Choose Aldi for great no-name brand names

If you don’t know about Aldi, you really need to take a look if one is in your area. Aldi is the fastest growing grocer in the United States. Many of you may think these tiny stores offer nothing other than the run of the mill generics and inferior quality produce and meats. Even if you make a quick visit and browse the name brands you might still think so. It is true that you won’t see many recognizable name brands, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t good name brands. Names like Millville, Benton and Clancy may not be that famous, but are very good quality and have become some of my favorite “name” brands regardless of the cost.

Here are some of my favorites:

Benton Cookies

Benton cookies are absolutely the best packaged cookies known to man. I love their Home Style Chocolate Chip. More chocolate than any other chocolate chip cookie out there. The cost, I haven’t thought about it for a while because I would buy them at almost any price now, but if you really want to know I think they are about $2.30 for 16 oz. Benton’s Home Style also comes in peanut butter and oatmeal raisin. Both are very good, but I am a chocolate lover, so I stick with the chocolate chip.

Clancy Chips and Pretzels

Somehow I have convinced myself to think that pretzels are a healthy alternative to chips. I think they are better for you, but not if you eat a lot of them. Hmmm, well probably like you, I have tried many different brands of pretzels and I really only liked Rold Gold. They just had more flavor to me.  Other brands seemed to have a stale or over cooked taste. Hello Clancy. A different taste, but still very good. I started to prefer them to Rold Gold and the price has helped with that. A 16 oz bag of Clancy thins are $1.30 in my area.

How about the chips? Clancy potato chips also rule although I am not a chip aficionado. The barbecue chips do make my mouth water and are super cheap at $1.50 for a 10 oz. bag. Clancy offers several different styles of potato and tortilla chips. These bags might be a little smaller than regular brand chips, but are very inexpensive and are just as good (I think better) than the famous makers.

Millville Cereal

Just so you don’t think I am addicted to junk food and are predicting I eat peanut butter puffs for breakfast, I have always liked to start the day with a hearty bran type of cereal. Cost doesn’t really come into play for me with my start-the-day cereal, but it is a nice benefit to Millville cereals. My favorite medley of flakes, nuts and dried fruit is Millville Crunchy Fruit and Nut. I won’t lie to you, I buy about 10-15 boxes per trip if they have that many on-hand. A 16 oz. box goes for $2.80. Some would say I am a serial cereal eater. I won’t mix it up too much if I like what I am eating and the Crunchy Fruit and Nut is that for me. Millville also offers Banana Nut and Crunchy Cranberry Almond, but to me they just get in the way of my Fruit and Nut as they are mixed in the same cases and I often need to move them aside and look into the carton below to get my large haul.

Where do the savings come from?

Upon your first visit you may be a bit alarmed when first grabbing a shopping cart because you will find them all chained together. You will need to supply a quarter to unhook yours, but you will get it back. It is just one way Aldi keeps labor costs down as that quarter ensures all carts will be replaced by the customer. Genius. Lines can be long at certain times because there is usually just one register operator or two and there aren’t too many extra workers around if the store gets a rush. Grocery bags are not included, but you can bring your own and many see this as going green and not an extra up-charge by the store. In addition to selling lesser known brands, Aldi seems to have a business model that works to keep operating costs lower too.

I have listed a few examples in this article, but there are many others just waiting for you to find them yourselves. So, if you haven’t yet been brave enough to venture into an Aldi because you are afraid of inferior food, please give it a try and let us know what you think.