Convenience. Cost cutting sans coupons or membership cards. Quality produce. And, a neighborhood strip that tends to look unkempt gets a store with a reputation for cleanliness and neatness — these are but a few reasons I say “look kids, Aldi!” every morning as we pass the sign that went up on Forest near Audelia about a week or two ago.

Did you know that there’s sort-of an Aldi cyber cult out there? Frugal-mom blogs brag infinitum on the wonders of the discount grocer. Some travel up to 50 miles to shop there! There are cookbooks and websites dedicated to recipes made exclusively from Aldi ingredients. There are even Aldi-themed parties.

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A few bits about the Aldi shopping experience from my web search:

They sell electronics at a discount, and canned goods for 37 cents. Bring a quarter — Aldi’s asks for a deposit in order to use one of their shopping carts. This is in order to deter people from leaving the carts all over the place. You get your money back when you bring the cart back and dock it. Bring your own bags or be prepared to shell out a few extra cents. And the checkouts, manned by actual human beings are supposedly super effecient — products have several barcodes to speed checkout and a one second delay to ensure items aren’t scanned twice. There are no phones at the checkouts, either, so the cashiers don’t get distracted. Also, a high school diploma or equivalency is required for all Aldi cashiers. Not that high school kids aren’t perfectly effecient and focused …

Aldi at Forest-Audelia and another at Northwest Highway-Abrams are on schedule to open this spring.