Trader Joe's Is Culty But Okay

Trader Joe's is one of those places I feel has more of a cult-like following than actually offers "value" to customers, and that's not a diss on the place, mind you, but simply an observation. The first time I had ever been to one of their stores was probably 14 or 15 years ago when my wife and I lived in the Milwaukee area. They had one at the Bayshore Mall near Shorewood not that far from us.

People really talk it up, though. And I had been hearing a lot about it again for whatever reason so yesterday I thought, "Let's go and give it another look."

The store we went to was in the Brentwood area of St. Louis across the river from where we live now in Southern Illinois and was bigger than I remembered it to be the first time we went to one. I also did find the experience to be slightly better, but I was admittedly not much more impressed with the place than I was the first time either.

As I remembered it to be, it was a lot of organic and "healthy" hype, and the prices are still quite high compared to most other places I shop. I did notice the place was teeming with eager shoppers, though, piling all sorts of overpriced items gladly into their carts without a care in the world.

People like it, of course. There's a reason Trader Joe's has the following it does and continues to delight a certain group of shoppers. It is interesting to peruse some of the foods they offer, especially in the frozen aisle where they sell what I would call "restaurant fare in a bag or a box." 

We didn't buy much. Most of what they offer I can cook myself for much cheaper—even if something is a bit unique, it's not like I can't easily find a recipe online and go and get the ingredients and put it all together at a fraction of the price.

And what I would make at home would probably be healthier too despite Trader Joe's "healthy" angle.

It is among one of those places, as an investor, I would actually have some interest in investing in if it were publicly traded, partly exactly because of the trendy cult following it tends to have. Trader Joe's has a "hooked" audience who truly believe in Trader Joe's and would stop at nothing to shop there. 

There are many other places you can't say that about. That is what makes it interesting as a potential investment, of course.

All in all, I would say it was a bit "fun" to peruse the aisles. At the same time, we did not spend much. Only around $30. And we didn't get much for that. Just a couple of items. I don't think it will be 14 or 15 years before we return. But it also won't be often we will shop there. Maybe once or twice a year will be good enough for me.

Ruler Foods: Two Complaints

Don't get me wrong at the outset of this commentary. I am a huge fan of the Kroger brand of grocery stores known as Ruler's. For one thing they have stellar prices. And when I say stellar, I mean (if you have been following me) their prices far surpass, in many instances, my threshold prices on myriad regular items I generally buy.

For example, here are some current prices as of this writing that I think are out of this world:

• 1 dozen eggs, 28 cents
• 5 pound roll of 73/27 ground beef, $9.95 (or $1.99 per pound)
• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts $1.88 per pound
• Whole chicken, 95 cents per pound
• Green peppers, 49 cents each
• Cream soups, 49 cents each
• Taco seasoning packets, 39 cents each
• 16 ounce salad dressing, $1.29
• 3 pound bag of yellow onions, $1.49
• Box of two envelopes of onion soup mix, 69 cents
• 1 pound of ham lunch meat, $2.99
• 1 1/2 pound brick of cheese, $4.89

In addition, so far as I can tell, Ruler Foods has the best price in town on 75 feet of Reynold's Freezer Paper. A must for anyone like me who buys meats in bulk and freezes it in manageable portions. They also have the best price in town on gelatin which is a good thing since my wife does like her Jell-O. A simple 15 ounce can of pork and beans runs only 49 cents, and they are as good as some of the Bush's Best variety I like. My wife and I also generally will buy coffee creamer there, as well as cottage cheese, sour cream, margarine, soda, and laundry detergent as their prices stack up better against everyone else I shop.

Ruler Foods operates similar to the way that Aldi does. You pay a refundable 25 cents for your cart, and you bring your own bags or use boxes that the store may provide from it's stocking efforts to take out your groceries.

Here is my first complaint, and a bit of an observation.

