r/aldi • u/studyhall109 • 1d ago
Midwest (USA) Salt
I stopped by a chain grocery store to pick up a box of salt, some fresh produce, and a 4 pack of AA batteries
I left without buying salt or batteries. A 28 oz box of salt was $3.49 and store brand batteries were $19.49 for an 8 pack, I thought. “Aldi probably has them cheaper.”
At the nearby Aldi I paid 89 cents for the same size salt and only $2.99 for 8 AA batteries.
I saved enough money to treat myself to a macchiato on the way home.
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u/PetersonTom1955 1d ago
I need some ibuprofen for my medicine cabinet. I priced a bottle of 100 ibuprofen tablets at CVS. The store brand was $9.79. At Aldi, they were $1.69.
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u/lollipopfiend123 1d ago
CVS and Walgreens are outrageously expensive if you don’t play their rewards program games. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
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u/Joe_B_Likes_Tacos 1d ago
Yeah. Without the rewards programs they're just a convenience store with a pharmacy out back.
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u/SometimesaGirl- 1d ago
if you don’t play their rewards program games
Its the same all over.
I live in the UK and most of the major stores play this shitty game. LIDL recently joined the garbage club.
I find it insulting to be asked to pay £10 for a product or just by adding the app to my phone get the exclusive price of £5.50 as a member benefit.
How about not extorting the public into handing over their data to you? Shitty bastards.
I have only ever had 1 store card. I took it out when insuring my car as I saw it had a 15% discount when applied to my yearly insurance. I cancelled the "Tesco Clubcard" 1 minute after the insurance documents were delivered. I utterly despise them and want them all banned. The price should be the price. If they want to reward "loyalty" with additional gifts on top of that then no problem. But what we currently have is mafia style extortion.2
u/No_Atmosphere_6348 1d ago
But if you do got time for that, toothpaste, toilet paper, shampoo, etc can be really cheap. Otherwise I get that stuff at dollar tree.
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u/PeorgieT75 1d ago
I’ve bought them when I needed some and wasn’t planning on going to Costco. They’re $1.39/100 there if you want to buy 1000. Grocery and drug store prices on such things are crazy high.
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u/notattention 1d ago
Ibuprofen is weird. At Bjs their store brand is like twice as much as the Kroger brand
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u/Loveroffinerthings 1d ago
I don’t know where stores get off charging so much for cheap iodized table salt, diamond crystal I can see because it’s a different process, but bulk iodized salt should be no more than $1. There isn’t loss on it, it won’t spoil, it’s in a cardboard tube, like besides greed, what drives the price up!
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u/6SpeedBlues 1d ago
Marketing dollars for the label that says "Morton's" combined with consumers' recognition of the brand and willingness to pay for it because they have seen it advertised and "believe" it's better than something else.
Our first couple of trips through an Aldi resulted in us buying very little because we just didn't know any of the stuff there. After trying different items across the board, we found there was either no genuine appreciable difference between what they sell and the product with some "brand name" on it or that we actually PREFERRED the Aldi items.
We now stock up on various items from Aldi (like canned goods or we buy meats to portion them down size-wise from family packs then vacuum seal and freeze them at home), buy "some" produce at Aldi when it looks decent, and get the rest at other stores when we have to. We also still watch all of the sale flyers for all stores around us as we've gotten great deals on things there too when they have huge discounts going on (being able to buy Swanson chicken broth for less than the Aldi chicken broth, for example).
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u/xrelaht 1d ago
I just checked: a 26oz thing of iodized table salt at Kroger is 99¢. For that matter, they have 8xAA store brand batteries for $8 ($10 for Duracell). No idea where OP was shopping that it was so expensive.
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u/poop-dolla 17h ago
I did the same check with multiple expensive grocery stores near me and found the same general prices you mentioned.
OP had to have gone to a CVS/Walgreens type of place or maybe even just a convenience store like 7/11 or a gas station and called it a grocery store for some weird reason. No big chain grocery store is charging the prices OP listed.
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u/Prayer_Warrior21 1d ago
Protip: my local Mexican super mercado has CHEAP sea salt. Like $2 for a giant sack of it.
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u/lockednchaste 1d ago
Professors use salt as an example in discussions about economics, particularly inelastic demand.
Salt prices can withstand economic turmoil because 1)there really isn't a substitute and 2)most people don't use much of it.
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u/AreYouNigerianBaby 1d ago
Salt has an interesting and unique place in world history. Every ancient civilization was finding ways to mine, farm, and produce salt. My club read a nonfiction book called Salt. We learned so much-it’s fascinating how salt has contributed to human exploration, trade, growth, finances. Many words have been derived from the importance of salt in cultures.
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u/Vahdo 1d ago
Roman soldiers used to be paid in salt, that is where we get 'salary'.
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u/thewimsey 23h ago
That's where the word comes from, but they weren't actually paid in salt.
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u/Vahdo 20h ago
My bad, that does seem to be apocryphal. A better way to put it would probably be 'money for buying salt'.
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u/International-Pea614 1d ago
If you want to save money start buying rechargeable batteries. I've had my eneloops for years and years and no longer buy batteries.
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u/bikeking8 1d ago
It's THE best gift for parents of any child age 0-18, trust me. I got bunches of eneloop batteries. They also have C cell and D cell adapters!
