Well, it happens :). For example, I’ve heard enthusiastic reports from people in the south about the bread-baking machines they have now put up in the Aldi Süd stores (providing fresh, warm bread and rolls anytime). But I think overall, the products in the two chains are more or less interchangeable.
Sure, but TJ’s is not, and does not purport to be, a full service grocery store.
You can do all your shopping there if you eat a lot of what they sell. If you don’t - and in particular if you have affinity for ANY nationally branded product – then you can’t.
There aren’t any convenient to where I live, so I probably won’t have a chance.
Save-a-Lot stores have one thing Aldi’s doesn’t have- a good selection of “no salt added” canned veggies and tomato products, including a decent ketchup.
Just back from Aldi, where I went to get some La Vie. My store didn’t have it. I bought some crackers. The first box I opened wasn’t sealed.
I bought some of the dark chocolate too, and I admit it’s very good. More snap than I like but not acid at all.
Do the two stores operate in the same area, or do they avoid that? As far as I know, there aren’t any Aldis around here, about 10 miles from the first Trader Joe’s.
There are both Aldi and Trader Joe’s stores in the part of Southern Connecticut where my family lives, so they don’t make an effort to avoid each other.
I was just using that as a reference for you since you used to live in the Cleveland area…extrapolate that over to whatever chain grocery store you currently have in your area.
I live in the Chicago suburbs, and have at least two Aldi’s and two TJ’s within about 10 minutes drive of where I live. None are in the same suburb, though I expect there are some places where that happens.
Count me among those who don’t like buying produce at TJ’s or Aldi, though if you’re picky you can find good things. After being burned repeatedly on mealy apples at TJ’s, among other disappointments, we’ve mostly given up. It’s possible it’s a regional failing or they’ve improved since we stopped.
My personal best finds at TJ’s: jarred kalamata olives (pitted), olive oil, jarred roasted red peppers, gnocchi, honey, goat cheese. Stuff I generally can’t find there includes specialty flours (I’m a fan of wheat pastry flour and white whole-wheat flour), a wide selection of herbs and spices, brown basmati rice, dried beans and lentils, and other stuff that’s not coming to mind right now.
I love how I can compare toilet paper prices by the sheet at Aldi 
Scored $0.002 per sheet yesterday.
I also got 8 Roma tomatoes for $1.59.
Interesting. In the Cleveland area, Aldi’s has a (somewhat deservedly) reputation of being the “ghetto grocery store”. Their products are generally considered sub-par compared to other local grocery stores, and nearly all of the Aldi’s here are located well-within low-income neighborhoods. I’ve shopped there a couple of times and saw no resemblance whatsoever to the products being sold in TJs. Their produce is cheap, but the quality is hit-and-miss. The dry goods are mostly “off-brand”, with no indication as to the quality until you buy some and give it a try. Haven’t tried the chocolates.
The dry goods in TJ’s are mostly “off-brand” too, just with pretty labels and cute names. Yes, Aldi definitely (usually!) won’t have stuff like goat cheese and jarred kalamata olives, or a deli case that has vegetarian meat substitutes and fresh ravioli with specialty fillings, but it has a lot of good basics. My husband and I don’t go there often, but we’ll go to stock up on pantry basics, frozen foods, that kind of thing.
I like Trader Joe’s, but I wouldn’t do all of my shopping there. It’s really nice for some things–I love their goat cheese medallions, and their roasted seaweed snacks–but it’s less good for others. The produce selection isn’t used, and their pre-sliced cheese selection is middling. Also, I hate their Greek yogurt. When I go there, it’s usually just for something specific.
That being said, I can get fixings for the best fake-gyros ever there. Their tzatziki and their garlic naan together are divine. They also have the only good-looking frozen salmon I’ve seen locally.
Aldi is a different animal altogether. They’ve gotten a lot nicer in the past ten years. They have the best generic cheese puffs–not that I’m buying those anymore–and the absolute best spiral ham. It’s not even just a matter of price–it’s genuinely better than the name brands that we’ve gotten at Woodman’s or Jewel. They don’t seem as dramatically cheaper than the norm as they used to be, thoug I’ve gotten frozen salmon there at 3.99/pound. Allegedly wild-caught, but the paleness of the flesh says otherwise.
There is that perception in the UK, too. Aldi, Lidl (another German store) and Netto (Danish) are lumped together as “cheap-and-cheerful” places that do weird and wacky own-brand products at low prices.
However, more and more people seem to be realising that the first two, at least, do have some pretty good stuff. Aldi and Lidl also sometimes have oddly random items for sale for a brief period at insanely low prices - bike lights, camping equipment, that sort of thing, that you wouldn’t normally find in a grocery store. Then, as quickly as they appeared, they’re gone.
Here’s a pretty great blog about Aldi products with reviews, pictures, and taste tests, etc.
Some good information about shopping at Aldi there.
There’s a fairly new Aldi that opened in Lyndhurst, a comfortable middle-class suburb, but I wonder if the location was chosen because it was in a “safe” community that was still convenient to the potentially large customer base of the distressed East Side/East Cleveland area. The first of the month at the Giant Eagle a couple of blocks from my old house in South Euclid, just west of Lyndhurst, was … interesting.
The Aldi here in Ithaca seems to draw a more middle-class/student crowd. However, the dominant group of townies – thousands of very crunchy fiftysomethings – are nowhere to be seen in the store. If TJ’s was in town, they probably wouldn’t be there, either. Too corporate. For them, it’s the co-op, farmer’s markets and stands, their backyard, or nothing.