Everyone always says how awesome ALDI is because of "special buys" and cheap prices, but it's all junk and low quality. Also their prices are not cheaper.
ALDI Supermarkets = Overpriced Rubbish
9hundred on 04/10/2021 - 22:16
Last edited 04/10/2021 - 22:23 by 1 other user
Last edited 04/10/2021 - 22:23 by 1 other user
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That's when you need to do a Karen and ask for the manager.
I have returned a microwave that had a broken door (my friend 10+ years ago was an idiot) and a milk frother that broke after 8 months (pretty sure someone in my house submerged the whole thing in water).
" that faulty goods can not be returned they only accepted 'change of mind returns'. "
I guess they are being as helpful as they can - tell them you've changed your mind as it doesn't work. I've never had any problem, however your local store sounds like it is highly pro-active in ensuring equal employment opportunities for cretins…
Helpful as they can was being condecending rude jerks. So yeah cretins. But the change of mind return is only very short time frame. I actually got on to head office, spoke to the area manager who promised to rectify, made an appointment to return the faulty goods and got the same treatment when I showed up then by a new group of moronic teenagers.
Counterpoint:
Aldi supermarkets ≠ overpriced rubbish
Special buys are not all junk and low quality
Their prices are lowerALDI isn't bad but their checkout could be better. I get they're trying to save money on staff, but requirement for the customer to rush and quickly put your stuff in your bag really annoys me.
The tiny end table does not give enough space to place your bag to store your items. Yes there is bench at the opposite end but that means you have to still carry the items to the bench.Why don't they have a self serve checkout instead
awesome
To help facilitate smaller shops, Aldi will also be introducing handheld baskets to stores to complement larger-sized trolleys.
Nice.
Don’t Aldi already have those plastic baskets with the extendable handle on wheels?
I think that they save money on staff by not giving staff any training in customer service.
In the many different Aldi shops that I've been to, I have rarely seen a staff member smile, and unless they're spoken to, they simply don't talk to customers. Either of the two sort of local Coles shops that I go into and especially Bunnings, staff are almost falling over themselves to talk to customers. Even if it's only to say hello, it makes the world of a difference to me and to many people I know about how welcoming the shop and even the brand is.
On another note, one person who I know a bit left his computer repair job and went to work for one of the Coles shops I mentioned before. He's told me that when Aldi opened nearby, less than 500 metres away, their business boomed. All of the customers coming to Aldi to do their regular weekly/fortnightly shop were finding that they couldn't buy everything that they needed. So guess where they went. Management at Coles was ecstatic and couldn't have thanked Aldi enough!
At my local Aldi they are always super friendly and talkative if you are talkative back.
If/when these lockdowns ever end, I want to visit your local Aldi! In various shops in three different states, have never seen that.
Ok, so where do you get high-quality cheap items? Sharing is caring
Probably over spends on every item even if it's something you use a few times a year.
exactly… probably a Kmart shopper !
Local farm markets
All of the farmers markets in my area are far more expensive than any supermarket I’ve been to, although the farmers quality is usually a bit better if you get there early. The main thing they have is a greater variety of organic foods.
All Junk…….. etc etc
Sounds like you'all are in training to be a Politician or Journalist
Who hurt you? Aldi?
Aldi is more for people who don't need choices and don't care about brands. I also can't see myself serving Aldi stuff when having guests over.
Don't know how much you all are earning and saving. But with discounted gift cards, loyalty offers and Amex points when buying the gift cards, I'm not sure if Aldi is really that much ahead in terms of value.
not everyone qualifies for Amex or other cards ya know
"But with discounted gift cards, loyalty offers and Amex points when buying the gift cards,"
thats a lot of effort when just shopping at aldi and doing nothing else saves you an average of 10%
https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/is-aldi-…
https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/why-shop…I actually think that this is an unfair comparison which favours coles.
The reason I think it's unfair is that it's comparing Aldi home brand vs Coles home brand. In my opinion, coles home brand is nowhere near as high quality as Aldi home brand.
