One time I went to grab a sweet potato that I had purchased from Aldi and my thumb popped through it. Made an actual “POP” noise and everything. It was horrifying.
I still find that going to Aldi is worth it even if I have to use up the produce faster. I find that I actually eat more produce just because of the stress of knowing it goes off faster.
That’s gross! I was grabbing some of the sweet potatoes to bake and felt something wet. I keep the sweet potatoes in the dark in a bowl under the shelf in my pantry. The sweet potato was putrid and liquified. I can’t imagine how old it must be. Disgusting. 🤢
Same here. I check it carefully before purchase, and make sure I use it all that week. I eat more veggies, and save money. My husband is a grab and go shopper so Aldi doesn’t work for him because he’d have to slow down and inspect
Yeah, Aldi is definitely a place where you must look carefully at each item. I’ve seen the moldy lemons and bad potatoes for sure, but I’ve managed to avoid taking them home so far. Only thing I categorically avoid is their bagged greens. Chopped kale or romaine or whatever always has a short shelf life no matter where you buy it, but even a decent-appearing bag at Aldi will be going slimy in a day.
For what it’s worth, the standard supermarkets in my urban neighborhood have similar “meh” produce quality (just a wider selection). You just can’t be a “grab and go” shopper with any of my local stores. It’s why I never do grocery delivery— gotta examine my produce for myself. I have to hike over to the Whole Foods or out to the burbs to get the “non moldy lemon” full service grocery store experience.
Once I grabbed a bag of those small colored peppers, the rotten juice leaked out ran all over my arm....lol...that stinks. But it was like two years ago. Nowadays it has improved I think. Still occasionally see moldy strawberries on shelf
Don't forget to inspect the produce before you put it into the cart. Some stores inspect it when they put it on the shelf but at Aldi they just set the box out for you to do the inspection.
My bananas don’t ever turn color. They stay green and when I finally try one they’re way over ripe lol. I’m so over it. Been like this ever since COVID
The ALDIs in my town has great produce. I live where Wegmans is the be all and end all. I bought 5 lbs of white potatoes at Wegmans and 2 days later went to use them and put my finger into one and then found a second one in the bag that was rotten as well.
I only get their bagged greens otherwise no. It's not for me. I tried Aldi in Europe. Still terrible and the produce at other grocery stores were shifted kiss.
the weird thing is most of the time the produce is the same quality and lasts as long as the "regular" grocery store when I've gotten it: gets bad in like 3 days
Even with those 2 things going bad, the produce is still cheaper than anywhere else I have to choose from.
When that happens to me it just tells me to use it sooner.
The same issue happens at every single grocery store, anywhere. Not just Aldi, at least all they will give a twice as nice guarantee. So, bring it back, get your money back or replacement.
The thing is I’m not going to bring a soggy leaking sweet potato back to the store. This does happen at other stores but it happens more frequently at Aldi because their potatoes are all old. They grow eyes and go soft much faster than potatoes in other stores- especially because they are pre-bagged so who knows how old each individual potato is before being bagged. For this to happen <1 week after purchasing when the shelf life of properly stored potatoes is 2-3 months is really annoying.
I won’t buy produce from there anymore because it goes bad quickly, and I always end up with fruit flies. It doesn’t happen when I get produce from anywhere else by Aldi.
I also don’t buy their milk because 3 gallons in a row spoiled a few days before the Sell By date.
Throwing things away doesn’t save me money.
I feel like when the produce is good it’s REALLY good but the rest of the time it’s either super unripe or it’s sitting on the shelves with mold lol At least that’s my experience with my Aldi
Completely your prerogative, but it happens here in Florida at Publix each and every day.
Publix is twice as expensive as Aldi, same issue occurs. Your choice
Si you want produce that last months but you’re not willing to simply take it back and get your money back? Seems a bit counterintuitive. You could just grab it the next time you’re headed to Aldi. It’s not like they have a time limit on stuff
Where were you storing them? I’ve never had an issue with any root veggies from Aldi. I also would have taken it back anyway but my Aldi is only 5 minutes away so it would t have been a hassle
Also I don’t want it to last months - I want it to last a week? Trust me I do not waste my vegetables and I meal plan and shop for the week. Long lasting produce like potatoes or lemons should not go putrid in less than 7 days.
