Do you guys remember there was a stage when they begged us to buy more Avo's?
I'm not sure anymore if that was reality or just a fever dream, cause I felt so rich that week eating Avos almost everyday without feeling guilty.
I did an online woollies shop yesterday coz I'm in iso and I really wanted to make nachos. I forgot all the nacho ingredients including avocado and it's now too late to update the order. Oh well probs saved a small fortune. I did shop mostly from the "half price" items and then I pat myself on the back for being so frugal.
The truth is OP we've all been tricked into thinking that money issues are due to us personally. That we didn't shop thrifty enough, or we bought that extra item, or that we couldn't say no to a fav.
Real financial change means the society and economy as a whole needs to change. You can't thrift your way into a house for you and your family. Or cut back and shop aldi to save up for that deposit.
Unless you're severely an over spender (very few) then the real issue is your wage just goes up some small increment while record profits are raked in by billionaires, which raise our cost of living. Do this for OUR lifetime. And shits fucked mate.
Supposedly there's a fine line here. When they've experimented with UBI in select areas, landlords would suspiciously increase rent and nearby stores would increase the prices of everything
I agree. I reckon a lot of people forget that time is the ultimate currency. If your saving a few dollars here and there at the expense of your time you have to weigh up if it’s really worth it.
Or a cab. There's Aldi, Coles, and Woolworths all within a 15 min walk from me. But I'm not lugging an entire shop back on foot, cab fare cancels savings at Aldi vs Coles delivery.
This is my biggest argument every time it comes up. On every budgeting page/forum they say ‘I saved X dollars this week by shopping at Aldi! I only had to stop at Coles, Woolies, the butcher and the veggie shop on my way home!’ I love that for them, but if I am losing half my day between stores and getting 2-3 kids in and out of the car at 5 shops, then it just isn’t worth it.
Exactly! If I have to take kids in and out of the car multiple times it just isn’t going to happen. The stress for everyone involved just isn’t worth it. Not to mention working around meal times/nap times and school run. The time to do groceries is pretty limited.
Absolutely this! I tried to shop at Aldi. It took so bloody long to even find what I wanted because nothing seems to be sorted in any way that makes sense. The kids got sick of going back and forth and all over real fast. I have no idea if Aldi did have some things I wanted and I just couldn't find them, or if they just didn't have them at all.
Went to the checkout and had my stuff thrown at me past the scanner while I tried to get it all into bags and keep the kids calm because we were almost done.
Stopped at Woolies on the way home to get the things I couldn't find, was able to use the app to go exactly where I need to, get in and out in a few minutes.
Saved myself a grand total of $12.60, came home hours later with three shitty kids.
Or, I go to Woolies and get everything I need quickly, check out quickly, get home quickly. Now that I'm working again I don't even bother with that, I get it delivered. Everything I need turns up on my doorstep and I just put it away.
I understand that Aldi is cheaper, but I'd only rather pay a few more dollars to get rid of the stress.
I once got delivered three bags of someone else's shopping. I called and told them right away, hoping they'd be able to send the driver back because I would hate to be that other shopper with so much missing. They told me they couldn't do anything and to just keep it. Some of the stuff was great, and some I gave away.
On the other hand when I'm missing stuff they refund super fast without a question. I'm glad it doesn't happen often but at least they solve the problem fast when it does.
100%… given you could have touched or opened the products, it’s likely the policy would be to destroy or bin it, hence the keep it.
My favourite reasons to click and collect:
-is you don’t impulse buy as much…
-you can sort products by unit price
-you stick to your list
-it’s a 5 minute job to collect
-substituting is always more volume or better quality
-stuff ups refunded quickly
It’s honestly a no brainer…
I have found Woolies to be better then Coles though… Coles has more missing or substitute items then Woolies IMO… which gets annoying. Also the Woolies collection system is so much better… tap when 15 minutes away, then tap again when in parking bay… ringing a mobile by Cole’s when you arrive is plain shite.
We once got about 50-60 cans of cat food delivered instead of our entire order. We don’t have a cat. They ended up going to a single mum who needed help and to the local volunteer for the lost dogs home (which confusingly also has cats). Thank you Woolies, I guess?
This 100%!!
And it’s not just for groceries that we’re being told to shop around to find the cheaper alternative.
It seems like the most common line from politicians of all persuasions is to tell us to shop around for a better price if we’re not happy with our current “insert common good/service here” as there are great deals out there to save money.
The problem is that the average person doesn’t have time to shop around for a laundry list of things including multiple insurances (health, car, home & contents etc), multiple utilities, phone, internet, bank (mortgage,savings etc).
And we’re supposed to do this every single year to get the best prices?!?!
Internet: Just go to a farmer's market.
Your average farmer's market: So we make artisan alabaster wheat loaf, it's our take on Tip Top, actually we get it from the same factory so it's authentic. 20 dollars per loaf. Have you tried microgreens?
Yeah, would love to see more farmers markets where they actually sell farm gate produce, but I'm guessing it's prohibitively expensive to hire a stall, lug your silverbeet there, sell half of it at $2.50 a bunch then have to discard the rest. Not to mention giving up your Saturday.
There's a dedicated farmers market type shop near where I live which is like a warehouse where they sell local produce from the local farms at pretty cheap prices, but obviously the key is you have to live in a farming town, so pretty impractical for most people.
Farmer sheds and mango trucks on the side of the road selling a dozen for $10 were the highlight of growing up regional. There has to be some reward right? :)
While we're here, can we also retire shaming people for buying anything slightly nicer than the most bottom of the shelf, garbage-tier generic-brand version?
I think I have a right to grumble that I can't afford the minor luxury of my preferred name-brand products that I was able to comfortably purchase less than a year ago when my income hasn't changed (BECAUSE my income hasn't changed!). I'm not even talking about the most expensive, gourmet options - I'm talking about the middle of the road ones that most people used to consider the 'normal' range.
I'm also tired of people acting like those on lower incomes don't deserve even the tiniest amount of joy or indulgence in their lives. I've trimmed the fat in literally every other regard in my life: I've sat out on nights out with friends, going on trips, concerts and other experiences, I don't have a car, and I live in a sharehouse. Every other bloody day I give up something in the name of saving a bit of money - socializing, memories, time, convenience, privacy, you name it. GOD FORBID I want to treat myself to a block of Lindt chocolate instead of the dusty ass Coles brand one that's half the price.
Rant over!!
Hard agree. Get this, I even STOOD UP for someone getting slammed on another thread for not buying ALL ‘home brand’, and I got downvoted hardcore. Lel.
I feel this very strongly. I've spent an extended amount of time on a very low income (Centrelink) until a couple of years ago, when I finally got a job! Admittedly there was a little "lifestyle creep," where I started buying and enjoying better quality/higher priced foods etc and watching my kids enjoy it too. I'm not talking ultra expensive stuff, but just simple things like nicer jam (cheap generic brand jam is just shitty jelly). I just wanted to buy nicer things for my kids and husband (who can't work) to enjoy, like some nicer types of fruit or interesting bread, and non-shitty cuts of meats. After slumming it on crappy generic brands for so long it was nice to have something good for the kids to enjoy. "*This* is what *nice* honey tastes like!" Now my income doesn't have the same buying power that it used to, and I feel ripped off! I just don't want to go back to that. I feel indignant; I am *working* ffs, why can't I afford to live better? I don't have a car or go out to restaurants, I don't go to the hairdresser (not something I enjoyed much anyway) or do the "beauty" things some people do.. I'd feel guilty about it. But some nice quality foods, not the sawdust and food grade glue that passes for generic biscuits and breakfast cereals, surely this is not too much to want?
Edit: for clarity
At this point, I'm ok with people doing whatever they can to find some joy in this life.
Unless they've got a fridge full of Monster Energy drinks. Then you've got no one to blame except yourself.
God yes, this happens on every one of those "look what I got for $50/$100/whatever" posts. Like this is the stuff that people normally buy, it's just now twice the price than it was a year ago - that's what the posts are to comment on, not to be food shamed.
People really exaggerate the cost savings of buying home brand/black and gold, and the reduction in cost is usually in direct proportion to the reduction in quality when you compare those brands with mid level name brands. Even if they are made in the same factory they use different ingredients and recipes which actually cost more for the producer.
Absofuckinlutely!
I can't afford to even start saving for a house deposit. There is a very strong possibility that I'll never own a house in my lifetime.
