We can all agree Aldi have some good stuff but sometimes there’s some bad too. I’d like to hear about your favs and not so favs.
Don’t worry if it’s not food based. We will forgive you.
I’ll start a Coles/Woolworths post in the near future.
We can all agree Aldi have some good stuff but sometimes there’s some bad too. I’d like to hear about your favs and not so favs.
Don’t worry if it’s not food based. We will forgive you.
I’ll start a Coles/Woolworths post in the near future.
Some of this info may be outdated as some stuff I no longer buy and I no longer get to Aldi much.
Nthed on the chocolate, it’s quality. From what I can remember the chips, biscuits and lollies are okay. Nutella substitute was fine, maybe a little stiff and less spreadable but eh. I don’t remember anything bad about the peanut butter (the generic may have been less spreadable too but I buy generic pb from a number of places so I forget). I got the smooth variety of own brand and Jif.
The mints and gum are fine but are not 100% sugar free (if you use them through the day or after meals for your teeth). The whey based protein bars are cheap and not too sweet but small, basic and rather hard. Three flavours. Fine for an emergency handbag or desk snack if you can tolerate protein bars, just get a few. Also be mindful if artificial sweetener is a problem.
Soy milk is good, bread is good, cheese good, party pies were good. If I could still eat them and the noodles/ramen I’d be all over that. No complaints with the tinned tuna, Sirena will always be best but the price is right. Tomato sauce was ok as far as I remember. All the basics were at least tolerable.
Apples, carrots, potatoes and nuts or dates were all good. (Just avoid Red Delicious apples as they’re floury and bland - Pink Lady is much better.)
From what I remember the TP is ok - at least pick one most similar to your usual and give it a go. I still get the unscented Trimat laundry sauce and the goats milk soap at any opportunity because they’re good for my needs and the hand wash does the job. So do the cleaning products. The laundry stain spray is good but very smelly and floral. The enzyme soaker is good but possibly a similar scent (it was a while ago).
The deodorant rollons they used to sell (‘Prince’ and the female alternative) were ok but YMMV - the ‘sensitive’ one wasn’t very effective. I think the brands may be different now. I used to get their very cheap bulk boxes of tampons but since lockdowns they’re now replaced by more standard size packs - those are still cheaper than brand and do the job but I don’t really like them. The generic paracetamol and ibuprofen are fine, but the cheapest tend to be the large circular pills rather than caplets. I haven’t tried the pawpaw ointment or the chapsticks. The bandaids claim to be latex free but can still irritate my skin.
The little tins of cat food didn’t agree with Melbcat. She’s sensitive. The cat I looked after before getting him back to his owner liked the Felix pouches (but he was starving and I’d check the quality before feeding long term).
I used to use the retinol face cream in the red tub when I still did much in the way of skincare, that’s gone now. But when I still wore makeup I found the makeup varied in quality - the mascara wasn’t good and due to limited shades I didn’t try the foundation. The standard bullet lippies were fine if the colour suited. Now there’s much less to choose from, not much I’d be interested in and I’d be checking if it was cruelty free. If you ever see the foot cream in stock grab it - it’s only sold sometimes but it’s $3 and very effective.
Some used to sell bottles of tea tree oil but it seems no longer.
Unfortunately and very annoyingly I don’t rate their sunscreen. Even the Ombre stuff that some people say is good (and they put it on their face) stings my face and is kinda greasy anywhere. Possibly a white cast too. Better than none and can be used on the back of hands but I go elsewhere for sunscreen.
Edit: I forgot to say the moscato wine was decent for $5. However I no longer drink and it was also sugary sweet. If you drink and you have some kind of booze you like try the Aldi version as they seem to have a good reputation for it.
Also their mouthwash. I get the alcohol free as it doesn’t burn.
I shop at aldi so I have a couple of vouches:
Nutella knockoff is decent. it obviously tastes different to brand name, but it’s not bad or even worse imo. But it does go runny when melted, so on toast it has a tendency to go from a thick paste to closer to water (but still a bit more viscous). It doesn’t sog the bread, but does go everywhere if you use much
The cheese is fine, although I don’t eat much and almost keeled over when I saw the price of it these days. Still more expensive at colesworth though.
I don’t like their party pies but don’t mind the bigger ones. I don’t like any home brand sausage rolls I’ve tried, the pastry they all use tastes funky to me. But I like other quick snack foods they have like the tenders and such. The tuna is nice
I find their strawberries are usually quite fresh. I don’t know if my local Coles is just garbage or what, but I feel like everytime I get any punnet berries from Coles there’s a few punnets with mild on them, and the ones without go moldy within a few days. Aldi is good for at least a week, and I’ve yet to see them go moldy, worst that’s happened is I forgot about a punnet in the back of the fridge for 2.5 weeks and they’d gone kind of slushy
I also find their packaged produce like Ceasar salad and such as well as pasta salads and similar don’t last anywhere near as long as Coles and Woolies ones. perhaps my local aldi just doesn’t sell them fast enough, but I notice I can only find ones in aldi expiring within a few days, whereas Coles and Woolies are good for longer (particularly the pasta salads)
The bog roll is fine, I was briefly spoiled with some quilton for a while and only thing I note from that is that the aldi one is slightly harder to tear at the little perforation line thing and needs a bit more effort, but not unmanageable. Mind you, for about 4.5 years all I had access to was cheap nasty sandpaper style crappy 1 plus garbage jumbo roll things, so anything else is a step up, no matter how cheap.
I’ve used their deodorants before (the prince spray one), but I didn’t really like the smell. Smelt more chemically than name brand stuff. These days I just stick to the plain Rexona stuff which they also sell and isn’t much pricier. Their knockoff Panadol (“Headanol”) works fine, although I really struggle swallowing them because they’re very large and aren’t coated, so it dissolves the second it touches water (including your hands if they’re sweaty). But it’s also literally 80 cents for a 20 pack so you get what you pay for
I haven’t tried their face creams but I might see if they have one next time I go there. I’ve been paying like 15 bucks for one from Woolies (which is probably cheap, seeing as all other face care and beauty stuff seems to be expensive as shit). But it is another trip to do every fortnight, so even if it’s not much cheaper, if it works well it’s worth it just to save the extra trip
Yeah the Hedanol is like horse pills