Aldi is cheaper than TJ’s for a lot of standards: butter, milk, eggs, flour, baking soda.
Aldi is cheaper than TJ’s for some things I’d normally think of getting at TJ’s: romaine lettuce, hummus, certain cheeses.
TJ’s has more all-natural and organic things than Aldi, so if your focus is along that line, you will shop TJ’s more of the two.
If you like a lot of not-very-TJ’s-type products that are more along the line of national brands, chances are that Aldi has a decent cheap version of whatever it is you are looking for.
Aldi’s and TJ’s are both very close for me (in opposite directions). TJ’s is a much more visually appealing store but I vastly prefer Aldi’s for price and speed.
I do the bulk of my shopping at Aldi. Now that they have cage free eggs it really is almost everything. I save a ton of money and get quality stuff.
I really love the speed. It’s small with a limited product line so there is little choice, browsing, or searching to be done. Check out is fast and my store usually has short lines. That whole barcode thing is huge. Boxes of cereal have the bar code all the way down both sides which means the checkers really whip through it. Plus you bag your own, which I prefer.
I probably go to a traditional store only once every other month to get those few things I can’t get at Aldi (gallon sized vinegar, name brand dishwasher detergent, etc.)
The Aldi’s pretty close to me is new, clean and easy to get around in. Someone told me yesterday that they got apples at Aldi’s for 49 cents a pound. They had been in cold storage, of course since apples are ripe anywhere in the US now, but she said they tasted great. She also mentioned that they have good minimal ingredient salad dressing at a low price. I love Trader Joe’s but the closest one is 45 minutes away so it’s an occasional treat and not comparable.
Gala apples - 49 cents a pound, conventional, not organic. My deal there today was a spiral cut, bone in ham that was $1.79/lb and an additional $5 off. I found a smallish ham and instead of $16.25, I paid $11.25!
@walkinghome I got two regular hams right after Easter…for 59 cents a pound at Aldi. They are fabulous flavor. Really fabulous. One ham was $6 and the other was $5 something. Easy peasy to slice!
I keep meaning to go but I would have to make a special trip because it is about 8 miles from my home.
Trader Joes is much closer. According to what I saw in the weekly flyer fruits and vegetables definitely cost less then anywhere else around here. I would like to compare that with the farmers markets when they open up in May.
I like Aldi’s and its next to Meijer and Walmart, so just as convenient as any other.
We have a fruit and vegetable market (not sure what else to call it) and we have farmers markets which is only locally grown. Usually they are a bit more expensive, but I usually support my local businesses. Locally grown vegetables and especially fruit is more expensive, sometimes by a lot but when it’s in season, there is nothing better.
I agree with buying local. That’s pretty much all I do when fruit and veggies are in season. We have a lot of honor stands, PYO farms, some Farmers Markets, CSA’s BUT - it’s still too early to plant (in my area of PA) anything except for onions and garlic so it’s to the grocery stores for most of us. I went to an outdoor farmers market recently where all the vendors had on their winter coats and you could tell they were dying to be done for the day, and the only not-from-cold-storage offerings were some greens like Kale. That’s the one plant that managed to stay alive in my garden over the whole winter! There are a couple of large indoor, year round farmers markets but the veggie/fruit dealers there are not getting their produce from local farms either.
@walkinghome, totally agree. This time of year, I buy fruits and vegetables from wherever I am shopping. So if I’m at Aldi’s, I buy there and they are cheaper.
But as soon as I can, I’ll buy locally. Ok, so there is one place that has a covered type field and sells organically grown greens which are really nice but so so expensive. Yea, I can’t bring myself to buy those.
I went back and looked at my post and jeez sometimes I can’t get my thoughts right. Ugh!
We had a CSA share one year and by now, I had experienced more varieties of kale and chard than I ever heard of.
TJ is about 25 minutes for us, via highway. One small and one large Aldi are about ten, local streets. Much as I love TJ, here I do find some produce quality uneven. And it’s no longer the cheaper option it once was.
At Aldi, in addition to the chocolates and German cookies, I like the more German style coffee.
The apples you buy from Aldi are most likely WA grown. Thank you for supporting our apple growers!
The reality is that small farmers cannot supply enough produce to feed the entire population, so while shopping locally is commendable, we should not be shaming those who shop elsewhere.
Great article in the Atlantic a few years ago, comparing Walmarts that carry fresh local produce to WF and maybe some others. W was aggressively seeking local sourcing- and doing their usual thing of squeezing the competition.
We’ve got a local independent, walking distance, that does a good job with fresh and prices organic same as non. And a block from it, a small WF. Anyone know just how healthy Aldi produce is, whether any additives, etc? There was a time I bought tomatoes at BJ’s (like Costco,) left them on the counter and 3 weeks later, they were still firm and red. Freaked me out.
