(upbeat music)
- Hey Munchies, welcome to the channel,
if you're new or if you're not,
I'm Alyssia and I'm so excited you're here.
Last month I did a video comparing prices
at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods
and so many people requested I follow it
with a comparison of Trader Joe's and Aldi.
A lot of people told me
that they're owned by the same parent company
and after some research it seems that is not exactly true.
Without getting into too many details,
in short, Aldi Nord or North is a branch of Aldi
and they own Trader Joe's in the U.S.
But the Aldi stores that you see in the U.S.
are run by Aldi Sud, South, I believe,
a separate branch of Aldi
and are separate from Trader Joe's,
so pretty much as one article that I read said,
they are more like estranged cousins, but regardless,
the stores are run independently with no joint ownership.
Still, I thought this would be a fun episode
and I learned a lot.
What did I do?
Again, as I did before,
I couldn't compare every single item in both stores,
but I picked over 100, this time I actually did 130 items
from the produce, pantry, dairy and fridge,
freezer and meat and seafood departments at each store.
And these are based on items that I would usually buy,
so they're my staples.
I wouldn't necessarily buy all of these items
every single week obviously,
but they are things I would buy in general.
So what did I learn?
Let me give you an overview.
My expectation going into this
was that everything would be cheaper at Aldi.
I don't actually have an Aldi close to me now.
I used to shop at Aldi when I lived in New York City.
I even took you guys there to my Aldi
in one of my very first YouTube videos years and years ago.
But where I live now in California,
the nearest one is about an hour away
and it's been a few years
since I've shopped there regularly,
so it seems a lot has changed.
Let's start with produce.
Aldi did have less organic options,
but they had more than I remembered
and some of the findings were surprising.
Some of the deals at Aldi were insane.
A pack of organic avocados was only $1.49, a four-pack.
That is a whole five bucks cheaper than Trader Joe's
for the same four-pack.
It's even cheaper than the non-organic option.
Other super saver deals were bananas
at a whopping 13 cents each compared to 19 cents
at Trader Joe's.
Cilantro at 15 cents compared to $1.19.
Brussel sprouts at 69 cents per pound
versus $2.49 at Trader Joe's.
Green onion at 19 cents per bunch versus $1.29.
A cucumber was only 10 cents at Aldi
versus a $1.49 at Trader Joe's.
And a single mango was 25 cents at Aldi
and 99 cents at Trader Joe's.
So those are bangin' deals for sure,
but not everything is that cheap.
Organic apples, avocados and broccoli were cheaper at Aldi,
although they didn't have precut florets.
So the convenience is not something
you're likely gonna find with Aldi produce.
Green bell peppers were also cheaper at Aldi.
Actually, they were the same price
as the Whole Foods peppers I shared in the last video,
and I couldn't believe that bell peppers
were cheaper at Whole Foods than Trader Joe's.
Organic oranges were cheaper at Aldi,
but non-organic were not, oddly.
And regular blackberries, in both regular and organic,
raspberries and strawberries, were cheaper at Aldi.
Organic berries are not cheap,
so I was happy and surprised to see that.
Organic blackberries and blueberries, however,
as well as organic baby carrots
were cheaper at Trader Joe's, who knew.
Also cherry and grape tomato varieties
were about the same price,
but they were organic at Trader Joe's and not at Aldi,
so that is worth considering if it's important to you.
I was happy to see that Cara Cara oranges,
which I have shared my love for before on the channel
and I actually discovered through Trader Joe's,
are in fact cheaper at Trader Joe's than Aldi
as is prepackaged guacamole.
This one was a little bit deceiving
because the price was cheaper at Aldi,
it was $2.99 per pack, but it's a 10-ounce package at Aldi
as opposed to a 16-ounce package at Trader Joe's,
so per ounce, Trader Joe's actually wins.
This becomes very relevant in the next department.
Overall though in produce,
most things were cheaper at Aldi but not consistently.
