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3 groceries you should always buy at Trader Joe's instead of Aldi

I am curious if there are items that people specifically try to purchase at Aldi. For us, it's the FROZEN vegetables. I make a trip to Aldi every few weeks just to stock up on their bags of frozen veggies (the "steamer" ones that go into the microwave). We find that they taste fresher than the bags of frozen vegetables in our local supermarkets.
 
I have no idea where the nearest Aldi would even be. A long road trip, I suspect. TJ's at 2 hours- and 4 blocks from the second home is our go-to.

A little research shows it's roughly 1,000 miles to an Aldi. No danger of my choosing them over grocery discounters in the area.

By my own observation, There are some go-to items at TJ's that we go there for (Bagel, and 21 seasoning salute- their 'Dunkers', Chinese 5-spice salad, cheap wine and a few other- usually snack- items) but I can't imagine using TJ's as my basic grocery store. Please. Give me my Kroger, or Albertson's for day-to-day large selection, fresh produce and daily fresh in-store bakery.
 
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We are just the opposite with an Aldi a few blocks away and trader joes is 45 minutes. We have had pretty good luck with Aldi produce, but check it over carefully.

We have found Aldi branded products very good. The only one I will not buy again off the top of my head is their mustard. On the other side the hamburger and salmon have been excellent.
 
I wish we had either within 10 miles of home. The nearest TJ's is about 18 miles away, and with Denver traffic, that is a LONG drive. It's not an easy or fun drive. No Aldi's in our state quite yet. Too bad because I love those stores.
 
Our Aldi’s and Trader Joe’s are a block apart. I go to Aldi’s only because my Mother loves to go. I don’t like it. I do love some of the cookies at both, but those at Aldi’s are less expensive. Aldi’s has a chocolate mint cookie that tastes like Girl Scout Thin Mints. Have had bad luck with sweet potatoes from Aldi’s. Most of all I dislike the service at Aldi’s. We have some very rude cashiers and one who stocks, steps in front of customers and drops boxes on the floor right in their paths.
 
We don't have TJs around us. The one and only time I went to check out ALDI I realized I needed a quarter to obtain a shopping cart. Not having one, I turned around and left, never been back. Is that a standard fee at all ALDIs?
 
We do not have an Aldi. We have a Trader Joes but it's a little bit out of the way for me. Sometimes I will have my daughter pick up a few items I like there when she goes next door to the gym.
 
mdurette said:
We don't have TJs around us. The one and only time I went to check out ALDI I realized I needed a quarter to obtain a shopping cart. Not having one, I turned around and left, never been back. Is that a standard fee at all ALDIs?
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Yes. That is one of the annoyances you have to put up with for lower prices. We take in 2 reuseable bags and shop with them. One advantage to this is to slow down the impulse buys.
 
mdurette said:
We don't have TJs around us. The one and only time I went to check out ALDI I realized I needed a quarter to obtain a shopping cart. Not having one, I turned around and left, never been back. Is that a standard fee at all ALDIs?
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The 25 cents is returned to you when you finish shopping. I think the cart-pay model was instituted to reduce theft of carts which it has.

My wife leaves a few quarters in the mid-console for when she shops at Aldi's (their Bagels are a fav at our house). It's not unusual for a shopper who is returning their cart to retrieve their quarter to instead give the cart to you and you can proceed to shop with the cart and get a free quarter or pass on their generosity to another new shopper.

Richard
 
mdurette said:
We don't have TJs around us. The one and only time I went to check out ALDI I realized I needed a quarter to obtain a shopping cart. Not having one, I turned around and left, never been back. Is that a standard fee at all ALDIs?
Click to expand...

If you go in and tell them you don't have a quarter, they will provide one to you. Just leave the cart at the checkout counter.
 
If there are only three items (perhaps there are a few more), I would rather just shop at Aldi. We used to live very close to an Aldi, now it is a little further away but still manageable as it is close by work. TJs is a long ways away now as it used to also be a fair drive back in Ohio. Not that it wasn't manageable, it was and now still is out of the way. I find Aldi has a great selection of just about everything we need and you simply can't beat their price on eggs or milk. Just stopped there this afternoon to pick up a few things.

There are a few times I have had problems with produce at Aldi, but that was years ago. In a lot of cases, the same truck that drops the produce off at the grocery store is the same one that stops at Aldi. The grocery store just takes them out of the cases and puts them on the display where in many cases, the box or case is the display at Aldi. Less work, so lower prices.
 
dioxide45 said:
If there are only three items (perhaps there are a few more), I would rather just shop at Aldi. We used to live very close to an Aldi, now it is a little further away but still manageable as it is close by work. TJs is a long ways away now as it used to also be a fair drive back in Ohio. Not that it wasn't manageable, it was and now still is out of the way. I find Aldi has a great selection of just about everything we need and you simply can't beat their price on eggs or milk. Just stopped there this afternoon to pick up a few things.

There are a few times I have had problems with produce at Aldi, but that was years ago. In a lot of cases, the same truck that drops the produce off at the grocery store is the same one that stops at Aldi. The grocery store just takes them out of the cases and puts them on the display where in many cases, the box or case is the display at Aldi. Less work, so lower prices.
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I asked a soda sales driver of a branch national sodas that are sold in The Dollars Stores and he said they are same that they stock at major supermarkets. They just can sell more in volume at The Dollar Stores
 
pedro47 said:
I asked a soda sales driver of a branch national sodas that are sold in The Dollars Stores and he said they are same that they stock at major supermarkets. They just can sell more in volume at The Dollar Stores
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I expect that many private label (store brand) products are produced by a small number of companies. So the same "thin mint" cookies at Aldi may be the same ones they sell at Dollar General. Aldi actually has three "Girl Scout like" cookies that you can get year round!
 
I think the bigger problem with the shopping carts is not just that the employee has to go all over the parking lot to retrieve them, they need to send someone with a truck to retrieve them from the neighborhood. It used to be a big problem here.

They did away with the quarter or the "key" now but some of them have the alarm/lock. It won't let you get past a certain perimeter of the parking lot.
 
We moved from TJ and Aldi land to Safeway only town. First, many city Aldi stores have shopping baskets. I miss Aldi for German white and red sauerkraut in glass and for all Christmas gingerbread in December, however the nearest Aldi is about 500 miles east of us. TJ is about 30 miles and when we shop there we always get dark bread Pain Polaine, almond flour, nuts, dry unsweetened prunes, Brie cheese, French pastry sheets in November, and many more. I never shopped for fruits, veggies or meat at Aldi or TJ.
 
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