Sorry if there has been a thread like this. We just got a brand new Save store here. Now we have had one here for years. It was in a bad part of town and only shopped there a few times years ago. Aldi's has been like my best friend.:cloud9:

The new store opened up close to my house. The other day(not planning to buy) me and dh just skimmed the store real fast to check it out.

I know I have read here that a lot of you have had bad luck with produce at Aldi? See I think they have great produce here. I know it must be a regional thing. The great thing I love about these kind of stores is stocking up on can goods and some frozen dinners like Lasagne,Salsbury steak,and parmesean chicken ( I mean like 2 bucks here when I feel lazy to cook from scratch :P)

So tell me what you like the worst and best of both stores, prices, quality, brand names, etc. Lets compare.

Unfortunately I don't have an Aldi's down here but I have been to them when we have traveled up North. We have nice Save a Lots and I'm a loyal customer. I also liked the Aldi's I have been to but IMHO I prefer SAL. To me - SAL has better meats, dairy and produce with a much bigger selection.

I don't have a Save-A-Lot close enough for me to shop even sporadically. The closest one is 1 1/2 hours round trip. I've never been to it, only driven by on the way to an antique auction.

Our Aldi is hit or miss when it comes to sensitive produce...strawberries, squash, etc. It is very good when it comes to hardier produce like potatoes, bananas, broccoli, carrots, etc.

When it comes to fresh (not frozen) meat, I don't think there prices are any better than a regular grocery store. I don't buy meat there because I can get is super cheap at the commissary.

I wish they had a better selection of dairy. We don't like their shredded cheese at all. It doesn't melt right. I don't know what it is.

But for a lot of their shelf stable goods, I can't find a better price anywhere else.

Ugh, now I see the other thread. :stupid:

Sorry if there has been a thread like this. We just got a brand new Save store here. Now we have had one here for years. It was in a bad part of town and only shopped there a few times years ago. Aldi's has been like my best friend.:cloud9:

The new store opened up close to my house. The other day(not planning to buy) me and dh just skimmed the store real fast to check it out.

I know I have read here that a lot of you have had bad luck with produce at Aldi? See I think they have great produce here. I know it must be a regional thing. The great thing I love about these kind of stores is stocking up on can goods and some frozen dinners like Lasagne,Salsbury steak,and parmesean chicken ( I mean like 2 bucks here when I feel lazy to cook from scratch :P)

So tell me what you like the worst and best of both stores, prices, quality, brand names, etc. Lets compare.


In my town,*stateside I should say* Aldi's wins hands down!! Our Sav a lot is in a clean, safe area of town but the store itself is just dirty. I've never had a problem buying anythign from Aldi's but at Sav a lot bought frozen veggies that looked like they were thawed and refrozen many times over :( and their produce is icky tool.

The island does not have discount stores...we do have a big box store...kinda like a Wal Mart..it's costly so most just shop at the street market or the smaller grocery stores.

I haven't shopped at a SAL, the closest one to me seems to be in a shady area. I shop at an Aldi, 15 minutes from my home, I go 1-2x a month and it's where I buy most (if not all) of my canned goods: veggies, tomatoes, cream soups, and broth. I like their version of rice krispies, maple oatmeal, hot choc., baking supplies, corn muffin mix (not as good as a brand name but at 33cents a box it's a great deal). I buy sanwich and freezer bags there too.

I did not like their brownie mix and I wasn't a fan of their yogurt either. I don't tend to buy meat, produce, or dairy at Aldi, I prefer the selection at my local grocery store better.

Forgot about this thread.:P. I hated the save-a-lot here. It was clean because it was new, but the prices and quality and selection stunk.

Their peanut butter is horrible,and jelly too. My family hated the mac and cheese, the meat was just as high or higher than my local store. They even had baby food that was higher than our regular store. I think I spent about 30 bucks that day and it was well wasted. Just wanted to check it out.

Sticking with Aldis always. They have so much new and more healthy choices. I spent 167.00(planned a big trip and less spent in May) and was way more happier for the food I got. We budgeted extra for dh lunches because he eats out way to much. This will be money saved in the long run.

They each seem to have things the other ones doesn't have. For example, Save a Lot has 1% milk, where Aldi jumps from skim to 2%. SAL has loose apples so I can just buy one or two--at Aldi I have to buy a whole bag. SAL has Tastykakes at discount, Aldi doesn't carry them at all. Overall, I spend a lot more at Aldi, but it's nice to have both handy.

I was doing some comparing between a couple of receipts from both stores and Aldi's comes in just a couple cents cheaper on their items than SAL does, BUT the kicker for me is that I would have to drive about anther 30 miles just to shop at Aldi's so from now on it's SAL only for me.