And the items that were cheaper at Trader Joe's
were mostly organic items, which was surprising.
Still, when I compared all produce items
at Trader Joe's to Aldi, Aldi was 24% cheaper
just with produce though,
we need to look at everything else to get the full picture
and some of it may surprise you.
So pantry is next, and this was so sneaky.
At first glance, so many items seem cheaper at Aldi,
and it wasn't until I put everything
in my little spreadsheet and I crunched the numbers
and I realized why, Aldi's packaging sizes
are completely different and almost always smaller,
so even if it's a lower price, you're getting less food.
I adjusted the package sizes to compare by ounce
and when I adjusted it, the whole story changed.
For instance, almond butter is $4.89 at Aldi,
but that's for 12 ounces,
compared to a 16-ounce container at Trader Joe's.
If we adjust the price of the Aldi almond butter
to match the 16-ounce container size at Trader Joe's,
it ends up costing three cents more at Aldi.
Now I know that is not much,
but it means Trader Joe's is actually cheaper per ounce
even though the price tag on Aldi's almond butter is lower.
Not to mention the Aldi variety has added sugar.
As I went through the pantry items at Aldi
another theme became clear.
Ingredients are not as considered in Aldi products
as they are in Trader Joe's.
Like coconut milk for example.
You can find it at Aldi, but with a lot of other added stuff
that the Trader Joe's version doesn't have,
and actually it was cheaper at Trader Joe's and organic.
The same goes for cooking spray and macadamia nuts at Aldi,
which had unnecessary added junk
and came in smaller sizes, too.
Cashews were also deceiving price-wise at Aldi.
The 10-ounce bag seems like a good price,
but it ends up costing more per ounce than Trader Joe's.
Also, Aldi was out of coconut oil,
but the price was still there.
Both Aldi and Trader Joe's coconut oil are cold pressed,
virgin and unrefined, but the smaller 14-ounce size
from Aldi makes a difference.
If it were a 16-ounce jar,
there would only be about a 40 cent difference
between the two as opposed to a full dollar.
That marketing makes a difference,
so $3.99 for oil sounds way cheaper than $4.99.
Olive oil was even trickier.
$6.49 cents at Trader Joe's and only $3.89 at Aldi.
It sounds so cheap, but the Trader Joe's bottle
is actually twice the size,
double the price of the Aldi oil, and again,
you end up with a more expensive product per ounce.
Aldi's organic, extra virgin olive oil was cheaper, however.
Dried blueberries were another tricky one.
$2.89 at Aldi seems cheap compared to $5.99 at Trader Joe's,
but it is a 3.5-ounce pack compared to an eight ounce pack,
and once again, Trader Joe's is giving ya
more bang for your buck.
This happened again and again, with pumpkin seeds,
bean chips, gluten free pasta varieties, tortilla chips,
vanilla extract and more.
These end up being cheaper at Trader Joe's
once you account for the difference in size
and price them out per ounce.
Salt and pepper shakers also seemed cheaper at Aldi
but were in fact just smaller sizes.
The rest of the seasonings, however,
were actually more affordable at Aldi
for the same size and organic,
which Trader Joe's does not carry.
That being said, be careful with the spice blends at Aldi,
which often have a lot of added preservatives and junk
that just aren't needed in a spice mix.
Overall, most things were actually cheaper
at Aldi in the pantry department,
but you have to be careful with those packaging sizes.
It's definitely an intentional marketing choice
to make us think we're saving more money
than we actually are.
In fact, I compared the price of all the pantry items
from each store and it turns out Aldi
is only about 9% cheaper than Trader Joe's in pantry alone,
so we've got more to consider.
Dairy and fridge is next.
We had a clearer winner here.
Trader Joe's was cheaper in four of the items I looked at,
but again, this was not the case at first glance.
Blue cheese crumbles, feta cheese and string cheese
all had a lower price at Aldi,
but the packages were smaller.
