by JJ Francesco

Created on: August 18, 2010   Last Updated: August 19, 2010

I can say I’ve literally grown up shopping at Aldi with my family. I remember first going there as a little kid. We did and still do shopping at other grocery stores, but Aldi gets the bulk of our business, and with good reason too. It’s a store unlike any other.

What’s so great about Aldi? Most notably the prices. Their everyday prices are cheaper than those of any other store’s non-sale prices a good ninety percent of the time I’d say. Sure, they are generic labels but I dare most people to really tell the different in a blind taste test. So if you don’t mind not having a specific label on your food, Aldi is well worth it just to save money alone. In a tough economy, it’s an oasis for those struggling to feed a family.

Aldi isn’t just a store that sells knockoff food though. It’s got a lot of unique items coming in year round from Belgian chocolate seashells at Christmastime to special cookies and cereals. Not to mention that it does occasionally get some name brand products in at a special purchase.

Don’t think their greatness is confined to food products either. Their special purchases offer tons of great deals year-round. Over the years, I’ve seen various tools, dirt-cheap 8GB flash memory USB thumb drives, a picnic table that folds up into a suitcase, bed sheets, and even some “As Seen On TV” products. While these things aren’t regular items, they often do return. On any given week, you can likely find some really special deals here.

Another trait about Aldi is their bags. They don’t offer free bags like other stores, but that’s okay. For a dime, you get a reusable plastic shopping bag and you get the added benefit of ‘being more green,’ if that’s your thing. It will eventually rip but we got months of use out of almost every one we ever bought. A dime a bag seems a trivial price and you likely pay for those "free" bags at other stores in the higher prices anyway. They also have insulated shopping bags for keeping hot food hot and cold food cold for a few hours. These have caught on in other stores I see, but Aldi had them first. They also have begun to offer those cloth shopping bags and one time they even had a different kind of insulated bag. Either way, it’s tough to really make an issue over them not having those flimsy plastic bags.

Another nice thing about them is their shopping carts; yes I said their shopping carts. You must

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