My grocery loyalty had an expiration date

How Aldi won over a longtime Walmart shopper.

Photo by Marques Thomas on Unsplash

I was on the phone with my brother the first time I gave Aldi a shot.

Big mistake.

I had just walked into what felt like a foreign country.

For the past four years, Walmart had my loyalty. It was my one-stop shop for groceries, household supplies and just about everything else. For a while, it was even one of the stars of my investment portfolio.

But my loyalty to corporations has its limits. When shopping somewhere starts costing me more time, money or aggravation than it’s worth, I’m out.

The unraveling started in 2022, when Walmart announced it was closing several Chicago stores, including the Neighborhood Walmart just blocks from our home. Suddenly, my closest Walmart was 6.3 miles away — about a 15-minute drive with no traffic but closer to 45 minutes when Chicago behaved like Chicago.

For nearly two years, I put up with the inconvenience.

Then, on Nov. 1, 2024, I hit my breaking point.

The culprit wasn’t prices.

It was the checkout lines.

Automation hasn’t made checking out any faster. Maybe this is where I officially become an old man, but grocery delivery doesn’t appeal to me. Neither does curbside pickup. I’d rather pick my own fruit, thank you.

Meanwhile, something else kept nagging at me.

Walmart has long been known as the low-price leader. But my receipts kept telling a different story. Parker would size up the cart and predict whether we’d top $100.

She wasn’t far off.

My last five Walmart trips totaled $93.47, $159.30, $180.84, $84.96 and $146.95.

By then, I was making fewer trips to Walmart anyway.

An Aldi sat just one mile from home — about a five-minute drive.

So I decided to give it a try.

That’s when everything went sideways.

First, I didn’t have a quarter for the shopping cart. Back to the car I went to rummage through the center console.

Then I needed lime juice.

I must have walked around that store five times and still couldn’t find it.

Then I reached the checkout.

No bags. Of course.

I’d left my reusable bags at home because it never occurred to me I’d need to bring my own.

This was a very different shopping experience.

But once I got over the learning curve, I noticed something else: I was spending a lot less money.

My last five Aldi trips were $64.75, $71.90, $10.53, $80.80 and $13.39.

That’s hardly a scientific study, but it lines up with broader research. Consumer Reports recently found that a comparable basket of groceries at Aldi averaged about 8.3% less than at Walmart.

The irony is that the place that initially left me completely disoriented has become my regular grocery store.

Aldi isn’t perfect. The produce can be hit or miss. The checkout lines aren’t always short. And I still head to Pete’s when I want the best fresh fruit.

But most nights, I don’t need specialty ingredients. I just need dinner. Aldi has become my default, and Pete’s fills in the gaps.

These days, there’s a quarter in my dashboard.

My reusable bags stay in the seat-back pocket.

And I’m still looking for the lime juice.