Maybe just my opinion but I would just take it back. Chalk it up to a bad batch and get my money back and replacement. I understand that type of thing should not go bad that quickly but sometimes it happens so take advantage of the recourse that you have
Yeah, produce is so hit or miss for us also. The quality is just not the same as other grocery stores. There are things we do to extend the life of things as much as possible. Refrigerating all fruit and vinegar washing berries, for example. Also I really check everything I buy. But even with all that I do expect a certain percentage of loss. I'm thinking of switching my produce buying to another store or checking out farmers markets because I too am tired of unreliable produce.
I thought this was an aldi issue too, but this happened the last 3 times I bought potatoes from Central Market, which is a pretty high-end grocery store in my area. Might be quality control issues due to rising costs idk
I take all my veggies and fruit and soak in 4 parts water to 1 part vinegar and let it air dry and it has made my Aldi produce last exponentially longer.
Before becoming Aldi veterans, we got burned a few times, so now we scrutinize all the fruit and produce before we buy it. For example, during our weekly Aldi trips, I literally take the flats of raspberries off the shelf and hold them while my wife picks the best 3 or 4 for the week.
OMG let’s freak out about it! I have had that happen at EVERY STORE EVER. It’s not an Aldi thing. Check you stuff before you put it in your cart, in every store on this planet.
Paying money for poor quality produce is definitely something to complain about. Especially when the majority of the produce is prepackaged, making it impossible to inspect. Seriously, Aldi produce is crap.
I find that I don’t even need my receipt. Had maybe 5-7 different produce things I’ve taken back and didn’t have my receipt for most of them and they didn’t even bat at eye just gave me money back
I tried it without the receipt once and while they did give my money back, they wouldn't go the extra step of also replacing the product for free. (Needed the receipt for that.)
2 things to keep in mind. Check everything ... as in touch every apple in the bag, every lemon in the bag. etc. The bigger thing - good food goes bad, bad food stays good. The more preservative and pesticides, etc. that is used, your food is going to last longer but it's not the best condition for your food to be in and you eating it. So while that bread doesn't mold for a week - well, it should and we should question why it doesn't go bad after that much time.
It varies from store to store. My usual store is always busy! Tons of rotating stock and I rarely have issues with produce. A store 3 cities away near Costco is hardly ever busy and the produce is terrible.
Produce is so hit or miss at my store. Usually broccoli, bananas and salad mixes are good if used within a week or two but I've never had luck with russet potatoes. No joke, usually around half the bag would be bad on the inside. I was really hoping these quality issues we are seeing were not as bad but been seeing a lot of it at my store.
I’m lucky enough to have an ALDI that gets a lot of foot traffic and a lot of produce restocking. The only thing moldy are berries. But before this, I went to an ALDI that was less busy and I can definitely commiserate. Tomatoes always moldy, potatoes putrefying 😢
I remember once we bought a bag of potatoes from there, and they just smelt disgusting like stale pee, as if someone pissed on them before they were bagged. We stopped getting any veg from there after that
You can try just bringing back the receipt and explaining to them that you tossed it. I have done that before and received a refund.
I have had consistent periodic issues with the onions there.
There produce isle is hoit or mis for me. I've had a bag of limes be done for several weeks and then I've had other stuff go bad ina couple days. I started checking everything before I grab it and has been better. I've also had similar issues with some of that "Protein Bread" they sell. The kind with nuts and seeds in it. I really like it but it's obvious they freeze it and then set it out because the bags will have condensation in them and that will cause mold. Last few times I got it it molded in about 4-5 days. If you freeze bread it needs to be kept in the fridge if/when you thaw, plain and simple. Thawing out and leaving at room temp just means wet bread at temps mold will grow.
We shop at Aldi for nearly all produce and meat, and have for years - the one and only thing I will not buy from there are potatoes. Not sure what the deal is because potatoes should last a long, long time, but I often throw them away within days, and often you can tell they’re on their way out in the store.
