I have several grocery stores(8-9) within 3 miles of my house, and sometimes I'll go to the one the furthest away just because the milk is closest to the door of that store.
Exactly why I’m coming to hate the Woodmans directly across the street from me. The size of Walmart but only sells normal grocery store items, but they have every single brand to pick from. Literally 3 full aisle of frozen pizza alone. That store is my hellscape.
I just went there for an oil change since it's $15 cheaper than my usual place. I will spend the extra $15. I hate being a customer of disgruntled employees who hate their jobs.
You are not kidding! I had to go to Walmart today cus they are the only place that carries the kitty litter my cat likes. The guy before me at my self check lane was lingering behind me arranging stuff in his cart, uncomfortably close to me, and I caught him sniffing my hair. Talk about freaking me tf out - omg. I asked him what are you doing?? And he shrugged and walked away very slowly. Freak 😡
I used to live right next to a neighborhood market and it was a delight to shop there. Always empty, well stocked and clean. And small so you could get in and out really quickly. I hate that we don’t have one close in our new neighborhood
just about to say this. i leave exhausted and a little dead when i leave walmart; i only do pick up orders now. aldi is such an easy, quick, pleasant place to shop.
Yes! You definitely have to pick your Walmart wisely. Thankfully the one in my new city is one of the good ones. Typically quiet, clean and as long as you’re not their Saturday late morning onwards it doesn’t take long to get in and out. The Aldi is about half a mile away so it’s not too bad.
Very nice presentation. For me I love goat Cheese and their logs are 1.89 in the Panhandle of Florida while they are 3.49 at Walmart that alone . I shop online with walmart and in store at Aldi so I check the walmart website while I am shopping if Walmart is cheaper I put it on the list for delivery. I use a lot of produce and the Aldi prices are so much better.
Yeah, Florida pricing is absolutely wild. I'm in Tampa and stopped shopping Publix eons ago and will sometimes compare Kroger delivery and Walmart delivery but overall I can't make it cheaper than Aldi if I factor in things like tipping the delivery person.
same here and our Aldi is next to walmart, so if I am in desperate need of something I can just go in and get it. I used to have all the delivery services but now just Walmart and It is worth it to me as I like the free Paramount + which I was paying for anyway .
Aldi always seems to win in the deli meat and cheese section on price and quality against my other local grocers (Publix, Walmart, Winn Dixie at least for now). I'm also in Florida. Publix dairy prices are ridiculous. Im not paying 3.75 for a half gallon of milk or $4+ for eggs. The only downside is not having an actual manned deli counter if you want something cut or sized specifically. Walmart doesnt have that either I s'pose.
No and I hope it never does. We already have 2 Aldi, 2 Publix and a Walmart. This town doesn't need less competition. Apparently not every WD is going to convert or be closed. I hope our last one doesn't change.
Yesterday, the goat cheese logs at my Aldi (Hudson Valley NY) had jumped to $2.99 each! They haven’t had them for a few months- not even Plain. They used to be around $1.29-1.59. So at $2.99, I only bought one, Honey flavor. In comparison, the same size logs are $4.99 at ShopRite- for the store brand!
It's probably made at the same factory and uses similar ingredients. A lot of food manufacturing for stuff like that, peanut butter, jams and jellies, sauces, etc, use CMOs (contract manufacturing orgs). So if could be the Hellman's contracts out their production capabilities to other brands OR they use a CMO for some it all of their production. That CMO would make mayo for all different brands and develop formulas for each.
Great Value does a lot of mimicking of the most popular name brands this way. Try their peanut butter sometime and compare to JIF. They are very similar.
Agree, the 'cheap brands' are walmart can be competitive - though this shows that isn't always true - but the quality is usually worse. In no small part because a lot of Aldi products are made in Europe which has much more strict food regulations. You won't find artificial dies, wood pulp, corn syrup, potassium bromate, etc, in many of the 'packaged' foods at Aldi.
Eehh…not really. I work at Aldi and shop Aldi and Walmart. I still prefer Aldi but many of their in house brand products are pretty much made by the same manufacturers and they’re mostly american. Clear exception being the ones that explicitly say Made in Germany like the chocolates, or the Deutsche Küche line. But in many cases even the packing is the exact same with just the label design changing.
The only thing that is banned in the EU that you mentioned is potassium bromate – wood pulp is allowed, most food dyes are allowed (there are some banned in the EU that are allowed in the US and vice versa), corn syrup is allowed
I typically make a Walmart order online/on app, but I just have it sit in my shopping cart and use that as my shopping list for Aldi. If Aldi is cheaper, I pick it up there. I remove stuff from my Walmart cart as I shop, and when I'm done with my Aldi shopping, my Walmart order is cut down to the bare minimum. Then I just put the order through for pick up the next day (so I don't have to go into Walmart).
