I’ve always suggested people shop at ALDI if they didn’t want to spend time couponing. When ALDI invited me to participate in their Switch & Save Event a few weeks ago, I jumped a the chance to learn more. Not only did we get to visit a ALDI store but we were able to participate in a blind test taste of several of ALDI’s holiday items.

ALDI is challenging you to “Switch & Save” during the holidays and throughout the year to prove that you can find high quality products while saving up to 50%, without clipping a single coupon or scanning any type of loyalty card.  In fact, ALDI is so confident in their products, they offer a double guarantee. If you aren’t satisfied, you will not only receive your money back but you will also receive a replacement product. I don’t know of any other store that offers this type of guarantee.

My first question was if the quality is the same or better, how can the prices be so low. We’ve been trained as consumers that higher priced equals better quality. However, this is not necessarily the case.

One of the first ways that sticks out in my mind is the $0.25 cart deposit. Simply, deposit a quarter in your cart to have access and you will get it back when you put the cart back in the cart corral. This eliminates having to pay employees to do this task and is really quite simple for consumers to do, especially since the stores are small, which means a smaller parking lot compared to super stores.

ALDI is able to keep their prices low by stocking only 1400 of the most purchased grocery items so they are able to keep their stores smaller and more controlled.

Instead of shelving units, items are packaged so they can be stacked upon each other in the store, which eliminates employee hours from having to manually stock the shelves.

Products also have multiple bar codes, which I would have missed if not pointed out, which makes check out a breeze.

ALDI has a large wine selection at very affordable prices. We taste tested several of the wines the night before and I was impressed with the quality.

ALDI has great prices on fresh produce. Their stock will vary slightly by store, region, and season.

There are also “Special Buys,” which are not overstocks as I once thought but carefully planned purchases for ALDI shoppers. These are seasonal items which are available for a limited time. If these items do sell extremely well, they do consider adding it to the regular line.

Next, I’ll share my Switch & Save event….we were the first group of bloggers to ever be allowed in the ALDI test kitchen….