I actually have a SAL store right about 4 miles from my house, but it isn't nearly as nice or big as the one about 12 miles away. So, I drive the extra just to be able to shop at the bigger, cleaner store.

Also I thought I'd note, I hadn't shopped at SAL in years, at least 12 or more and the reason was that their brands just weren't any good.
But after reading all the threads here about SAL, I had to go and give them another try and man have they come a long way!
So far the only item that I've bought that didn't pass the taste test was their spaghetti-o's. Everything else has been wonderful, actually some of their items was *better* than the name brand.
My 13 dd. said that their raviolis were waaay better than the Chef Boy Ardee ones?
Also, as far as taste tests go, SAL came in above Aldi's on quite a few things for my family, but of course this all depends on personal preference.

On any account, I've become a SAL shopper once again and it's unbelievable at how much I can get for just around $125.00!
I'm thankful to everyone who's ever posted here about SAL and for all the threads just like this one who encouraged me to give them another try!:clap:

I'll be making my first trip to Save-a-lot this week. Any tips? Do they take coupons? Are the prices really good? We don't have Aldi's near me. We do have a Price-rite near by and they're ok. Prices are good at Price rite, but selection is very low.

We don't have an Aldis but they recently opened a Save A Lot in easy driving distance for me and I love it. Cheaper by far than any other grocery store here, and they are clean, well maintained, well stocked and very customer service oriented...perhaps as with any other business it all depends on the manager and employees who work there? I no longer do any regular shopping at any other grocery store and SAL is definitely my favorite.

i walk upto our sal a few times a month (will be once a week as soon as i get my cooler bag). its clean and all the food we have gotten there tastes good. will know more when i am able to get cheese and yogurt there.

i walk upto our sal a few times a month (will be once a week as soon as i get my cooler bag). its clean and all the food we have gotten there tastes good. will know more when i am able to get cheese and yogurt there.


I just wanted to add my experiences with the dairy.
I don't buy exclusively at SAL, but about 96% of my grocery budget is spent there and I personally have never had any bad experiences with any of their dairy.

I've bought cheese sandwich slices, shredded cheese, milk, ice cream, sherbert, eggs, yogurt, cinnamon rolls, queso cheese dip, and I'm sure a ton more that I can't think of right now and we've been happy with all of them.

I will say that they only carry about 4 different flavors of yogurt, but you can even buy those "Activia" type yogurt containers as well.

Now as far as their shredded cheese, I'm speaking of my local area of course, you can most likely get shredded cheaper somewhere like Wal-mart (if you shop there), because here for a 3 cup package it's $3.29 a bag.
But even though I'm paying *maybe* .20 cents more for the cheese, everything else is so much more inexpensive, it isn't worth it to me to make a special trip somewhere else just to buy that one item, if you kwwim?

I'm a die hard SAL fan!


Michelle

I'll be making my first trip to Save-a-lot this week. Any tips? Do they take coupons? Are the prices really good? We don't have Aldi's near me. We do have a Price-rite near by and they're ok. Prices are good at Price rite, but selection is very low.

I apoligize up front if this gets too long-winded.

As far as coupons? I'm pretty sure they do not accept coupons, for the most part I'd say 98% of what they carry is their store brand of items, I know here at mine, at the front of the store, they will sometimes have a few name brand items that might be on "special" that week.

As far as tips? I would definately have your list made out and I know from personal experience, the very first time I went, there were several items that I just wasn't sure how they would taste.
I hadn't been there in years and years, so I didn't want to spend alot of money and get things home and then nobody would want to eat them.
So, what I did was to pick up just a couple cans of things: chili, spaghetti-o's, ravioli, etc.

The one thing that I would NOT recommend to anyone is their tuna fish. It literally smells like cat food when you open it and I'm not sure what it is, but it has a weird taste to it?
So just say NO, to the tuna fish.

As for everything else I've ever bought there, I've been very happy with.
Their toilet paper, paper towels, cleaners, etc.
They also have a $1.00 aisle with alot of cheapie things, I don't like to buy alot of "junk" so I usually just pass the aisle up.

As far as selection, this all depends on your local store.
I have a SAL only 4 miles from my house, they don't carry near the amount of stuff that the one I shop at, does.
I drive the extra to shop at a bigger, well stocked store and I don't mind doing it at all.
The one I shop at has everything I need. The only things that I might possibly buy somewhere else would be a few cleaning supplies, other than that I buy everything at SAL.

I've liked all of their baking supplies, seasonings, flavorings, chocolate chips, etc.

