ALDI — Attraction in Broadview Heights

I love this place! It's one of the new larger Aldi's. I want to say it's about 40% larger than the regular size of the Aldi's stores in the US. As soon as you go in, on the right, it has ready to bake pizza and cooked meals at a good price. I've tried the chicken breast stuffed with broccoli in cream sauce, Thai chicken in coconut sauce, chicken fajitas, pulled pork, Korean chicken. A lot of different stuff. If you don't have meals prepped it's a great place to stop on the way to work and it's a healthier option than a lot of fast food places. The selection of products in general is pretty good. Name brands along with Aldi's generic brand stuff and an "Aldi's Finds" section that is an interesting ever-changing area that I enjoy checking out whenever I go. It is an Aldi's, so they don't give you bags or bag your stuff and most of the time there are only two check out isles at most, but they are very quick. Bring a quarter if you want a cart. Quite a bit of the time someone will have a cart they'll just give you, but you can't count on that. They do sell bags in the store that are reusable. I've purchased 10 of them for 6 bucks, and I've used them probably five times and they show no wear and tear. You can put quite a bit of weight in them, but you don't want to stack them so that they are pushed out wide. If you do that then they can rip at the handle when you pick it up. They are cheap to replace but no one wants their groceries to spill everywhere, so it's best to err on the side of caution and just use extra bags. I don't know what the bathroom situation is so I can't comment on that. There's quite a bit of parking but it is a little bit of a twist when you pull in or leave sometimes. There's a couple ways you can drive in or out. There's a nice (and popular) bar and restaurant (Brew Wall & Antonios Pizza) that opened up next door. So while it's a pretty well designed parking area for traffic access, it's a little bit congested at peak times because as soon as you pull in it opens up to a variety of directions, and it's not a long driveway from the road. So you kind of have to nose your way into a line/blob of cars occasionally. There is a stoplight there to help keep things from getting out of hand. It's awesome if you go at non-peak times though, and there is a second driveway that winds around to the big parking lot a little bit further down if you want to avoid a peak-time line/blob. That driveway doesn't have a stoplight, but there is usually very little traffic there. Overall, I highly recommend it as a convenient low-cost grocery store for your basic needs...

Buckle up.

Let’s put it this way: there is something SPECIAL going on down on W Royalton Rd near the intersection of Broadview.

Let me get the negatives out of the way first. Don’t worry, this will be quick. The place is pretty small. The selection isn’t particularly large. It’s practically an oversized convenience store. ———————————— That being said, THIS PLACE IS QUITE CONVENIENT. HIGHWAY ROBBERY, IN THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE.

Pack of protein bars for $1.50? 12 pack of hard seltzers for $11? (drink responsibly) Standing tower fan for $12? You kidding me?! $97 was spent on what would have been $150+ at a Giant Eagle.

I mean, for the love of God, I didn’t want to leave the place. I’ll tell you one thing, I felt like a kid in a candy shop. I mean, I haven’t felt this way since my first time at Cedar Point!

The shopping carts.. second to none! You must put a quarter in the shopping cart to use it, and you get it back once you’re done. Some call that a hassle? Fine. I call it innovation. No workers needed to fetch carts when you must return them to get your 25 cents back! Whoever thought of that needs a raise. All in all, groundbreaking technology in the cart department.

The atmosphere… What an atmosphere. The lighting is not too bright, not too dim. Has something special in the air. Definitely the place you want to be.

The workers are nice, the place is very clean, the selection is absolutely manageable for an oversized convenience store.

Bottom line is this, I have a lot of 5 star establishments on my page of reviews. I have reviewed lovely restaurants in Florence, Rome, London, etc. HOWEVER, if you are picking one place to go from my page, ALDI ON ROYALTON ROAD MUST BE THE ONE.

If I could give it 6...

Ordered online as we had a super busy weekend. They were out of most of the items. Nothing was substituted. Girl was super nice that brought the couple bags out. That’s where the stars come from. Other then that I won’t be shopping here anymore. Aldi used to be my go to store the prices have gone up. It’s cheaper for most of these things at giant eagle. Better quality too and in stock. Milk cereal meat canned veggies cheese French fries. All cheaper at giant eagle. You’re not saving yourself any money going to aldi. Also I ordered the fresh not frozen meatballs. They were gray and filled with water. I’ve bought them numerous times and they do not look like that. Instead of the hassle of taking it back and standing in line I just threw them away. Tried calling but the phone says that they keep store numbers private so it keeps their cost down (however that works). The number is a customer service number. You can’t sell things like that to people. And the fact that the employee thought it was ok is a problem. I’m not paying for your almost expired stuff just so you don’t have to loss money throwing it away. I wouldn’t even go for their cheap produce that lasts three days if you’re lucky....