I'm not sure how many people know about Save A Lot. It's a grocery store chain in Florida (not sure if it's anywhere else). I have begun shopping there because Walmart is usually too crowded for me and the prices at Save A Lot are better. However, most of their products are off-brand. What annoys me about them is the fact that they are beginning to be a lot like Aldi. Aldi is also a grocery store and, when I was growing up, they had canned goods at around $0.20 per can! You could do all your shopping at Aldi and not have to worry about going broke. The difference between Aldi and other grocery stores is that they do not bag your items for you. Instead, they put them into another cart for you and you have to put them in boxes yourself to take out to your car. I've noticed that Save A Lot is doing the same things these days by requiring you to put a quarter in a cart to shop with (you get it back after you're finished and put it back with the other carts). I can only speculate that this is to encourage you to return your cart in order to get your quarter back instead of leaving it in the parking lot for someone else to return and get your quarter. Which, admittedly, is a pretty clever idea. However, they charge you for bags (around $0.03-$0.14 per bag depending on if it's paper or plastic). So, if you're shopping with food Stamps and you have no cash on hand, you will have to take all of your groceries and put them in your car without bags. It makes it very inconvenient, especially for me because I live on the second floor of an apartment. Unloading $200.00 worth of groceries without bags is not something I look forward to. It sometimes makes me settle and just go to Walmart or Publix so that I can have free bags (which also end up doubling as garbage bags when I run out). I, personally, enjoy buying products with brand names on them because I find comfort in the fact that I know what I'm buying is of good quality. Shopping at Save A Lot is difficult because most of their products have off-brand names that I've never heard of before which makes me uneasy about purchasing it. Perhaps I'll just stick to Publix. Although the prices at Publix are slightly higher than those at Save A Lot I'm a huge believer in getting what I pay for. If I want the security of knowing what I've bought is of good quality, I don't mind paying a little extra for the brand name. What are your thoughts on Save A Lot, Aldi and your grocery store of choice? Where do you prefer to do your shopping and why?
I love Save A Lot! They just rebuilt the old one in my town, and build a second one a few years ago. I like that the prices are decent for the basics, and I like that they sometimes have unique things that other stores don't sell. I've had some bad product buys from Save A Lot, like the drink mix and the coffee creamer that had a "salty" taste to it. But I've found some good things as well. Bagging can be a hassle, and they do have a limited selection of sizes, etc but overall I enjoy shopping there.
When I lived in a town that had a Save A Lot, I shopped there all the time. The "off" brands are the exact same food as the name brands, without the brainwashing propaganda of name brands. A can of tomatoes is a can of tomatoes. They are all processed in the same factories. I just keep cloth reusable bags in my car. That way I have them when I need them, and I am not wasting the oil used to make the disposable bags.
I don't have a save alot here. I do however have an aldi's. I also have cloth reusable bags that I keep in my trunk. I never buy bags. What I have found is that many of Ald's brands are superior to any name brand out there at a 1/3 the price. I also get there meat specials on wednesdays. Last week I got 12 whole beautiful chickens at .69 cents a lb. I had to pay .87 cents a lb in bulk at sams and the chicken was inferior to what Ald's had. The fresh produce is also a fantastic deal. I love Aldi's and only shop at other stores for things I can't find there. It saves me hundreds of dollars every month.
I agree about Aldi. Some of their products like the chocolate candy are imported from Europe. I don't understand why people still believe there is any difference between name brands and generics. A few years ago when there was the big peanut butter recall, it was everything from Jiffy or Skippy to Walmart's cheapest store brand.
I like Aldi's personally. I never buy to much from there, just enough for a one or two bags, and I only buy fruits and veggies from aldi, I shop there at least once a week.
Aldi had a strange & dramatic price increase a couple years ago. This is around the time they started to air commercials. I've never seen a Save-A-Lot commercial & I'm glad. I'd rather their money go to saving ME money as opposed to pimping their brand.
