Firstly, things I don't like:
(a) the credit card surcharge (in general I regard these as being a tax-deductible cost of doing business which should not be passed on to consumers); and
(b) the checkout system. This requires you first to empty your entire trolley onto the conveyor belt. The cashier then passes the goods over a scanner at lightning speed onto a small area (the size of a postage stamp (well actually around the size of an A4 sheet of paper) on the other side of the scanner. There is not enough room to pack the goods into bags, and instead you are required to put the goods back in the trolley in a haphazard fashion as fast as you can in order to avoid the postage stamp becoming overwhelmed. You then need to wheel your trolley over to a packing shelf, take all the goods out of the trolley again and re-pack them into bags to take home. This is exhausting just thinking about it, let alone doing it!
The check-out system might work wiith minimum inconvenience for a few things, but it definitely does not work for a full-sized 'shop', where a full trolley can take up the whole conveyor belt and take a lot of time to re-pack. I tried this once, but never again!!
Moral of the story: if you want to do all your shopping at once and have it neatly packed in bags when you exit the cash register, do not go to Aldi. Go to one of the other supermarkets, which still have people who will help you pack as well as self-service checkout machines (which I also hate, but for different reasons, as their programming is inflexible and they 'chuck a hissy fit' if you put your own bags in the packing area if you have not pre-selected this option, and expect you to pack at superhuman speed, saying repetitively "please take your goods" when you are nowhere near ready to do so!).
Anway, the good things about Aldi are its goods and prices (and the weekly specials wilth all sorts of cool things).
I have previously sung the praises of the Aldi Expressi coffee range, but today I will just mention a couple of other things which are well priced and good quality.
The first is the Bakehouse premium bread range. It comes in a similar range and presentation to the much more expensive Helga's range, but tastes just as good.
The other is the Brooklea Joi creamy light probiotic yoghurt range (Strawberry, Mixed Berry and Peach Mango). For me the pick of the range is the Mixed Berry. It is flavoursome, creamy without being too sweet, and has that lovely slightly 'bitey' tartness familiar to berry lovers. It actually has stawberries, raspberries, bluberries and blackcurrant juice in it. At $3.59 for one litre, this sure beats the competition.
