7 Reasons People Skip Shopping at Aldi

Unique Features of Aldi That Some Shoppers Find Annoying

Some supermarkets are just convenient places to get food and cleaning items. But some, such as Trader Joe's and its corporate cousin Aldi, have such distinctive personalities that shoppers fall in love with them. Aldi fans not only appreciate the chain's low prices, but also its European accent — a quick look at this grocery chain's cheese department or holiday cookie assortment confirms that Aldi wears its German roots proudly. And some fans swoon about the rotating inventory of weird but oddly useful items in the infamous Aisle of Shame (if you know, you know).

But like all strong personalities, Aldi isn't for everybody. If you walk in for the first time and expect sparkling aisles filled with all your favorite brands, an onsite bakery where you can get a cake personalized, or even someone to bag your groceries and take them to your car, you're in for a rude shock. Instead, you'll find a smaller-than-average supermarket with a limited inventory of goods, most of which are still in cardboard storage boxes on the shelves. The bare-bones displays and tightly curated inventory are among the ways Aldi keeps its prices low, but for some, the savings are not worth these indignities. Here are a few Aldi quirks that some shoppers hate.

Limited Inventory Is A Common Issue

Aldi keeps its prices low by keeping things simple, and this includes the number of items the store carries. While full-service supermarkets may offer a dozen varieties of ketchup or pickles from different brands at different price points, Aldi typically offers one or two (though seasonal specials may temporarily increase your options). And if you're trying to find less-common produce, such as big and small versions of taro, or obscure meat cuts, like sweetbreads, at Aldi, you're wasting your time.

Some time-pressed shoppers — especially those who appreciate the one-stop convenience of bigger supermarkets — may find this annoying. Yes, you can save a few pennies on basics such as ground beef or red wine, but you'll still have to make a second stop somewhere else to get the less common items on your list. This gives Aldi shoppers two options: Suck it up and schedule a second trip to a bigger or more specialized store, or learn to live without chanterelles or chard. If you find both these options unacceptable, give Aldi a pass.

The Lack Of Name-Brand Items Can Be A Deal-Breaker

Much as we hate to admit it, big global brands of food and drinks are a source of comfort for many of us. They're what we grew up on; we know exactly how they'll taste, and we know we can count on them to be waiting for us at our local supermarket — except if you shop at Aldi. You can find limited numbers of brand-name products, such as Doritos and Chips Ahoy, on Aldi's shelves, but you won't find whole product lineups as you would in bigger supermarkets.

Instead, you'll find yourself in a strange parallel universe of familiar-looking packaging with unfamiliar brand names. That sunny yellow-and-blue mayonnaise label reads Burman's rather than Hellmann's, and the red-and-white 12-packs of soda carry the brand name Summit instead of Coca-Cola. These are among Aldi's many private label brands, and they're not only significantly cheaper than their brand-name counterparts, but they're also of solid quality, as all its house products undergo 30 rounds of testing before being approved for sale. But if you're a creature of habit and will settle for nothing less than OG Flamin' Hot Cheetos or your favorite regional brand of bread or ice cream, Aldi might not be for you.

If You Need A Cart, You'll Need A Quarter

Observant shoppers may have noticed that supermarkets are protective of their shopping carts. Whether stores have signage warning shoppers not to remove them from the property, a number to call to report found carts, or an employee roaming the parking lot to collect them, establishments have a vested interest in avoiding runaway carts so they can ensure enough are available for shoppers (and, of course, avoid the cost of replacing them).

Aldi's takes an even stricter approach. When you approach the cart corral, you'll notice all the carts are chained together. To free one, you'll have to insert a quarter. When you're done, you put the cart back in the corral, chain it to cart in front of it, and your quarter pops back out. It's practical way to ensure carts don't wander off or roll around the lot, but it drives some shoppers crazy. If you don't normally carry cash, you'll have to go out of your way to procure a quarter. And the mechanism connecting the carts can be finicky, meaning you may have to fiddle with it for a minute or two before the cart (or your quarter) decides to free itself. This is a minor inconvenience in the bigger scheme of things, but it's annoying enough to keep some shoppers away.

Rushed Checkout Lines Can Be Stressful

For some of us, the checkout line in a supermarket is a place to decompress for a few minutes after a busy bout of shopping. We look forward to spacing out, checking out the latest alien abduction or celebrity breakup on the tabloid covers, and maybe tossing a pack of gum or candy into our carts.

You can get candy at Aldi's checkout lines. But you won't get any reading material, nor a chill atmosphere. Instead, even if a few people are in front of you, the line will move faster than you expect, and you'll see the checker's hands moving at lightning speed as they scan items and toss them into a waiting cart. Don't expect any small talk beyond a polite "Hey, how's it going?" — checkers are too busy for that. Management times their work, down to the time between customers and the time it takes to process each person. While this ensures shoppers move through quickly, it's stressful for the checkers as well as for shoppers unfamiliar with the store and its quirks.

Quality And Freshness Can Be Hit Or Miss

As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. While Aldi fans keep going back because they find good stuff at even better prices, not all shoppers are fans. Fresh foods such as meats and produce in particular are an issue with some shoppers. "Their produce section was always small and low quality, their meats were low quality," someone on Reddit complained.

While several other Reddit users concurred, others on the board noted that quality can vary from store to store. "We have three that are all within 45 min of us, and only one of them is good IMO. But that one is really good," one Redditor said. Another person pointed out that stores source their meat and produce locally, which may account for differences in quality and freshness. And many reminded the original poster that the limited product inventory is by design.

The Utilitarian Decor Creates A Dreary Atmosphere

Aldi fans may sing the praises of its cheeses and holiday treats, but nobody goes there for the decor. Indeed, a first-time visitor to an Aldi store might wonder if they'd stumbled into the back storage area by mistake. Many packaged goods aren't attractively lined up on shelves but are stacked in their shipping boxes. Some goods, such as bags of flour and sugar, are stored on pallets, which are sometimes encased in shrink wrap that you may have to tear open to get to the item you want. (Good luck if you don't normally carry a box cutter while grocery shopping.)

And if you enjoy the guilty pleasure of bopping along to a soundtrack of soft-rock oldies while perusing frozen pepperoni pizza options, that's not going to happen. Another way Aldi saves money is by dispensing with background music (and its pesky licensing fees). All this gives Aldi a bare-bones, utilitarian vibe that some shoppers find saddening. "Made me think of the stereotypes of Soviet-era Russian scarcity. Not a fan," a Redditor said.

Bagging Your Own Groceries Is Inconvenient

Another reason checkout lines at Aldi can be disorienting to newbies is the absence of grocery baggers. Instead of the usual supermarket setup of a checker who scans your items and a bagger at the end of the conveyor belt who packs them up, you get just a checker who scans items and then places them in a waiting cart, sometimes in a single motion. Once you've paid, you and your cart full of groceries are hustled off to the long table against the wall by the entrance, where you bag your groceries yourself.

And you'd be well advised to bring bags from home since Aldi doesn't offer plastic bags, though you can buy reusable ones there. (If you don't feel like buying bags, you'll usually find some cardboard boxes lying around that you can use instead.) This is yet another reason Aldi's prices are low, as this cuts down on payroll. For some shoppers, the tradeoff is well worth the trouble. For others, it's yet another reason to stay away.