ALDI — Attraction in Houston

Review is about three years late, but going through some old files where I recall one of the worst customer service experiences of my life with Mr. Country Boy manager (can't remember his name) back in Summer 2021. I used to spend quite a bit of money at this Aldi, but after calling attention to a deceptively placed hand-written clearance sign by the coffee, and purchasing double or more of the product thinking it was on sale, I was treated like a "karen" and a criminal. I felt deceived into stocking up on full priced items. I did fail in not catching it on my receipt the first two visits, but I did catch it on the third. The nice young man at the register was going to comp the two new bags to 'make good' on it but Bubba came over and said it wasn't his fault I couldn't read. I'm sure some will side with him, but if you have a sale sign of the same type of product but a different variation taped in front of the wrong product week-after-week, this isn't right IMHO. Bubba did not care to validate an ounce of my concern. He felt like being a royal jerk and got a away with it. I probably would have been happy if he said "ma'am, I'm not able to reimburse you for the previous products, but we appreciate you bringing this to our attention and we'll be sure to fix it right away." I truly felt they were deceiving customers by the poor placement of the signage. Bubba then asked me to leave the store in a tone like I was trespassing since it was right before closing. I decided to report my concern about the extremely poor service at this location to corporate since Bubba was not helping their brand or caring to keep loyal customers. However, corporate was just as disappointing. No follow-up or follow-through EVER. Waste of time. Clearly Aldi prices are cheap because they do not invest in their people either. I will gladly take my business to H-E-B or Trader Joe's and pay more for a better experience. Glad to say I am no longer a regular customer of Aldi after this sour experience. They could have had a lifetime and loyal customer out of me had they handled this situation better. IF I do decide to go to an Aldi, it's another location because I refuse to patronize this location; but I try NOT to spend my money at Aldi at all now. After this experience, all of their products are tainted to me and made of crap. The way I was treated by both manager and corporate was WAY WORSE than the original concern. How easy it could have been to just care a little. My concern should have been validated because taking accountability for things that may cause the loss of more customers should have been embraced instead of pooped on and ignored. I love supporting a majority of businesses I visit and leaving good reviews 99% of the time, so a one-star review for me is...

On Saturday morning my spouse and I visited the Aldi's location on Westheimer Rd in HTX. Now, we go every other week to this location and have never had any bad experiences until Saturday. We completed our shopping and proceeded to the check out. There were 3 team members in the entire establishment that I saw. One, possibly a shift manager and two cashiers one male on female. The male cashier doesn't know how to say excuse me while he walked right in front of us to go into the back area by the coolers...but he wasn't the problem. It was the female cashier who one, never acknowledged our presence. My spouse stepped to the end of the check out station and grabbed our bags and proceeded to open a bag being the cashier was throwing our items. Like, since your throwing them, throw them in the bag. The cashier said, "maam, we do not bag". Yeahh, we know that which is why we have our bags with us. Totally rude and disrespectful and tried to say she was hit by the bag. No, she was throwing our merchandise and the male cashier in front of her had assisted his customers by allowing the gentleman to hold his bag and he just tossed the items in it. Anyway, she continued on, I paid and she says, you can get your own receipt and she walks over to grab another cart. Now we are bagging our grocery and she calls what may have been the shift manager over points in our direction and he looks but says nothing. I'm being very observant at this point. Apparently he wasn't pressed by her comments as her attitude was very unprofessional and demeanor screamed, "I don't even want to be here". Not the consumers problem. Long story short. We will NEVER patronize this location again. We will go to another friendlier location where the customers are treated with respect and the cashiers handle the customers merchandise with care and not attitude and throwing items . Its one thing to place the items back in the cart for the customer to bag but to throw items is unacceptable. All because of this experience I will drive further out for...

Caveat lector: I write this review immediately following my first visit to any Aldi. This location is also so new that you can smell the paint.

This store has an eclectic selection of items aside what you would expect as grocery staples; you can also pick up a shoe rack, decoy cameras, various kitchen gadgets, silverware, and even a chainsaw at this new (2 months old, at most) location. Aside some produce items, all foods are pre-packaged; there is no butcher here, nor are there brand names to be seen (that I noticed) -- everything is of some brand of which you have never heard, and ALDI even has their own brand of both food (ALDI) and kitchen gadgets (Crofton).

You will rent -- sort of -- your shopping cart for a quarter, as the carts are chained together with a mechanism that renders cart-wranglers obsolete. Then, after a quick trip through this stripped-down grocery store, you will pay for grocery bags that you will pack yourself; at the checkout, a seated (!) cashier merely scans the items and dumps them carelessly into your cart.

The "expensive" ($2) reusable bags, touted as 100% recycled and 100% recyclable (even the ink?) are cavernous and actually quite sturdy, holding 30 pounds of purchases. This is a double-edged sword, however; I did not feel comfortable risking loading them to their capacity, which along with the excessive length of their handles means that unless you are six feet tall, you will work to keep them from scraping the ground. I am 6'1" and had to lift them while ascending a staircase.

This place is mediocre in terms of what it offers, but being so new, the store is immaculately clean, and, at least on a Sunday afternoon, delightfully uncrowded. This is a great place for staples if you don't care about the brand. I'll be back, for sure, for disposable items about which the quality doesn't much matter. But mostly, "meh"

EDIT: There are indeed non-ALDI brand names to be found at this store, though the...