Byerly’s

Yes, in Chippewa Falls, WI., you do.

It helps to know what you’re getting into when shopping at Aldi. Yes, you need a quarter for a shopping cart that you get back when you put the cart back. You need to bring your own bags.

Like a lot of businesses nowadays, they expect more out of their staff, so the people stocking shelves may be the ones who run up to a register when there’s a line, so you may need to wait a little to check out.

But I’d say their basics/staples are good enough quality that you can save a ton by shopping there. Eggs, milk, cheese, canned goods, yogurt, butter, chips, etc. I was told once that their produce is hit or miss and I’d say that’s true. Just look your produce over before you put it in your cart. Where I go there’s a few grocery options in close proximity so if Aldi’s produce isn’t looking real hot I’ll go to Walmart a few minutes away and finish my grocery runs there.

It’s not sexy but it’s a place I’d recommend.

CaptainMusky wrote:

We have a Byerly’s here in St Cloud, but I dont shop there often. When I do its to buy 7th Avenue Pizza.

my very ex mother in law shopped at that one

Back then it was the grocery store the well to do(rich people) shopped!

The clientel in Aldi is worse than Walmart. That’s the primary reason I rarely go to either one. When my wife wants to go there, she always asks me to come with. When I say no, she refuses to go solo.

gim wrote:

The clientel in Aldi is worse than Walmart. That’s the primary reason I rarely go to either one. When my wife wants to go there, she always asks me to come with. When I say no, she refuses to go solo.

haha. ive actually never been inside an ALDI but a while a go a friend asked me to stop there on the way up north so he could pick up a few things. i sat in the parking lot for 20 minutes while he shopped and yeah…. i came to the same conclusion lol. Wouldnt stop me from shopping there but yeah Aldi seems to draw a certain type of crowd. makes sense i suppose with the low costs

We shop a few local coops once in awhile. It’s hit or miss but I find meat and produce is usually really good. The prices can be all over the board though.

Lakewinds in Richfield is one of them. I believe they have a couple locations in town.

I’m an Aldi shopper for most groceries. Good savings and while the produce can be hit or miss, I’ve found it to be more hit than miss. The thing is the stuff is ripe right now so you do have to eat it ASAP, but I think that provides best taste rather than eating something less ripe or having to wait a week or two for it to ripen.

As for the clientele, I’ve actually seen the opposite here in Brainerd. It’s more like the Target clientele, whereas the Cub/Super One is like the Walmart clientele.

In regards to the Aldi clientele, it’s somewhat location-specific. I’ve been to some of the worse ones, but the one in Maple Grove is pretty decent. I don’t go there a lot because I prefer to do one-stop grocery shopping, but $1.49 pineapples are addictive. I’ve also found that they’re pumpkins are impossible to beat (and MN-grown, too).

Yes, Byerly’s is expensive… In other news, water is wet.

glenn57 wrote:

my very ex mother in law shopped at that one

Back then it was the grocery store the well to do(rich people) shopped!

Agreed, when I first moved to this area back in 1997 that is what I thought too. I had aspirations to one day shop there when I made enough money LOL
Its not a convenient store for me to shop there so I just usually go to Coborns. I would go out of my way to shop at Hy Vee if they could ever break down the Coborns monopoly in this area.

CaptainMusky wrote:

…if they could ever break down the Coborns monopoly in this area.

Ha ha ha! Good luck with that.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

In regards to the Aldi clientele, it’s somewhat location-specific.

This has been my experience 100%. St Cloud got one of the first Aldi’s back when I lived there 10+ years ago, and it was a S show and half the produce was rotten before I got it home. Fast forward to Chaska getting an Aldi a couple years ago, and it’s great. Produce is rarely, if ever, close to bad (unlike my experiences at Costco, Target and Cub recently) and save a ton shopping there. I read a business article about how SuperValu or Walmart was saying they wish they had the supply chain as dialed in as Aldi.

FWIW Coborns is the best imo, although growing up in Sartell can kind of bias you as the Coborns family shopped at the same stores, and sponsored everything in town, up to and including the Cancer Center at St Cloud Hospital.

I have had one one bad experience with Costco produce, and that was kiwi that wasn’t ripe. Other than that I love Costco produce.

I’d be willing to check out the Aldi’s in st cloud again,but when I mentioned it to my wife she just curled her nose. Last time I was in there it looked like a dump not to mention I’m not a generic fan. And it seemed pretty dumpy.

Was just putting together an order for a Papa Murphy’s pick-up after work and a 3 topping family size pizza is now $18! Papa Murph’s ain’t that good!

Haven’t been to Byerlys in 3 years.. do they still bag and carry out ?

Also Thielens does a bang up job of making bacon from your venison… give that a try if you can 😍

More of a reply to the discussion about produce in the thread. We eat a ton of fresh fruits and vegetables.

We’ve found Fresh Thyme to be a good source and reasonable prices. Their meat counter is also very good…thick cut applewood bacon $5.49 (did I just say that is a good value?). The company was started by former Sprouts executives. Sprouts is a very popular produce store in the west and southwest.

We’ve vacillated on Aldi quality over the years but in the past 2 years or so I would say their quality is as good or better than many of our other choices (Costco, Sam’s, Hy-Vee, Target… only shop Walmart for produce as a last resort).

So for us it is usually Aldi or Fresh Thyme.

rvvrrat wrote:

More of a reply to the discussion about produce in the thread. We eat a ton of fresh fruits and vegetables.

We’ve found Fresh Thyme to be a good source and reasonable prices.

I was actually just going to mention Fresh Thyme. My son used to work there so we used to shop there a fair amount.

Fresh Thyme produce is very good.

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>LabDaddy1 wrote:</div>
Package of Driscoll strawberries was $7 the other day… sad

That’s the normal price in the middle of winter.

$70/pound for king crab is not normal.

It’s also not “normal” for the Alaskan king crab fishery to be closed for the season. The only king crab available on the market is from Russian waters. Supply and demand folks.
Not directed at anyone in particular, but it never ceases to amaze me how certain segments of our citizenry will talk a big game about the “free market” and “supply and demand” the whine when such things affect the price of things they actually notice.