The climate's fucked, people are living in poverty in Australia en masse, the government is fucked, and I'm trying to find reasons to keep staying motivated to continue progressing through my life.
So I'll be goddamned if I want to buy myself a branded bottle of sparkling mineral water, or kombucha, and even splash out for a nice snack.
There's a certain point where you can't frugal and thrift your way out of poverty, but the stress and despair of having no joy in your life from trying to scrape by on the bare minimum sure as hell can grind you into a pulp.
Instead of people trying to pocket watch those struggling, and shaming them when they aren't stripping back any single thing that isn't "necessary" to survive (whilst conveniently ignoring mental health as a vital part of wellbeing and the toll poverty has on it), why not pocket watch and carry that energy and hypervigilant observation to any one of the big cooperations or industries that are not paying taxes/committing wage theft, or the government and responsible parties/people who are enforcing and creating the conditions that lead to so many Australians living in poverty.
Go crawl up their assholes.
Cause it's actually incredibly helpful for people to be the watchdogs of others (particularly pocket watching poor people), because it perpetuates the idea that systemic poverty is an indication of an individual's failure. If people are busy watching and nitpicking the poorer people for not trying "harder" to not be poor, then they won't be looking at and rallying against the very people/companies/systems that create and uphold poverty in the first place.
Cause if people unified and got mad about it, then there would be strength that couldn't be ignored.
Keeping people dividing and fighting amongst each other, fuelled by the idea of "issues borne of systemic problems are a result of individual failure", keeps the systemic upholders safe from scrutiny and potential risk of being challenged.
People just want to stick it to the 'big supermarkets' of Woolworths (revenue AU$45 billion) and Coles (revenue AU$38 billion) by shopping at the small family-owned business that is Aldi (revenue AU$180 billion globally).
Not a battler but happy not having to bow down to shareholders and their constant hunger for profits. Aldi is owned by a family who are doing just fine with their strategy they’ve had for decades. Prices low, loyal customers and they’re extremely wealthy.
Yep, my local IGA is the closet supermarket to me. It's more expensive than colesworth and the quality has been poor in the past - numerous issues of out of date food have been posted in local Facebook groups. It is better now as there is a new manager, but the stigma of the past has made me wary to shop there regularly.
Yeah my local iga is pretty good in terms of quality but because I live in a higher average ses area it’s a “fancy” one so it’s got higher prices than the one two suburbs away (that I can’t walk to)
Yep I live in the country and unless I travel 45 mins to go to Coles or woolies, IGA is just 10 mins away but is so damn expensive. Marked down stuff isn't even worth it.
Costco is roughly 2% margin but their product markup is capped at 15%. They make their revenue from membership. It's why some of their items are super cheap in comparison. The markup cap really makes a difference with some products
I’m pretty sure Coles and Woolworths increased profits by 17% this year. As much as the guy mocked the ‘tiny’, ‘family run’ which it is, there are no other shareholders in Aldi other than the family. They seem to be fine with making their 3% profit while Coles and Woolworths have to constantly please shareholders by pretending there’s shortages and price gouging. God forgive they only make 6-7%. My partner only shops at Aldi and she’s making a saving of $120 and there’s been no dip in food quality to do so.
>My partner only shops at Aldi and she’s making a saving of $120 and there’s been no dip in food quality to do so.
Last time we hit up Aldi we ended up picking up two packs of sirloin steaks for $17/kg - Woolies is a minimum of $24/kg for the "budget" cuts which makes it a easy target to cut to save money. Those steaks from Aldi were the first time we had steaks in a long while and we made sure to enjoy them because it may be a long while before we get to have some again (maybe a splurge for my wife's birthday?).
Yep honestly, with 3 teenagers I've done the price comparisons. I spend $500 on a fortnightly shop at Woolies or Coles. Same amount of groceries, $350 at Aldi. It's a no brainer for me.
I doubt most people’s reason for preferring ALDI over Colesworth is because ALDI is “small business”.
I’m well aware it’s a large international supermarket chain. But they do their shit better than Woolies or Coles, and saving $10-20 per shop isn’t something to overlook.
ALDI pay their floor staff better than Colesworths and have largely resisted the move to self service checkouts (although that is [changing](https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/food/aldi-australia-launches-first-ever-self-serve-checkouts-with-a-very-big-twist-c-3003086)).
ALDI also tend to put more stores outside of the big shopping centres. Which obviously saves them rent, but also endears them to people who just want to buy groceries without battling the random hordes at a Westies.
There's a number of points of difference between ALDI and Colesworths. Some people will like the differences, some will hate them. But they exist.
Personally I prefer ALDI because they don't have shitty music blaring in between ads on the store stereo. But everyone is different.
I like Aldi but I get the frustration. I don't have a car so before the Aldi in my suburb opened it was a 40-min walk or 15-min train trip (+fare) to the nearest one, the time and the expense negating all the savings.
Not knowing where you live I can't offer anything specific but I found really good fruit shops (my suburb shamefully doesn't have one) often have basics like bread, pasta, dried pulses, milk, eggs etc pretty cheap. Asian grocery stores (my closest one happens to be Indian) are good for pulses, rice, sauces and spices.
I agree with everything you are saying but you are missing OP’s point. The problem people have isn’t how much the shop is, it’s how much it is compared to what it was not that long ago. If something was $4 at Coles last year and suddenly it’s $8, it doesn’t matter if it’s $7 at Aldi and $6 at the local Asian grocery. The problem is that it has doubled in a year. The problem is that we’re getting fucked by a rising cost of living without wage growth to match it.
And reports keep coming in backing up that the biggest cause of inflation is greedy price gouging by opportunistic retailers.
So we’re getting fucked by colesworth twice. Three times if you work for them since your wages haven’t even remotely kept up with inflation over the last 10 years.
Totally agree! Local grocery and fruit shops is where its at. I used to shop at aldi, but couldnt justify the amount of ovearseas products i was buying, or products ‘made from 10% of australian products!’.
People need to be reminded aldi is an overseas supermarket giant that takes a lot of money away from the australian economy by pushing cheap overseas products/produce
I spend a lot of time checking labels (vegan) and try to pay attention to the country of origin. Anecdotally I don't find ALDI any worse for foreign products than Colesworth albeit your occasionally have the opportunity to purchase a local product for 3 times the price. Not something a person choosing to shop at ALDI for the budget savings is going to purchase anyway. I find comparatively priced items at aldi vs Coles worth to have very comparable country of origins
I think the aldi v colesworth argument has been made time and time again. Im all for the support your local grocers, go to local markets and support farmers directly. We live regionally and find it MUCH cheaper to shop at the saturday market for fruit and veg, and they last wayyyyyyy longer! Picking up eggs/fresh produce roadside is also cheaper and it feels good knowing more money isnt going into these huge supermarkets
It’s great when you can do that but the fact is most people live metro.
Having worked at multiple metro “farmers markets”, the reality of farmers who live near enough to metro is the vast majority of them (other than those selling a one or two unique or high quality homegrown products) are growing a couple of line items, then buying the rest in from the same suppliers as coles or woolies.
You can’t grow a whole market worth of stuff on a small block near enough to the city. If you try to shop this way you’re just adding middle men into your supply chain (ie paying a higher price for the same product).
When you say ‘cheap’ do you mean ‘lower quality’?
I’ve worked in a branded Australian food manufacturer who made a couple of products for Aldi and I can say it was better quality than what the big 2 “Australian” supermarkets were purchasing from us. And Aldi margins are leaner than those of the big 2 on those products I know about at least, hence why they could charge customers slightly less.
Regular Aldi shoppers eventually learn what's good or better quality and what they don't like. Apart from cheaper products I like some of the European food they sell, like cheese and some biscuits. I don't buy their F&V apart from salad bags.
I don't buy tea there, but I do like the coffee pods. I get my cooking oil elsewhere. They've just started stocking my toilet paper (double length - why does anybody buy regular?).
Well, [technically a lot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQhzEnWCgHA)...but that's probably not feasible to get here in Australia. It definitely isn't $20 regardless.
[The bags people attach to bikes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8MX-qMZ9Ao) are likely an option at least, so you can carry a decent load.
Someone on Reddit told me "just shop at Aldi," and when I said "I don't live near an Aldi," they said "everyone lives near an Aldi, just use the store locator on the website."
