How to Shop at Aldi if You’ve Never Shopped at Aldi Before

Most grocery stores function in roughly the same way—you grab a cart, you do your shopping, and you check out while a disgruntled teen bags your stuff. Aldi is different—and shopping there for the first time can be intimidating if you don’t know what’s what. Like, why are the carts all chained together? Why the hell is it so bright in here? Is it pronounced Aldi like “all dee” or Aldi like a man named “Al Dee.” To be honest, I still can’t answer that last one, but as an Aldi shopper for more than a decade, I can help you navigate the budget grocery store with a little more ease.

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Whether you just moved to a new city with an Aldi or an Aldi just moved in near you (they’re planning on opening at least 180 more stores by the end of 2026), there’s no shame in being a little bit baffled by the experience of shopping there. Here are five tips for shopping at Aldi, from a frequent Aldi shopper.

Bring a quarter: This is the cardinal rule of shopping at Aldi; the store even sells a little keychain with a quarter slot so you don’t forget. You need a quarter to release a shopping cart tfrom the other shopping carts, and you need a shopping cart to avoid walking around balancing 25 pounds of groceries in your arms, which I’ve definitely done before. Oh, and don’t freak, you get your quarter back when you return the cart.
Bring your own bags: This used to be essential, but at my Aldi, you can now buy paper bags for a dime or reusable bags for about a buck. Otherwise, you’ll have to scrounge the store for an empty produce box you can stuff everything in to get it out to your car.
Learn the labels: Aldi has some name brand products—Rao’s sauces, (a few) Little Debbie snack cakes, some recognizable breakfast cereals—but most of what they stock are their own proprietary brands. Learn them. Love them. Clancy’s makes lots of great chips and snacks. Their Millville cereals are basically dupes for their respective name brand counterparts. Specially Selected, Aldi’s premium private label brand, makes some real bangers—in particular, Specially Selected pasta sauces and Greek yogurts rule.
Always make time to check out the cheese selection: One thing that kind of stinks about Aldi is that their stores don’t have delis, and, according to folks on Reddit, a lot of their prepackaged deli meats have a tendency to spoil quickly (although, we absolutely love their Appleton Farms prosciutto and have never had a problem with freshness). But even if you skip the cold cuts, be sure to check out their selection of cheeses. Seriously, if you are ever putting together a cheese board on a budget, Aldi is the place to go. They have a bunch of classics (dill havarti, Irish cheddar, manchego), but there are always some seasonal oddities to try. Everything is cheap, so live a little.
Mama Cozzi is your friend—most of the time: Aldi’s Mama Cozzi label has a lot of fun frozen pizzas. You will be tempted to buy some weird chicken-bacon-ranch pizza or pickle-topped cheeseburger pizza, and if you give in to your impulses, you will probably be unimpressed. We taste tested a bunch of Mama Cozzi pizzas, and with just a few exceptions (fine, the sloppy joe pizza was good), your best bet is sticking with the classics.

About the Author

Howdy! I’m Gwynedd, Sporked’s managing editor. I live in Los Angeles and have access to the best tacos the U.S. has to offer—but I’m a sucker for a crunchy Old El Paso taco night every now and then. I’ve been at Sporked since 2022 and I’m still searching frozen mozzarella sticks that can hold a candle to restaurant sticks. Why you should trust me: I’ve been a journalist for 20 years (yikes), a consumer of food for 40-plus years, and I’m truly hard pressed to think of foods I don’t like (or that I can’t tolerate at the very least). Oh and one time I cooked my way through Guy Fieri’s cookbook and wrote about the journey through Flavortown. What I buy every week: Trader Joe’s Original Savory Thins. Fat free plain yogurt (usually Fage or Nancy’s). Honeycrisp apples. Sweet cream coffee creamer for my at-home Americanos. A frozen cauliflower crust pizza and some jarred mushrooms to top it with. Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff taco shells and Gardein Ground Be’f, even though I think “be’f” is a nightmarish contraction. Favorite ranking: Stouffer’s frozen dinners. I don’t own a microwave (I get my cancers the old fashioned way!), so I love taste testing things that I don’t really buy to eat at home. Least favorite ranking: Soy sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I love soy sauce—but consuming that much sodium in one sitting is probably illegal in some countries. Our frozen enchilada taste test was a close second; the smell of microwaved corn tortillas still haunts me.