I don't mind Aldi, but I'm not crazy about it. They're ok in terms of price, but I wouldn't say you save a whole lot. What I find annoying about Aldi is the fact that they don't always have everything I need, meaning I sometimes still have to go elsewhere (a regular supermarket), to get the rest of my stuff. Also, I have brands that I swear by, and Aldi may not carry them; and will instead offer some unfamiliar European brands. Probably just as good, but I take comfort in buying my trusty brands that I know work for me.
Living in the UK i have no knowledge of save a lot as we don't have them here, However Aldi is expanding at a terrific rate and was voted supermarket of the year last year in Britain. I used to Shop at Tesco which is the largest supermarket in the UK but Aldi is massively better value. £100 of shopping at Tesco would cost you only £40 at Aldi. The quality of Aldi's produce is surprisingly high, in fact some of their goods are superior to branded items. I find i can get 95% of the groceries i need there which is impressive as Aldi have only a fraction of the retail selling space of the supermarket giants. The only downside to Aldi is long queues at the checkouts, they need to improve this aspect as people's time is very valuable. There are no self service checkouts at Aldi, this should be rectified. We also have a supermarket chain here in the UK called Lidl who are a Swedish company i believe, they are very similar to Aldi but a fraction more expensive. I don't know if they exist in the USA?
I shopped at Save-A-Lot before Aldi's was in our area. The Save-A-Lot I shopped at had the same system of bagging your food yourself, we did not have to insert a quarter in the cart but we did take our own bags into the store. The quality of food at the Save-A-Lot was okay the two stores are very similar.
I've become a huge fan of Save-A-Lot as well, and we have them here in Northeast Ohio too. I used to snub the store because they had such a limited selection, as well as many store brands of merchandise rather than major brands, but I eventually discovered that their store brands are actually quite good, and cheap. For example, I'm a huge fan of their "Diane's Garden" brand of crushed tomatoes - they taste as good as the pricier San Marzano brand crushed tomatoes I was buying for nearly 5 times the price. You can't beat 99 cents per can vs. $3.99-$4.99 for the San Marzano's. Their "J. Higgs" brand potato chips are also a great bargain at only $1.50 a bag, vs. like $4 a bag for brand name potato chips like Lays or Ruffles. One thing I've noticed though, is if you've got several of them in your area, because they carry such a limited selection, they also tailor their selection to the locations they are serving - so not all stores carry the same items, and if they do, they're not always at the same prices - particularly with fresh veggies. For example, one of our Save-A-Lot locations is in an area with a predominantly older Italian population, so you will always see fresh Escarole at that location, while another Save-A-Lot which is in an area with mostly Latino residents, always has super cheap prices on Cilantro and fresh Jalapenos, but they don't carry any Escarole or Hot Wax Peppers like the other location does.
We have both a Save-A-Lot and an Aldi's store here. I have shopped at both of them, and I think that each has their good points and the shortcomings. Save-a-lot is wonderful for all kinds of canned or packaged foods; but their produce is awful (at least the one here) and their meats are no a lot better. Alsi's , on the other hand, has some of the freshest fruits and vegetables that i have found anywhere. Their meat and dairy are reat, and they hae the best prices on kefir that I have found anywhere.
We have had a Sav A Lot here in Huntsville, AL for a lot of years. I loved shopping there. Recently Aldi's came to Huntsville. We now have 3. I like shopping in there and find a lot of great bargains. The store is always clean, is well lite and well organized. I am happy with the brands they carry and particularly like the tortilla chips. They are really thin and crispy. I also like their vegie chips.
True, you do need to be careful with their meats and produce. I am not sure what their exact schedule is, but if you get there on the right days when they first put the items out, they are fresh and just fine. However, they don't seem to rotate or go through either fast enough, so if you come back a few days later you may encounter rotting produce and greyed meats on markdown for a quick sale. I've read Wednesdays are the best days to snag deals at grocery stores, but I haven't tried it out myself to test it.