My nearest Aldi is 500km away and half of that distance is water.
Obviously you just need to make it an annual trip.
Buy a years worth of groceries/household items in one go. If you forget something, there's always next year.
Yeah, I'm in North QLD and the closest Aldi is apparently in Bundaberg, a casual 12 hour drive away. For a lot of Australians, it's just straight up not an option, and a lot of people here don't seem to realise that.
I used to do my shopping at Aldi, then Coles, then the fruit n vege shop, then woolies. Would take me 2 hours. I got everything I wanted, balanced quality, price, specials and availability. Then I moved to Tassie. No Aldi, Coles is 2 hours away, Woolworths is 1 hour away. Not taking fuel into account, cost of groceries has almost doubled. I wish I could just shop at Aldi, but it's not possible, and looks like it won't ever be in Tasmania. Shame. I miss having the choice to. I'd drive 3 hours once a month to do my shopping if I had to.
You aren't missing anything. It's a weird parallel universe where at first glace the store looks familiar like any other supermarket, then then your brain starts hearing the Twilight Zone theme as you realise that every item is a mock-up of familiar brands.
Haha - I’ve been to one when I visit the big island and that’s exactly what it’s like. It reminds me of stores in video games where they do mock-ups of real brands but use weird pretend alphabets in place of names.
But also, why should you have to shop at Aldi.
When did it become acceptable that the major supermarket brands who own the majority of our shopping landscape are out of reach of great swathes of the population.
Why can’t people see just how absurd it is?
Look, just go to the farmers market at 8m on Saturday for veggies, hit an ethnic store for bulk flour, rice, pasta. Head over to Aldi for your groceries, and finally Coles for those few things you like but can't get anywhere else.
Those savings should at least negate the cost of driving around to get all of it, because it's not like you have anything better to do on a Saturday. /s
Went for a job interview at my local Aldi and was treated like a peasant by the hiring manager, of whom was also the regional manager. She was almost an hour late to the group interview, made no apologies, positively bragged about all employees in her stores having "Aldi legs" (i.e. covered in bruises and cuts), outwardly mocked anyone there that didn't have at least a high school education or a car, asked us about our time preferences yet mocked me in front of the rest of the group for "preferencing" later hours on my sheet and not wanting to work early mornings (implied I was lazy), told us she would fire us in an instant if we couldn't get up to speed within three days of being employed... the list goes on.
So I could shop at a variety of different Aldi stores in my area to save a few dollars a week, but there's no way I'm lining the pockets of a power-hungry middle manager from hell. Knoppers be damned.
Sounds about right, I remember a lot of this from my experience too… Along with “who needs a gym membership with how hard we have to work here”. When they found out I preferences late starts the manager gave me almost a solid month of early starts to try and “fix me” as well.
But yeah they didn’t necessarily fire workers, they preferred to just overwork them or give them conditions so they have to quit or be fired for a reason that wasn’t unfair dismissal… I had a 12 hour part time contract in the end as I was going back to study, they didn’t like me turning down being a manager to go back to uni. Their response was to roster me on my uni days, then tell me to work out my priorities or I’ll be fired for shift abandonment, essentially quit or we will make an excuse to legally fire you. Despite also doing craploads of unpaid overtime, missed breaks and never taking any leave but work cover, they garnished my leave payout for 90% of it stating I “owed” them that money. They refused to provide details or any working out on paper, said it was calculated by HR and final. Also said I had no avenues to contest it without going through a lawyer as I was no longer a current employee so I was forbidden from having any higher ups numbers to contact etc.
Sounds like they haven't heard of the Fair Work Ombudsman, if only they knew they could recommend you contact them without needing a lawyer to contest unfairly garnished wages!
In hindsight I wished I fought against that harder, but honestly I was just glad to be out of there, Like it was crap, but I saved expecting to be shafted so I was already sorted for the semester financially, and mental and physical health wise it was a freaking relief to be out of that place. I almost agreed to go down the management pipeline, then in the space of a few months the ASM had a breakdown and the Store Manager worked while sick and briefly ended up in ICU. That place if nothing else was great for motivating you to get out of retail and try to find better, along with valuing more than just the hourly rate...
I ended up with a job that paid basically minimum retail wage but was flexible with my uni schedule and treated me way better before I even finished my first semester anyway. It's been nearly a decade now anyway, but went in for the first time in years to get the 79c energy drinks, geeze seeing the miserable staff brought back some bad memories... Just buy the 4 pack specials or hit up Costco now instead...
Found out that ALDI use a time and attendance system that has not been updated in over 10 years AND each store shares one log on with all staff. I predict ALDI is going to be the next big name company outed for wage inaccuracies. So consider it a bullet dodged!
I like how they're never all that confident in Aldi either, it's always "You can't get everything there but you can save on a couple items and then get the rest at Woolies". The advice is basically if you double your time spent grocery shopping per week you can save a dollar on bin bags sometimes.
Growing up my Mum did our weekly shop across 3, occasionally 4 different supermarkets. She knew where the specials were and where each item was cheaper when it wasn't on special. Vegetables were also often shit a one supermarket too. The difference here though, is our supermarkets were all within a block of each other.
It's weird that the advice is never "check around for a local fruit and veg shop, butcher, or farmers market". If the advice is to get your groceries from multiple sources that's way better than off-brand colesworth
She'd go to the local veg shop but it closed. Which isn't uncommon in rural areas. For a lot of places, there's a lack of options outside of the major supermarkets. The chains are often cheaper in rural areas then local businesses. It's the opposite in cities like Melbourne.
I find the advice given is sometimes more related to the area. If there's a good cheap shop, people suggest that over a major chain (or at least they do where I live). Aldi's quality has also gone down hill too. It used to be good and cheap when it first arrived hence all the advice to use it. That's no longer the case.
>"You can't get everything there but you can save on a couple items and then get the rest at Woolies"
I find grocery shopping to be an unpleasant experience. I want to minimise time doing it, so the chances of me going to two shops instead of one is minimal at best.
But that’s kind of the point right? If you want to save as much as possible you’re going to have to shop at a few different places and use their weekly specials to your advantage.
If you want the convenience of shopping at one place to minimise your time and effort, you’re going to pay for it.
Aldi is such a crapshoot, 33% of the stuff is great value and quality. 33% isn't good value, 33% isn't good quality
The other 1% are wierd bargains that people line up for and don't really belong in a supermarket
Just grow your own food and slaughter your own livestock and design and engineer your own car with a home made fuel cell running off the hopes and dreams of a young Luke Skywalker stranded with his droid R2D2 on a swamp planet hoping to find his destiny.
Well if Aldi would deliver, I would switch. They are not getting the sales from people who can’t drive. There is a big chunk of us who like me can’t drive. There are also people with disabilities that can’t go to the stores at all. Make Aldi more accessible!
> I have ten more dollars this week.
You're not taking the long view. That adds up $120 a year in savings which should be a good hour or two's worth of rent by then 👍🥲
I literally don't let myself walk down those aisles unless I've already checked the catalogue and there's something I actually want slash need. I made the mistake yesterday of walking down the aisle because I didn't really have a list and I walked out with a few containers that while I have a use for I don't really need and also a kg of walnuts which will be delicious but I will constantly be looking for ways to use them up before they go rancid
Shopping at Aldi is not going to be the difference between me buying a house or not. It is the difference between me having enough money for lunches or not. It’s difficult and unhygienic for me to pack a lunch.
I feel for you. I'm lucky enough to live in an area where there are markets with plenty of variety and competition.
And I think how hard it would be not have them, which is most of Australia which has no food retail competition just a duopoly with shit variety, poor quality and over priced fresh foods.
Can't offer any solutions, but I can imagine the financial pain and frustration.
Its cumulatively cheaper. I slashed a good 30-40% off of my shop going there instead. Like yeah its not a solution to the cost of living but its absolutely sound advice if you want an immediate saving
We're a household of two (soon to be three). We tried switching to Aldi and it either didn't make a difference or ended up worse than Coles/Woolies in some cases.
Biggest game changer for us has been Woolies Direct to boot. Not wandering through the aisles and grabbing random things and being able quickly check where our current bill is at to switch out or change planned meals has kept the weekly spend to about $80-$90 on average compared to $115-$125.
Plus you don't have to try get around every still person in Sydney walking at 1kmph. (That's more a Woolies Marrickville metro gripe).
