Aldi in Lincoln Park (Granville, Avon: house, neighborhood, to buy)

[supernerdgirl]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

Aldi's also locates stores in areas that have higher incomes. The product mix is a bit more upscale than some of the other stores but don't expect any deviation from their fundamental principle of low prices and bare bones stores. A lot of people use Aldi's for purchasing their staples as they are about half the price of Jewel.

exactly. it seems like a leap that smart shopping somehow has to equal a lesser neighborhood.

[Jesse69]

Even if I was a millionaire I'd still shop Aldi because they do have cut rate but good stuff. Their Peppercorn Ranch potato chips taste awesome! Plus they got good health food deals and cheap milk, eggs, egg substitute, cookies, cheese, and buns. I love Trader Joe's too, and was surprised that you said it's owned by Aldi! I used to snub Aldi as low income food until I found out it actually has good stuff at low prices.

[surlycue]

I've only ever been to the Aldi on Clybourn and Wrightwood but I'll never go to one again. I can't see how an ordinary person could do their weekly shopping there. I only went in to grab a couple of items since the Dominicks next door was so busy I figured I'd try there. The store is the size of a bread box, there was a shattered jar of pickles on the floor with glass all over that had a little warning triangle next to it but no one cleaning it up, there were no associates on the floor and I was unable to find a single item on my list. I'd rather pay a few dollars more and shop at a grocer where I can find 95% of my weekly list.

[lincolnparker]

Ditto! H&M is cheap, but they are located in Gold Coast right on Mich Ave!

Originally Posted by supernerdgirl

exactly. it seems like a leap that smart shopping somehow has to equal a lesser neighborhood.

[ajolotl]

Originally Posted by supernerdgirl

exactly. it seems like a leap that smart shopping somehow has to equal a lesser neighborhood.

No, the leap is that such smart shopping would be exported from "lesser neighborhoods" to LP . Everyone in the world likes a good deal. If a store has good quality and good prices it will succeed in LP as much or more than anywhere else. The surprising thing to me is that Aldi is such a store. I had assumed they sucked and did well because they had weird super cheap and super crappy brands, or didn't have much competition nearby. I didn't realize that they were so special. I'll have to go check out one of the twenty five or so near my house.

If Aldi is such a great store then how can there be a food desert? There are Aldis all over the south side ...

[chet everett]

Aldi is not a "high end" store. They (and other sellers of food) are heavily into the "private label" items, some of which is of good quality. The "staples" offered by any deep discount grocer generally are very similar to "national brand" staples but many of the other items are noticeably lacking in quality and sometimes value -- getting a vat of something that is higher and fat/sodium than national brand that family does not eat or is not good for them is no bargain.

The people that run Aldi are pretty smart. They send a lot of their "name brand bargains" to areas that are more affluent. They run a VERY lean operation and wring fractions of cent out of every expense (you even have to leave a 25 cent deposit to get a shopping cart so that they do not employ lot people / have to fill damage claims).

[ManheimMadman]

There are two Aldi's in my city, and both are ran in a lean fashion. The service is absolutely terrible (maybe 1 or 2 employees in the store, ever) and you have to know exactly what you're looking for in order to do okay. I buy a variety of things there and have never had issues. Then again, I'm not a foodie either.

[eevee]

you know, there is an Aldi store off of Milwaukee Ave, just steps away from the North/Damen/Milwaukee intersection. maybe not exactly Wicker Park, but I wouldn't consider it a "lesser" neighborhood. that Aldi sells beer and wine too. I heard humors that aldi was going to try to bring in more Trader Joe's-like items like organic foods, vegetarian/vegan products, etc. if this rumor is true, what better place to test run these products than in LP, assuming they're not directly competing w/ WFM

I shop at Aldi a lot and I know it has a rep for being a "low income" store, but the products there are pretty decent and inexpensive (love the frozen foods like tilapia and wings for example. also like their salsa and multigrain tortilla chips). and sometimes they carry name brand items at a steep discount too. maybe there was a large uptick in sales w/ the current recessions so they figured why not expand

[Avengerfire]

I just saw this on their website:

"Come visit our grand opening on 10/27/2009"
1836 N. Clybourn
Chicago, IL 60614

ALDI USA

[Mr Downtown]

And I have been pleasantly surprised at the quality of the store brands I find at Aldi. Like Trader Joe's, they often use European sources for things such as chocolate, wine, or instant coffee. Things such as prepared meat dishes (ready-to-bake chicken filets, breaded fish, etc.) are also often excellent.