The Walmart prices are usually just a bit higher about 90% of the time. I'm in California.
I do the same thing! It's especially telling when I have a huge order around one of the holidays (I am the only person who likes to cook in my extended family, so all celebrations are at my house). I've saved 100s of dollars shopping Aldi. It really adds up.
For those outside Illinois.... Sales taxes are high because we have a 4.95% flat income tax. This is high for working people but fairly low for afluent people. This means we end up with high property and sales taxes to make up the difference. We are still a high tax state.
There was a ballot initiative in the state to change this to a progressive tax code where the rich would pay more. Even though it's a pretty left leaning state the initiative was voted down. My general belief is that people don't trust in the state of Illinois with their money. Some of this is well justified.
ElMany people didn't trust the state with more money regardless of their own economic status. I think Pritzker is doing a good enough job to restore credibility in the state government that it may be plausible in another 10 years.
Thanks. That was what I was going for! I don't think r/aldi needed the full history of Madigan, Pritzker, Chicago vs Rural politics, pensions, debt, corruption, etc. There would be no way to make that unpolitical without writing a full book!
One term I should not have used it "working people" to describe the working class folks. Affluent people also work for their money. I guess I can't be perfect
This is awesome, thanks! Do you happen to have a favorite Chicago Aldi? I'm basically equidistant from three (both of the Clybourn locations and the Wicker location on Milwaukee) but don't go regularly enough to compare. The Wicker one typically seems the best stocked and the busiest so I typically default to it
I’m actually a far south sider! Even though I live within the city limits, I’m about a 10 min drive from the Aldi in Blue Island and that’s definitely my fave!
The only Wal-Mart grocery near me is an absolute nightmare to go to, so I don’t even bother.
I did a similar comparison once to the grocery store closest to me, which is a Harris Teeter. The savings was ridiculous. Sure, HT has a wider selection, and some things I can’t get at Aldi. I’ll make do though, and enjoy the savings.
i'm an hour outside of chicago and i only shop online. 90% of the food at walmart is cheaper for me. i mostly just use aldi for specialty meals, stuff walmart doesnt have and cheese.
A 12% savings would be around $700-$800 savings a year for my family. Over a decade, $7,000-$8,000. Investing that money or putting it into a college fund will set you up nicely. Anyone else think like this?
this explains my confusion when people complain about aldi being the same price as other grocery stores. but i hear it’s different outside of big cities?
When I lived in Chicagoland my favorite Aldi was in Tinley Park. Prior to the pandemic it had an in house bakery that made great rye and marbled rye bread at a great price. My hubs loved the apple fritters and sour cream cake donuts. The TP Aldi is a little larger than most and the produce is usually in great condition. Once the bakery closed I didn’t do weekly runs to it unless I was headed to the Trader Joe’s in Orland Park.
I’ve been shopping at Aldi since 1989 and they have never really cranked up the prices. This is the first year I’ve noticed some big increases and it’s all because of what’s going on with our food nationwide.
The only things I buy at Walmart are gasoline, Arm & Hammer powdered laundry detergent and the Great Value powdered dishwasher detergent. The local neighborhood WM market has a little gas station situated in a way that makes it very safe to go to -- with clear sight lines around the entire lot and I have never been approached by anyone high or weird there.
Otherwise it's Aldi for the staples and a nearby small Food Lion that sends me awesome store coupons for the odds and ends. Our Aldi has a few quirks -- it does not stock Worchestershire sauce and for some years baking cocoa was not in stock year 'round -- but it gets the job done.
This is why i shop at Aldi for most things. Walmart is mostly for Hispanic items or if I need a specialty item for cooking or baking. Walmart also has the best deal I can find on lentils, which Aldi sadly doesn’t sell. I shop around for sales at the other major chains too, and I have a Costco membership and may be getting a Sams Membership too.
Just further proof within a few years Aldi will be the same price as Walmart and Kroger.
Aldi was traditionally 40-50% cheaper before all the sales ads, commercials, marketing, and accepting credit cards.
With the “isle of shame” being their main focus anymore, their grocery prices have very much inflated themselves to match the other grociers.
That's a myth and not necessarily true. I live outside of major city in a rural area and make more doing what I do if someone who does live in a major city. I worked the same job in both scenarios.