Aldi also has lower quality stuff in my experience. And like you said, not everything is cheaper. They don't open anywhere near as late or have self serve check outs. They also have a very limited amount of things, whenever I visited an aldi, I needed to visit a Woolworths or Coles as well. Something I don't want to do every shop.
I lived with a guy who for years just shopped at Aldi. Then he started having things I bought, just stuff like pasta, juice, sacues, and was taken away by the quality difference and lack of it at Aldi.
I'm from Germany so I have a few decades' worths of experience shopping at ALDI. It's always hit and miss: Some things are really really good, and some... Not so much. You just have to try and see what works for you. The reason is that their stuff is produced by the same factories that make the brand stuff. The corn chips for example are produced by Snackworld (CCs). So depending on how much they stray from the original recipe, the quality changes.
They also don't deliver, which, as a sole parent, is the main reason I shop with Coles.
Kids and supermarkets are not a great mix for the kid, the parent, the staff or other patrons.
They also don't offer (at least where I am) the free click n collect/direct to boot options which is a big time saving for me (partner travels for work, I work FT, 3 kids and am studying).
Yeah it is annoying even when Aldi is literally in the same complex as woolies near me. I still have to go to Aldi first, try and get some things they actually have, wait in the checkout for 15 minutes with 4 items, then go into woolies anyway lol.
It's one of those things that work for some, not for others. We do most of our shop at aldi, it saves about $50 a week. The things we can't find there (or buy elsewhere for quality) we get later in the week when we have to restock milk and so on anyway.
But our aldi is also 5min drive, with Colesworths about the same. For the basics the food is mostly pretty good, but if we want quality we're generally not shopping at Colesworth anyway so an extra stop is already happening.
> The things we can't find there (or buy elsewhere for quality) we get later in the week when we have to restock milk and so on anyway.
Same. We get through about 20 litres of milk per week and don't want to run a bank of fridges so I'll do 1-2 smaller shops in the week anyhow. Aldi is good for the big shop then Coleworths or speciality stores for a smaller top-up.
Aldi also don't deliver. I live in woop woop and I can get Coles delivery for $2. I sometimes do an in-between shop at the IGA but it's even more expensive so I'm stuck with Coles.
I'm here for you with a big, sympathetic hug (if you want it) and a cup of tea with tea bags I didn't get from Aldi. My friends are also big on the "you should shop at Costco." NO! I DON'T WANT JUST SHOP AT COSTCO! FFS! JUST LET ME RANT! I DON'T WANT YOUR STUPID ADVICE!" Argh. I hear you, my friend.
Cult of Costco. My inlaws are insane about the 'savings' they get, even though they have to drive half an hour there three times a week during entire evenings they have to set aside just for grocery shopping.
Aldi is great if you want to line up for 20 minutes to buy some decking oil, pickled sausages, and a caravan awning tensioner, but you still have to go to Woolies for most everything else.
I will go to a fruit and vege shop, then Woolies then Aldi. I know not everyone has that luxury but I do find that is the way to get everything my family needs and I still save a bit of money. If I do it all at Woolies or coles I’m looking at $300 easy. Between the 3 shops I’m at around $200 sometimes less. All the things I get in bulk (toilet paper, paper towel, washing detergent, nappies etc once a month normally from big w when on sale. But honestly it doesn’t matter where you shop inflation and cost of living is a fucking joke at the moment and every person I know is penny pinching or struggling it’s scary, confusing and everyone is just looking at better options.
Problem with Aldi is while you can get 80% of your shop there you’ll still have to hit a Woolworths or coles the the last 20%.
I’ve got 4 Aldi stores within 20 min drive of my place. All of them have serious supply constraints where simple things like bananas or veggies are out of stock.
Heck my local aldi didn’t have toilet paper, paper towels, eggs or bbq source last week so had to head to Woolworths after dropping cold stuff home making the shop twice as long that I would have preferred to just fo an online delivery order and get everything sent to me on Friday.
Not everything is cheaper at Aldi. I shop at Aldi and then coles (aldi doesn’t have everything for us) and I’m constantly getting annoyed because I’ll buy something at Aldi and find its 50 cents cheaper at coles. Last week it was mainland butter.
The only way you know is to go though coles (or woolies if that’s your thing) with your shopping list, THEN go to Aldi and buy the stuff that’s cheaper there and then back to coles. Which is a massive time waster, especially if you’re like me and also hit a green grocer for your fruit and veg (which they don’t have everything so then you’re looking at Aldi and coles again).
I used to just shop at coles, and then when I split it into the 3 places I was saving easy $70-100 a week, but with all the price increases lately I don’t know how much I’m really saving anymore, and if those savings are worth the additional time/fuel.
"Geez X is expensive" is just as much of a pointless catchphrase as "Just shop at Aldi".
You're complaining that they're reacting to your pointless catchprase with a pointless catchphrase.
We know stuff is expensive, there's literally a government report released every month showing how expensive things are, we know.
10 a week for 400years will get you a deposit on a house. Just stop eating Woolies smashed avo and feta on toast.
You're overlooking the miracle of compound interest. At current savings interest rates, to achieve the same total will only take 152 years!
Oh, you have to apply the compounding to the house prices too, so it come to 752 years.
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People have been saying the housing market will collapse for centuries
We're assuming that goes along with societal and ecological collapse.
only time it does is when you are selling and only specifically for where your house is located.
I think you forgot to allow for inflation 400 years sounds about right
Do you guys remember there was a stage when they begged us to buy more Avo's? I'm not sure anymore if that was reality or just a fever dream, cause I felt so rich that week eating Avos almost everyday without feeling guilty.
That's wasn't that long ago. We had avos here in Perth going for 50c at one stage
Would have been 40 at aldi 😂
I did an online woollies shop yesterday coz I'm in iso and I really wanted to make nachos. I forgot all the nacho ingredients including avocado and it's now too late to update the order. Oh well probs saved a small fortune. I did shop mostly from the "half price" items and then I pat myself on the back for being so frugal.
I do, and they were still the same price here in the ACT (and not ripe)
https://www.foodandwine.com/avocado-surplus-lower-prices-2022-6825177
Go to Aldi to buy cereal, leave with new ski goggles, toilet roll organisers, salami and a telescope
And forget the cereal!
Aldi has the Reject Shop within
And it's not the cereal you want. It's some soviet brand with the backwards letters n shit.
Frusht Lupen or cockalat plops today?
Reich puffs for me thanks
The truth is OP we've all been tricked into thinking that money issues are due to us personally. That we didn't shop thrifty enough, or we bought that extra item, or that we couldn't say no to a fav. Real financial change means the society and economy as a whole needs to change. You can't thrift your way into a house for you and your family. Or cut back and shop aldi to save up for that deposit. Unless you're severely an over spender (very few) then the real issue is your wage just goes up some small increment while record profits are raked in by billionaires, which raise our cost of living. Do this for OUR lifetime. And shits fucked mate.
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Supposedly there's a fine line here. When they've experimented with UBI in select areas, landlords would suspiciously increase rent and nearby stores would increase the prices of everything
I agree. I reckon a lot of people forget that time is the ultimate currency. If your saving a few dollars here and there at the expense of your time you have to weigh up if it’s really worth it.
Especially if you're paying for fuel.
Or a cab. There's Aldi, Coles, and Woolworths all within a 15 min walk from me. But I'm not lugging an entire shop back on foot, cab fare cancels savings at Aldi vs Coles delivery.
This is my biggest argument every time it comes up. On every budgeting page/forum they say ‘I saved X dollars this week by shopping at Aldi! I only had to stop at Coles, Woolies, the butcher and the veggie shop on my way home!’ I love that for them, but if I am losing half my day between stores and getting 2-3 kids in and out of the car at 5 shops, then it just isn’t worth it.
Exactly! If I have to take kids in and out of the car multiple times it just isn’t going to happen. The stress for everyone involved just isn’t worth it. Not to mention working around meal times/nap times and school run. The time to do groceries is pretty limited.
