While a mega merger between two of America’s largest grocery chains is snarled in regulatory red tape, a smaller European entrant is eyeing a major expansion in the US.
In Germany you usually have a little shopping center with Aldi and/or Lidl, a DM and an Edeka. Once you have finished shopping at Aldi and DM you can pop into Edeka and get the 1 or 2 items you didn’t get at Aldi and DM.
Many people in Germany are doing it like that. Edeka seems to florish from the people who prefer branded products and/or can’t get into 2 shops because they don’t go grocery shopping by car and can’t really visit more than 1 shop, because you can’t enter a 2nd one with a bag full of goods from the 1st one.
For some people who aren’t too picky, it might be a one-stop shop. Also true for some basics, like bread, milk, eggs, some produce, or common frozen stuff.
If you are looking for extra variety or less-common ingredients, you’ll have to also shop at a bigger supermarket. But since we usually use cars in the US, it’s not too big a deal to do both the same day
When I have enough free time I shop like this. We don’t have Aldi but we have Grocery Outlet. It’s a discount grocery that has some reliable products but mainly over stock or discontinued labeling or some small flaw in packaging or product (ice cream with all the mix-ins at the bottom) or near expiry that wouldn’t fly at a regular store. So you never know what you’ll find there, for very low prices. Then I hit up Safeway, decent quality, where half the store is usually on some buy-one-get-one sale, then to the high end, employee owned, small chain where I can get farm stand quality meats raised a few miles away, high quality cat food and local produce.
Shopping this way saves about $400 per month. When I don’t really have time (I work 72 hours per week, take online college classes and have elderly family members to look in on) I end up spending about $1000 per month on groceries at the fancy store.
Are they one-stop in the US, though?
In Germany you usually have a little shopping center with Aldi and/or Lidl, a DM and an Edeka. Once you have finished shopping at Aldi and DM you can pop into Edeka and get the 1 or 2 items you didn’t get at Aldi and DM.
Many people in Germany are doing it like that. Edeka seems to florish from the people who prefer branded products and/or can’t get into 2 shops because they don’t go grocery shopping by car and can’t really visit more than 1 shop, because you can’t enter a 2nd one with a bag full of goods from the 1st one.
For some people who aren’t too picky, it might be a one-stop shop. Also true for some basics, like bread, milk, eggs, some produce, or common frozen stuff.
If you are looking for extra variety or less-common ingredients, you’ll have to also shop at a bigger supermarket. But since we usually use cars in the US, it’s not too big a deal to do both the same day
Aldi is barely a 1st stop. It only reliably has the barest essentials.
Aldi for the essentials. Then Too Good To Go for fruit and vegetables and bread/ pastries.
It could be one stop, but their produce and baked goods are bare minimum.
The meats are the most affordable around me.
When I have enough free time I shop like this. We don’t have Aldi but we have Grocery Outlet. It’s a discount grocery that has some reliable products but mainly over stock or discontinued labeling or some small flaw in packaging or product (ice cream with all the mix-ins at the bottom) or near expiry that wouldn’t fly at a regular store. So you never know what you’ll find there, for very low prices. Then I hit up Safeway, decent quality, where half the store is usually on some buy-one-get-one sale, then to the high end, employee owned, small chain where I can get farm stand quality meats raised a few miles away, high quality cat food and local produce.
Shopping this way saves about $400 per month. When I don’t really have time (I work 72 hours per week, take online college classes and have elderly family members to look in on) I end up spending about $1000 per month on groceries at the fancy store.
That’s not an issue I literally do it all the time. Backpack, though.