Aldi - Sanford,FL

LOVE Aldi. Have not bought anything there I haven't likes...and if you do, they replace it AND refund the price.
They do have some name brands...but that's the whole idea--Aldi brands, comparable to national brands at lower prices.
You'll need bags (you can buy theirs for .05 or .10 ea.), a quarter for the cart lock.
I've found I cannot beat their prices on produce, eggs, snacks, cheeses, dips, crackers, baking supplies, condensed milk, brown sugar, spices or condiments.
Way cheaper than Wal Mart (and I won't shop there on principle anyway) and FAST in & out time.
If you've never been there, go in with an open mind. Will you see "Kraft" cheese? Nope, but their brand is very good. That applies to everything I buy there.

They have mostly generic items, but the quality of those items is pretty good. The produce can be hit or miss sometimes. But they usually have some really phenomenal deals. Last week they had pints of blackberries for $.99. They were good too! The prices can't be beat. If I really need to save money, I'll shop there. In some cases, I have to make a special trip to Target or Walmart for things I can't find at Aldi like K-Cups. Generally I try to shop at Aldi one week, then Target the following week.

I have been twice and hated it. The selection was terrible, I hated having to pay for a cart, and it was dirty. I won't go back again.

I go there every couple of weeks. I don't find everything I need there, but what is there is much, much less than anywhere else. I probably saved $40 on my Christmas baking supplies alone- flour, butter, sugar and eggs.

I've shopped there for years. They are a very basic grocery store that carries most of their own products. You put a quarter in the slot for a cart and bag your own groceries. This saves on overhead. It's okay if you are shopping for things like sugar, flour, salt, milk, butter, toiletries, etc. I don't buy too much of my food there as I've found that their quality has gone down in the past few years.

oh my gosh we love Aldi. We do a lot of shopping there. I buy toilet paper, paper towels, soups, pastas, veggies in cans, laundry soap, and their make up and skin care is wonderful. It is fun to shop at Aldi! And if I don't remember plastic bags they sell them cheap and you can take their empty boxes to pack your things (if they permit that there). And lately their bread is wonderful and inexpensive. I swear to you we save thousands of dollars every year. reaLLY.

Love Aldi for basic necessities, like milk, and bread (used to be 10cents) now its like 50 cents per loaf. Flour sugar. I mentally price compare to the regular grocery stores, who are extremely greedy and price their store brand goods only ten cents below what the branded goods are. So, yes, Aldi is extremely helpful when trying to save. Their price scanning is accurate, I almost never have to watch the cashier ring up like I do in other grocery stores who often make mistakes and overcharge. But that is because Aldi has good prices, in one size, not several different prices in different sizes. Where you have to get the in-store ad and tell them you got something off the shelf next to what may have been last weeks sign, or this weeks ad, and they didnt place it in the computer. Or you bought the wrong ounces of what was advertised and they treat you as if you are stupid, or you dont notice and end up paying $6.00 for what you thought was on sale for $2.49. Not at Aldis. Have never been overcharged or erred EVER.
Plus, the have a 100% CUSTOMER SATISFACTION GUARANTEE. And if for any reason you are not satisfied they will take your product back.
What FOOD STORE does this?!?!
Also in reference to the comment before me, No, there are not alot of German products and Aldi is good for these items:
*milk*bread*eggs*half n half*cottage cheese*yogurt*bread*butter*cereal*canned goods*all frozen goods from vegetables, to frozen dinners to ice cream and frozen snacks and pastries-very good prices*cheese*lunch meat*fresh vegetables*juices*bottled water*soups*fresh bagged salads*spices*just to name a FEW

You put a quarter in the cart..get it back when you return it to the appropriate place. You bring your own bags or use their boxes at no cost or 5 to 10 cents for their bags. Most of their items are produced by nationally known brands with the aldi label slapped on. Butter really is butter so at ours it is 1.99 and jewel housebrand is 3.49. Milk was 2.49 and centrella brand grocery in town selling deans for 2.99. American cheese theirs was 1.29 had the real symbol on it no funny taste while kraft was 2.99 on sale. Vanilla was 2.99 and at jewel it was 4.29. So if your looking for basics it's great if your a person who needs stuff bagged, or need a one stop shop it is not for you. If you bargain shop by price and are okay with hit and miss this could help your budget. We shop there and probably shave 25% off the food bill.

I LOVE Aldi! Love, love, love. It's the only way I can get away with a food and household items (paper towels, baby wipes, ibuprofen, toothbrushes, ziplock-style baggies, etc) budget of $420/month for our household.

