1. The first Aldi was opened in Southeastern Iowa in 1976 and has since spread all over the U.S. Wegmans is family-owned, started by Danny Wegman of Rochester, NY in 1916 as a local chain which has spread beyond New York State to include six states, most recently Massachusetts.
2. Aldi's prices are very cheap, being a bargain grocery store, but with better selection than you'd imagine. Their imported chocolates, for example, are pretty damned impressive. So is their cheese offering (it's not just orange American slices and string cheese). At the holidays, Aldi adds things like goat cheese to their selection. You often have to carefully examine what's on the shelves and stacked in the boxes. It ain't a luxury shopping experience. Wegmans is really fucking expensive. They have everything, though, plus all the extras like recipes, samplings and tastings, and services such as dry cleaning, catering, a pharmacy and a florist on site.
3. Aldi's carts are the kind that lock together, where you put in a quarter to get a cart and then you get the quarter back if you return it. The carts are standard chromey metal. Wegmans has the dark green plastic-coated shopping carts, and they come in three sizes: ginourmous carts, cute little mini-carts that are easy to wheel around, and of course the hand-held basket.
4. At Aldi, you either bring your own bags or buy them for a nickel. Wegmans has plastic and paper for "free" (but it's not really free - you're paying for those bags - whether you use them or not - in the higher prices you pay there).
5. Aldi has a bare-bones, Soviet-era quality to the simple shelving, high-rises of boxes, and lack of fancy signage. This scares some people off, I know, but as I referenced in #4, you end up paying for all the fancy displays with silk flowers, extra holiday decorations, special signage and other perky add-ons at a place like Wegman's (or any other major grocery chain).
6. Aldi's brand of coffee, Beaumont, makes a damn fine cup of coffee. Compare it to Tops or Folgers or some other low-end brand and you'll taste what I'm talking about. However, I have to hand it to Wegmans - their house blend (the $2.89 a can stuff) is pretty kick ass.
7. Aldi is smallish and very manageable. You're in and out in 15-20 minutes. Wegmans (at least the one in Ithaca) is a cavernous, sprawling building that takes 20 minutes just to cross from one end of the store to the other. And crowded? You better take your Valium and stick in a pair of ear plugs 'cause it doesn't matter what time of day or year it is, it's like freaking Filene's Basement ca. 1974 up in there.
8. Aldi appeals to a wide variety of folks, from bargain shoppers like myself to college students to people who have to make their public assistance dollars stretch reaaaally far. Wegmans is for rich people, snobs, and foodies. Okay, I'm being a bit harsh, maybe. Lots of my friends love Wegmans, and they're neither rich nor snobby (some of them are foodies). But hear me out...
When I moved from Rochester to Boston several years ago, I bemoaned the loss of my weekly Wegmans experience. No grocery store could ever compare, and I spent a good year or so being annoyed every time I had to shop.
Flash forward to 2003, when I was a first year grad student at Ohio University. My boyfriend (now my husband) introduced me to my first Aldi experience. At first, I was totally skeeved out. I thought it was a run-down high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oil factory for poor people. But after that first trip, I had to admit, the savings were worth it. Unfortunately, there wasn't an Aldi's location in Athens, OH, so I didn't really venture into an Aldi again until after we moved to New York. This was mainly out of necessity, only one us of having a job at the time, so we started shopping there. And you know, I got over myself. It was clean, it was tidy, and I realized that they had 90% of what I needed in a weekly shopping trip. Best of all, $50 spent there would've easily been $75 at Tops, perhaps $80 or more at Wegmans.
The only thing that Aldi doesn't offer at this point, and I'm sure it's just a matter of time, is organic stuff. But that's what farmer's markets and local co-ops are for!
And so, to sum up, I recommend that if you're like most people and need to spend less without cutting too many corners, hit up the nearest Aldi. Open your eyes, see what's really there, bring a quarter and your own reusable bags, and experience the goodness.
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