For most products I would rank it
Name brand > Aldi home brand >>>> Coles & Woolies homebrand
And for some products I would say Aldi is even better than name brand(dishwashing tablets, chocolate and coffee beans are some examples where I think Aldi has the best product).
But yeh overall I think Aldi home brand is closer in quality to name brands than it is to coles/woolies homebrands.
plenty of choice reviews on cleaning products put aldi in that exact position you suggest.
Trimat liquid washing liquid is one of the top 5 you can buy (to be fair coles homebrand also has a top rated washing powder pod)
they have some pretty excellent wines for bargain prices as well.
I definitely serve Aldi branded cheeses when we have guests come over.
The Aldi cheese smashes any cheese at coles or woolworth for quality.
Wyke sourced from the U.K. - as seen in Waitrose…
I can absolutely say Aldi's version of Red Leicester Cheese is disappointing when compared to Snowdonia Red Storm Red Leicester. It's just no comparison.
I can't see my guests knowing it is "Aldi Stuff" as I don't insult them by plonking down something out of a packet.
I do all my shopping at Aldi and the fruit/veg shop next door. Cheaper and equivalently better quality than Colesworth
Biggest item I have bought is TV, no probs.
Also bought carpet cleaner. Cheap and not very effective.
Paint is crap, made for European conditions.
Solar garden lights highly variable, some broke immediately, others going strong a year later.
Overall, happy.What's European conditions?
Outside, max temp in Europe of say 35°, Aussie is 45°. Min temp -10° vs 0°
Special buys are a scam - the best ones are always in short supply and even if you queue for an hour before opening you'll struggle to get them.
Products are OK but my time is more valuable than the long queues Aldi imposes …Lol, we tested that last week, had been shopping at Aldi and we with a client. He had a bad experience in ww, wouldn't go there. His usual $120 shop was $180 by the time they just used coles and the butcher… 😂
At ALDI, Doncaster East, On 4Sept21 830am more than 50 people rushed into store for cheap sales without scanning Covid19 QR code. Whilst in store people were shoulder to shoulder, no social distancing 1.5m! This store should be closed down for not obeying Covid19 rules and potential for next exposure site. Their management don’t even give a damn
Did you read this from the little notebook you carry everywhere
At PERSIAN HALAL, Doncaster East, On 5Sept21 1121am two people buying diced lamb shoulder exchanged non-essential greetings! Didn't show drivers licenses to prove not more than 5km from home! scribble scribble
LoL Myone888 clearly a Karen with those very specific details.
How do you know they didn't already have the Aldi as the favourite in the app, so don't need to scan?
You should make a new post.
Except Aldi are not the police, you're blaming the store instead of the shoppers.
I find shopping at ALDI a pleasant experience, as they stock 80%-90% of the household products I need. Almost every single product they stock is cheaper than Woolies & Coles. Yes, sometimes Woolies & Coles will run specials, which will make their price on certain products like Cca-Cola just as cheap, but I like to shop in a store where I know I will always get the best quality for the price.
ALDI is actually cheaper than Costco on pistachios, cashews, chips, peanuts. What many people don't know is that ALDI is legally structured differently than Woolies, Coles & Costco.
I don't purchase many "SPECIAL BUYS", but now i think about it, some of them have failed with little to no use.
ALDI operates like a limited tax law partnership - similar structure adopted by many law firms and Big 4 accounting firms, not like a hierarchical publicly listed company. This does afford it some flexibility, apart from the usual legal protections, of operating each geographical region, if not each store as a separate business. Profits can be extracted by way of fees (royalties) to the entity holding ALDI's intellectual property rights. Now, in my opinion ALDI is an innovative supermarket, because it smartly uses its distribution network to source thousands of non-supermarket products at really competitive prices.
Additionally, I have never had issues obtaining cash refunds for special buys items in-store (even with opened and discarded packaging and assembled products). I do not know of any other store in Australia, apart from Costco, which offers 90 days exchange of mind, where you can do that.
