Some of these may surprise you Aldi is a great place to shop. Famous for its no-frills approach, low prices and high-quality products. Not to mention the middle aisle containing a mismatch of incredibly cheap and highly covetable items, from high gadget tin openers to leaf blowers.
It's the kind of store where you might go in for tea bags and leave with a kayak. As a former employee, I've compiled a list of things you might not know about Aldi, and some of them may surprise you. 14.
Discounts All perishable food products nearing their sell-by date get reduced throughout the day, up to 75%. These include bread, meat, and produce, while imperfectly packaged items like rice, cereal, and tinned food are discounted by 30%. The best time for reduced items is usually towards the end of the day, but you might find some before then, too.
Keep a lookout for the red stickers. Unlike other supermarkets, however, Aldi doesn’t gather its red sticker items together, so you’ll need to keep your eyes peeled for offers dotted around the store. 13.
Too Good To Go What about all the reduced items that don't sell? Aldi offers Too Good to Go - if a food item is nearing it's sell-by date and hasn't been bought, it will be scooped up and put into a box full of food items with a value of no less than £10, but you can get it for just £3.30. It's a great way to help stop food wastage and get loads of great food for your money.
Buy through the Too Good To Go app. 12. Specialbuys The best time to get Specialbuys is as soon as the store opens at 8am.
Specialbuys are often very limited so you need to be quick to avoid disappointment. Aldi has two days of Specialbuys: Thursday and Sunday. You can tell where they are by the colour of the signage above the aisle that they are in.
Thursdays are blue, Sundays are orange. These are usually at the back of the store in the middle aisles. You can keep up to date with what Specialbuys are coming on Aldi's Instgram page @aldispecialbuysuk or by downloading the Aldi app.
11. Timing and Targets Not only do employees have to reach a scanning target of 1500 items an hour, they are also timed on how long it takes them to work a palette of stock. This means stock can be replenished frequently throughout the day.
As a result, the store can hire less staff and, in turn, keep the prices low. 10. Dupes There's nothing more satisfying than finding a good dupe.
Something that works just as well as your favourite moisturiser, with an equally efficacious ingredients list, but at a fraction of the price. Aldi's hair and beauty Specialbuy items are really, really good. From Clinique moisturiser dupes to Dior lip oil dupes, the beauty products never disappoint.
And they're always at least halt the price of the original product. But grab them while you can - most of it doesn't stay on the shelves for long. One Aldi worker raved on the "amazing" tangle teezer brush dupe, saying it "feels like a head massage".
9. Flowers Don't dismiss the flower section! Flowers are much cheaper than other supermarkets and they last a good while. Check the label for their best before date.
8. Cigarettes Ever wondered why Aldi don't sell cigarettes? It stems back to the 1960s when the founders of the store, German brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht, disagreed on whether to sell tobacco products. Following the disagreement, the chain was split into two: Aldi North, run by Theo, which sold cigarettes; and Aldi South, owned by Karl, which did not.
When they expanded overseas from Germany, they divided the countries of the world up between them, and it is Karl’s Aldi South that runs the Aldi stores in the UK. As a result, Aldi stores in the UK do not sell cigarettes, unlike most of the conventional, big supermarket chains. 7.
Best food dupes If you're afraid of venturing beyond non-branded items, here's a few Aldi products to start off with. You might not even be able to tell the difference. Nutoka tastes almost exactly like Nutella - and it's a fraction of the price.
Belmont biscuit spread tastes exactly the same as Lotus Biscoff spread. A current Aldi told the ECHO: "I think the Racer bars are better than the real Snickers to be honest." 6.
Best alcohol dupes Since the seasonal Wine of the Week offers did so well, Aldi extended the deal to last all-year-round. Some of the best (tried and tested) alcohol dupes are: Aldi's Haysmith’s Rhubard and Ginger gin. At £14.
99, it's been named one of the best gins in the world - achieving the highest accolade, a Gold Outstanding award at the IWSC Spirits Awards. St Germont Vodka, also £14.99, offers a premium taste that rivals Grey Goose, which is currently marketed at £41.
50 in Morrison's. 5. Pack after you pay Staffing is limited at Aldi, which is why customers are encouraged to pack after they pay for their items to keep the queues down, which in turn keeps the prices low because the store can hire less staff.
4. Boxes for bags This is one for any store, really. If you forget your bags, grab an empty cardboard box from the produce section.
They usually have handles. Saves plastic and saves your change. 3.
Electric price cards Most Aldi stores now have electric price cards which update prices automatically. If an item is missing on the shelf, check the price card to see if it has an 'Out of Stock' sign on it. If it does, you know there won't be any more in the back.
On the contrary, if it doesn't show this message on the card, staff will be more than happy to check in the back for you. 2. Magnificent memories This one is no longer the case – BUT – once upon a time all in-store Aldi colleagues had to remember the prices of 750 products, and the codes for them.
While they now have barcode readers to do that for them, many products - such as produce items - still require staff to memorise the codes by-heart. 1. Always recruiting Aldi is always looking for new people to join the team, and if you don't mind early starts and a bit of hard work, it's a great job to have.
Some perks include paid breaks, a pension plan and chances of career progression. Find out more here ..
