ALDI — Local services in Rolla

If you've been to Aldi's before, this review isn't going to help you out at all.

If you're still reading, I recommend that you go with someone that's been to Aldi's before on your first time or you may be a little frustrated with your experience.

Let's start with the fact that they hold shopping carts for ransom. If you want a shopping cart, you're going to either need a quarter to free a shopping cart from the cart prison, or a randomly generous fellow shopper who will do a secretive handoff to you outside the store. Now if you go with a Aldi fanatic, you're going to see them whip out their dedicated Aldi quarter and act like they do this sort of thing all the time and it's totally normal.

Let's go inside the store now. If you have a cart, rejoice because this will make things a bit simpler, but either way, they do not have any bags, so again, you will either need to pre-plan and bring your own shopping bags (which seems a bit like bringing your own takehome box to the restaurant), or you're going to be hoping you can beat the other shoppers to the few good boxes in the empty box bin (if earlier shoppers haven't already left you high and dry). If they are out of good boxes and you didn't bring bags, you're going to wind up in this super awkward position where you have a bunch of random loose groceries that you now need to determine if you're going to present your vehicle is a grocery store shelf and try to nearly stack your haul like it was on the shelf, or if you throw caution and reason to the wind and just dump everything haphazardly into your car and deal with this mess at home.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Aldi has some normal-ish grocery store sections and then some odd sections where you may find a random assortment of items. Aldi fanatics will wax poetic about their Aldi finds, Aldi brands, and Aldi savings, but in my personal experience, everything is a mixed bag--except their lack of bags of course. Some things are cheaper at Aldi, but not everything. Same with flavor. We tried the Aldi brand of frozen seasoned burgers and compared to Walmart brand, the Aldi brand was gross. Other things from Aldi are really good, so you will just have to judge for yourself.

So let's finish with checkout. For some reason, checkout is also a bit odd and people can also get really weird around the checkout area. It may have something to do with trying to judge if you got enough and good enough boxes to pack your stuff in, and then when you're checking out, if you have some awkward shaped boxes, it's going to feel like you now have to play Tetris with your groceries at a boss level to pass the level and be granted exit...

Aldi is a great place to shop at. Foods are better priced than anywhere. I have shopped at Aldi in Sullivan Mo and Rolla Mo for years. There is only one down fall, it seems that the workers at both locations are in such a hurry to stock the fruit and vegetables that I have watched them literally toss the potatoes and bananas into the boxes to make room for more. Which explains why the bananas and potatoes often are bruised up. I've seen it several times and have commented to the workers about it twice. I don't like buying bruised up fruit and vegetables. Neither does anyone else. I just went shopping yesterday at Aldi and watched a worker toss bags of grapes. I told her don't you realize when you toss fruit that you bruise them, that's why the fruit is so bruised up at Aldi? She said, "Oh, well I thought that the truck drivers did it, every one does it. Ill say something to my manager." On a personal note, I love Aldi but I'm getting to where I don't buy a lot of my fruit and vegetables there because of it going bad quicker do...

My husband and I have shopped at the Aldi's out on 63 for years. The new store on 72 is great! Aisle signs makes it easier to find what you're looking for and speaking of aisles, the ones in the new store are wider and easier to navigate.

They still have shopping carts chained together that cost a quarter to use. You get your quarter back when you return your cart. The new store does have a few checkout clerks but is mostly self-checkout. If you shop Aldi's, you know that you've always had to bag your own purchases and if you shop Walmart, you're probably used to self-checkout.

It's more than a grocery store and the selection is pretty varied with most things being the Aldi's brand but they do carry some name brand products. You can choose frozen or fresh meat and there's plenty of fresh produce. It's worth checking out and if you don't mind DIY shopping or not being able to find all of your favorite brands, it could become a regular shopping...