ALDI — Local services in Garden Grove

Great prices, convenient location, and typically friendly staff. I always find some great stuff for cheap here, like a dozen eggs for .58¢ or prosciutto or other cured meats for $3. Produce is always cheaper here, but they won't have everything you need. Kale and spinach are cheap, but they don't carry basil or other herbs. Parking can be hectic, and remember to bring a quarter for the shopping carts and your own bags.

Update: inflation is out of control and shortages abound, but they're still the go to for cheaper prices than the Ralphs and Albertsons out there.

Second update: they added new shopping carts. There are two sizes, small to the left and regular to the right. Don't be dumb and put back yours in the wrong lane, you won't be able to get your quarter back or stack the carts. Seriously, it's been years: quarter in, quarter out. Get with it!

Third update: new staff and new digital price tags. They're generally able to maintain things better and more efficiently now, so any chaos is strictly on the customer base. Things run smoothly on their part, but there's an increase in problematic customers yelling about prices or solicitors at the entrance, who may or may not enter the store.

Please get it together and bring your own bags and get your own cart. Do better, people.

Fourth update: new digital price tags theoretically should help with freeing up some of the staff, but the customers are pulling some Walmart behavior and making them work twice as hard with abandoned perishables. They're good at opening another lane when busy, but the customers really can't get...

This ALDI store has an uncomfortable standard for processing their checkout lines: as I went to pay, I noticed that they push and strive to get the customers through the line, sometimes even having (2) customers lumped together at the end when paying, (which is privacy "uncomfortable"), and they "tell" you that they are trained that way, and that you need to give them your cart for one of theirs at the end of the line, as it helps them to speed up the line. One day I said I want to keep my cart, (because I sterilized a part of it, like so many people do), and they said "no, just hand over the cart because that's what we do here", and I said I would prefer not to, they pressured me again, until finally relenting and allowing me to use my own paid cart. All that said, they seem to be compulsive, and somewhat callous and perfunctory. (I used to live in Germany, where this chain of stores comes from, and they are exactly that way in Europe (Germany), pushy and perfunctory, making the check out lines a little like Airport security lines). This is basically just rude processing, and unlike our American culture. This is the only ALDI store that behaves that way, so I have stopped shopping at this one, and switched to Anaheim...

I've never had a bad experience in aldi, except for today. I visited Aldi Garden Grove and had the displeasure of being in Cashier, Vanessa's Line. I said "Hi" to her and she completely ignored me. I did not have a basket so she used the one she had. I paid for my items and proceeded to bag them at the table. She yelled, literally yelled at me accusing me of taking the basket outside. I told her I was just going to other size of the table to give another customer space. Smh. She didn't even apologize, after embarrassing me and my children in front of other fellow Customers. She just said "oh" Maybe she was having a bad day, I don't know but after being in Customer Service for 20 years, I know first hand that you treat all your Customers with respect. I will not be going back to...