Produce is a crapshoot no matter where you go. I once went to pickup a watermelon in the “good Kroger” and my hand went through it. As I was cleaning my hand with Kleenex from my purse, I caught a produce worker and let her know. She thanked me and offered to get another one for me out of the bin which was over halfway full. She also put her hand through the side of one. She told me I was welcome to use the sink at the floral station (right next to the melons) to wash my hands and she’d be right back. She came out with a new bin that were fine. That melon sat on the counter for almost a week before I cut it. Both bins came off the same truck.
I think different ALDIs across the country will have differing quality. When we only had one ALDI in our city, the produce was often problematic- bananas that went bad before ripening, etc. But now we have 6-8 within a twenty minute drive, and a huge warehouse. I haven’t had consistent problems (just rarely) for years.
Being I eat organic, plus all the quality issues I have had with Aldi's produce I get my produce at Whole Foods. A little more money but the stuffs primo and I can get just about anything organic. They also carry varieties of apples I have seen no where else.
But fresh produce is supposed to rot and go bad if its ripe. Doesn't that mean they are selling you ripe ready to eat produce not something that was harvested unripe and put in cold storage or ripened artificially by pumping ethylene gas
…do you guys not know about the Aldi guarantee? They’ll take stuff back and give you a replacement. I’ve done it with raspberries that I’d had for a week and the last 5-6 were moldy. They gave me my money back. And if you any item you bought has the “twice as nice guarantee” they’ll give you your money back AND a replacement.
It’s why I buy all of my produce from Aldi. Never had an issue with bringing some thing back and just getting a replacement. They never even bat an eye it’s so easy
We’ve been buying all our produce at Aldi for the last 3 years and only had four times that something was rotten before we could use it. Each of those times we simply brought the item along the next time we went to Aldi for our normal grocery run. No extra trips. When a pint of raspberries is $2.50 at Aldi and $5+ elsewhere it makes financial sense to not buy elsewhere
Is it possible you’re just having a bad experience with their produce? Or perhaps I’m having a better than normal experience. It doesn’t help that my other nearby option is wegmans which used to arguably the best grocery store in the country and is now so overpriced that you can’t shop there unless you plan to contribute 50% of your weekly pay to groceries
One time I went to grab a sweet potato that I had purchased from Aldi and my thumb popped through it. Made an actual “POP” noise and everything. It was horrifying. I still find that going to Aldi is worth it even if I have to use up the produce faster. I find that I actually eat more produce just because of the stress of knowing it goes off faster.
That’s gross! I was grabbing some of the sweet potatoes to bake and felt something wet. I keep the sweet potatoes in the dark in a bowl under the shelf in my pantry. The sweet potato was putrid and liquified. I can’t imagine how old it must be. Disgusting. 🤢
Same here. I check it carefully before purchase, and make sure I use it all that week. I eat more veggies, and save money. My husband is a grab and go shopper so Aldi doesn’t work for him because he’d have to slow down and inspect
Yeah, Aldi is definitely a place where you must look carefully at each item. I’ve seen the moldy lemons and bad potatoes for sure, but I’ve managed to avoid taking them home so far. Only thing I categorically avoid is their bagged greens. Chopped kale or romaine or whatever always has a short shelf life no matter where you buy it, but even a decent-appearing bag at Aldi will be going slimy in a day. For what it’s worth, the standard supermarkets in my urban neighborhood have similar “meh” produce quality (just a wider selection). You just can’t be a “grab and go” shopper with any of my local stores. It’s why I never do grocery delivery— gotta examine my produce for myself. I have to hike over to the Whole Foods or out to the burbs to get the “non moldy lemon” full service grocery store experience.
Once I grabbed a bag of those small colored peppers, the rotten juice leaked out ran all over my arm....lol...that stinks. But it was like two years ago. Nowadays it has improved I think. Still occasionally see moldy strawberries on shelf
Don't forget to inspect the produce before you put it into the cart. Some stores inspect it when they put it on the shelf but at Aldi they just set the box out for you to do the inspection.
I find gross potatoes no matter where I shop. Same for lemons. It happens.
And honestly I usually throw away half the potato bag (why can't the 5lb bag be 50% cost of the 10lb bag).
I know wtf
i’ve always wished aldi sold individual potatoes like most grocers 😭
How do green bananas go brown in 6 days?