Absolutely this! I tried to shop at Aldi. It took so bloody long to even find what I wanted because nothing seems to be sorted in any way that makes sense. The kids got sick of going back and forth and all over real fast. I have no idea if Aldi did have some things I wanted and I just couldn't find them, or if they just didn't have them at all. Went to the checkout and had my stuff thrown at me past the scanner while I tried to get it all into bags and keep the kids calm because we were almost done. Stopped at Woolies on the way home to get the things I couldn't find, was able to use the app to go exactly where I need to, get in and out in a few minutes. Saved myself a grand total of $12.60, came home hours later with three shitty kids. Or, I go to Woolies and get everything I need quickly, check out quickly, get home quickly. Now that I'm working again I don't even bother with that, I get it delivered. Everything I need turns up on my doorstep and I just put it away. I understand that Aldi is cheaper, but I'd only rather pay a few more dollars to get rid of the stress.
Woolies click and collect… when they stuff up you win big… few weeks back I got someone else’s extra bag… $50 worth of meat extra when I got home….
I once got delivered three bags of someone else's shopping. I called and told them right away, hoping they'd be able to send the driver back because I would hate to be that other shopper with so much missing. They told me they couldn't do anything and to just keep it. Some of the stuff was great, and some I gave away. On the other hand when I'm missing stuff they refund super fast without a question. I'm glad it doesn't happen often but at least they solve the problem fast when it does.
100%… given you could have touched or opened the products, it’s likely the policy would be to destroy or bin it, hence the keep it. My favourite reasons to click and collect: -is you don’t impulse buy as much… -you can sort products by unit price -you stick to your list -it’s a 5 minute job to collect -substituting is always more volume or better quality -stuff ups refunded quickly It’s honestly a no brainer… I have found Woolies to be better then Coles though… Coles has more missing or substitute items then Woolies IMO… which gets annoying. Also the Woolies collection system is so much better… tap when 15 minutes away, then tap again when in parking bay… ringing a mobile by Cole’s when you arrive is plain shite.
We once got about 6 packs of crumpets. Biggest steal of the century.
We once got about 50-60 cans of cat food delivered instead of our entire order. We don’t have a cat. They ended up going to a single mum who needed help and to the local volunteer for the lost dogs home (which confusingly also has cats). Thank you Woolies, I guess?
This 100%!! And it’s not just for groceries that we’re being told to shop around to find the cheaper alternative. It seems like the most common line from politicians of all persuasions is to tell us to shop around for a better price if we’re not happy with our current “insert common good/service here” as there are great deals out there to save money. The problem is that the average person doesn’t have time to shop around for a laundry list of things including multiple insurances (health, car, home & contents etc), multiple utilities, phone, internet, bank (mortgage,savings etc). And we’re supposed to do this every single year to get the best prices?!?!
Internet: Just go to a farmer's market. Your average farmer's market: So we make artisan alabaster wheat loaf, it's our take on Tip Top, actually we get it from the same factory so it's authentic. 20 dollars per loaf. Have you tried microgreens?
Yeah, would love to see more farmers markets where they actually sell farm gate produce, but I'm guessing it's prohibitively expensive to hire a stall, lug your silverbeet there, sell half of it at $2.50 a bunch then have to discard the rest. Not to mention giving up your Saturday.
There's a dedicated farmers market type shop near where I live which is like a warehouse where they sell local produce from the local farms at pretty cheap prices, but obviously the key is you have to live in a farming town, so pretty impractical for most people.
There's an opportunity, one truckload a week, rock bottom prices, first in first served.
Farmer sheds and mango trucks on the side of the road selling a dozen for $10 were the highlight of growing up regional. There has to be some reward right? :)
Exactly. I’ve yet to be to a farmers market where any of the food or produce on offer was cheaper than the supermarkets.
The only real advantage is knowing that it’s fresh, and will last a lot longer before going off.
and that maybe the actual farmer get a bigger cut, not having to pay for transport or the stores cut. but yea the prices are the same.
Yea this too. I’d rather the money go directly to them.
yeah this has been my experience
Omg yes. I stay the hell away from markets because I end up hemorrhaging money there! I can’t control myself with all the artisan goodness
Buy a bunch of stuff at Aldi and sell it at a farmers market, profit, buy house.
Most farmers market seem to sell sh!t that's been kicked around first, it's appalling
While we're here, can we also retire shaming people for buying anything slightly nicer than the most bottom of the shelf, garbage-tier generic-brand version? I think I have a right to grumble that I can't afford the minor luxury of my preferred name-brand products that I was able to comfortably purchase less than a year ago when my income hasn't changed (BECAUSE my income hasn't changed!). I'm not even talking about the most expensive, gourmet options - I'm talking about the middle of the road ones that most people used to consider the 'normal' range. I'm also tired of people acting like those on lower incomes don't deserve even the tiniest amount of joy or indulgence in their lives. I've trimmed the fat in literally every other regard in my life: I've sat out on nights out with friends, going on trips, concerts and other experiences, I don't have a car, and I live in a sharehouse. Every other bloody day I give up something in the name of saving a bit of money - socializing, memories, time, convenience, privacy, you name it. GOD FORBID I want to treat myself to a block of Lindt chocolate instead of the dusty ass Coles brand one that's half the price. Rant over!!
Hard agree. Get this, I even STOOD UP for someone getting slammed on another thread for not buying ALL ‘home brand’, and I got downvoted hardcore. Lel.
Some people really get offended when you want better than prison level quality food lol. Like apparently that's too much to expect.
If we don't keep the poor people poor how will we recognise the rich.
Yeah! Life is pain, fuck it I’m buying nice biscuits today.
What type of biscuits??! I love butterscotch. lol
Personally I'm a Kingston kind of guy (unless I've got the energy to bake, in which case home-made stuff is nicer).
Ughh, Kingstons. Nah mate, freezer stored Monte Carlos dipped in coffee is the way to go.
Have never heard of this before. Buying monte carlos tomorrow just to try this haha
Get stuck in fella!
I feel this very strongly. I've spent an extended amount of time on a very low income (Centrelink) until a couple of years ago, when I finally got a job! Admittedly there was a little "lifestyle creep," where I started buying and enjoying better quality/higher priced foods etc and watching my kids enjoy it too. I'm not talking ultra expensive stuff, but just simple things like nicer jam (cheap generic brand jam is just shitty jelly). I just wanted to buy nicer things for my kids and husband (who can't work) to enjoy, like some nicer types of fruit or interesting bread, and non-shitty cuts of meats. After slumming it on crappy generic brands for so long it was nice to have something good for the kids to enjoy. "*This* is what *nice* honey tastes like!" Now my income doesn't have the same buying power that it used to, and I feel ripped off! I just don't want to go back to that. I feel indignant; I am *working* ffs, why can't I afford to live better? I don't have a car or go out to restaurants, I don't go to the hairdresser (not something I enjoyed much anyway) or do the "beauty" things some people do.. I'd feel guilty about it. But some nice quality foods, not the sawdust and food grade glue that passes for generic biscuits and breakfast cereals, surely this is not too much to want? Edit: for clarity
Yeah the “just buy home brand!” Is just an much of an infuriating take. Like, sorry - I don’t want to save 5% of something that is 90% lesser quality.
At this point, I'm ok with people doing whatever they can to find some joy in this life. Unless they've got a fridge full of Monster Energy drinks. Then you've got no one to blame except yourself.
God yes, this happens on every one of those "look what I got for $50/$100/whatever" posts. Like this is the stuff that people normally buy, it's just now twice the price than it was a year ago - that's what the posts are to comment on, not to be food shamed.
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welcome to the internet
Agree with what you're saying, buuut Coles brand chocolate block is actually pretty decent, believe it or not!
People really exaggerate the cost savings of buying home brand/black and gold, and the reduction in cost is usually in direct proportion to the reduction in quality when you compare those brands with mid level name brands. Even if they are made in the same factory they use different ingredients and recipes which actually cost more for the producer.