To the person that mentioned they don't carry name brands so she had to go somewhere else for coffee, well, no they don't carry name brands. Except for special buys that ARE name brands, everything else in the store is the Aldi family of brands. That's their whole point. It's not a discount brands place like a dollar store; it's basically a single-brand store. But they HAVE coffee (donut store blend tastes like dunkin'!) and almost everything else you want.

I have been thrilled with almost all of my purchases there. And the few items I didn't like I returned with their guarantee and got double my money back. Even after eating some of it.

Aldi and Trader Joe's were started by the same person; they are sister stores.

I have found that while they have normal junk like everywhere else, they also have a lot of foods without HFCS or different additives. They are a German company and many of their products are manufactured to EU standards, higher than US ones. Their chocolates are to die for! My hormone-free milk is only $1.99. My not-from-concentrate orange juice is $2.39. My eggs $1.29/dozen. Chips are $1.19, cereal $1.99, tomato sauce $.25. And on and on and on. I spent $12.85 there yesterday and got a loaf of whole wheat, no HFCS bread; 2 orange juices; egg noodles; 2 lbs of cuties (brand name!); danimals smoothies (another name brand!); and pretzels.

I also adore their face creams. Cheap and good! I researched them and their Lacura line has won awards in Europe. Can't be beat.

We buy 75% of our groceries/items at Aldi and the other 25% at Trader Joe's. We save SO much and get to eat our favorites and still try many wonderful new foods each time.

I agree with anyone below who said all of their store brand stuff is great quality. However, for most of the products, if you have the time to learn how to coupon, you can get name brand stuff for free or almost free at places like Target, Walmart, Publix, CVS, Walgreens, and even Whole Foods. I got 4 bags of chips, a box of tea, about 20 protein bars, a can of nonstick cooking spray, and a couple other things at Whole Foods today and after coupons I only spent like $20! For Whole Foods, which a lot of people teasingly call "Whole Paycheck" that is crazy!

So yes, Aldi IS great. I love their chocolate as well, the products are great quality and you probably won't find table salt for like 20 cents anywhere else, but if you have the time and are willing to put in the effort to coupon, you can probably cut your grocery bill in half (or probably more) if you're willing to start cutting coupons and learning the tricks to getting the most out of it.

Ugh, I hate the Aldi near us. It's SO dirty and disgusting. (It's only a year old, too!! Brand new building.) I couldn't imagine eating food that came from that dump...eew. There were flies all over produce that was rotting. I didn't find any of their prices to be any lower, actually. However, we live in an area with pretty cheap grocery prices. In another area with higher prices, they might be lower.

It's hit or miss. I love them for produce (5 pound bag of Cuties for 2 dollars? YEAH!), a certain kind of boxed mash potatoes, and cans of tropical fruit salad. :) A lot of their stuff is cheaper...but some isn't, so just really look at the prices. Milk is cheaper at Aldi.

I don't do my main shopping there, but I get there once every few weeks and stock up on certain things. Cereal is good there, baking things, canned things are mostly good. I have tried just a few things I wouldn't buy again from there, but for the most part, their food is good.
Just remember to bring a quarter for the carts (you'll get it back when you return the cart), bags or boxes for your groceries to pack yourself, and they only take cash or debit card, no credit cards.

I don't care for the place to be honest. The selection sucks (though their frozen food was pretty good), and they don't carry anything name brand, so I'd have to make special trips to another store for things like coffee, diapers, etc.
If you go, bring quarters (they charge if you use their carts) and bring your own shopping bags.

I've seen fliers for it and they seem really inexpensive, but it just doesn't appeal to me. They seem to have only off brand items and there are some things that I prefer to have in the name brand. I hope it's something that works out well for you though.

I love Aldi. I shop there at least once a week. The produce is a lot cheaper and always good. The frozen chicken is great. I buy it in all forms, wings, drumsticks thighs, breasts bagful only like $5. the cereal is about the same price wise as the generic at walmart. I love love love the baking section. I can tell you that what a cartful of groceries at jewel would cost will cost less than half at aldi's. give it a shot.

forgot the cons lol. you won't find much in the namebrand stuff. occasionally they will have namebrand stuff but for the most part it is there own brands. not sure if this will help you decide or not but aldi own's trader joes and a lot of the same stuff is there. different packaging but same stuff.