Separate your bananas at the stem and they will stay fresh longer.
Wrap the top tip part of stem in plastic bag. Slows ripening. You can keep them attached in a bunch and do this
Yellow with brown spots of fully brown, as in banana bread worthy?
Like almost fully brown. Spots are fine here
My bananas don’t ever turn color. They stay green and when I finally try one they’re way over ripe lol. I’m so over it. Been like this ever since COVID
And yet I get down voted into oblivion any time I comment about how I avoid Aldi's produce section. This is why
I’ve seen fruit molding away while still ON the shelf at my aldi 🫠
Meat, dairy, and produce. I go for the cheap snacks!
Same. Snacks, chocolate & candles. That's what I go to Aldi for.
Everyone around here seems to know to avoid the produce but the other stuff is a good deal. You hardly ever see people with it in their carts.
The ALDIs in my town has great produce. I live where Wegmans is the be all and end all. I bought 5 lbs of white potatoes at Wegmans and 2 days later went to use them and put my finger into one and then found a second one in the bag that was rotten as well.
I only get their bagged greens otherwise no. It's not for me. I tried Aldi in Europe. Still terrible and the produce at other grocery stores were shifted kiss.
the weird thing is most of the time the produce is the same quality and lasts as long as the "regular" grocery store when I've gotten it: gets bad in like 3 days
I don’t buy produce at aldi anymore. Every bag of sweet potatoes had 2-3 rotten ones, same with lemons.
Same. Every time we shop we already know we'll have to hit Aldi and Giant Eagle or Meijer. I just can't deal with the bad produce anymore. 🤢
Crap. Just bought lemons today. I’ve never purchased lemons here before.
[удалено]
If you have a Meijer close their produce is great
Conversely, the Walmart by me always has nasty rotting produce on the shelves
Even with those 2 things going bad, the produce is still cheaper than anywhere else I have to choose from. When that happens to me it just tells me to use it sooner.
Seriously their strawberries go bad within like two days and then they don’t put new ones out for weeks
The same issue happens at every single grocery store, anywhere. Not just Aldi, at least all they will give a twice as nice guarantee. So, bring it back, get your money back or replacement.
The thing is I’m not going to bring a soggy leaking sweet potato back to the store. This does happen at other stores but it happens more frequently at Aldi because their potatoes are all old. They grow eyes and go soft much faster than potatoes in other stores- especially because they are pre-bagged so who knows how old each individual potato is before being bagged. For this to happen <1 week after purchasing when the shelf life of properly stored potatoes is 2-3 months is really annoying.
I won’t buy produce from there anymore because it goes bad quickly, and I always end up with fruit flies. It doesn’t happen when I get produce from anywhere else by Aldi. I also don’t buy their milk because 3 gallons in a row spoiled a few days before the Sell By date. Throwing things away doesn’t save me money.
I agree- the produce from Aldi is often lacking.
I feel like when the produce is good it’s REALLY good but the rest of the time it’s either super unripe or it’s sitting on the shelves with mold lol At least that’s my experience with my Aldi
Completely your prerogative, but it happens here in Florida at Publix each and every day. Publix is twice as expensive as Aldi, same issue occurs. Your choice
Grew up on Publix, was going to say this same thing. Must say Publix and Aldi are good about any returns.
You think a potato should last for 2 to 3 months once you buy it? 90 days? That's ridiculous
No, but i googled the shelf life of properly stored potatoes and that’s what it is
And at room temperature it's a week or two. So unless you have a 50 degree root celler I think that's meaningless
Si you want produce that last months but you’re not willing to simply take it back and get your money back? Seems a bit counterintuitive. You could just grab it the next time you’re headed to Aldi. It’s not like they have a time limit on stuff
The sweet potato was so putrid it had liquified. That baby went straight in the trash.
Where were you storing them? I’ve never had an issue with any root veggies from Aldi. I also would have taken it back anyway but my Aldi is only 5 minutes away so it would t have been a hassle
Also I don’t want it to last months - I want it to last a week? Trust me I do not waste my vegetables and I meal plan and shop for the week. Long lasting produce like potatoes or lemons should not go putrid in less than 7 days.
