Trader Joe Has a Brother. He’s Even Better.

Chances are that you have never set foot inside the best grocery store in America: Aldi. And even if you are lucky enough to be in one of the 32 states where Aldi is, perhaps you were put-off by the cardboard boxes in lieu of shelves, or the row upon row of suspicious-looking off-brands. What is this place? Why do I have to put down a deposit to check out a cart? What is the weird giant shelf by the exit? And what do you mean, I have to pay for a bag?

Calm your hormones, meine Schatzis: Aldi, which is short for Albrecht Discount, is the American incarnation of a German grocery chain that is so ubiquitous in the Vaterland that almost 90 percent of Germans shop there...

A disagreement in 1960 over selling cigarettes hastened a partition, and an epic game of grocery-store Risk: Theo would rename his business Aldi Nord, and would control territories north of the Rhine, plus a healthy chunk of Europe. Karl would head up Aldi Süd, and get southern Germany, more of Europe, plus the U.K. and Ireland. But both companies operate stores in the United States—Aldi Süd operates as Aldi, and Aldi Nord as the now ubiquitous Trader Joe’s.

But whereas Trader Joe’s employs just one major cost-saving device—private labeling—everything else about it is Americanized. The place is swarming with upbeat employees; cashiers stand at the till and bag your products for you; you just grab a cart willy-nilly and they trust you to put it back. Aldi also private-labels (those $1.99 “Millville” Rice Squares are Chex, you guys!), but what makes it a more exciting venture—and even cheaper than Trader Joe’s—is that it has imported the entire German grocery experience...

I like Aldi’s. My niece who has a big household; a 6 year old and 5 year old triplet girls, a teenage step son, a daughter in college and a husband who loves to cook, told me about how much money she saves shopping there for certain items. The Aldi’s near me is clean and neat and the gals working the checkout are very nice and efficient and I don’t mind bagging my own groceries especially if I’m offsetting that effort by money saved, besides, half the time I bag my own at the Giant or Weis because if I don’t I’ll end up with overly heavy & crammed full bags that break by the time I get them home, even when I ask them not to over stuff the bags. UG!

I don’t shop at Aldi’s for my full grocery order as their selection and variety of some items like produce and fresh meats is not always so great or consistent and some of the produce is packaged in sizes too large for me to use as a single person. But my niece was right in that their ground turkey is very good and lean and items like milk and eggs and yogurt and cereals and canned goods, etc. is much cheaper than even the sale price at the big grocery chains. I bought their brand of “Nutella” and their “Fit & Lean” brand of breakfast bars and they were just as good as the grocery store brands or even name brands.

I made a big crock pot of my “famous” Three Bean Aztec Turkey Chili for my work’s Christmas pot luck luncheon and I bought just about everything to make it at Aldi’s – saved a lot of money.

With that being said, I miss having any Wegman’s, Whole Foods or Trader Joes near me. I’m in an area where the closest are an hour or more away; either I have to go to Mechanicsburg, Baltimore or outside of Philly. I like to cook and sometimes I just can’t find certain items in the grocery stores around here. I used to occasionally go to the Whole Foods in Baltimore and yes, it was fun to watch the pretentious yuppies and hippies, but the people who worked there were always very nice and helpful and while I didn’t go for the “organic” foods (Whole Foods also sells “conventional” produce) I did find that their produce, meats and cheeses were, while expensive, are extremely fresh and of very high quality¸ sometimes worth it for me if I was making a special dinner and couldn’t find the items or quality of items I needed in a regular chain grocery store. The same with Wegman’s. I really wish they’d open one closer to me.

Walmart for groceries OTHO…thanks but no thanks! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bought produce or meat there that was bad. I bought a bag of apples that looked nice on the outside but nearly everyone was brown and rotten inside, I bought a bag of frozen broccoli that was severely freezer burned and full of ice crystals and twice I’ve bought chicken breasts that when I got them home and opened the package, they were slimy to the touch and stank to high heaven. I took the last package back for a refund but stood in line for over a half hour and was treated to a very surly and unapologetic worker who seemed to think I was just being too “picky”. It was IMO experience sort as if I was also too “white” and “yuppie” (i.e. I was dressed nicely on my way home from work and didn’t use an ETB card). LOL!

I did however recently find an interesting little store in Mount Joy PA called the “Country Store”. It is owned by Mennonites. They have a small meat counter (think lots of various homemade sausages, scrapple, ring bologna, sweet Lebanon bologna) and a small dairy and produce section but I love it most for their bulk food, spices and baking supplies. Several aisles all sorts of flours, grains, cereals, sugars, nuts, dried fruits, extracts, bulk chocolates for candy making and section of spices and dried herbs packaged in little plastic tubs or baggies.

For instance, last night I stopped in to pick up a few items as I’m making stuffed cabbage and homemade pumpernickel bread tomorrow. I bought a nearly ¼ lbs container of caraway seeds for $1.06 and a same sized container of whole coriander seeds for .54 and a nearly 1 lbs bag of yeast for $3.41.

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