Save it Saturday: Aldi

One thing I mentioned in my Menu Monday post is that I do a lot of my shopping at Aldi.

Shopping at Aldi is a bit different than a typical grocery store:

• They are smaller and most products are the Aldi brand. 
• You use a quarter to get your cart, and bring it back to get it back. 
• You bring your own bags (or buy at the counter)
• You bag your own groceries
• You can only pay with cash, debit and EBT cards.

These things are really not that much of an inconvenience (and you saw how much I bought!). I pack up my bags, make sure I have a quarter in my pocket, and I get to bag things in a way that makes sense to me rather than hope the bagger doesn't put my bread with the 2 liters.

If you are a stickler to brands or need to use coupons, you may not find it to be as great as I do. I don't have the time to shop sales and coupons (or, I don't want to make the time to do so), and I am not picky about brands. I've tried a variety of the Aldi products and have only had an issue once.

I bought a box of taco shells and every single one was broken. I emailed the company, made nachos rather than tacos, and called it a day. Because of The Double Guarantee, I was sent a replacement product and could have gotten my money back. They are so sure you'll like their products that they will replace it if not. 

A friend recently tried it and found she saved $100 just by shopping at Aldi. It isn't for everyone, and sometimes the deals are better than others, but it fits our lifestyle and has saved us money in the process :) 

Aldi- Wonderful Customer Service

It was Taco night in my house, which is a pretty exciting night. We love tacos. I bought a box of taco shells from Aldi, because they are cheaper and my husband raved about them before knowing they were from Aldi. I opened the box to find this:

We were so disappointed. I improvised and we had Taco Salad instead of tacos, but we weren't too happy. I ended up emailing Aldi, because I could understand a couple broken ones but this was all but 1 shell. The box wasn't dented at all, so I couldn't see how they could have been broken like that.

Less than 2 weeks later I got this in the mail. First was a letter from Aldi apologizing for the shells. It said to take the letter to Aldi and they would refund me the 99 cents for the shells and give me a new box. Then a big box came to my door and inside was a letter of apology from the manufacturer and 2 boxes of taco shells! I was blown away by this, they were even wrapped in bubble wrap and packed in packing peanuts.

The broken shells were a minor inconvenience and I had almost forgotten about them until these came. I am very impressed with their response, it was over and beyond what I would have expected over something so minor. I won't be taking the letter to Aldi, I have more than had my shells replaced already, but I will continue to shop there. I appreciate the low prices they have and I am thankful that they did not sacrifice good customer service in order to provide those low prices.

I know many times with coupons it is possible to get brand names for cheaper than generics, but for those who don't have the time or want to put the effort into couponing, Aldi is a great store that enables many to save each week.