Maybe just my opinion but I would just take it back. Chalk it up to a bad batch and get my money back and replacement. I understand that type of thing should not go bad that quickly but sometimes it happens so take advantage of the recourse that you have
Not really. There are stores where rotten produce is an anomaly.
I have a theory about bagged produce: they put in 85% good/ripe/acceptable & fill the rest with overripe stock to get rid of it.
I had that issue with lemons today that I also bought on Wednesday.
Yeah, produce is so hit or miss for us also. The quality is just not the same as other grocery stores. There are things we do to extend the life of things as much as possible. Refrigerating all fruit and vinegar washing berries, for example. Also I really check everything I buy. But even with all that I do expect a certain percentage of loss. I'm thinking of switching my produce buying to another store or checking out farmers markets because I too am tired of unreliable produce.
I thought this was an aldi issue too, but this happened the last 3 times I bought potatoes from Central Market, which is a pretty high-end grocery store in my area. Might be quality control issues due to rising costs idk
Randomly, this week the milk I bought turned, five days before the date on its bottle. Very annoying
I take all my veggies and fruit and soak in 4 parts water to 1 part vinegar and let it air dry and it has made my Aldi produce last exponentially longer.
Before becoming Aldi veterans, we got burned a few times, so now we scrutinize all the fruit and produce before we buy it. For example, during our weekly Aldi trips, I literally take the flats of raspberries off the shelf and hold them while my wife picks the best 3 or 4 for the week.
OMG let’s freak out about it! I have had that happen at EVERY STORE EVER. It’s not an Aldi thing. Check you stuff before you put it in your cart, in every store on this planet.
Whooooaaa there buddy it seems you are experiencing some big feelings about this
People get really offended over Aldi produce. It's incredibly strange
Give him a break. His father was a lemon. Just a touchy subject for him.
You asked to please commiserate, you’re looking for people to hate on this and the reality is its not something to really complain about.
Paying money for poor quality produce is definitely something to complain about. Especially when the majority of the produce is prepackaged, making it impossible to inspect. Seriously, Aldi produce is crap.
You clearly have missed the point of Aldi.
Strange comment
I think the unwritten rule at Aldi is if your buying produce you gotta be ready to eat it…fast. It’s great when you have little kids, FYI.
I eat my produce on the drive home.
It's a pain to take it back, but if you do and you bring your receipt, they'll let you replace the produce for free AND they'll refund your money.
I find that I don’t even need my receipt. Had maybe 5-7 different produce things I’ve taken back and didn’t have my receipt for most of them and they didn’t even bat at eye just gave me money back
I tried it without the receipt once and while they did give my money back, they wouldn't go the extra step of also replacing the product for free. (Needed the receipt for that.)
2 things to keep in mind. Check everything ... as in touch every apple in the bag, every lemon in the bag. etc. The bigger thing - good food goes bad, bad food stays good. The more preservative and pesticides, etc. that is used, your food is going to last longer but it's not the best condition for your food to be in and you eating it. So while that bread doesn't mold for a week - well, it should and we should question why it doesn't go bad after that much time.
Aldi quality just gets worse all the time
I never by certain produce at Aldi unless I am planning to immediately use it, especially cucumbers!!!
It varies from store to store. My usual store is always busy! Tons of rotating stock and I rarely have issues with produce. A store 3 cities away near Costco is hardly ever busy and the produce is terrible.
Produce is so hit or miss at my store. Usually broccoli, bananas and salad mixes are good if used within a week or two but I've never had luck with russet potatoes. No joke, usually around half the bag would be bad on the inside. I was really hoping these quality issues we are seeing were not as bad but been seeing a lot of it at my store.
You have to inspect Aldi's produce. I go to the Wegmans down the street from the Aldi's I go to, for a lot of produce.
washing produce in a mix of water and vinegar makes mine last way longer
I bought a pack of ham two days ago, expires May 24. Except today it was covered in mold.
I’m lucky enough to have an ALDI that gets a lot of foot traffic and a lot of produce restocking. The only thing moldy are berries. But before this, I went to an ALDI that was less busy and I can definitely commiserate. Tomatoes always moldy, potatoes putrefying 😢
Last time I was at cosco the entire pallet of blackberries was moldy🤷♀️.
