What CANT you buy at Aldi?

[Forpoxsake]

That you would still have to go to other shops for, or that you prefer the quality/taste etc of non Aldi items.
Currently shop in Tesco but it is beyond expensive lately!
Dip in and out of Aldi but find I still need to top up at Tesco.
We are pescatarian so no meat.
Does the fruit and veg last beyond 2 days?

I do a mix of ALDI & Waitrose.

I’ve mostly had success with stuff I’ve tried from ALDI and largely prefer the stuff I’ve bought from there (and bonus! It was cheaper) but don’t like ALDI’s salmon (disintegrated and turned to mush). We made the ALDI swap to 70% ish of our shop. Though like others, I can’t get certain things from my local branch:

> Large bottles of Organic milk (they only sell 1ltr)
> Specialist things like miso, sake, mirin
> Branded cat food (only one my cat will eat)
> Salmon fillets
> Spice Tailor curry pouches
> Coconut water
> Limescale loo blocks (the Bloo or Harpic overnight ones you drop in the bowl)
> Lily’s kitchen bedtime biscuits for the dog (he has one every night at bedtime - has done since we brought him home).
> Nice breakfast pastries & bakery items (closest thing in my local ALDI is pre-packaged muffins)
> Dried and fresh herbs & spices
> Dried red lentils
> Certain branded snacks

My local ALDI is fine but small and very basic in terms of stock. There seems to be a lot of the shop given over to middle-aisle crap though, more like 1.5 aisles. In a small shop that’s a lot of real estate and feels unbalanced in terms of actual food and random shit like scuba masks, steam mops and dog beds.

Can’t stand Aldi because of the checkout experience. I rarely go in there but when I do I always wonder what the fuck I was thinking. This usually happens as I join the huge queue of people with huge trolleys.

Fruit and veg. It turns to moldy mush in a day or two. Most supermarkets are the same the only shop that has fruit and veg that stays fresh until I want to eat it and tastes good is M&S.

We don't like their tea or coffee and the range of herbs/spices is very limited.

Fruit and veg is limited in range ( at ours) and are sometimes prepackaged in quantities that we just don't need so there is some wastage.

Their freezer bags/grease proof/foil/black sacks section is often empty , for some reason .

Love their pesto but, again, it's hit and miss if they have it in stock.

I just pack the stuff at the car. Admittedly, local Waitrose is a much nicer experience (cleaner shop, wider aisles, more choice, calmer checkout, not as busy, easier car park, better store layout) but I’ll take the inconvenience for the savings and in some cases, better products (Isigny butter & vac-pack mussels for eg).

Fresh bread.
I can’t remember ever seeing anything organic, or even any meat/fish/fairy/eggs marked as free range or higher welfare.
And yes, the decaf ground coffee seems to have disappeared over the last couple of years.
Their range of herbs & spices, cooking ingredients such as mirin, seaweed, various vinegars, actual cooking ingredients etc is very poor. What is available is generally very short shelf life, has unnecessary sweeteners or other unpleasant additives added, or is just generally disappointing because they taste of very little.
Mostly in the food section, it’s a lot of UPFs & fruit & vegetables that don’t keep very well.

I like the loo roll though. Much better value than what we used to use.

I can’t remember ever seeing anything organic, or even any meat/fish/fairy/eggs marked as free range or higher welfare

I get organic eggs and veg from Aldi, so you haven't looked very far.

Aldi check out is easy once you know what to do.

Get everything onto the conveyor belt quickly.

Line your trolley with Also bags - they fit perfectly and stand up and hang 2 extra on the trolley hanger just in case.

Quickly load items into bags, do NOT attempt to lift bags to pack, you just need to put stuff into the bags in the trolley. Use extra ones of necessary.

Takes a bit of getting used to but I'm been complimented on my packing technique 🤣

DO NOT DEVIATE FROM THIS TECHNIQUE

It's even easier when you do Click and Collect and DH picks it up and puts it all away while you go to a gym class. 😂

I am constantly annoyed that for the optimum food shop it requires three food shops (four if I'm being really picky). Even down to Lidl's bin bags being unmatched and thus requiring a specific trip. See also their cotton wool pads.

This is really interesting as loads of items mentioned here I buy at my local Aldi.....decaf tea, ready made pastry and oat milk for example so it must be store dependent.

We're lucky that locally we have pretty much every supermarket possible so I tend to alternate between Aldi and Lidl with top ups from Tesco and Sainsbury's.

This

Sorry that should have been a reply to a previous message - I find the fruit and veg goes off quickly from Aldi. I buy wine elsewhere. Also had a bad experience with Aldi chicken so now don’t tend to get meat there apart from the steak which is really good.

I don’t understand this - all bananas are clones! So genetically it’s the same banana as every other banana you’ve ever eaten.

Cat litter and cat food I have to go elsewhere for, but most other things I've managed to swap over to. I've been more impressed by the cleaning products than I expected to be too.

Excluding branded items where we have a preference:

• loose veg
• courgettes in ours (but we do have cauliflowers)
• small tons of sweetcorn
• certain herbs and spices

@EatSleepReplete. The mussels have the MSC mark on them (blue tick), same as the Waitrose ones. Both are farmed in Scotland, probably in the same place! The ALDI ones are nicer, imo (less salty and fewer broken shells), plus half the price.

I only get free range eggs and chicken. And organic milk. All from Aldi and i today notcied organic broccoli.

But it seems clear from the thread that stores really do vary. We have two near us and I can see the variation just between them- one has a much smaller fruit and veg aisle.

Only once have I had an issue with Aldi fruit and veg- a packet of 3 peppers were completely rotten once I opened them up, but that is the only time. I will admit though that I do a daily shop for that evening's meals as our Aldi is between school and my workplace so that might be why others have noticed things do not last as long. (I am crap at forward planning!!)

Mine stocks Liquorice and Peppermint tea and very nice it is too - plus all the goods you mentioned.

The checkout experience is one of the best bits! It has thoroughly ruined me for any other supermarket!

Queues aren't normally big and even when they are they move quickly. Meanwhile you could die of old age waiting for them to scan a small trolley full in Morrison, and the self checkout is no better because the person who needs to approve restricted products and sort out the machine when it needs it is trying to do the kiosk and/or customer service at the same time.

I can buy everything I need in Aldi but my other close supermarkets are small and have hardly anything but the basics.

The fresh salsa is with the dips in my Aldi if that's any help.
Agree no dw rinse aid or salt.

The full fat Greek yoghurt at Aldi is great. Comes in a squat carton rather than a tall thin one though.

There are more than 1000 varieties of banana so no, they don’t all taste the same

www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/8-things-you-didnt-know-about-bananas