Per ounce, the better deal was at Trader Joe's.
Eggs were also surprisingly cheaper at Trader Joe's,
although Aldi did specifically have a sign up saying
that the prices were increased due to limited stock.
This was in the middle of the COVID-19
quarantine situation in California.
In general, eggs are definitely cheaper at Aldi,
although they don't offer organic.
Everything else in the dairy and fridge department
was actually cheaper at Aldi though,
and not just seemingly, but per ounce.
Even organic items like yogurt, hummus,
kombucha, orange juice, and surprisingly extra firm tofu,
they were all cheaper at Aldi.
When I calculated out the full prices
for the dairy department Aldi was 18% cheaper
than Trader Joe's.
Freezer is next.
Aldi is really, really limited on solid freezer choices,
especially cleaner items
without added unnecessary ingredients
and preservatives or sugar.
Mixed berries, frozen corn and organic peas
are available at Aldi and cheaper than Trader Joe's
as well as the frozen organic blueberries.
There weren't really many other frozen items to compare
that weren't pre-made items,
so let's move on to the last category, meat and seafood.
It gets interesting here.
I remember from when I used to shop at Aldi
that meat and seafood are not consistent,
so like a lot of the items at Aldi,
it sort of depends on what's available week to week.
They don't have many organic items and when they do
it's hit or miss with the price.
This particular week they had organic whole chicken,
which was cheaper per pound than Trader Joe's,
but the only other organic meat
that they had was chicken breast
and that was more expensive per pound at Aldi.
They did have tilapia, salmon, lunch meat,
ground beef, sausage and bacon,
which I compared the prices to at Trader Joe's,
Aldi was definitely cheaper
but the quality of the ingredients didn't compare.
I was surprised when I did the Whole Foods
and Trader Joe's comparison to find
that the meat at Trader Joe's was priced so much better
than I would have thought and I stand by that decision.
I won't be purchasing my meat at Aldi over Trader Joe's
because the quality isn't in line with what I want.
Although if your goal is to keep costs down,
Aldi is the place to go.
So let's look at all of the data and the big picture.
The lesson today, looks can be deceiving
and marketing tactics are intended to deceive you.
Just because a price is lower
doesn't mean it costs less per ounce.
You are likely paying less for less food
and that is the case a lot of the time at Aldi.
That being said, Aldi was still cheaper overall.
When I add up the price of every single item at each store,
the total of 130 items,
accounting for the difference in price per ounce
and evening them out,
it ends up being $460 at Trader Joe's for everything
and $395 at Aldi for everything,
so that is 15% cheaper at Aldi.
Looking within each category as a recap,
Trader Joe's compared to Aldi,
Aldi was 24% cheaper in produce, 9% cheaper in pantry,
18% cheaper in dairy and fridge, 13% cheaper in freezer,
and 17% cheaper in meat and seafood.
Again, this is from my staples,
the items that I looked at specifically,
not every single item.
Still, it's not without compromises.
Ingredients aren't as considered at Aldi.
There are more preservatives, added ingredients,
et cetera in Aldi items overall
and less organic options to choose from.
Aldi also had some super deals week to week
that can offer huge savings on certain items,
and Trader Joe's doesn't have any deals at all.
But those deals at Aldi aren't predictable or consistent.
So which would you choose?
It depends on you, your needs
and what you want to prioritize, there's no right or wrong.
I don't have an Aldi close to me,
but I do have a Trader Joe's within walking distance.
For 15% less at Aldi but with less overall options
and less consideration of ingredients,
I will probably choose Trader Joe's.
But if I had an Aldi next door,
I might get certain things there.
I was surprised at how much Aldi's offerings
have grown over the last few years though,
and this was a really fun episode for me to make.
If you want more comparison videos like this,
let me know which stores you would like me to compare.
Let me know in the comments where you prefer to shop, too.
I'll see you next week with a brand new episode,
and remember, it's all a matter of mind over munch.