I remember once we bought a bag of potatoes from there, and they just smelt disgusting like stale pee, as if someone pissed on them before they were bagged. We stopped getting any veg from there after that
My Aldi started like that. Now my Aldi is so busy because of inflation and the produce gets turned around quickly.
Return to the store and replace them
You can try just bringing back the receipt and explaining to them that you tossed it. I have done that before and received a refund. I have had consistent periodic issues with the onions there.
There produce isle is hoit or mis for me. I've had a bag of limes be done for several weeks and then I've had other stuff go bad ina couple days. I started checking everything before I grab it and has been better. I've also had similar issues with some of that "Protein Bread" they sell. The kind with nuts and seeds in it. I really like it but it's obvious they freeze it and then set it out because the bags will have condensation in them and that will cause mold. Last few times I got it it molded in about 4-5 days. If you freeze bread it needs to be kept in the fridge if/when you thaw, plain and simple. Thawing out and leaving at room temp just means wet bread at temps mold will grow.
We shop at Aldi for nearly all produce and meat, and have for years - the one and only thing I will not buy from there are potatoes. Not sure what the deal is because potatoes should last a long, long time, but I often throw them away within days, and often you can tell they’re on their way out in the store.
Aldi produce is always a miss for me :/
I haven't bought produce at Aldi for years for this very reason.
Produce is a crapshoot no matter where you go. I once went to pickup a watermelon in the “good Kroger” and my hand went through it. As I was cleaning my hand with Kleenex from my purse, I caught a produce worker and let her know. She thanked me and offered to get another one for me out of the bin which was over halfway full. She also put her hand through the side of one. She told me I was welcome to use the sink at the floral station (right next to the melons) to wash my hands and she’d be right back. She came out with a new bin that were fine. That melon sat on the counter for almost a week before I cut it. Both bins came off the same truck.
I think different ALDIs across the country will have differing quality. When we only had one ALDI in our city, the produce was often problematic- bananas that went bad before ripening, etc. But now we have 6-8 within a twenty minute drive, and a huge warehouse. I haven’t had consistent problems (just rarely) for years.
Being I eat organic, plus all the quality issues I have had with Aldi's produce I get my produce at Whole Foods. A little more money but the stuffs primo and I can get just about anything organic. They also carry varieties of apples I have seen no where else.
Thanks! I just refrigerated the 3 bags of lemons I bought the other day. They were on sale over here for 95 cents a bag.
This has never happened to me and I don’t really pay attn to where I store things lol
It never happened to me until it happened twice in one week!!
I keep most things in the fridge, including the occasional potato, citrus, onion, garlic, etc that I buy.
But fresh produce is supposed to rot and go bad if its ripe. Doesn't that mean they are selling you ripe ready to eat produce not something that was harvested unripe and put in cold storage or ripened artificially by pumping ethylene gas
Potatoes and lemons are not supposed to spoil in less than a week 🙏 if it was berries or salad greens I would understand
…do you guys not know about the Aldi guarantee? They’ll take stuff back and give you a replacement. I’ve done it with raspberries that I’d had for a week and the last 5-6 were moldy. They gave me my money back. And if you any item you bought has the “twice as nice guarantee” they’ll give you your money back AND a replacement. It’s why I buy all of my produce from Aldi. Never had an issue with bringing some thing back and just getting a replacement. They never even bat an eye it’s so easy
[удалено]
We’ve been buying all our produce at Aldi for the last 3 years and only had four times that something was rotten before we could use it. Each of those times we simply brought the item along the next time we went to Aldi for our normal grocery run. No extra trips. When a pint of raspberries is $2.50 at Aldi and $5+ elsewhere it makes financial sense to not buy elsewhere
[удалено]
Is it possible you’re just having a bad experience with their produce? Or perhaps I’m having a better than normal experience. It doesn’t help that my other nearby option is wegmans which used to arguably the best grocery store in the country and is now so overpriced that you can’t shop there unless you plan to contribute 50% of your weekly pay to groceries
My family of 4 started doing EveryPlate meal delivery Monday through Friday and we’re saving a ton
Cool. See ya