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Skontradiction OP t1_iwq6g50 wrote

TLDR: Authors compared cost of 12 common grocery items. Total costs were:

  • Harris Teeter: $47.38
  • Whole Foods: $47.24
  • Safeway: $47.18
  • Giant: $46.04
  • ShopRite: $42.88
  • Weis: $42.38
  • Wegmans: $40.58
  • Lidl: $34.88
  • Aldi: $26.52
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guest0112 t1_iwq9ccv wrote

Aldi is absolutely incredible. If anyone reading this hasn’t tried shopping there, I hope you take this article serious. Their produce is fresh. Only downside is their selection isn’t always great but you save so much money there that it’s worth stopping at giant or wherever else on your way home.

Don’t forget your reusable bags and quarter

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PigtownDesign t1_iwqm8fs wrote

I think that people's problem with Aldi is that they went into food deserts where there were no grocery stores, and got the reputation of being a low-income grocery store. I shopped there all of the time when I lived in the UK, so was familiar with what a good store it was when they arrived here. Same for Lidl.

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[deleted] t1_iwqqnr2 wrote

My problem is that the selection is very, very limited, produce and meat is so so at best, and a lot of their products are preprocessed foods I have no interest in.

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pinkycatcher t1_iwrdm4s wrote

That's my biggest problem, I walked into Aldi's once to try it out and get a week or so worth of food, and at the end I walked out with a cereal I didn't really want because they didn't have anything else I wanted.

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TheRainbowpill93 t1_ix0qxic wrote

You go to ALDIs for your basics: like Milk, Produce, Cheese, Eggs, Pasta, etc. Then visit a big grocery for the stuff you didn’t purchase. That’s how you’re supposed to do it.

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AreWeCowabunga t1_iwqozgl wrote

I think there's a noticeable drop in quality of a lot of the stuff at Aldi, especially their off-brand stuff. I've been much happier with Lidl.

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macmac360 t1_iwt9t2f wrote

Lidl is great, I go to the one in Timonium sometimes and am always amused with all the random shit they sell. What other grocery store sells weed wackers, tool boxes, and jumper cables?

Every time I go there I see something I would never expect to be in a grocery store.

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PleaseBmoreCharming t1_iwqe2c9 wrote

I'm always disappointed with Aldi's packaging of products. Yes, it's cheap, but there's soooo much plastic used for their produce or refrigerated items. Like, why do my bell peppers have to be wrapped in a sealed plastic bag!? It's so wasteful it almost makes the cheap prices not worth it.

(Full disclosure: my resolution for this past year ways to be more sustainable/environmentally conscious, so I've been a bit more observant about how much plastic grocery store products use for no reason.)

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dopkick t1_iwqnb6h wrote

While I agree with you, you're buying into an effort by corporate America to shift the onus of saving the world onto the consumer. Which they happily find ways to profit off of - lots of people happily buy garbage because it's plastic free. This conveniently gets people focused on tiny contributors of greenhouse gasses while flagrant polluters fly under the radar. I bet a single week-long cruise generates more CO2 than all of the excess plastic in all Aldis worldwide in a year.

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PleaseBmoreCharming t1_iwqor5t wrote

I'm aware of this, but I can personally make the decision to avoid it if I want. I'm not saying I'm saving the world here, and I do understand the need for larger industries/corporations to do their direct part in changing their business processes, but that doesn't mean I want to stop be conscious of it on account that it won't make a dent. It's more a psychological thing, really.

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dopkick t1_iwqrnsl wrote

What if you take the money you would save on food and instead purchase a more fuel efficient (or EV) car? Or donate to a cause that's trying to go after the big polluters? Saving a substantial amount of money can definitely open up other avenues to make a larger impact.

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sit_down_man t1_iwrq5jl wrote

IMO the only true consumer-based individual action that would matter is ditching a car or becoming car-light. Both of which is way better for the environment than purchasing an electric car, which has significant environmental cost to make.

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TaterTotz8 t1_iwqefro wrote

And why can’t I buy single peppers/onions/potatoes?! The produce selection is one of my gripes with aldi but the low prices make it worth doing a double grocery store trip to pick up stuff that’s not available at aldi

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HazelNightengale t1_iwr6f27 wrote

Aldi's big strategy is efficiency. Limited selection, limited square footage, you go in, get your stuff, the checker rushes you down the line, you pay and get the hell out, see ya next week.

A bag of onions/peppers/etc. can be scanned and swept down the conveyor, rather than count and enter how many (like Trader Joe's) or find the tiny sticker on the pepper with the code and weigh them out.

It's easier to stock, easier to track for inventory purposes, easier to scan and move down the line.

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dopkick t1_iwqbq8h wrote

Some stuff there is ludicrously cheap compared to other places. When I need heavy cream it's like 5-6x cheaper at Aldi compared to anywhere else.

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TheCaptainDamnIt t1_iwvkmd5 wrote

A lot of the really cheap stuff is also sold in amounts far too large for a single person to ever need and the selection is not that good. I need a small bag of rice and and two onions, not a sack of each!

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guest0112 t1_iwvtuk5 wrote

Agreed. Although you just picked two things that have very long shelf life

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moderndukes t1_iwvwyj3 wrote

A lot of people would be surprised that there are two Aldi companies and one of them is called Trader Joe’s in the US.

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mxxiestorc t1_iwqahh9 wrote

I disagree with Wegmans being on the cheaper side. Maybe if Giant and Safeway didn’t have discounts from loyalty program it might be cheaper.

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DfcukinLite t1_iwqkdzx wrote

Wegmans branded stuff is super cheap

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gs2181 t1_iwrc41s wrote

And usually very solid quality

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TheRainbowpill93 t1_ix0qnom wrote

That’s the real secret about Wegmans. I really wish there was one near me but I live in Pigtown and the closest one is either Owings or Columbia :(

Not driving like that for groceries lol

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dopkick t1_iwqbn0g wrote

It's definitely possible that the author caught sales during this. It seems like Wegmans isn't cheaper, but I go so infrequently that it's hard to tell.

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AreWeCowabunga t1_iwqp8gx wrote

I love Wegman's, but their meat and seafood prices are ludicrous. Everything else is reasonable, and their store brands are usually great (eg, if you like seltzer, Wegman's brand is the best in both price and variety of flavors).

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YoYoMoMa t1_iwrg7ci wrote

>but their meat and seafood prices are ludicrous

Yeah. At least when it comes to steak and salmon they are higher than Whole Foods, despite not being as high of quality.

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HorsieJuice t1_iwqs850 wrote

I have the opposite experience with Wegmans - I find most of their prices -especially on meat- to be pretty reasonable, but their store brand stuff to be mediocre at best. I can still get chicken for < $2.50/lb. Pork might be $2.50-3/lb. Beef is higher, but I can still get some cuts for < $7/lb. Seafood is expensive, but that's true everywhere.

The store brand cereal and hummus are fine (and store brand is nearly all they have for hummus), but the store brand condiments are all worthless. Store brand bread and rolls are cheap but lousy. The bakery section sucks. Their frozen seafood has been kind of gross lately. The whole cheese section looks impressive, but I've tried several of their expensive store brand cheese and they've all been bland. If I'm going to drop $25/lb on cheese, I'll just go to The Wine Source.

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NotYourRose18 t1_iwsk390 wrote

Aldi is literally amazing. My family has shopped there since before I (20) was born. I just went today and got groceries for $350 that easily would've costed $100-200 more at other stores like shoppers etc

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