I used to shop Aldi frequently before Ruler Foods came into town where I live. Honestly, Ruler Foods beats Aldi's prices, and that's why I rarely shop Aldi anymore. But whenever I plopped a quarter into my cart at Aldi, I always got it back when I returned my cart. Every single time. This process went without a hitch every single time, and there was never a time I did not easily retrieve my quarter.

Not so with Ruler Foods.

The Ruler Foood store in my area has been around for roughly two years, and their carts are already showing massive signs of wear when it comes to their "quarter" mechanisms. In the last 6 months I have gotten my quarter back roughly 75% of the time. Now, while that's not terrible, that means in another six months I may get my quarter back 50% of the time, and eventually, 25% of the time, and if the trend continues, may never see my quarter returned at all.

Ruler Foods needs to maintain their carts. It's only a quarter. But it's my quarter, and if Aldi can keep my quarters coming back so can Ruler Foods. It's a minor thing, but if you add a quarter to my bottom line, I do consider the offset. While it may not impact the cost of my food by that much, it is still a factor for me.

And I am a stickler for saving my money. All of it. Every single red cent of it.

My second complaint? For roughly three months Ruler Foods has had two advertised prices for a 30-pack of Busch Beer. $17.49 and $14.97. In that time $14.97 was the correct price and was honored. Today when I went to the store the cooler price was advertised as $17.49 and HUGE display in the middle of the store with stacks of 30 packs of Busch Beer and Busch Light advertised $14.97. But when I got to the register I was charged the $17.49 price.

You cannot and should not, for three consecutive months, not have the ability to know what your correct price is and make sure that you are advertising to the customer what the correct price is. What they have done, in my opinion, is condition the customer to trust the big middle aisle display as the correct price, and since many customers customarily do not check their receipts, they can sell beer at a great price that is not a great price once checkout is complete.

Between your carts and confusing pricing displays Ruler Foods, I suggest you get it together, because if I have to scan my receipts (and do anyway) and continue to find discrepancies, the likelihood that I continue to shop your store becomes less and less. If I cannot trust you, what is the point of trying to save money?

The Ruler Food store I shop is located at 1703 N. Belt West, Belleville, Illinois 62226.

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Aldi vs. Walmart

Perhaps I am not stating anything new, or I am rehashing old "sentiments," since I have written about my liking of the way Aldi Stores does things, and areas where I think Walmart seriously misses the mark many times before in the past. The fact is that when it comes to anything shopping related, and saving money in general, I am pretty good at what I do, and in no way I am trying to be vain about that.

The more I compare the two stores, Aldi and Walmart, the more convinced I become that there are more advantages to Aldi than there are to Walmart. These days I actually have to say that the best value a shopper can take advantage of comes from Aldi. Not so long ago you would have heard me continue to cite that Walmart mostly beats out the competition on price.

That is no more.

There are myriad items I find are much cheaper at Aldi than at Walmart, and let's be clear I am talking about unit cost here. Not overall price. Size matters when it comes to shopping for the best deal, as does knowing your prices when you shop. But moreover, knowing what you pay per pound, per square inch, and per ounce. That really is the art of comparing apples to apples, folks.

For example, let's take canned vegetables (even though I have recently shifted to frozen vegetables). The average price for the Aldi preferred brand is around 40 cents while Walmart's cheapest alternative is around 65 cents. Canned mushrooms are cheaper. So are Dakota's Best baked beans at Aldi, which by the way stack up rather nicely to even Bush's Best or the Great Value brand at Walmart. Tomato paste and tomato sauce are also significantly cheaper than anything offered at Walmart. And when it comes to some of those items, these are household staples.

Other items people like to buy that are cheaper at Aldi stores?

• Prepared noodles, be they the Reganno boxed variety or Aldi's mac and cheese
• Jarred spaghetti sauce
• Potato chips
• Snack crackers
• Take 'N Bake pizza

For the past three or so months I have also been buying my russet potatoes from Aldi. Why? Because a 10 pound bag of these at Aldi averages about $1.98 while Walmart's best price is about $3 more. A potato is a potato, right? Apples to apples.