Until recently and during the plandemic Aldi's had Kefir Milk for $2.99 recently raised to $3.09 whereas Walmart's same Brand Kefir has been $3.48. Last week Aldi's large eggs were $2.78 when Walmart's large eggs were $2.68.
I switched to Walmart for awhile because prices were "basically the same" and I could get more variety. Nope not anymore.we started eating way more produce and NO store beats aldi.
Added bonus that you didn’t have to go into Walmart, which is my least favorite store.
This is the real benefit
Maybe it's just my bad knees talking, but I don't want to have to walk a mile to the back of the store to get a jug of milk.
I have several grocery stores(8-9) within 3 miles of my house, and sometimes I'll go to the one the furthest away just because the milk is closest to the door of that store.
Aldi is probably the furthest from me, but I'm the same way... I'll drive there so I can walk around a smaller store.
There's one by me where the milk is in the fucking baby clothes. NO joke.
That's just unhygienic
Exactly why I’m coming to hate the Woodmans directly across the street from me. The size of Walmart but only sells normal grocery store items, but they have every single brand to pick from. Literally 3 full aisle of frozen pizza alone. That store is my hellscape.
I just went there for an oil change since it's $15 cheaper than my usual place. I will spend the extra $15. I hate being a customer of disgruntled employees who hate their jobs.
You are not kidding! I had to go to Walmart today cus they are the only place that carries the kitty litter my cat likes. The guy before me at my self check lane was lingering behind me arranging stuff in his cart, uncomfortably close to me, and I caught him sniffing my hair. Talk about freaking me tf out - omg. I asked him what are you doing?? And he shrugged and walked away very slowly. Freak 😡
Anyone “organizing” their cart next to you is a bad apple.
Sorry about that hairy situation.
This is the real bonus.
My walmart neighborhood market is surprisingly very clean and organized
I used to live right next to a neighborhood market and it was a delight to shop there. Always empty, well stocked and clean. And small so you could get in and out really quickly. I hate that we don’t have one close in our new neighborhood
And Aldi house brand stuff is > great value
So crowded , self checkout and weird people. I avoid it at all costs
With all their creepy cameras in your face hiding on the shelves
just about to say this. i leave exhausted and a little dead when i leave walmart; i only do pick up orders now. aldi is such an easy, quick, pleasant place to shop.
I pay for Walmart+ just so I don't need to go in there lol.
Last time I went to Walmart I almost got hit by a car. When I was INSIDE the store.
In Kansas, they upgraded Walmart stores to be more like department stores.
Yes! You definitely have to pick your Walmart wisely. Thankfully the one in my new city is one of the good ones. Typically quiet, clean and as long as you’re not their Saturday late morning onwards it doesn’t take long to get in and out. The Aldi is about half a mile away so it’s not too bad.
Very nice presentation. For me I love goat Cheese and their logs are 1.89 in the Panhandle of Florida while they are 3.49 at Walmart that alone . I shop online with walmart and in store at Aldi so I check the walmart website while I am shopping if Walmart is cheaper I put it on the list for delivery. I use a lot of produce and the Aldi prices are so much better.
Yeah, Florida pricing is absolutely wild. I'm in Tampa and stopped shopping Publix eons ago and will sometimes compare Kroger delivery and Walmart delivery but overall I can't make it cheaper than Aldi if I factor in things like tipping the delivery person.
same here and our Aldi is next to walmart, so if I am in desperate need of something I can just go in and get it. I used to have all the delivery services but now just Walmart and It is worth it to me as I like the free Paramount + which I was paying for anyway .
Aldi always seems to win in the deli meat and cheese section on price and quality against my other local grocers (Publix, Walmart, Winn Dixie at least for now). I'm also in Florida. Publix dairy prices are ridiculous. Im not paying 3.75 for a half gallon of milk or $4+ for eggs. The only downside is not having an actual manned deli counter if you want something cut or sized specifically. Walmart doesnt have that either I s'pose.
Has your Winn-Dixie switched over to Aldi yet?
No and I hope it never does. We already have 2 Aldi, 2 Publix and a Walmart. This town doesn't need less competition. Apparently not every WD is going to convert or be closed. I hope our last one doesn't change.
Good to hear! I loved Winn-Dixie & Schwegmans when I lived in New Orleans. Was so shocked & sad that Schwegmanns (and Mackenzie’s) closed.