In my opinion, Woolies & Coles have a long way to go in terms of innovation. They should better use their geographic spread and locations to offer other services. What many people don't know is that ALDI even operates as a travel agent in Germany, (pre-Covid) 5 day return airline flight from Frankfurt to Sydney, then Sydney to Uluru, plus 5 star accommodation, all meals, transfers included for 2,000 euros. Plus flights, accommodation to numerous European destinations for 600-800 euros.
Now, if ALDI were a publicly listed company, like Walmart, Coles, etc. It would have the potential to become the world's biggest supermarket. If they list publicly, I am the first one to buy shares - because of innovation.
What innovation, they copy everything any everyone else.
Sounds like you should buy into Jim's Group, once they launch Jim's Flights of course
Basically what Jetstar is to Qantas. Nothing wrong with it.
The innovation is about integrating non-grocery products into the store. It would be like Woolies offering discounted holiday deals, TV's, construction equipment sold at Bunnings. In my opinion, ALDI's senior execs are doing an excellent job at applying their margin, transactional based business model to offer products from different industries (aka non-grocery items)
Fair point, Target and Walmart in the US already do that but at a much larger scale, so that it pretty clever of aldi to do that on a much smaller scale
I know I'm always checking the catalogue for both grocery deals and the non grocery stuff.
", they copy everything any"
They [ the two companies, Aldi Nord and Sud" split in 1960 after their founding in 1946] were operating supermarkets when Woolworths was a "dime and nickel" store whose main income was from pick'n'mix lollies…
I think they were referring to the "copying" of the products.
E.g. https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/attack-of-t… and https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/aldis-moroc…
@TEER3X
ill have you know that my Jim's FakeTaxi business is going very strong in this current climate , thank you very much!
Aldi need to offer click and collect and home delivery. Coles and Woolies already branched out with their budget car insurances.
Show me on the doll were Aldi touched you OP
right there on the wallet
The bakery products are quite good
OP has presented a compelling argument with a wealth of information, allowing everyone to make an informed decision.
If you buy a tv from aldi or kogan, you can't really expect much
Their grocery is easily better value on the whole, the key to saving money is to shop everywhere if you have time.
I pretty much only buy the specials at Colesworth (half price mainly) and everything else at Aldi. Flybuys offers and 10% off Woolworths (from insurance) makes them a lot more competitive.
We don't care about Special Buys as they are rare and popular items are always sold out. We always find Aldi stuff to be cheaper and better qualify than Colesworth. The biggest problem with Aldi is that there is never a store conveniently located near us but there is always a Colesworth nearby. Even at Colesworth we always stock up on 1/2 price items and only buy other full price items on the day when needed.
I find their food's fine, their shoes however… Don't buy the flimsy ones, honestly, you're better off avoiding them. The boots are okay, it's the 'sneakers' and those types that are really bad.
I find most of their grocery products to be pretty good. The only really poor imitation that comes to mind is their Shapes knock offs, which don't even come close to the name brand. Not everything is always the lowest price, but generally their prices are pretty good. Though I do agree that a lot of the special buys can be pretty bad and often not as competitively priced as many perceive. Though the very generous returns policy does make it worth the occasional gamble.
For me, an under rated feature of Aldi is the store sizes. They're small enough that you can do a weekly shop in 15 minutes. Limited product range means you don't need to compare 20 different brands and pricing, just grab what you need. It removes so much of the bloat that is the Colesworth shopping experience which makes it a much better experience imo (though I can see how both would be negatives for some people).
Their Tim tam knockoffs don't taste much like Tim tams either, but are still delicious.
Only to be slowed down by the only 2 available checkouts.
Aldi Good stuff: Coffee ground & beans; Cheese, wines, Scotch, few beers, soda water, scrubber, toilet gel, Their mince chicken, their milk last longer than woolies, low carb bread
Bad: instant coffee, tea bags ( no flavour or aromas) their veg & fruits are 2nd grade for the little cheap price, Thier museli are stale and rancid, their electrical stuff has broken down or has to return including kettle that broke down in 2 months luckily I had a receipt that I can return otherwise they just refuse to accept even though they are aware that its thier brand.
