National Brand vs. ALDI (1 Viewer)

[Garrett Lundy]

I don't know if ALDI is a regional market, national, or global, so this thread may or may not pertain to you. In upstate NY at least, ALDI is a chain of discount grocery stores that carry their own house brand. The house brand is not one label, but dozens with such names as Kirwood, Mama Casita, et cetera.... ALDI is not a bulk store, everything is in standard-sized portions & packaging. Ground beef, milk & other produce is independantly sourced and does not carry the ALDI label. And now I give you my taste-test evaluation.

*ALDI tortilla chips & 'medium' salsa con queso vs. Tostito's chips & salsa con queso. The generic chips are MUCH saltier, but otherwise similar to the national brand. The cheese/salsa is easy to tell apart. The ALDI product is more viscious (Its runnier), has larger vegetable chunks, and a more mild flavor. The national brans is thicker and has a much more pronounced jalapeno flavor.

*ALDI vs. Hamburger helper. ALDI's HH knock-off was the biggest disappointment of everything I tried. There were fewer noodles, the sauce was far more watery,and worst of all: There was a mysterious "bacon" aftertatse Both recipes were made from the same package of hamburger...so thats not the source of bacon-flavo.

*Beefaroni, Raviloli, SpaghettiO's w/meatballs vs. ALDI. Personally If you removed the labels i couldn't tellt hese apart, except that the ALDI spaghettiO knock-off appears to have about twice the meatball count when compared to the Franco-American product. I really am not hungry enough today to eat anther two cans of spaghettiOs.. so I wont open two more cans to count the meatballs.

*Frosted Flakes & Cocoa Crispies. The frosted flakes tatsed the same... but the cocoa-crispy knock-off had a waxy aftertatse

*Frozen pizza's: Compared to either Tombstone, Red Barron, or Tony's.. the ALDI frozen pizza is soggier, and not as flavorful. Of course it is not nearly as expensive either....

*Ragu vs. Mama Casita. Both were equally "chunky" and red. And although they both had a red-sauce flavor, mama casita was "sweeter" than the nationa RAGU brand. So this is a toss-up, if you want a sweeter sauce, give the house a try. I find I prefer one or the other depending on what I'm going to cook.

To save some space , the following products were deemed "Identical" to the regular brand by my whole household: Hot chocolate mix, canned corn, canned mushrooms, frozen chicken, sliced pepperoni, peanut butter waffer snacks, and chicken/alfredo noodle side dishes.


I think I'll try the Rice-a-Roni comparison next week.


Happy eating eveyone.

 

[Philip_G]

They have ALDI in Germany and I'm told they're popular in the midwest, but we don't have them here.
My German friends think it's the same chain.
Went to one in Frankfurt, strange place. Like a typical grocery store, except they had pallets of random crap in the aisles, like pillows or bedding or sweatshirts or whatever. You also had to buy bags if you wanted them, and bag your own stuff.

 

[Scott Leopold]

I was in an ALDI once, and the experience was so bad I haven't been back. The shelves were a mess, and their produce was sitting on pallets in the middle of the store. This included apples, which were rolling all over the floor, and watermelons, which some kids were stomping on. It was the middle of summer, they had no A/C, it was in the 90's outside and much hotter in the store, and the store was filled with hundreds of flies. Granted, this wasn't in the best area of town, and it was only the one store, but it was nasty enough that I just haven't been able to force myself to go back.

 

[Marshall W. Carter]

Hmmm, that makes me want to go there, if only out of some sick, morbid curiosity...

We have a few of them in my area (Columbia, SC), but I've never checked them out. Too lazy/forgetful to remember to bring in my own grocery bagging...

 

[Garrett Lundy]

You can buy bags for a whopping $.10 But these are heavy-weight, super bags that also serve double duty as something you can haul stacks of newspapers to the curb in.


and a quarter for the shopping cart.

 

[Philip_G]

in germany you'd see people pushing carts stacked to the brim with crap out of the store, none of it bagged, always wondered how they got it home.

 

[Ryan Wishton]

The point of the quarters in carts is so people put the carts back. If you put the cart back, you get the quarter back.

Good idea actually so you dont have carts flying througout the parking lot hitting cars.

My aunt went to Aldi. She fed a family of 5 off $40 a week. Though they always ate the same exact things and a lot of t was slop I couldnt bare to touch. Lots of mushy stuff that looked like vomit and lots of frozen cheap $1 pizzas. So, it was cheap, but probably also not very healthy. This was back in the 90's.

As for us. We go to Aldi every now and then for certain items. But, as we eat Organic stuff and such, it would be impossible to only shop at Aldi. The grocery bill this way is also a lot more than $40 which kind of sucks.

 

[Brian Johnson]

If you wanna try some real budget food comparison try a dollar stores food.
I've had a dollar stores hamburger helper which was "edible" (but I was hungry so my decision is biased)
The cheesy Tuna helper was actually quite good. I also bought the $.50 dollar store tuna to go along with it. For $1.50 I ate like a king. (as long as I don't know what was REALLY in that can o'tuna)
Eating dollar store food is like an experiment to begin with so it's always oodles of fun for you & the family. ( )

 

[Philip_G]

That isn't a bad idea, hamburger helper is something like $2 at walmart, but they have the cheap hamburger in a tube for 1.75.

that stuff is just so unhealthy though :frowning: For a cheap meal I prefer the zatarains dirty rice with hamburger in it, it's a little better for you I think.

 

[Corbin Stirn]

I've shopped at ALDI for years. There are 5-6 stores in the Toledo area. I've compared the Vegetables versus national brands....I almost always buy my vegetables from there. The "knock-off" rice-a-roni they have is quite good....it costs 49 CENTS!! and I've comapred to the national brand and didn't notice a difference. Their Ice cream is good..the pizzas, not so much(still like Tombstone, Totino's and Tony's). They also sell tossed saled fore 79 cents.the Dole stuff is $2.19 at kroger. The cereals aren't bad....I've bought the corn flakes(79 cents!!), but there is no Cinnamon Life,Frosted Mini-wheats, or other various equivalents(I love ALL kinds of cereal but Kelloggs,Post, and General mills stuff always tastes better). They have some good stuff, but being vegetarian only about 30% of what they carry can I buy. All in all, their fruits and veggies are quite good and inexpensive. And their spaghetti, sauces, Rice,etc are all worth checking out. The "saltine" crackers are 59 cents(versus 2.39 or more), and I'll buy 2-3 boxes of those alone. Check it out...they're not bad stores and you WILL save money. A frequent ALDI shopper.

 

[Marc S Kessler]

There are a few of these stores in the Memphis area. I can't see how they're able to stay open since every time I pass them there is no more than 2 or 3 cars parked there. The one that I pass the most is in an area that generally has higher rent commercial space. It's puzzling.

 

[Leila Dougan]

Never heard of the place. Maybe that's a good thing? Or a bad thing? I think the jury's still out on that one.