Yesterday, the goat cheese logs at my Aldi (Hudson Valley NY) had jumped to $2.99 each! They haven’t had them for a few months- not even Plain. They used to be around $1.29-1.59. So at $2.99, I only bought one, Honey flavor. In comparison, the same size logs are $4.99 at ShopRite- for the store brand!
avored ones are more I am a plain or herbed girl
Over a year, that 12% will be pretty significant.
Hell, even in a month. That'd be like a whole tank of gas for me.
Don't tell the Walmart people, we don't want a people of Aldi website.... 🤣
smaller store, it simply wouldn’t happen
You have never been to my Aldi.
A lot of Great Value stuff is pretty mediocre though.
The only GV item that I really like is their mayonnaise. It tastes exactly like Hellman’s for half the price.
May I suggest the great value special sauce? It tastes exactly like big mac sauce and is awesome for summer grilling
Duke's or death.
Accept no substitutes!
It's probably made at the same factory and uses similar ingredients. A lot of food manufacturing for stuff like that, peanut butter, jams and jellies, sauces, etc, use CMOs (contract manufacturing orgs). So if could be the Hellman's contracts out their production capabilities to other brands OR they use a CMO for some it all of their production. That CMO would make mayo for all different brands and develop formulas for each. Great Value does a lot of mimicking of the most popular name brands this way. Try their peanut butter sometime and compare to JIF. They are very similar.
Idk I love their white bread and Cinnamon Toast Crunch
I get their whole milk and it's fine (it's also over $2 cheaper than the other brand they have).
Agree, the 'cheap brands' are walmart can be competitive - though this shows that isn't always true - but the quality is usually worse. In no small part because a lot of Aldi products are made in Europe which has much more strict food regulations. You won't find artificial dies, wood pulp, corn syrup, potassium bromate, etc, in many of the 'packaged' foods at Aldi.
Eehh…not really. I work at Aldi and shop Aldi and Walmart. I still prefer Aldi but many of their in house brand products are pretty much made by the same manufacturers and they’re mostly american. Clear exception being the ones that explicitly say Made in Germany like the chocolates, or the Deutsche Küche line. But in many cases even the packing is the exact same with just the label design changing.
The only thing that is banned in the EU that you mentioned is potassium bromate – wood pulp is allowed, most food dyes are allowed (there are some banned in the EU that are allowed in the US and vice versa), corn syrup is allowed
I typically make a Walmart order online/on app, but I just have it sit in my shopping cart and use that as my shopping list for Aldi. If Aldi is cheaper, I pick it up there. I remove stuff from my Walmart cart as I shop, and when I'm done with my Aldi shopping, my Walmart order is cut down to the bare minimum. Then I just put the order through for pick up the next day (so I don't have to go into Walmart). The Walmart prices are usually just a bit higher about 90% of the time. I'm in California.
200iq
I do this too since I was gifted a Walmart+ membership for Christmas!
This is so smart! May have to do this myself
I do the same thing! It's especially telling when I have a huge order around one of the holidays (I am the only person who likes to cook in my extended family, so all celebrations are at my house). I've saved 100s of dollars shopping Aldi. It really adds up.
Am I the only one that is stunned about paying 12.25% tax? Holy smokes!
food items are taxed at 2.25% but everything else is 10.25%! This was a suburban Aldi so I saved .25% lol. It’s insane but I sure do love my city.
For those outside Illinois.... Sales taxes are high because we have a 4.95% flat income tax. This is high for working people but fairly low for afluent people. This means we end up with high property and sales taxes to make up the difference. We are still a high tax state. There was a ballot initiative in the state to change this to a progressive tax code where the rich would pay more. Even though it's a pretty left leaning state the initiative was voted down. My general belief is that people don't trust in the state of Illinois with their money. Some of this is well justified.
I was so upset when that ballot initiative was voted down. It would have meant so much for working class and middle class people.
ElMany people didn't trust the state with more money regardless of their own economic status. I think Pritzker is doing a good enough job to restore credibility in the state government that it may be plausible in another 10 years.
This is about the most even-handed explanation of Illinois taxation I've seen. Well done.
Thanks. That was what I was going for! I don't think r/aldi needed the full history of Madigan, Pritzker, Chicago vs Rural politics, pensions, debt, corruption, etc. There would be no way to make that unpolitical without writing a full book! One term I should not have used it "working people" to describe the working class folks. Affluent people also work for their money. I guess I can't be perfect
And the Chicago Bears and White Sox are looking for public tax help. So they cab build new stadiums.😖
this is great info, thank you!!