But there is something else about Aldi that definitely wins very high marks. That is that despite a high volume of customer activity, and often times a higher volume of goods per cartload, Aldi gets you through their checkout line fast. The only complaint I have sometimes is that they do not take as much care with my canned goods, tossing them too roughly into the cart, causing denting which I detest. But even that is not an oft experienced thing.

Today I went to Walmart for a few essentials such as eggs, sliced cheese, beer (yes, beer is considered an essential in my household), jarred minced garlic, flavored waters, and so on and so forth. I of course got the best price since I bought these items there for that very reason. But the checkout time? Abysmal. I was in a line 3 deep and it took me fifteen minutes with relatively lowly filled carts just to advance to my own checkout. Even when I got there I swore the cashier was dead since she was barely moving. When you count in your head between beeps, you should never be able to get to "five, one thousand." But I was able to.

Walmart still holds the line on many items for me, and certainly when we are comparing stores ultimately, Walmart of course offers many more items and varieties of items. That all aside, my end result in my comparisons between the two stores is this; lower per item cost at Aldi, better overall experience at Aldi, more value for the money at Aldi, and certainly better customer service at Aldi.

If there is any store out there giving Walmart a real run for their money and taking up quite a lot of valuable market share, it has to be Aldi. I will certainly continue to shop there so long as their prices are good, and so long as the quality of their products are good (which both are). There are so many reasons why shopping at Aldi is simply overall a better experience. If Aldi offered the same level of goods as Walmart did I am certain the value would be there, and I would have no reason to shop Walmart at all.

Both Aldi and Walmart would be wise to pay attention to that.

Imagine for a moment the opening of the first Aldi Super Store. I bet it would go over like gangbusters. And if anyone could figure out the best and most efficient way to manage an operation  like that, it might just be a company like Aldi. Sadly it is a German company. But in the world of business what matters most is service, value, and quality, and if Aldi can find a way to do better than American owned Walmart...

That is exactly where my money will go.

You Will Like Aldi Stores

Really, there are many things to like about Aldi stores. A couple of things you notice right off the bat are parking lots devoid of shopping carts lying around in cart corrals or worse, rested up against your front quarter panel on your shiny new car. Aldi has the unique system of a "cart deposit." In other words, you have to insert a quarter to get your cart, and return the cart to the corral at the front of the building to get your quarter back.

Everyone goes back for their quarter and I have never seen anyone leave their cart behind. Not once.

Another thing you notice right off the bat are clean and bright stores, albeit small and compact, but loaded up with all of the normal household items you may be buying already on a regular basis. I have always encountered helpful and friendly staff, and have to be honest when I say I have never had a bad experience at an Aldi store and I have been shopping there for years.

Sure. It's a German company. But one thing that is also worth noting about Aldi Stores is that they pay their employees very well, and I think this helps to ensure that customer service is top notch. Employees are happy, willing to hustle, willing to be helpful, and that makes a world of difference in

my opinion. It is also partly why I think I have never encountered a bad experience there. The average starting wage for a cashier is $12.50 per hour, and rather than force their employees to stand on their feet all day, cashiers are situated comfortably in a chair.

And they are fast. Super fast. Very much unlike when you go to Walmart and swear that the cashiers are paid bonuses for checking people out as slowly as possible.

Another interesting observation about Aldi Stores is that the shelves are always full. And I mean always. The people who work at Aldi Stores are constantly moving things through the aisles to make sure that anything in stock is stocked and readily available to the customer. I have never had to track someone down and ask, "Do you have any more of 'these' in the back?" Never.

What strikes me the most are the prices. Granted, if you are buying meats at Aldi Stores on a regular basis, I cannot understand why. Their meat prices are nothing to write home about. In fact, they are horribly high compared to other supermarkets and even Walmart for that matter. By the way, Walmart meat prices are also almost always higher than anyone else. Keep that in mind if you are a loyal Walmart customer.