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u/Vahdo 1d ago
How long do they last before you need to recharge? I wonder if it makes sense for an adult, cause I only need to use batteries for a handful of things a few times per year. It's mostly set and forget.
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u/International-Pea614 15h ago
Depends entirely on the power draw/use of the device. Remotes, toys and smoke alarms basically last forever. My Xbox controller which I use every day, I swap them every few weeks.
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u/poop-dolla 1d ago
What on earth? Where are you shopping? The energizer max AA 8 pack is only $9 at food lion near me. There and at the Kroger family store near me has the store brand ones for like $7 for an 8 pack. Are you shopping at a drug store and calling it a grocery store by accident? I could see CVS or Walgreens being that expensive, but not any big chain grocery store.
Same with salt. It’s $0.69 at one of those places and $0.89 at the other for their respective store brand containers.
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u/This-Positive286 1d ago
Aldi salt is cheap, not worth using. It’s full of sodium, look at the label!
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u/cecebebe 1d ago
Darn it, you're right. I'm gonna throw it away and go buy a new package.
It better not be full of sodium.
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u/lilbitspecial 1d ago
What ripoff store do you shop in? 😂
Even the worst store by me it's $1.49 for the same size salt.
But salt is cheaper in one of our stores than Aldi. 75 cents.
And batteries... $2.97 for batteries at regular store. $3.25 at Aldi.
I feel terrible for people living in areas with stores ripping them off so bad
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u/thewimsey 23h ago
I stopped by a chain grocery store to pick up a box of salt
What chain store?
I can buy salt at Kroger for 99c, and even WF is less than $3.49 for their house brand.
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u/Nobody_Cares_Do_They 14h ago
I can’t tell you how many times I see prices at Aldi and say, “and that’s what those things are supposed to cost.”
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u/TheGrouchyPunisher 1d ago
Around what area of the store are the batteries typically? I dont recall seeing them in my store, but that price sounds decent.
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u/studyhall109 13h ago
I had to find an employee and ask where the batteries were. Just a very small area near the checkout, easily overlooked.
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u/melatonia 1d ago
I've never seen any store sell store-brand salt for that high a price. You don't have to buy brand name.
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u/deltarefund 1d ago
I’d pay double for salt just to not have the terrible plastic canister
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u/UpsetUnicorn 1d ago
The Walmart kosher salt has a cardboard spout that pours horribly. I put it in a small decorative teapot. I mainly use it to clean my gardening gear. 🍃
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u/keeperofthenins 1d ago
Did the store not have a store brand of salt? Even our expensive grocery store have their store brand cheaper than that.
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u/EngineIntelligent394 1d ago
Be careful with cheap batteries though. They can break certain products if they're used.
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u/Xoxobrokergirl 9h ago
Just on the batteries, I know that name-brand are recommended for high power devices. My clear blue monitor needs the expensive ones to run properly.
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u/studyhall109 1d ago
$3.49 for a box of salt is just crazy. I would have paid a little more for it at the chain store to avoid making another stop but refuse to pay $3.49.
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u/poop-dolla 17h ago
What was the store? The prices you listed are unbelievable. I mean that literally. They’re 2-3 times higher than at any actual big chain grocery store that anyone in this thread has seen. Are you talking about a convenience store or a pharmacy instead of a grocery store like you said in the OP?
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u/Hair_I_Go 1d ago
I recently was checking out the price of regular sized candy bars 😳 at CVS like $3 and some change-
https://giphy.com/gifs/STfLOU6iRBRunMciZv
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u/SouthernMoment2918 1d ago
Seem like you have to shop at different stores now too get any kina of saving now just like you all I start alldis then Walmart last is Publix for their bread they bake because everybody else's bread sucks also there is a fresh more I go in thee morning at 8 because I get steaks and hamburger marked down from the previous day for around. 4 dollers a Pound
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u/Abject_Screen3249 1d ago
Something to note. There are different types of batteries. Alkaline and Lithium. Alkaline is cheaper. While Aldi is the G.O.A.T. on prices, batteries may not be the best comparison if you aren't sure which type they were between the 2.
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u/Graduallygrowing94 1d ago
Had a similar experience today! Popped into a regular store for caffeine-free Diet Coke (don’t judge me) and got some frozen mixed berries for my smoothie. $6.49 vs $12.25 (on sale!)
This is why I’m an Aldivangelist.
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u/Carpenter-Confident 1d ago
Not fond of Aldi batteries
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u/studyhall109 14h ago
This is my first time to try them. I needed batteries ASAP because my front door keyless entry batteries were dead. Normally I buy batteries at Costco in the large packages but it was Sunday evening and Costco was closed.
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u/Glittering_Win_9677 1d ago
Aldi was out ought frozen chocolate chocolate covered strawberries on my last 2 visits, so I checked them at Publix, where they were almost $6 and worse, were MILK chocolate! Everyone knows you use DARK chocolate for strawberries.
I'm going to make my own since I already have the berries and chocolate at home.
Yes, I know some people prefer milk chocolate, but they are wrong.
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u/PeorgieT75 1d ago
I shop at Aldi first, then fill in what they don’t have elsewhere.