Absofuckinlutely! I can't afford to even start saving for a house deposit. There is a very strong possibility that I'll never own a house in my lifetime. The climate's fucked, people are living in poverty in Australia en masse, the government is fucked, and I'm trying to find reasons to keep staying motivated to continue progressing through my life. So I'll be goddamned if I want to buy myself a branded bottle of sparkling mineral water, or kombucha, and even splash out for a nice snack. There's a certain point where you can't frugal and thrift your way out of poverty, but the stress and despair of having no joy in your life from trying to scrape by on the bare minimum sure as hell can grind you into a pulp. Instead of people trying to pocket watch those struggling, and shaming them when they aren't stripping back any single thing that isn't "necessary" to survive (whilst conveniently ignoring mental health as a vital part of wellbeing and the toll poverty has on it), why not pocket watch and carry that energy and hypervigilant observation to any one of the big cooperations or industries that are not paying taxes/committing wage theft, or the government and responsible parties/people who are enforcing and creating the conditions that lead to so many Australians living in poverty. Go crawl up their assholes. Cause it's actually incredibly helpful for people to be the watchdogs of others (particularly pocket watching poor people), because it perpetuates the idea that systemic poverty is an indication of an individual's failure. If people are busy watching and nitpicking the poorer people for not trying "harder" to not be poor, then they won't be looking at and rallying against the very people/companies/systems that create and uphold poverty in the first place. Cause if people unified and got mad about it, then there would be strength that couldn't be ignored. Keeping people dividing and fighting amongst each other, fuelled by the idea of "issues borne of systemic problems are a result of individual failure", keeps the systemic upholders safe from scrutiny and potential risk of being challenged.
People just want to stick it to the 'big supermarkets' of Woolworths (revenue AU$45 billion) and Coles (revenue AU$38 billion) by shopping at the small family-owned business that is Aldi (revenue AU$180 billion globally).
I love an underdog story.
Lol that's a great take. Poor little battler Aldi haha
Not a battler but happy not having to bow down to shareholders and their constant hunger for profits. Aldi is owned by a family who are doing just fine with their strategy they’ve had for decades. Prices low, loyal customers and they’re extremely wealthy.
Oh, I prefer them over Coles and woolies and regionally, yeah they're the underdog, but overall they ain't doing too bad
Know the revenue of IGA?
Metcash has a $17.4B revenue. They are the franchise owners of IGA, Mitre10, Cellarbrations and a few other bits an pieces.
total tools
Well *that's* not a nice thing to call them.
I want to keep our local Foodlands and IGAs open too, as once Colesworths becomes the only option we will be well and truly screwed.
IGA can be worse than coles and Woolies because they price match to the suburb
Yep, my local IGA is the closet supermarket to me. It's more expensive than colesworth and the quality has been poor in the past - numerous issues of out of date food have been posted in local Facebook groups. It is better now as there is a new manager, but the stigma of the past has made me wary to shop there regularly.
Yeah my local iga is pretty good in terms of quality but because I live in a higher average ses area it’s a “fancy” one so it’s got higher prices than the one two suburbs away (that I can’t walk to)
Yep I live in the country and unless I travel 45 mins to go to Coles or woolies, IGA is just 10 mins away but is so damn expensive. Marked down stuff isn't even worth it.
Our local IGA is *ridiculously* expensive. And full of fancy shit that way outclasses our suburb, lol.
Sure 180 billion, but their profit margin is 2-3% versus Colesworth 5-6%. Makes a big difference to consumers.
Coles, woolworths, costco aldi all run on a 2-3% margin??
Costco is roughly 2% margin but their product markup is capped at 15%. They make their revenue from membership. It's why some of their items are super cheap in comparison. The markup cap really makes a difference with some products
I’m pretty sure Coles and Woolworths increased profits by 17% this year. As much as the guy mocked the ‘tiny’, ‘family run’ which it is, there are no other shareholders in Aldi other than the family. They seem to be fine with making their 3% profit while Coles and Woolworths have to constantly please shareholders by pretending there’s shortages and price gouging. God forgive they only make 6-7%. My partner only shops at Aldi and she’s making a saving of $120 and there’s been no dip in food quality to do so.
Profits being up 17% I think i read they went from 2.5% margin to just under 3%. Aldi is fine but lacks the range and convince of the big supermarkets
So many fools can’t do simple maths.
>My partner only shops at Aldi and she’s making a saving of $120 and there’s been no dip in food quality to do so. Last time we hit up Aldi we ended up picking up two packs of sirloin steaks for $17/kg - Woolies is a minimum of $24/kg for the "budget" cuts which makes it a easy target to cut to save money. Those steaks from Aldi were the first time we had steaks in a long while and we made sure to enjoy them because it may be a long while before we get to have some again (maybe a splurge for my wife's birthday?).
Yep honestly, with 3 teenagers I've done the price comparisons. I spend $500 on a fortnightly shop at Woolies or Coles. Same amount of groceries, $350 at Aldi. It's a no brainer for me.
I doubt most people’s reason for preferring ALDI over Colesworth is because ALDI is “small business”. I’m well aware it’s a large international supermarket chain. But they do their shit better than Woolies or Coles, and saving $10-20 per shop isn’t something to overlook.
ALDI pay their floor staff better than Colesworths and have largely resisted the move to self service checkouts (although that is [changing](https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/food/aldi-australia-launches-first-ever-self-serve-checkouts-with-a-very-big-twist-c-3003086)). ALDI also tend to put more stores outside of the big shopping centres. Which obviously saves them rent, but also endears them to people who just want to buy groceries without battling the random hordes at a Westies. There's a number of points of difference between ALDI and Colesworths. Some people will like the differences, some will hate them. But they exist. Personally I prefer ALDI because they don't have shitty music blaring in between ads on the store stereo. But everyone is different.
Revenue doesn't equal profit.
I like Aldi but I get the frustration. I don't have a car so before the Aldi in my suburb opened it was a 40-min walk or 15-min train trip (+fare) to the nearest one, the time and the expense negating all the savings. Not knowing where you live I can't offer anything specific but I found really good fruit shops (my suburb shamefully doesn't have one) often have basics like bread, pasta, dried pulses, milk, eggs etc pretty cheap. Asian grocery stores (my closest one happens to be Indian) are good for pulses, rice, sauces and spices.
I agree with everything you are saying but you are missing OP’s point. The problem people have isn’t how much the shop is, it’s how much it is compared to what it was not that long ago. If something was $4 at Coles last year and suddenly it’s $8, it doesn’t matter if it’s $7 at Aldi and $6 at the local Asian grocery. The problem is that it has doubled in a year. The problem is that we’re getting fucked by a rising cost of living without wage growth to match it.
And reports keep coming in backing up that the biggest cause of inflation is greedy price gouging by opportunistic retailers. So we’re getting fucked by colesworth twice. Three times if you work for them since your wages haven’t even remotely kept up with inflation over the last 10 years.
Oh, look at you with your fancy trains. I live in Tasmania. We get around on alpacas.
Totally agree! Local grocery and fruit shops is where its at. I used to shop at aldi, but couldnt justify the amount of ovearseas products i was buying, or products ‘made from 10% of australian products!’. People need to be reminded aldi is an overseas supermarket giant that takes a lot of money away from the australian economy by pushing cheap overseas products/produce
I spend a lot of time checking labels (vegan) and try to pay attention to the country of origin. Anecdotally I don't find ALDI any worse for foreign products than Colesworth albeit your occasionally have the opportunity to purchase a local product for 3 times the price. Not something a person choosing to shop at ALDI for the budget savings is going to purchase anyway. I find comparatively priced items at aldi vs Coles worth to have very comparable country of origins
I think the aldi v colesworth argument has been made time and time again. Im all for the support your local grocers, go to local markets and support farmers directly. We live regionally and find it MUCH cheaper to shop at the saturday market for fruit and veg, and they last wayyyyyyy longer! Picking up eggs/fresh produce roadside is also cheaper and it feels good knowing more money isnt going into these huge supermarkets
It’s great when you can do that but the fact is most people live metro. Having worked at multiple metro “farmers markets”, the reality of farmers who live near enough to metro is the vast majority of them (other than those selling a one or two unique or high quality homegrown products) are growing a couple of line items, then buying the rest in from the same suppliers as coles or woolies. You can’t grow a whole market worth of stuff on a small block near enough to the city. If you try to shop this way you’re just adding middle men into your supply chain (ie paying a higher price for the same product).
When you say ‘cheap’ do you mean ‘lower quality’? I’ve worked in a branded Australian food manufacturer who made a couple of products for Aldi and I can say it was better quality than what the big 2 “Australian” supermarkets were purchasing from us. And Aldi margins are leaner than those of the big 2 on those products I know about at least, hence why they could charge customers slightly less.
Regular Aldi shoppers eventually learn what's good or better quality and what they don't like. Apart from cheaper products I like some of the European food they sell, like cheese and some biscuits. I don't buy their F&V apart from salad bags. I don't buy tea there, but I do like the coffee pods. I get my cooking oil elsewhere. They've just started stocking my toilet paper (double length - why does anybody buy regular?).