The average price for a can of vegetables? About 40 cents. You cannot buy canned vegetables anywhere cheaper than Aldi Stores, period. Even their canned tomato sauces and diced tomatoes are the cheapest I have found anywhere, and I have to tell you.

The quality is as good as anyone.

Even when it comes to my creamed soups, I buy these almost exclusively at Aldi Stores. I also almost exclusively buy cans of tuna and canned mushrooms there. They literally have the best prices I have found anywhere on these items. And again, the quality is as good as anyone.

A fan of mac and cheese? They have the best price I have found for that too, averaging out to about 39 cents a box, and it is as good as any mac and cheese you can buy unless you are a die-hard Kraft fan.

As far as their produce goes, this is impressive as well. Not only are the prices of Aldi Stores' produce fantastic, the quality of their produce is as good as anyone as well. On my last trip I bought a 3 pound bag of yellow onions for 99 cents, and even bought two 5 pound bags of red potatoes for $1.99 each. When it comes to red potatoes, that's a steal. Hell, it was a steal compared to even regular russets.

Another thing that readily becomes visible is the amount of food you can stuff in your cart, that when you checkout would probably cost you three times what it costs you at an Aldi Store. A $50 cart of food from Aldi adds up to bags and bags and bags of stuff. You cannot say that about Walmart, or even the lowest priced discount supermarket in your neighborhood.

Aldi Stores is definitely a place to check out if you have never been. I am liking Aldi, and I think you will too.

Think Aldi is only for poor people? Think again. If you aren't shopping at Aldi not only are you probably wildly overpaying for many of the items you generally keep in your pantry. You may well be making yourself poor in the process without even realizing it.

Another last minute observation about Aldi Stores parking lots? You will find few late model cars parked in them. Instead you see BMW's, Jaguar's, Cadillac's, Lincoln's, and newer model regular makes. Aldi Stores are not stores for the poor. They are stores for smart shoppers who enjoy excellent customer service, excellent quality products, and who choose to keep the money they save there for more important things.

What Happened To Onion Prices?

It seems like a silly thing to write a blog about, but as a guy who absolutely loves his onions, when the prices for onions have nearly doubled in the last month or so, this just really gets my goat. I don't know about how things go in your house, but in my house? Onions are a staple. I use onions in nearly every single dish I cook. I use onions on my sandwiches, and onions go in my salad as well.

Still, I also happen to be one of those guys who watches prices very carefully. Call me anal retentive, I don't care. It wouldn't be the first time I've been called that. And in watching those prices I also have set prices in my head for how much I'm ultimately willing to pay for an item.

Pork, for example, stands around under $2 a pound. Regular beef stuff (unless we're talking about steak or something like that) I'll fork over no more than $3 a pound. I'm a sale stocker too. When things go on sale, so long as it's not something sure to perish in any short period of time, I scoop it up right quick, and in whatever quantity I can. Especially if it happens to be an item I use a lot of.

And when prices bump up above what I'm ultimately willing to pay for them I stop buying them. I boycott them. Sometimes painfully so. In the case of the onion situation, I've not been able to outright stop using them...

But I sure do buy them in much smaller quantities, and I have avoided using them in all of my dishes.

So adamant am I on this type of thing that I once went without ground beef for nearly two years. At the time it went for around 99 cents per pound—and was at least on sale for that price nearly all the time. When it bumped up to $1.19 I said no thanks to it. Then it bumped up to $1.39, and soon thereafter $1.59. I refused to buy it. I've since changed my price to around $1.79-$1.99 depending on whether it is ground chuck, or ground round, or ground beef.

I wonder sometimes if they get it. The marketers? Do they get it? Am I the only one who changes his buying habits according to the price? I mean, in this case I am sure there is something that has happened to have caused the onion prices to have doubled. But still. Do they get that I'm buying less? Will this help drive the prices down? Will onions ever go back to their old prices?

Or will I have to wait two years before I break down and change my price threshold?