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The grocery bill can be one of the larger categories in someone’s budget. We all have to eat, and unlike comparing a single prices for a single large purchase, it can be difficult to figure out exactly how to shop most efficiently. Prices are always changing, and you have to shop frequently. I’m here to tell you that I’ve done the research, and there is one very clear winner: Aldi.
Space Efficiency | Cost Efficiency | Time Efficiency | Product Quality | Overall |
10/10 | 10/10 | 9.5/10 | 8/10 | 9.38/10 |
Years ago when we were first married, my wife and I did almost all our grocery shopping at Aldi. In general it seemed to cut down the grocery bill. In fact I remember a time when it was actually difficult to spend $100 on two weeks worth of groceries for the two of us. Thanks to inflation, that’s no longer the case.
At the time, I never did a deep dive to confirm that Aldi was saving us money, or if so how much. Over time as we got busier and had kids, we started doing a lot more ordering our groceries via delivery from “more expensive” stores.
In the past year we’ve had another kid, taken on a new car payment, and started repaying some student loans, which kicked our savings mindset up a notch. We ditched Shipt and DoorDash and went back to shopping for ourselves at Aldi. But I want to know exactly how much we are saving by shopping there, and if their prices really are the lowest. I’m always happy to change my ways if it turns out another store is actually less expensive. Hopefully my research can help inform you how much you might also be able to save by making the switch.
Scroll all the way down to to the bottom to calculate how much you can save by switching to Aldi from your current grocery store.
What Is Aldi?

Aldi is a grocery store chain that was founded in Germany in the early 1960s by the Albrecht family, and made its debut in the United States in 1976. Almost 50 years later, they have more than 2000 stores (and counting) in 36 states.
Aldi’s focus, according to their website, is a no-frills shopping experience with high quality food, great customer service, really low prices, and ease of shopping. From my experience, they generally meet these goals very well.
They test most of their products in their test kitchen as they strive to make lower cost variants of well known brands you find in most other grocery stores, and have what they call the Double Guarantee, where they will replace and refund dissatisfactory items.
In addition, I’ve found from experience that they often have very good food for those with special dietary restrictions, such as lactose-free, gluten-free, and vegetarian options.
Aldi Quirks
I remember shopping at Aldi for the first time when I was in college, and finding it a little bit daunting compared with most other shopping experiences. Their stores have some quirks that are designed to bring down operating costs and make products cheaper for you. As a first-time Aldi-goer though, there are a few things to be aware of:

1. Bring a quarter
The shopping carts are coin operated. You will need to bring a quarter or a key shaped like a quarter to release a cart from the queue. Don’t get me wrong – a cart doesn’t cost a quarter to use; it just works as an incentive to bring your cart back to the front of the store after you shop. You get your quarter back when you bring your cart back to the front of the store. This way, Aldi doesn’t have to pay employees to chase carts all over the parking lot.
Personally, I wouldn’t buy a cart key like I mentioned above – a keychain holder like this will do the trick so you always have a quarter with you when you get to the front of the store. When you check out at the store, the person in front of you at the checkout leaves their empty cart with the cashier. The cashier puts your groceries in their cart, then your empty cart gets left with the cashier for the next person.

It’s all part of streamlining the checkout process and speeding up the amount of time you spend in the store, but you won’t be leaving with the same cart you enter the store with.
2. Bring re-usable bags
Aldi incentivizes people to use re-usable shopping bags by charging for paper or plastic bags (usually around $0.10 per bag). You can buy fabric or durable recycled plastic bags at the store for cheap as well, and just bring them with you each time after. Some of my re-usable Aldi bags are pushing 10 years old. They’ve held up great and have a lot more carrying capacity and durability than paper or plastic bags. Plus re-using cuts down on waste!
3. Prepare to bag your own groceries
This might be one of the bigger downsides of shopping at Aldi, if you are used to shopping at a store where your groceries get bagged for you. The checkout lines are usually very short at Aldi because there is no bagging involved. All your items get quickly scanned and go straight into the cart left by the shopper in front of you. After you pay, you will go to the bagging counter at the front of the store and package up your own groceries to take home.
4. The brands are different than you might be used to
Aldi has its own supply chain and brand names which are often close approximations of nationally known brands. For example, their crackers are all under the brand Savoritz, and their chocolate under their brand Choceur. I’m frequently able to find brand-name versions of some items, like Cheezits and Cheerios, but if you shop at Aldi (and want to maximize your savings) you will generally be purchasing their brands for most items.
How Are Aldi’s Prices So Low?

I’m going to get to a real cost comparison in a minute here, but for now just take my word for it that Aldi prices are hard to beat! What measures are they taking to keep their costs so low?
Employee Efficiencies
I’ve already mentioned several efficiency measures they take in their stores, such as incentivizing customers to return their own carts and bag their own groceries which keep employee costs down. In addition, they also have multiple barcodes on every package to speed up scanning and they stock items in the packaging they shipped in, increasing employee efficiency and cutting down costs.
Optimized Store Layout
Aldi stores are built out in an optimized way to funnel customers through with minimal “wandering.” Most stores are organized to strategically keep you there as long as possible, knowing that this will increase the number of things you are likely to buy. Aldi is built with the singular purpose of getting you in and out the door as quickly as possible. Because of this, I give Aldi a Time Efficiency Score of 9.5/10 – it could be a perfect 10 if they also bagged your groceries for you.
Supply Chain Control
Aldi also manages many of its own brands that are sold in stores. This top to bottom oversight of their supply chain means they don’t have to expend as many resources interfacing with third parties, but can instead streamline communication between their own departments.
I also love that you don’t have to buy warehouse quantities of food like you would at Costco to get Aldi’s low prices. For us, this is a huge space efficiency saver because we don’t have a lot of extra storage space in our kitchen for food. Because of this, I give Aldi a 10/10 for Space Efficiency.
Calculator
In the calculator below, find out approximately how much you might be able to save by shopping at Aldi vs. your current grocery store. The calculator reflects real price data that represents all major purchasing categories for each store represented to give an accurate depiction of how they stack up. I’ve done that for the top 12 grocery chains in the United States (excluding Costco, because their prices aren’t available online), so that you can easily compare different chains against each other if you want.
Spoiler alert, Aldi is the cheapest overall. To shop current prices of items at an Aldi near you, you can check out their website HERE