Cooking for a couple families, I am in one of our grocery stores almost every day. Kroger’s is across the street, so I visit them frequently. I like Wal-Mart because their prices are super low. I also push a cart up and down the aisles of Harris Teeter, Food Lion, Whole Foods, and Sam’s Club.
Charlottesville has a relatively new grocery store, Aldi, and at first, I wasn’t impressed. I saw their ad for a product, don’t remember what, and I couldn’t find it. Plus, a basic I was looking for was also not available. Furthermore, they rent their shopping carts for a quarter. If you return it as you should, you get the quarter back, but I rarely carry change. Months passed and I stayed away, then because Aldi was right on the way home, I stopped in for some bread and milk, found what I wanted, and I have been back a few more times since.
This week, though, secured Aldi in a place high up on my list. We were having company and I debated between crab cakes and a roasted tenderloin. Nobody has fresh crab meat, it’s all in cans now, and I was reluctant. So, I figured I’d bop over to Sam’s. Their tenderloins are usually priced well below other stores. Before I went, I happened to scour the Wednesday grocery store ads and Aldi had tenderloins at $10.99 a pound.
Wow!
The ad said, “Wednesday only” and “only while supplies last.” I was there when the store opened at 9 am. They had a wonderful selection and I saved myself about forty bucks. Aldi had out-sammed Sam’s Club. They were $6 cheaper a pound. I bought a few other things while there, and probably would have bought more if I had a cart – but I was out of quarters.
Aldi is based out of Germany. They have 10,000 stores in 20 countries. They maintain low prices because they have a limited selection of products. They don ‘t carry everything in every brand, but the things they stock are well priced. It’s an easy store to shop in and I plan to be back.