Grocery Shopping The Smart Way At Aldi

You love Trader Joe’s, right? But did you know TJ’s has a sister supermarket chain with stores in Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, as well as Long Island and New Jersey that can save you even more?

Aldi, next to Target in Harlem, has some head-twisting deals–$8 for a pound of bacon-wrapped filet mignon (one-third the cost at Fresh Direct), $2.39 for a half gallon on OJ (v a buck more at Fresh Direct) and $1.49 for a dozen eggs (compared to $2.69 for similarly caged-up offerings at Fresh Direct)—just to name a few.

Like Trader Joe’s, many offerings are store brands. If you’re not brand sensitive, consider Savoritz woven wheat crackers for $1.25 v $4.50 for Triscuits, Millville frosted shredded wheat at $2.09 v $5 for Kellogg’s offerings or $1.79 for Benton’s fig bars (v more than $5 for Fig Newtons).

But you can also score on popular name brands: $1.45 Pringles (even less than from Amazon) and $4.89 for an eight-pack of 20-ounce Gatorade, just to name two of the recent deals I spotted.

Depending on the week, you may find avocados for 89 cents each, umbrellas for $7 each and 12 ounces of shredded cheese for $3.

If you’re strict about free-range paper plates and no-hormone tortilla chips, you’ll be out of luck at Aldi. But if you’re on a GMO-free diet, you’re used to outrageous grocery bills and restrictive shopping, anyway.

Aldi does have a few similarities with Costco, its downstairs neighbor at the Manhattan shopping center on East 117th Street: both have a distinct warehouse feel, and they don’t offer free shopping bags. (At Aldi, you buy your own if you’ve not brought any. You also need to bring a quarter to borrow a shopping cart should you plan to pick up more than a few items. You have to rent a shopping cart while there, though you get your 25 cents back when you return the buggy.)

And while Aldi isn’t necessarily cheaper than Costco (though it sometimes is), it does have some distinct advantages: no membership fee, ability to buy smaller quantities, and a quick exit. In all the times I’ve been to Aldi, I’ve never stood in a checkout line. In all the times I’ve been to Costco, I’ve never not waited in line.

And that’s worth something, too. Especially if you’re paying for parking by the hour.

Hillary Chura is a reporter and New York Family’s Le$$er Parenting blogger. Follow her on Twitter @hillarychura for money-saving tips on parenting (and living) in NYC for less cash.