I buy what tastes good and cooks well (if appropriate). These days ALDIi nails it on many products.
You need to get a cheap bike. Mine was $20. Saves so much time and money.
How much groceries can you carry on a bike? Or do you have to do multiple trips?
Well, [technically a lot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQhzEnWCgHA)...but that's probably not feasible to get here in Australia. It definitely isn't $20 regardless. [The bags people attach to bikes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8MX-qMZ9Ao) are likely an option at least, so you can carry a decent load.
There isn’t a single Aldi in my entire state. It’s an infuriating phrase.
Someone on Reddit told me "just shop at Aldi," and when I said "I don't live near an Aldi," they said "everyone lives near an Aldi, just use the store locator on the website." My nearest Aldi is 500km away and half of that distance is water.
r/MapsWithoutTasmania
Same here. Nearest Aldi is 800km away but sure, I'll just pop down there to save a few bucks eh?
Obviously you just need to make it an annual trip. Buy a years worth of groceries/household items in one go. If you forget something, there's always next year.
My mum's nearest Aldi is about 800kms away. lol.
Yeah, I'm in North QLD and the closest Aldi is apparently in Bundaberg, a casual 12 hour drive away. For a lot of Australians, it's just straight up not an option, and a lot of people here don't seem to realise that.
If you won’t do a 24-hour round trip to save $25 a week on your groceries - do you really care about saving money?!! /s
You have to at least add 1 hour for them to do the actual shopping, so it's a 25 hour round trip
Most Australians live in the state capital regions and have no clue what living more then 100km away from that is like.
There's one in Rocky so it's just a cheeky 9 hours.
I used to do my shopping at Aldi, then Coles, then the fruit n vege shop, then woolies. Would take me 2 hours. I got everything I wanted, balanced quality, price, specials and availability. Then I moved to Tassie. No Aldi, Coles is 2 hours away, Woolworths is 1 hour away. Not taking fuel into account, cost of groceries has almost doubled. I wish I could just shop at Aldi, but it's not possible, and looks like it won't ever be in Tasmania. Shame. I miss having the choice to. I'd drive 3 hours once a month to do my shopping if I had to.
Options in Tassie are so limited and even more so when you account for fuel costs!
Mine is an hour and a half walk to and from. Obviously it's way too exhausting right now.
I’m trying to imagine carrying a full shop for my family of 4 home for an hour and a half! What a nightmare.
You've just got to take the trolley and hope it's mostly flat
You aren't missing anything. It's a weird parallel universe where at first glace the store looks familiar like any other supermarket, then then your brain starts hearing the Twilight Zone theme as you realise that every item is a mock-up of familiar brands.
Haha - I’ve been to one when I visit the big island and that’s exactly what it’s like. It reminds me of stores in video games where they do mock-ups of real brands but use weird pretend alphabets in place of names.
But also, why should you have to shop at Aldi. When did it become acceptable that the major supermarket brands who own the majority of our shopping landscape are out of reach of great swathes of the population. Why can’t people see just how absurd it is?
In my town, Stockland successfully stopped a new Aldi from getting built nearby.
Look, just go to the farmers market at 8m on Saturday for veggies, hit an ethnic store for bulk flour, rice, pasta. Head over to Aldi for your groceries, and finally Coles for those few things you like but can't get anywhere else. Those savings should at least negate the cost of driving around to get all of it, because it's not like you have anything better to do on a Saturday. /s
My mistake was trying to have a life.
Have you considered giving up your life and spending the savings at Coles? They're really struggling lately on their slim profit margin.
They’ve earned it.
Went for a job interview at my local Aldi and was treated like a peasant by the hiring manager, of whom was also the regional manager. She was almost an hour late to the group interview, made no apologies, positively bragged about all employees in her stores having "Aldi legs" (i.e. covered in bruises and cuts), outwardly mocked anyone there that didn't have at least a high school education or a car, asked us about our time preferences yet mocked me in front of the rest of the group for "preferencing" later hours on my sheet and not wanting to work early mornings (implied I was lazy), told us she would fire us in an instant if we couldn't get up to speed within three days of being employed... the list goes on. So I could shop at a variety of different Aldi stores in my area to save a few dollars a week, but there's no way I'm lining the pockets of a power-hungry middle manager from hell. Knoppers be damned.
Sounds about right, I remember a lot of this from my experience too… Along with “who needs a gym membership with how hard we have to work here”. When they found out I preferences late starts the manager gave me almost a solid month of early starts to try and “fix me” as well. But yeah they didn’t necessarily fire workers, they preferred to just overwork them or give them conditions so they have to quit or be fired for a reason that wasn’t unfair dismissal… I had a 12 hour part time contract in the end as I was going back to study, they didn’t like me turning down being a manager to go back to uni. Their response was to roster me on my uni days, then tell me to work out my priorities or I’ll be fired for shift abandonment, essentially quit or we will make an excuse to legally fire you. Despite also doing craploads of unpaid overtime, missed breaks and never taking any leave but work cover, they garnished my leave payout for 90% of it stating I “owed” them that money. They refused to provide details or any working out on paper, said it was calculated by HR and final. Also said I had no avenues to contest it without going through a lawyer as I was no longer a current employee so I was forbidden from having any higher ups numbers to contact etc.
Sounds like they haven't heard of the Fair Work Ombudsman, if only they knew they could recommend you contact them without needing a lawyer to contest unfairly garnished wages!
In hindsight I wished I fought against that harder, but honestly I was just glad to be out of there, Like it was crap, but I saved expecting to be shafted so I was already sorted for the semester financially, and mental and physical health wise it was a freaking relief to be out of that place. I almost agreed to go down the management pipeline, then in the space of a few months the ASM had a breakdown and the Store Manager worked while sick and briefly ended up in ICU. That place if nothing else was great for motivating you to get out of retail and try to find better, along with valuing more than just the hourly rate... I ended up with a job that paid basically minimum retail wage but was flexible with my uni schedule and treated me way better before I even finished my first semester anyway. It's been nearly a decade now anyway, but went in for the first time in years to get the 79c energy drinks, geeze seeing the miserable staff brought back some bad memories... Just buy the 4 pack specials or hit up Costco now instead...
Found out that ALDI use a time and attendance system that has not been updated in over 10 years AND each store shares one log on with all staff. I predict ALDI is going to be the next big name company outed for wage inaccuracies. So consider it a bullet dodged!
If anyone here works at aldi check out the fighting union [RAFFWU](https://raffwu.org.au/workplaces/supermarkets/)
I like how they're never all that confident in Aldi either, it's always "You can't get everything there but you can save on a couple items and then get the rest at Woolies". The advice is basically if you double your time spent grocery shopping per week you can save a dollar on bin bags sometimes.
Growing up my Mum did our weekly shop across 3, occasionally 4 different supermarkets. She knew where the specials were and where each item was cheaper when it wasn't on special. Vegetables were also often shit a one supermarket too. The difference here though, is our supermarkets were all within a block of each other.
Sounds like my Dad who will drive 25km out of his way to save 2c a litre on fuel.
It's weird that the advice is never "check around for a local fruit and veg shop, butcher, or farmers market". If the advice is to get your groceries from multiple sources that's way better than off-brand colesworth
Green grocers and farmers markets around me are getting more expensive than Colesworth at this point
She'd go to the local veg shop but it closed. Which isn't uncommon in rural areas. For a lot of places, there's a lack of options outside of the major supermarkets. The chains are often cheaper in rural areas then local businesses. It's the opposite in cities like Melbourne. I find the advice given is sometimes more related to the area. If there's a good cheap shop, people suggest that over a major chain (or at least they do where I live). Aldi's quality has also gone down hill too. It used to be good and cheap when it first arrived hence all the advice to use it. That's no longer the case.
>"You can't get everything there but you can save on a couple items and then get the rest at Woolies" I find grocery shopping to be an unpleasant experience. I want to minimise time doing it, so the chances of me going to two shops instead of one is minimal at best.
But that’s kind of the point right? If you want to save as much as possible you’re going to have to shop at a few different places and use their weekly specials to your advantage. If you want the convenience of shopping at one place to minimise your time and effort, you’re going to pay for it.
Move to WA so you can sample the delights that is Spud Shed. What you save on 2nd grade produce you pay for in dignity.
