The Aldis in Illinois roughly 20 years ago were bottom-barrel discount grocery stores. Poorly maintained and all the produce was very suspicious. I don't know which half of the Aldi empire owned those stores.
Aldi has improved in the Chicago area in the last decade. There's been a wave of new construction in more affluent suburbs and stores have expanded to include liquor sales in certain areas.
But yeah, it's still no frills. Staples like milk and baking goods are dirt cheap, but I wouldn't chance the produce. Lots of processed food. Bakery is all mass-produced.
Interestingly, the supermarkets I've been to in Germany lately are becoming more like US ones (Rewe, Edeka) but some are still super no-frills (Penny Markt, Norma)
That's a scary thought.. As recently as 2011 when given an Aldi and a Rewe next door to each other, it was really difficult to ever choose Aldi (in fact, the only reason to really venture in was their cheap and unlimited 3G SIM card resales). That said, Rewe managed to also make itself more useful in the process by actually having everything I needed so the extra price ended up working out, to some degree, if you count convenience.
It is. The Aldi's in Wisconsin, USA are pretty much the exact same as the one I was at in Berlin, except for different brands. Pretty much the same layout, except the Berlin one had beer.
> The Aldis in Illinois roughly 20 years ago were bottom-barrel discount grocery stores. Poorly maintained and all the produce was very suspicious. I don't know which half of the Aldi empire owned those stores.
All Aldis in the United States are Aldi South. The two Aldis are territorially-exclusive when it comes to the Aldi branding.
Incidentally, Aldi South has a different logo from Aldi North. So you can go to any country with an Aldi and tell which half it belongs to.
Trader Joes is owned by the north aldi brother.