my husbands family is from europe, they love aldis european brands, especially cheese selection

i shop there as much as possible...they have great frozen seafood, meat selection is fresh & very good, multitude of snacks (healthy & not so healthy).....great staple items like milk, bread, flour, butter etc

i was at fruitful yield & noticed they have the same face cleansers as aldi. i asked the employee how they worked & she said they have great reviews.

i live in a nice area, so our aldi store is very clean with nice employees. hope you have a good experience

My husband's aunt shops at the Aldi in her town (in Indiana), and likes it. She has to pinch every penny until Mr. Lincoln says, "Ouch!' Picture a whole generic store. The products are limited, and usually not (or perhaps never) brand name items. You bring your own bags, and you pay for a cart as if you were at the airport. If you're on a tight - or tightwad - budget, it's worth a try. But don't expect to find what you're used to finding in your regular grocery.

Just as a point of clarification: They don't charge you to use a shopping cart, per se. They keep their carts in a corral and you deposit a quarter to get the cart. When you're done shopping and you bring the cart back, you get your quarter back.

It can be a bit inconvenient if you don't remember to bring a quarter, but this is one of the ways they manage to keep their prices low.

Fortunately, our local store is very clean and well-maintained. It's a good place to go for basics and if you're not "married" to a particular brand.

Hi A.,

Don't know if Trader Joe's owns them or they own Trader Joe's. Some of the "generic" things they have are the same "generic" items that Trader Joe's carries. They don't have a huge selection of cheap stuff like canned goods but their crackers, cereals, salad dressings (their three-cheese is to die for), and even some of their meats are really good and high quality. Stuff that is truly generic like oatmeal and rice is really inexpensive. I say they are much cheaper than Walmart and much much better....there's not a store where I live but when I get near one, I make it a point to go stock my cupboards...

God bless,
M.

I LOVE Aldi's-- especially for basics, things like baking supplies (flour, sugar, shortening, oil, real butter, chocolate chips and REAL vanilla) pasta and rice and chilli fixin's.

LOVE that place. I LIKE bringing my own bags. Have you USED a plastic bag from the grocery store and actually gotten your stuff home without it ripping?

ANYWAYS, back to my LOVE for Aldi's. Both of mine always have the SAME STAFF (that means a lot to me) and is SUPER CLEAN. The girls there are super sweet and move FAST. Other stores should learn from Aldi's!

Right now ALL I can think about are the strawberries I bought two days ago. I bought four pounds and they are almost GONE. My son freaked out when he saw I bought LOTS of strawberries "for him." :)

The prices rock. There's a couple of items I didn't care for but that's fine. No big deal.

I can NOT say enough about their chocolate. OMG, it's soooo good. I made the mistake of becoming addicted to it while I nursed my son and GAINED weight while NURSING. WHO DOES THAT? Now I limit myself but MAN is it GOOD!

I went there once on the advice of a friend (she LOVES it...she says it saves her so much money; $400/mo in groceries for a family of 5). It was....odd. Our local Aldi is small and crammed full of things. They also do not provide bags, which I didn't know, but luckily I take my own canvas ones so that wasn't a problem. The cashier that I had was unpleasant and she threw my items into a cart, forcefully, and left me to bag them.

As to the selection...it wasn't that great. Nor we the deals. They had some things that were good deals (their chicken breasts and milk are the only things I can remember at present) but by far and large things were the same price as elsewhere or only a few cents lower.

They did not have any organic items when I was there.

Now you have me thinking about going to Aldi tomorrow to scope things out and give them another shot.

Main shopping there as well. Love it! Love it! I love the non grocery items like the pots and pans ect.....

The prices are way cheaper. It's mostly generic items. Sometimes you can catch a few name brands. I like to go there for fresh produce, frozen meats...mainly produce/veggies and meat. The one in Altamonte is clean and the employees seem nice. You do have to bring your own bags and bag your own groceries, plus do the quarter deposit thing on the cart (which you get back when you turn the cart back in) I don't see why some people are making such a huge deal about those things. It's a discount grocery store -- that's how they keep the prices low.

I hated Aldi in college but it was cheap. I hate that I need a quarter to get my shopping cart/buggy. I bring my recycle bags. There are things that are cheap when in stock. I have 2 stores near me and the closer one is better and new. The other one is dirty so I avoid it. They have name brands once in awhile but other staple items are cheaper. I will buy milk, eggs, cheese, salad, fruit and frozen or canned items. I'm not a fan of the meat because I like Publix. I will go to Save a lot but it's dirty and again I bring my own bags. Most of the stuff comes from Germany. My German neighbors love it. They get chocolate and other items they used to get.