They are good if you have proof of purchase otherwise you have a tough time getting their product return.
Few Aldi has good staff otherwise many of them are rude thinking all of those who are shoppers are visiting their store from low strata of society and not worth to be treated with respect.
They are good if you have proof of purchase otherwise you have a tough time getting their product return.
Bruhz, what place is good for returning a product without proof of purchase?? They give you 60 days to change your mind on an item, I don't know any other places that do that..
Much prefer Aldi fruit and veg to woolies/coles.
Woolies/coles sprays all their leafy vegetabels with water in the store, makes them look great in the store but they deteriorate rapidly when you take them home.
I don't look at their catalogues. I buy what I need and what I like. Their prices are cheaper than Coles and Woolworths. Coles and Woolworths have better sales on specific items to get you into the shop and then rob you elsewhere to recoup those costs.
Coles and Woolworths have a far superior range to Aldi so I can understand why that may appeal to people. But to say that Aldi is more expensive is simply false.
I buy only a few cleaning items and coffee pods from Aldi. HATE the queues at checkouts, no self serve checkouts and no hand baskets.
opposite here in Sydney Eastern subs,no checkouts only self serve ,and no trolleys only hand baskets !
You're supposed to use your own bags instead of a basket, if you don't want a trolley. Then dump the bag contents onto the checkout conveyor.
be like me, I buy reduced to clear, near expiry date branded items so that they will be cheaper than the home brand (ex: A2 milk cheaper than homebrand)
I check whats on specials on the links below and then rest from Aldi.
Thank you Samwise Gamgee
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/655161
Thank you Vu
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/655152
Mainly Food items because locally sourced and then there's this
Aldi day to day items is more hit than miss. You just need to try them out, if don't like it go back to named brand.
Special buys. Named brand stuff the definitely might be a good deal provided you check OzBargains first. Some electronics and home stuff if you check whether competitors have dropped their price might be better to buy it there. Because they are special buys you get refund but not a replacement if you really like it (and if inflation takes hold it might cost you more than your refund to replace it).
i get my supply of 700gms Free Range Eggs, Brioche Buns, Vegan Sausages, some Special buys, Diapers, Utensil scrubbers, Prunes , Frozen Peas, Bubble Squeak etc. from Aldi. Always cheapest and its fairly good.
Yes but I do get what OP means, I once got a choco chippe cookie and it was damn sweet and I could taste flour. Some products are cheap but not all. You just have to know which ones you got to take.
I stopped buying their Brioche buns after reading the ingredients list. Sustainable palm oil is a myth.
I look at Aldi food the same way as Homebrand, Black and Gold etc etc it’s just their own brand with names
I like their European choc biccies and their blue cheese is to die for.
Their special buys can be good - I have a merino hoodie I wear all the time and also some exercise pants.
their blue cheese is to die for.
Listeria ?
Fair call
There isnt a single 'special buys' item I have purchased that did not break down in a few months. Total rubbish! Your better off buying Anko from Kmart or Cheapo brand from Bunnings.
It can be hit and miss. Some special buys are rubbish but they're mostly pretty good for the price.
I know a person who is associated with their Special Buys product test team. All the special buys are tested before they are accepted. Let's say not all of the items are good quality - some have high return rates.
I tend to reach out to them for feedback on the quality of the items before diving in. Sometimes they tell me to avoid them like the plague. e.g. the UV phone sanitizers.
But some of them work well and are good value for money. Those are worth a buy. The trick is to identify them.
"the UV phone sanitizers"
That is a niche market - they go well with DVD rewinders and dehydrated water tablets.
I find Aldi overrated and boring. They're not always cheaper than Coles or Woolies tbh and have a much less variety.