Now for prices, these of course are my local store prices, but here is a pretty good list to get you started:
(Canned foods)
Sweet peas-.59
Whoel kernal corn-.39
Black beans-.49
Light red kidney beans-.44
Flour tortillas-1.89 (10 count)
Grape cranberry juice- $1.99
Chips-.99 a bag
Diced tomatoes-.49
Unsweetened applesauce-.99
Yogurt-.50
Chili with beans-.79
Ravioli-.75
Spaghetti sauce-.99
Taco seasoning packets-.34
Sliced peaches-.88
Frozen hashbrowns-1.29
3# bag onions-1.79
5# bag sugar-2.09
cake frostings-.99
cr. of chicken soups-.49
big roll of paper towels-1.49
instant vanilla pudding-.39
crunch raisin bran cereal-1.89
angel hair pasta-.99
rotini pasta-1.19
18 count large eggs-2.49
grain bread-1.29
fudge brownie mix-1.19
tall kitchen drawstring bags-1.99
all purpose flour 5#-1.59
taco sauce-1.19
pancake syrup-1.19
gallon milk-3.49 (whole)
pure vanilla extract-1.99
frozen cans of lemonade-.79
frozen cans of organ juice-1.49
texas cheese toast-1.69
1# butter-1.99
sour cream-1.29


Hopefully that will be enough to give you a good idea of how the prices run, compared to other grocery stores.

Let us know what you think after your shopping trip!:sun:

I have a Save A Lot #2 miles from my house. It is GREAT!! It is clean and I have a good selection of fruits/veggies/meats :ban:. The employees are nice. The only thing which I have not cared for is the frozen pizza (I know I could make my own but some nights I just do not feel like it).
I am in Texas and there are no Aldi's in Texas. I just cannot see leaving the GREAT REPUBLIC OF TEXAS to drive to the tiny state of Oklahoma for groceries. :cowboy:

When I lived in Upstate NY, we had a Save-A-Lot about two blocks from my apartment and the nearest Aldi's was in Horseheads (so it was quite the drive for me). I naturally went to Save-A-Lot for myself and my mom would have me take her to Aldi's. I <3 SAL! They had the best chicken stir fry in the frozen section. The SAL I went to was pretty clean and I really didn't buy any produce, but they had tons of potato bread there.

I like both places, in all honesty. I miss them here in Canada. :(

Here is my Save a Lot Prices::band:
Applesauce #25 oz for 0.99 or 4 cents per ounce
Baggies #50 count for 99 cents
Baking Soda 16 oz for 0.43 or 3 cents per ounce
Butter $2.19
Carrots 32 oz bag $1.20
Celery Sleeve $1.19
Chicken 89 cents per pound
Chicken Bouillon #25 cubes 99 cents
Chocolate chips 12oz $1.19
Cilantro $.50
Corn Frozen 16 oz 99 cents
Eggs one dozen $1.45
Gallon Size Storage bags #20 for 99 cents
Green Beans canned 35 cents
Gum doublemint #5 packs $.89
Ketchup 24 oz for 79 cents or 3 cents per ounce
Lemon Juice 32 oz $1.39
Marshmallow 10oz $.79
Mayonnaise 32 oz $1.59
Mushrooms 8oz $1.59
Nuts-pecan 6oz $2.49
Okra Frozen 16oz 99 cents
Onions 3lb $1.29
Paper Towels #65 sheets 49 cents
Peas Frozen 16 oz 99 cents
Picante Sauce 16 oz $1.29
Pickles 16 oz for $1.39 or 9 cents per ounce
Potatoes 5 lbs for $1.50
Puffs 99 cents
Salsa Sauce 16 oz $1.29
Soup: Cream of Mushroom 59 cents
Spinach-frozen 10oz $.79
Storage bags-Gallon Size #20 for 99 cents
Tissue 99 cents
Tortillas (flour) 48 count $3.99
Turkey 16oz $.99

I just wanted to add my experiences with the dairy.
I don't buy exclusively at SAL, but about 96% of my grocery budget is spent there and I personally have never had any bad experiences with any of their dairy.

I've bought cheese sandwich slices, shredded cheese, milk, ice cream, sherbert, eggs, yogurt, cinnamon rolls, queso cheese dip, and I'm sure a ton more that I can't think of right now and we've been happy with all of them.

I will say that they only carry about 4 different flavors of yogurt, but you can even buy those "Activia" type yogurt containers as well.

Now as far as their shredded cheese, I'm speaking of my local area of course, you can most likely get shredded cheaper somewhere like Wal-mart (if you shop there), because here for a 3 cup package it's $3.29 a bag.
But even though I'm paying *maybe* .20 cents more for the cheese, everything else is so much more inexpensive, it isn't worth it to me to make a special trip somewhere else just to buy that one item, if you kwwim?

I'm a die hard SAL fan!


Michelle

unless we have a ride to krogers or meijers i will have to buy our dairy stuff from sal. we dont drive. when in krogers or meijers i usually get the blocks of cheese so we can shred it our selves. as for yogurt i only get the vanilla flavor. my bag came in the mail today so im going to go upto sal after jason gets home.