What to Buy (and Skip) at ALDI

It’s a tough time to be a grocery shopper. If you too need to purchase food for later consumption, you’ve undoubtedly notice that inflation has made doing so a dispiriting experience. Even cheapish chain standbys like Trader Joe’s have seen drastic price increases. Though shopping smarter can save you money, there’s only so much. So thank goodness for ALDI, which has always had exactly one goal—to keep prices extremely low. And after more than a century in business, they’ve got low prices down to a science.

There are a few quirks to be aware of before your first ALDI trip. First, you have to bring your own bags and a quarter; ALDI does not provide bags for its shoppers, and you have to deposit a quarter to unlock your cart. (You’ll get your quarter back when you return your cart.) Second, ALDI stocks and staffs its stores in a way that’s laser-targeted to the communities they serve. In other words, the product selection varies wildly store-to-store, and each store has different hours depending on peak local traffic. By putting the responsibility for bag and cart wrangling on its customers and stocking only what sells, ALDI is able to save a ton on overhead, which enables them to explicitly cater to low- and fixed-income folks. ALDI rules.

Most—but not all—of ALDI’s offerings are gold, so I’ve written a handy guide based on a recent visit to help you gauge what to shop for there, and what to skip. Grab your reusable bags and some quarters and join me on a journey through the aisles of ALDI, won’t you?

What to buy at ALDI

ALDI is great place to buy staples of all kinds, but some of their offerings are truly special. Here are my top picks.

Snacks

If, like me, you become hazardously mad without emergency snacks on hand, may I recommend ALDI? Their snack game is unimpeachable. I went in on my most recent trip and bought knock-off Triscuits (my preferred snack cracker), generic Cheez-Its, peanut butter-filled pretzels, a tub of olive tapenade hummus, and three varieties of fake Girl Scout Cookies (Coconut Fudge/”Samoas,” Mint Fudge/“Thin Mints,” and Peanut Butter Fudge/“Tagalongs”). Those last three are so, so good, much cheaper than the Scouts charge (sorry girls), and available year-round.

Cheese

Cheese is my second favorite food after “every vegetable” and I eat a lot of it. ALDI boasts neither the reliability of the Trader Joe’s cheese section nor the super-niche options at specialty grocers, but what they do have is excellent and inexpensive. I bought four kinds of cheese on my last trip: a small brick of Cabot Seriously Sharp, some two-year-old English Cheddar, a wheel of Edam, and a wedge of Danish blue cheese. Did I want to buy the mozzarella sticks wrapped in prosciutto? YES. But moderation is key, or so I hear.

Meat

ALDI’s meat prices are generally very good, particularly their weekly specials; for example, my store recently had pork butt roasts for $1.99 per pound and marinated salmon for $9.99 per pound. I’ve got fajita-based plans this weekend, so I picked up four pounds of Black Angus chuck roast for $5.99 a pound. Whatever ALDI meats you choose will be cheap and good, but if you check the weekly ads before shopping you can save an astounding amount of money.

Produce Staples

I’m talking onions, potatoes, lemons, bananas, celery, carrots—that sort of thing. My house was good on onions and lemons at the time of my most recent ALDI trip and I still bought three pounds of yellow onions and two pounds of red onions ($3.24 total), a packet of green onions for $0.95, and a two-pound bag of lemons for $4.

Cooking Oil

I’m a trash golem who prefers vegetable oil to canola for frying, marinades, and homemade mayonnaise, so imagine my delight when I found a 1.42-liter bottle of vegetable oil for $3.85. Our household is set on olive oil for a few months, but when we next run out I will definitely be checking ALDI’s offerings first. I spotted a 20-ounce bottle of pretty good-looking extra-virgin olive oil for $5.65, and the same-sized bottle of fancy Sicilian stuff was $9.89.

Dried Beans

ALDI’s dried bean selection is small but powerful. We eat a ton of black beans, so I bought two 2-pound packages for $2.99 each. Dried pinto and mayocuba beans were the same price; Great Northern beans were $2.75 per two-pound bag. Meanwhile, my Whole Foods charges between $3.69 per pound for dried black beans. Hisssss.

Yogurt

I loathe reduced- and non-fat yogurt because they make it impossible to pretend I’m eating a bowl of sour cream (which is obviously my goal at all times). Full-fat yogurt lets me do that and it makes excellent marinades, dressings, and cakes. The Friendly Farms brand of whole-milk Greek yogurt at ALDI is $3.85 for 32 ounces and might be better than my beloved Fage—but even if the Fage did taste slightly better, I’d still rather spend half the money on something that’s 95% as good.

Soda and seltzer

I have a distressing seltzer habit, but ALDI’s prices make it easier (or cheaper) to manage. Big 34-ounce bottles of flavored seltzer are around a buck each, and you can often find name-brand sodas for far less than at your average grocery store.

Diapers and other baby stuff

This doesn’t hold much weight for me because I don’t want kids, but ALDI has great prices on all manner of baby stuff and menstrual supplies: a big pack of Always pads is like $4, and 100 size 3 diapers cost $13.19. Good luck finding anything that cheap at Target or Walmart.

Assorted vegetarian and vegan stuff

If you can’t handle the Morningstar prices at Target, hit up ALDI for lower-cost vegan alternatives. They stock everything from meatless meatballs to fake breakfast sausage, as well as vegan staples from coconut “butter,” to almond milk, to packets of quinoa and millet, all for very low prices.

What not to buy at ALDI

ALDI has more hits than misses, but there are some items that aren’t worth the investment.

Butter

I’m gutted to report that ALDI’s butter prices weren’t nearly low enough to warrant a stock-up: $3.55 a pound is fine but I can get butter for less elsewhere. For someone who keeps at least four to five pounds of butter in her house at all times, this was a disappointment.

Name-brand snacks

Most ALDIs stock a certain amount of, say, Pringles and Gushers, but they’re not all that cheap; plus, most retailers that accept coupons (ALDI does not) will have a better deal at some point. If you’re devoted to a certain brand of snack, it’s probably best to clip coupons and wait for a good sale elsewhere.

Pet supplies

This could be because my precious idiot angels eat only the finest of chicken-less kibble (the younger one is allergic to chicken) but I found the ALDI pet food offerings both paltry and low-quality. Cat litter was 6.85 per 14-pound jug, but all of it was scented, which I avoid. You might have better luck at your local store, but I wouldn’t bank on it.

Brownie mix

This was the ALDI item I was most excited about. If you read the comments on pretty much any article like this one, the top one will tell you to pick up a box of their amazing brownie mix. But at $1.35 for a box, they aren’t anything special. (My verdict? Ehhhh.) If you’re a huge fan of boxed brownies, you might like these more than I did, but I was pretty disappointed. They did the trick, but I doubt I could pick them out of a boxed-mix brownie line-up—which, at less than $1.50 a box, could actually be an endorsement of sorts.

Coffee

ALDI’s German-Roasted coffee is another cult product, so I was stoked to try it. I’m in a committed—and very modern—relationship with Cafés Bustelo and el Aguila, but I’m always looking for another low-cost option to add to my rotation. Even though I have gnarly insomnia, I made myself a cup of this coffee at three in the afternoon to try it out because I care about you, the reader. Guess what? It sucks. Bustelo is better, but it somehow costs $4.29 for 10 ounces at ALDI—a few years ago, I used to pick up 4-for-$5.00 bricks of the stuff at Cousin’s in Philly. Boo to ALDI coffee.

I’m sure there are some items I’ve missedWhat else should I check out when I have the chance?

This article was originally published in 2017 and updated on July 18, 2023 to adjust pricing to reflect inflation and to add a new header image and additional context.