Aldi food stores is a discount grocery that operates over 1,000 US stores from Kansas to the east Coast. It carries many of its own brands, and does not accept manufacturer coupons (no coupon policy to learn). Aldi’s owners are in Germany, and besides basic foods, it also stocks inexpensively priced European food items, including pumpernickel bread.
When you get to an Aldi food store, if you see a lonely grocery cart in the parking lot, grab it for a 25 cent bonus. The grocery carts are normally locked together: to get a cart, you place a quarter into the cart lock; it returns a quarter when you put the grocery cart back in the locking system after your trip.
Compared to a store like Wal Mart, an Aldi food store is small, with only 4 to 5 aisles. Products are stacked in their cardboard packing boxes, with big yellow price pages hanging above.
Aldi food store prices are very low. Below are a couple of snips from a recent Aldi foods weekly ad. As an example, regular grocery stores might have sweet potatoes on sale for 50 to 80 cents a pound; here Aldi foods offered them at 33 cents a pound (99 cents for a 3 pound bag). If you don’t have the patience to clip and organize coupons, Aldi is a good option for keeping grocery costs down.
When you checkout, remember that an Aldi food store does not take credit cards – only cash, food stamps, and debit cards. The cashier will put your purchased items back into a grocery cart. You go to a counter behind the cashier to bag your own groceries. Find an empty box in the store, bring your own bag, or purchase one from the cashier. Remember to put your grocery cart back with its friends to get the quarter deposit.
We’ve also made an Aldi shopping video with a few more Aldi tips and a look inside a store. The video also shows you how the shopping cart quarter system works.