I found myself tonight making a grocery list that had almost all the items on it, items I could get at Aldiz. When I first started going to Aldiz was 6 years ago. I was pregnant with C-man and quit work. To accommodate the shift in income, I decided to break down and go to the dreaded "poor people's store." Note, that I was in a different place in my life and at that time felt that I had to be pretty desperate to go to such a store. I had heard the stories from my folks and it seemed absurd that anyone would PAY for a grocery cart! Let alone box their own food!? I mean really, you can't save THAT much money, right? Not only that, but I was VERY brand loyal and a picky eater at the time. I knew what I did and didn't like!
Once I realized that I could (at that time I was on a diabetic diet for the pregnancy) buy $40 worth of groceries a week by going there and we'd have sandwiches for lunch and chicken and broccoli or chicken and potatoes for dinner I learned to appreciate Aldiz for enabling us to live in our budget and make that work for a family of 2.5 (K didn't eat a lot) on one income.
When we moved to Indiana I would make my special trip each paycheck into town to go to Aldiz by C's work. I'd stop to see him with the kids when we could (since he worked such late hours.) By this time it wasn't out of need as much as common sense, why pay more for groceries when you didn't have too?
Now with Price Chopper (PC), right by my home, I go there sometimes instead of Aldiz. So when I'm in that mode the items I buy are different then the ones that I come up with for Aldiz. I've learned that I like Aldiz cereals, meats, some vege's, GRAPES, spaghetti and many other items---I don't like their soups. I have found that for a lot of our everyday foods Aldiz works and the more I go the more I find things that we like there. When I'm in the PC mode, I don't even think to buy Tortillas or shredded cheese. I NEVER buy cereal at PC, I buy water, soda and specific brand items (Mrs. Smith's pie or Mission chips.)
My list is more specific when it's a list for Aldiz and we get into eating the same thing more when shopping there. I'm that way with the Walmart SuperCenter too. I tend to walk down the isles in my mind while making the list. I have lived here 3 years now and I still don't do that with PC, I guess I'll never be a true "grocery store" shopper ever again. It just feels wrong to spend the extra cash when places like Walmart and Aldiz are around. I'd much rather save $14 bucks and hit the drive in theater with that money that week!
5 comments:
T can write the list in grocery aisle order for Wal*Mart and Aldiz, but I have the local Price Chopper memorized and can pick up anything we need in minutes.
I know where the good hotdogs are (far away from the regular ones) and even which parts of the store are chained off after 10:00.
Aldi's has the BEST cake mixes! Everytime I make one for our birthdays, people rave over them and wanted to know what brand I used! (Now you know my secret!)
I went to a version of Aldi here this last Friday. In another city we actually have aldi but here we have Lidl (Leedel). Same concept and same look though. We may add it to the regular repertoire as it was cheap on many things.
I used to think of Aldi's as the poor people's store also. Until I found out that MomMaw (my grandmother) shopped there. She was very well off financially and could afford to go somewhere else. She grew up during the depression and grew up poor so I think that never left her.
I stopped going to Aldi's when I realized that there were some cheaper items at Wal-Mart. I spent more on ketchup at Aldi's than I did at Wal-Mart.
Yes Golden, I too have found that some items are cheaper at Walmart. Even when I went there before, I'd buy sugar at Price Chopper because their sugar was more expensive at aldi.
What I've found is that when things are cheaper they are noticably cheaper. Dash did a run to Walmart and spent 30$ and a run to Aldi and spent a little over $30 and he came home and pointed out how much more food we had from Aldi vs. Walmart for practically the same amount of money!
But If it late at night and we need groceries, or we have a HUGH list, we usually run to the SuperCenter.
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