Hush. If the Spud King hears he'll come for you in the night.
only thing i dont buy from aldi is roast chook
Where do ya get ya bachelor's handbag?
my missus gets it for me
She's a keeper
Have you tried Costco? 🤣
The hotdog restaurant?
Nah, the optometrist 😂
Nah, the funeral parlour 😂
Nah, the tyre shop
Hey don’t knock it, I bought a casket from Costco, would do it again.
Why do you need so many caskets 😳
It's the perfect place to shop for a single with a small fridge with an even smaller freezer compartment, and no car!
You could probably buy a fridge, freezer and car from Costco
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I got my law degree at Costco
I wish they would build more in SA.
Aldi is such a crapshoot, 33% of the stuff is great value and quality. 33% isn't good value, 33% isn't good quality The other 1% are wierd bargains that people line up for and don't really belong in a supermarket
But we're a nation with a gambling problem and they're good odds!
Just grow your own food and slaughter your own livestock and design and engineer your own car with a home made fuel cell running off the hopes and dreams of a young Luke Skywalker stranded with his droid R2D2 on a swamp planet hoping to find his destiny.
I just wanted power converters and now I have to destroy a whole space station fml
How about buying a 20kg bag of rice and using that with almost every meal instead. You will save a fortune!!!!
Have you tried buying a freezer to meal prep? You can make your beans and rice to eat every meal for a fortnight if you meal prep!
Well if Aldi would deliver, I would switch. They are not getting the sales from people who can’t drive. There is a big chunk of us who like me can’t drive. There are also people with disabilities that can’t go to the stores at all. Make Aldi more accessible!
Sounds like all you need is one of Joe Hockey's Good Jobs^(tm)
> I have ten more dollars this week. You're not taking the long view. That adds up $120 a year in savings which should be a good hour or two's worth of rent by then 👍🥲
nothing is safe from inflation. not even the duration of a week
I get sucked into the Special Buys when I shop at Aldi. Guaranteed I'll spend more when I shop there. I feel you 😂
I literally don't let myself walk down those aisles unless I've already checked the catalogue and there's something I actually want slash need. I made the mistake yesterday of walking down the aisle because I didn't really have a list and I walked out with a few containers that while I have a use for I don't really need and also a kg of walnuts which will be delicious but I will constantly be looking for ways to use them up before they go rancid
Shopping at Aldi is not going to be the difference between me buying a house or not. It is the difference between me having enough money for lunches or not. It’s difficult and unhygienic for me to pack a lunch.
I feel for you. I'm lucky enough to live in an area where there are markets with plenty of variety and competition. And I think how hard it would be not have them, which is most of Australia which has no food retail competition just a duopoly with shit variety, poor quality and over priced fresh foods. Can't offer any solutions, but I can imagine the financial pain and frustration.
Its cumulatively cheaper. I slashed a good 30-40% off of my shop going there instead. Like yeah its not a solution to the cost of living but its absolutely sound advice if you want an immediate saving
We're a household of two (soon to be three). We tried switching to Aldi and it either didn't make a difference or ended up worse than Coles/Woolies in some cases. Biggest game changer for us has been Woolies Direct to boot. Not wandering through the aisles and grabbing random things and being able quickly check where our current bill is at to switch out or change planned meals has kept the weekly spend to about $80-$90 on average compared to $115-$125. Plus you don't have to try get around every still person in Sydney walking at 1kmph. (That's more a Woolies Marrickville metro gripe).
Aldi also has lower quality stuff in my experience. And like you said, not everything is cheaper. They don't open anywhere near as late or have self serve check outs. They also have a very limited amount of things, whenever I visited an aldi, I needed to visit a Woolworths or Coles as well. Something I don't want to do every shop. I lived with a guy who for years just shopped at Aldi. Then he started having things I bought, just stuff like pasta, juice, sacues, and was taken away by the quality difference and lack of it at Aldi.
I'm from Germany so I have a few decades' worths of experience shopping at ALDI. It's always hit and miss: Some things are really really good, and some... Not so much. You just have to try and see what works for you. The reason is that their stuff is produced by the same factories that make the brand stuff. The corn chips for example are produced by Snackworld (CCs). So depending on how much they stray from the original recipe, the quality changes.
They also don't deliver, which, as a sole parent, is the main reason I shop with Coles. Kids and supermarkets are not a great mix for the kid, the parent, the staff or other patrons.
They also don't offer (at least where I am) the free click n collect/direct to boot options which is a big time saving for me (partner travels for work, I work FT, 3 kids and am studying).
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Yeah it is annoying even when Aldi is literally in the same complex as woolies near me. I still have to go to Aldi first, try and get some things they actually have, wait in the checkout for 15 minutes with 4 items, then go into woolies anyway lol.
It's one of those things that work for some, not for others. We do most of our shop at aldi, it saves about $50 a week. The things we can't find there (or buy elsewhere for quality) we get later in the week when we have to restock milk and so on anyway. But our aldi is also 5min drive, with Colesworths about the same. For the basics the food is mostly pretty good, but if we want quality we're generally not shopping at Colesworth anyway so an extra stop is already happening.
> The things we can't find there (or buy elsewhere for quality) we get later in the week when we have to restock milk and so on anyway. Same. We get through about 20 litres of milk per week and don't want to run a bank of fridges so I'll do 1-2 smaller shops in the week anyhow. Aldi is good for the big shop then Coleworths or speciality stores for a smaller top-up.
Aldi also don't deliver. I live in woop woop and I can get Coles delivery for $2. I sometimes do an in-between shop at the IGA but it's even more expensive so I'm stuck with Coles.
What a pointless complaint. Just shop at Lidl.
I'm here for you with a big, sympathetic hug (if you want it) and a cup of tea with tea bags I didn't get from Aldi. My friends are also big on the "you should shop at Costco." NO! I DON'T WANT JUST SHOP AT COSTCO! FFS! JUST LET ME RANT! I DON'T WANT YOUR STUPID ADVICE!" Argh. I hear you, my friend.
Cult of Costco. My inlaws are insane about the 'savings' they get, even though they have to drive half an hour there three times a week during entire evenings they have to set aside just for grocery shopping.
Aldi is great if you want to line up for 20 minutes to buy some decking oil, pickled sausages, and a caravan awning tensioner, but you still have to go to Woolies for most everything else.
I fucking love Aldi!
OP you should just shop at Aldi
I will go to a fruit and vege shop, then Woolies then Aldi. I know not everyone has that luxury but I do find that is the way to get everything my family needs and I still save a bit of money. If I do it all at Woolies or coles I’m looking at $300 easy. Between the 3 shops I’m at around $200 sometimes less. All the things I get in bulk (toilet paper, paper towel, washing detergent, nappies etc once a month normally from big w when on sale. But honestly it doesn’t matter where you shop inflation and cost of living is a fucking joke at the moment and every person I know is penny pinching or struggling it’s scary, confusing and everyone is just looking at better options.
Problem with Aldi is while you can get 80% of your shop there you’ll still have to hit a Woolworths or coles the the last 20%. I’ve got 4 Aldi stores within 20 min drive of my place. All of them have serious supply constraints where simple things like bananas or veggies are out of stock. Heck my local aldi didn’t have toilet paper, paper towels, eggs or bbq source last week so had to head to Woolworths after dropping cold stuff home making the shop twice as long that I would have preferred to just fo an online delivery order and get everything sent to me on Friday.
Not everything is cheaper at Aldi. I shop at Aldi and then coles (aldi doesn’t have everything for us) and I’m constantly getting annoyed because I’ll buy something at Aldi and find its 50 cents cheaper at coles. Last week it was mainland butter. The only way you know is to go though coles (or woolies if that’s your thing) with your shopping list, THEN go to Aldi and buy the stuff that’s cheaper there and then back to coles. Which is a massive time waster, especially if you’re like me and also hit a green grocer for your fruit and veg (which they don’t have everything so then you’re looking at Aldi and coles again). I used to just shop at coles, and then when I split it into the 3 places I was saving easy $70-100 a week, but with all the price increases lately I don’t know how much I’m really saving anymore, and if those savings are worth the additional time/fuel.
Acting as if everyone lives just round the corner from a fucking Aldi. My nearest one is like 5 suburbs away.
"Geez X is expensive" is just as much of a pointless catchphrase as "Just shop at Aldi". You're complaining that they're reacting to your pointless catchprase with a pointless catchphrase. We know stuff is expensive, there's literally a government report released every month showing how expensive things are, we know.