I don't buy everything at Aldi, and they also don't have everything anyway.
I usually go every few weeks and stock up on the basics - toothpaste, body washes, toilet paper, dishwashing tablets, dishwashing liquid (Tandil Soak and clean), laundry detergent (Trimat) - these have come out best in Choice tests and so cheap!
Canned goods, juices, etc. All really good value. I even like their raisin bread - it's like $1.80 a loaf whereas Coles/Woolies is like $4. Usually stock up on pantry items like flour, sugar, etc, soy milk, their meat pretty good as well.
Then in between these big shops I'll go to Woolies/Coles and get what I need there, usually a handful of more obscure ingredients. Then next door to the super fresh green grocer which is way cheaper than Coles/Woolies and much fresher.
Kids rain jacket is above average quality, that has lasted until they have grown out of it. Can't get anything close to them at the price from anyone else. Been buy this for the last few years.
Bought a men's rain jacket, its lasted 3 years so far, with no issue. Use it most days during winter, it has a removable inner sweater.
Ugg boots - lasted 2 years so far, no issue
Brass hose fittings, lasted 3 weeks before the spring inside blew out. Utter rubbish.
They have a good returns policy, and don't ask many questions.
Aldi didn't want to spend on market research and makes a vague open-ended post! Well done Aldi marketing team! That's how they pass on the savings.
When I do my grocery shop at Aldi I end up paying $50-60. When I do my grocery shop at Coles I end up paying $70-90, Wollies closer to $90-100. My basket doesn't vary much it's pretty consistent each and every shop.
My grocery shop is simple though, vegetables, fruit, chicken breast / beef mince, eggs, oats, rice. Aldi is pretty good for the basics.
The specials, never appealed to me. I'm a buy it for life person and Aldi specials are items built for a price point like any other supermarket/kmart special.
Aldi is a bit of a mixed bag, some of their food items are worse than the worst no name brands in the coles/woolworths and other items are great value. Some of the special buys though are pretty atrocious quality wise, occasionally something good comes up. I don't food shop in Aldi anymore as just not enough there that I find acceptable now that most of my fresh produce I get at the markets, I do occasionally drop in for some of the special buys. Still using my 6 burner BBQ from 4 years ago and it is still going strong, it aint perfect but for the price at the time it is unbeatable.
I like their ground coffee, brioche buns and burger patties. Not interested in their special buys. Most our shopping done at Coles though.
Their beer tastes like water as well
Interesting to see varying opinions on Aldi, my guess this is down to the things that you buy at Aldi, if you buy only the good stuff then you will generally have a good experience and vice versa.
For me, the overall experience at Aldi is poor, I get better deals and more choices at colesworth especially during half price. Aldi does have some gems, eggs and cheeses are pretty good.
i shop there often and can say not all their products are great for my liking similar to everywhere else. You just have to try different brands and keep getting what you like. special buys are the same. I have found good buys and trash but the nice thing is you have 90 days return policy.
I can handle the balance of good vs bad products but the checkout process is surely against human rights; it's the only thing I contemplate before making the decision to go into an Aldi - do I want to be treated like cattle today.
"special buys" From aldi are bogus. Overpriced.
This has got to be a troll or OP must have shares in Woolworths/Coles.
Cant comment on a lot of the products they have but the chips you can break your teeth on and the icecream they have is powdery.
You're not meant to eat the chips frozen!
Aldi products are just colesworth homebrand but with better packaging.
Their weekly special buys can be found cheaper else where.
Honestly what is the point of this thread if you aren't going to be specific with examples of what you claim to be of low quality and more expensive.
I will only buy food at Aldi now. Prob half of the the non perishable stuff I have bought has been rubbish that broke etc almost immediately on use. And I found returning faulty goods to Aldi was an absolute miserable experience. Even with the warranty clear on the label the snotty teenage staff were unanimous that faulty goods can not be returned they only accepted 'change of mind returns'. Really not worth the risk of purchasing stuff there if I have to take the ACCC for any returns.