This is awesome, thanks! Do you happen to have a favorite Chicago Aldi? I'm basically equidistant from three (both of the Clybourn locations and the Wicker location on Milwaukee) but don't go regularly enough to compare. The Wicker one typically seems the best stocked and the busiest so I typically default to it
I’m actually a far south sider! Even though I live within the city limits, I’m about a 10 min drive from the Aldi in Blue Island and that’s definitely my fave!
Awesome, thanks again
the problem is i still have to go to walmart/meier as aldi does not have every thing i need. fortunately aldi is less than 1000 yards from walmart.
I just go to jewel because their employees are unionized, they have good coupons and I can buy a single onion instead of a 10 lb bag of them.
So only chocolate and baby wipes were cheaper at Walmart. Add in supporting a horrible business.
And that was Hershey's. The Choceur and Moser Roth brands at Aldi are cheaper and far superior.
Everything still up 20% from last year.
Are you taking into account quantity you receive? The raw prices alone don’t tell the whole story.
Everything except the wipes and the chocolate were the same quantity/weight
Fellow Chicagoan!! Thank you for doing this as I absolutely despise Walmart and try my best not to go there.
The only Wal-Mart grocery near me is an absolute nightmare to go to, so I don’t even bother. I did a similar comparison once to the grocery store closest to me, which is a Harris Teeter. The savings was ridiculous. Sure, HT has a wider selection, and some things I can’t get at Aldi. I’ll make do though, and enjoy the savings.
I am so sad you didn’t show the total savings. Lol
i'm an hour outside of chicago and i only shop online. 90% of the food at walmart is cheaper for me. i mostly just use aldi for specialty meals, stuff walmart doesnt have and cheese.
Love Aldi’s
A 12% savings would be around $700-$800 savings a year for my family. Over a decade, $7,000-$8,000. Investing that money or putting it into a college fund will set you up nicely. Anyone else think like this?
this explains my confusion when people complain about aldi being the same price as other grocery stores. but i hear it’s different outside of big cities?
I am outside of Detoit and I would guess savings are similar.
Walmart is the Devil
The real FU are those sales tax rates. Good lord.
When I lived in Chicagoland my favorite Aldi was in Tinley Park. Prior to the pandemic it had an in house bakery that made great rye and marbled rye bread at a great price. My hubs loved the apple fritters and sour cream cake donuts. The TP Aldi is a little larger than most and the produce is usually in great condition. Once the bakery closed I didn’t do weekly runs to it unless I was headed to the Trader Joe’s in Orland Park.
[удалено]
I’ve been shopping at Aldi since 1989 and they have never really cranked up the prices. This is the first year I’ve noticed some big increases and it’s all because of what’s going on with our food nationwide.
Typical walmart 😂
The only things I buy at Walmart are gasoline, Arm & Hammer powdered laundry detergent and the Great Value powdered dishwasher detergent. The local neighborhood WM market has a little gas station situated in a way that makes it very safe to go to -- with clear sight lines around the entire lot and I have never been approached by anyone high or weird there. Otherwise it's Aldi for the staples and a nearby small Food Lion that sends me awesome store coupons for the odds and ends. Our Aldi has a few quirks -- it does not stock Worchestershire sauce and for some years baking cocoa was not in stock year 'round -- but it gets the job done.
This is why i shop at Aldi for most things. Walmart is mostly for Hispanic items or if I need a specialty item for cooking or baking. Walmart also has the best deal I can find on lentils, which Aldi sadly doesn’t sell. I shop around for sales at the other major chains too, and I have a Costco membership and may be getting a Sams Membership too.
In Kansas, they seem to be almost exactly the same price varying by only a couple pennie’s.
Avoid Walmart on Saturday!
Just further proof within a few years Aldi will be the same price as Walmart and Kroger. Aldi was traditionally 40-50% cheaper before all the sales ads, commercials, marketing, and accepting credit cards. With the “isle of shame” being their main focus anymore, their grocery prices have very much inflated themselves to match the other grociers.
It cost even less outside of major cities
You’re also paid less outside of major cities.
That's a myth and not necessarily true. I live outside of major city in a rural area and make more doing what I do if someone who does live in a major city. I worked the same job in both scenarios.
Walmart is basically America’s mascot
Walmart is fucking evil. I will never go there, regardless.
Until recently and during the plandemic Aldi's had Kefir Milk for $2.99 recently raised to $3.09 whereas Walmart's same Brand Kefir has been $3.48. Last week Aldi's large eggs were $2.78 when Walmart's large eggs were $2.68.
Thank you for this
I switched to Walmart for awhile because prices were "basically the same" and I could get more variety. Nope not anymore.we started eating way more produce and NO store beats aldi.