Invasion of the German Grocery Stores

Two new names in the grocery store business, at least in our area, are German. Aldi has been around for quite a while and I used to shop there quite often when Sarah was taking Irish dance since I used to pass by one on the way to her classes. These days I don't go as often, although I really should at least for German week. Much newer to the scene is Lidl. One opened not too far from us about a year ago and another one, that's a bit closer to us opened while we were on vacation. I stopped over there today since it's right next to the Target I usually go to and I flipped through the Lidl ad and saw a few Halloween/fall items I wanted to get and I figured it would be a good chance to check it out. I had heard good things about Lidl but the first one was across town and I don't usually go in that direction and I had also heard that it was crazy busy. I was hoping that this one was less so, at least at lunchtime on a Friday.

In some ways Aldi and Lidl are very similar but they do have their differences. First Lidl is about three times as big as the typical Aldi. They both carry mostly private label brands but Lidl has more national brands than Aldi usually has. At Aldi national brands are usually only around when they put them on sale; Lidl seemed to have more and they weren't all sale items. I thought it was interesting that they both seem to have the same free standing freezer cases. One big difference between the two German groceries and the typical American grocery store is prices; although I only took a quick look around Lidl this morning the prices in the German stores are quite a bit lower than I usually see. The quality of the produce looked good, there was a large beer and wine selection at Lidl (it's smaller at Aldi), there was a bakery at Lidl. Both stores have a general merchandise section with tools, small outdoor items, kitchen tools/appliances, this and that. It's not stuff I'd expect to find in a grocery store, but again the prices for this things are great.

The Lidl was not crowded this morning at all, maybe because it just opened. I do think I'll go back again, grocery list in hand. I've also been thinking that I wanted to get back to Aldi but I just don't pass one in my usual daily travels. May have to work on that. They both have good prices so it's worth the trip. I know when I shopped at Aldi more often I would still need to hit another grocery store since they didn't have everything I needed. Maybe with Lidl being larger I can do more of my shopping there, we'll see.

In case you were wondering I bought pumpkin spice coffee (12 k-cups/$3.69 was a really good deal, I hope the coffee is) and two packages of Halloween pasta - pumpkins, bats, and spiders. I'll use that to make mac & cheese when Sarah is home for fall break.