ALDI — Local services in Moreno Valley

I am always curious what people have to review when they give one or two stars for Aldi. It’s pretty much always the same they complain about and let me say a thing or two about that: Aldi is for smart shoppers who care for low prices and high quality groceries. It’s not for spoiled people who rather pay higher prices to get the service for bagging or taking their carts back to the front. Good news for spoiled people: 99% of other stores offer what you want and they happily take your money to finance their luxurious lives. 25 cents for the carts: You have no change? Bring your dollar bill to the cashier and they will be more than happy to give you change for the cart. No worries, you’ll bring the cart back to the station and get your 25 cents back. Store the quarter in your car for the next shopping and all is good. Is this a reason to give one star for Aldi? Why does this make sense? In Europe this procedure is totally normal. No carts all over the parking lots taking away actual parking spots. Less damages on cars from uncontrolled carts rolling all over the place. And of course your groceries can be cheaper because the cart pusher is not needed any more. And really, obesity is an issue in the USA, so walking few more steps is a positive move. I read a post where this person got frustrated because it took him one minute to push the quarter into the cart locker. Wow! This person is brave to admit publicly he needed one minute!!! I have good news for him: It’s doable in just one second, lol – just have some faith and good training. Bag your own groceries: Same here. All extra services are calculated in the price. Fortunately I have 2 functional hands and I can save money on my groceries while bagging myself. Why paying for bags? Again, bags cost money and even worse… it’s one of the things that are not environment friendly. Use reusable bags or grab an empty box from the shelves. Costco and Sam’s club don’t do bags either – didn’t see complaints there. No-name-brands? Far away from that. Big brands are begging to become Aldi’s suppliers. As you realized there is only one brand per item in Aldi’s shelves. This eliminates expensive storage space in warehouses and in stores. Saves you money again. But you can be sure that Aldi will choose only the one supplier that will offer the best deal for the money and quality. You won’t see the original brand name on the package because this would destroy the supplier and the competitors who both profit from the brain manipulated customer watching (expensive) commercials and paying more for the same stuff in the package. If you don’t believe it, make your own blind test with friends and figure it out while tasting and comparing different brands with your eyes closed. Rude employees and expired dates? Well, this is a problem that I find in any store. Maybe because we are all humans and have bad days and sometimes one employee can mess up the reputation of a whole company? I know one thing about Aldi. Whoever works there has to give it all, every step is time limited, just so you as the customer can benefit from low prices. Their motivation on the other side is a good payment, maybe the best within this branch. If you understand this when you have a stressed employee in front of you, you might not take their bad day as much personal any more.

Now you think I am one of them? I am not. I just grew up with shopping at Aldi back in Europe, had friends working at Aldi and reading books about Aldi. I wish I had one in my state but I don’t, unfortunately. When we were living in Tennessee, I had one in my neighborhood. Items in in the USA are different from Europe, but the concept is still the same. Basically, whatever can cut the price for the customer, it will be done. Love it or shop at the...

I always pass by Aldi since it’s close to Costco. This time around, I decided to stop inside and check out what they had.

This Aldi store is located just south of the 60 freeway in Moreno Valley on Day Street near Costco and The Habit Burger Grill.

It’s a smaller grocery store with unbelievable prices! For example, I was blown away to see they had a bag of jalapeños for $0.39! Even the Serrano peppers were $0.39. What a great deal! They also had a variety of cheeses for making sandwiches or charcuterie board. Most of the produce (and other products) they sell here are displayed in the cardboard boxes they came in. But with the prices of food nowadays, who cares right?!

I browsed around the store and found items whose packaging resembles a name brand product at a much lower price than what the name brand goes for. For example, they sold sandwich bags whose packing looked similar to Ziploc bags but for a lower price. Of course, I picked up a box of that.

Aldi has produce, deli meats, eggs and dairy, meat section, frozen foods, and drinks. Aside from food and regular grocery store items, they also sold non-food items, like camping chairs, beach towels, gardening supplies, etc. I’m not sure if they are seasonal items or if it’s like that year-round, but I’m assuming with summer here, they are seasonal.

Anyway, it kind of reminds me of the old Fresh ‘n Easy stores from a decade and a half ago. Anyone remember that?

You can ring up your items with self-checkout or a cashier. They take most payment methods and you can purchase bags for your items. They don’t bag your products but there is a long counter where you can bag your purchases into your personal shopping bag before heading out of the store.

Similar to Trader Joe’s, they have most of the basic produce and pantry items available.

During my visit, the Aldi store was clean and tidy, and the workers were stocking up the seasonal section.

Lastly, if you are planning to purchase a cartful of items, you can get a cart by inserting a quarter. The quarter is returned to you when you return your cart back to its designated spot. How efficient and smart of...

To start you have to deposit a quarter into their shopping cart. If you do not deposit the quarter then you do not get a shopping cart. I understand why they do it. It's to make sure you return the cart to the front entrance. This way an employee does not have to go and get the carts from the parking lot. Here's the thing we're in 2017 and I can only speak for myself when I say this but who carries change with them now a days??????? Anyways, I had to go back to my car and find one underneath the seat. Them I go to get a cart and it takes about a minute to deposit the quarter so that the cart can get released. By this point I'm frustrating and can already tell I won't be shopping here in the future. Because of the huge inconvenience with these shopping carts. Then, the store is small with about 6 or 7 isles. The prices are the same as Walmart at least for what I purchased. And lastly only two cashier's who have a line flowing in to the isle with people. My guess because they are seated comfortable in an office type chair. Anyways sorry Aldi first time shopping there. ...