Aldi – Small Grocery Store

I have a new friend who lives in another country and she’s interested in foreign grocery stores so I did a quick video tour for her at the smallest shop in my town.

I’m used to being behind the camera annoying people by telling them to re-enact something like 5 times even though they didn’t ask to be filmed. But they did something funny and I just wanted to capture it. So you can laugh at my awkwardness in the video. Or roll your eyes like I did when I watched it.

This is the smallest grocery store we have in our town now. When it opened up it was also the most different. You had to use a quarter (which you got refunded) to unlock the shopping carts. You bagged your own groceries with a bag or box that you brought yourself. They sell reusable bags and some do bring their own but most people just walk out with an empty box or tray they found in the store. That’s from what I’ve seen the very few times I’ve been in there. Also, there’s grocery delivery! I did not know that.

Here are the carts and the fancy locks.

You drive around the store with your quarter. The quarter pushes the lock out, then the lock back goes back in and pushes the quarter out.

The place has lights but isn’t as well-lit as the wall by those carts outside. So it can look a bit dreary in there. In their defense, I didn’t take the most flattering pictures of the store.

I do giggle at some of the things they sell. Shoes and jeggings! Not all of these items will always be sold in the store. One of the signs on the wall says so.

See? Limited time.

Here are some more signs.

I also giggled at their floral section. Kinda sad all back there hidden in the corner though.

And this is where you push your cart up to bag your own groceries after you pay. I’m not good at bagging groceries. Or maybe I’m just lazy. Or impatient. I try to throw everything into the bag and deal with it later instead of sorting it properly right then. The other shoppers were quick so I got a nice picture of an empty bagging area.