using your Debit.
Bring your own bags! Or you can buy some at the register if you forget, which I did twice. They are 5 – 10 cents each. You have to bag your own groceries too, and they have special areas for you to do this. You won’t really mind bagging after you just heard how insanely low your grocery bill was.
[To the guy who gave this store 1 star because they didn’t have the 1 item he wanted — sheesh. This isn’t Whole Foods or Wegman’s. If you want perfection, you’ve got to pay 5 times the price.]

Aldi in Towson, Maryland is on my list, the Customer Service Bad List. I went there on Thursday to pick up a few things and ran into a Customer Service issue. Cashier Claressa did not value my dollar. I cannot speak to whether her age or lack of exposure yielded her unreasonable. She argued you with me as I instructed her to stop the belt so that the lady in front would be able to load her groceries on the belt without the other orders moving forward. «I can’t,» she responded. Not that she couldn’t, she didn’t want to leave her stool and reach for the few items that did move automatically. For some reason, that instruction was too complicated for Claressa and she proceeded to comment, «We can all be nice.» I believe she was indicating that I wasn’t being nice. Nevertheless, I continued to tell her if she suspended the belt for a moment and release as soon as the woman’s groceries were done it would spare her the confusion of trying to figure who’s groceries were who’s. To spare you the needless details the exchange did not go well and I requested a manager and during the conversation at Claressa’s terminal, she proceeded to turn the monitor around indicating that she wanted to let me know my total. She was rude and unreasonable, getting up and stomping away when I told her manager that she was wrong and owed me an apology. He apologized for her, which is why Aldi is now on my list. Instead of taking advantage of the learning experience, Claressa’s manager did the work for her and she walked away without any accountability.

It’s new and really big but they don’t have the one item that I come for at the other Aldi’s– the cream puffs and chocolate covered eclairs in the frozen food and desserts section. That’s a gigantic fail. A lot of people go to Aldis just for the yummy Euro desserts. This location needs to get its act together.