When Aldi first opened near my house, I was excited to finally have this discount grocery store option in town. I had been to other stores nearby, but this one was 10 minutes from the house instead of 30 minutes. Aldi prices are completely affordable. This post is going to tell you how Aldi is saving you money and passing those low prices to you.
According to the Aldi website, they are one of the fastest growing retailers in the US. Currently, they have stores in two-thirds of the country and hope to have almost 2,000 stores from the Atlantic to the Pacific by the end of 2018.
If you’re a new shopper at Aldi, here are some helpful tips to know before you shop. After seeing these tips, keep reading and I’ll explain some of the more quirky tips (like 1 and 2).
- You pay to use a shopping cart.
- BYOB – Bring Your Own Bags.
- You won’t find many brand name products at Aldi
- You’ll be able to find almost all your staple food products, but don’t expect to pick up your caviar and truffles at Aldi.
- Do not fear long checkout lines you may encounter.
- Aldi does not accept manufacturer’s coupons. You can learn about saving without coupons here
How does Aldi save you money?
The first thing you notice before going into Aldi is the shopping carts…that are all chained together. Shopping carts can cost a grocer up to $200 a piece per new cart. To help keep their cart buying to a minimum, Aldi charges a refundable deposit of .25 to use their carts. Why would they do this? First, it helps to ensure carts are put back where they came from and that they will not be left all over the parking lot. Second, it keeps team members from having to retrieve carts and bring them back to the store. Since carts aren’t disappearing and they don’t have to be brought back from cart corrals by staff, the savings on labor can be passed on to you.
As the shopping trip continues, you’ll notice that products and their packaging look like what you usually buy but you won’t recognize any of the product names. That’s because 90% of Aldi products are private label products. Like at large grocery stores, private label products cost the consumer less. Don’t be afraid of this. Aldi has won numerous awards for its private labeled products. If that’s not enough to quiet the voices in your head, Aldi has a Double Guarantee if you’re not 100% satisfied. You get the replaced, as well as, your money refunded.
The private labels are not the only way the products are saving you money. Products displayed on the shelves saves money too. The boxes containing the main product often have tear off tops and fronts. This allows the boxes the products come in to become part of the display, similar to how products are set up at Club Stores. It allows for faster replenishment by store employees when the shelves become bare saving labor cost and time.
Now let’s discuss the amount of products (or lack of) in the store. While large grocery stores carry around 35,000 items, Aldi has a lot less, choosing to carry the essentials that most people need on a regular basis. Aldi is going to carry most everything that you would buy on a typical shopping trip, but they may not have the harder to find products you are looking for. In carrying the basics, they can save on store size and slow-moving products expiring and becoming unsellable, both of which are financially costly.
Now that you’ve now managed to get your shopping done, it’s time to move to the checkout lines. Did you remember your reusable shopping bags? They sell bags for a few cents each if you forgot yours. By not supplying you bags, Aldi doesn’t have to forward the cost of them to you in the pricing of their products.
I’m not going to lie to you, sometimes there are lines at Aldi. As I stated in the tips, don’t fear the line. The cashiers move faster than at typical grocery stores for a few reasons. One, the products you’ve been picking up throughout the store have abnormally large barcodes on them. Sometimes there are even multiple barcodes on the product. This keeps the cashier from hunting out one small barcode on a product and lets them scan faster. They cashier is also not going to be bagging your groceries, you are. This allows Aldi to not have paid baggers and the cashier can get to ringing up the next order much faster with you bagging your groceries after checking out.
You’ve now made it to the end of your shopping trip at Aldi. Your groceries are in the car and the cart has been returned so you’ve got your quarter back. You saved money along the entire trip and it was mostly because Aldi took care of the saving for you. Sounds like a win!
