Aldi: Do's and Dont's

I have been shopping at Aldi since birth and grew up with one right down the street from me, so I would consider myself an expert. I am now a sophomore living off campus with no meal plan, and I primarily shop at Aldi. There are two 10 minutes away from campus, one in Bloomfield and one in Southside. Below I will map out where they are located and what buses you can take to get there. It is not your typical supermarket so I have come up with some Do’s and Dont’s if you are a student shopping at Aldi for the first time.

1. Do: Bring your own bags. This is essential when shopping at Aldi. They do not provide any bags to reduce waste, which is environmentally intelligent and it saves the company money. If you forget they do sell bags at the check-out, but it is best if you bring your own bag. If you happen to forget a bag as you are strolling through the aisles you can pick up any empty boxes that used to have inventory in them and use the boxes t pack up your groceries. Lastly, if you are taking the bus I would bring an insulated bag if you are grabbing frozen foods.

2. Don’t: Forget your change. Us college kids love to just carry around everything we need in the back of our phones in a tiny silicon pocket. No change, no cash, only a license, a school I.D, and a debit/credit card. However, at Aldi, you need a quarter to get a shopping cart. They do this so people have an incentive to bring back their carts to the correct location, and it works. They also save money not having to employ people to bring carts in from the parking lot.

3. Do: Make a shopping list. It is very hard going into Aldi with no concept of what you need. You will end up just throwing things in your cart, and that is not productive. Come with a list of the things you need and grab them. There is some room for creativity though. I will put vague statements such as “2 veggies” or “something sweet” to allow myself to do a little food experimentation or judging the vegetables that week and seeing what looks most appealing.

4. Don’t: Bring more than $70. I go grocery shopping almost every two weeks, and I always try to spend around $50 but depending on how often you can get out to go shopping this price will vary. As mentioned above, Aldi takes a lot of steps to make there grocery shopping as cheap as possible, and they succeed. My older brother, Christian, works at an Aldi and he does not even receive an employee discount because they already sell their groceries as cheap as possible.

5. Don’t: Be afraid of off brand. I have found the only thing I do not like buying from Aldi is their granola bars. They are the basically the same price as regular granola bars and I just do not like the taste as much. However, I find everything else to be extremely comparable to the “regular” brands people may be used to finding at Giant Eagle. I like to endorse their chips and salsa in particular. The chips are $1.49 and the salsa is $1.89, compared to Tostitos brand where the chips are $4.29 and the salsa is $4.49.

Aldi is amazing and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an affordable easy grocery store.

You can take any 71A or 71C from the Cathedral bus stop

You can take any 75 from the Cathedral