aldi adventures.

Monday is grocery-shopping day! Not sure why. Just sort of happened that way.

We're lucky enough to live just around the corner from our grocery store. It's a nice little store. It carries the basics and everything is superbly priced. Bargain groceries at their finest!

Aldi was started by two German brothers. Though one is retired and the other deceased, they are/were the two richest men in Germany (I wonder if they shopped at Aldi?). Aldi is all over Europe -- although it's called Hoefer in Austria. I shopped there while living in Vienna and sometimes used the grocery bags to tote my stuff around in while climbing up the Styrian Alps. This is not a joke. In the picture below, the person to the far right is at the top of a mountain in Styria holding a plastic Hoefer bag. That person is me. Apparently a knapsack would have been too much trouble.

The natives laughed at me. They called Hoefer grocery bags "Yugoslavian Suitcases". My German language skills were lacking at the time (who am I kidding, they're still lacking) so they were probably making fun of me auf Deutsch behind my Canadian back. I love Austrians. More on their loveliness later.

Back to Aldi.

You won't find the upper crust of American society at Aldi. You'll find lots of people like me. Students. Middle-lower class. Cool beans class. People who scoff at the idea of paying $9 for a gallon of organic milk or $6 for a pack of spaghetti noodles. People who like the idea of paying $2.50 for a bucket of ice creamy goodness.

I like Aldi for more than the prices. It has serious character. The employees there are super friendly and helpful, and a lot of the time the other customers are fabulously entertaining. Monday morning at Aldi is always an adventure. For example, this morning the guy in line ahead of me asked the cashier for a phonebook. He was suddenly in desperate need of a consignment shop because his truck was full of "all kinds of fine, finnnnnnne clothes!"

Customer: "Hey sir, you got a phone book? I gotta find a consignment shop bad!"

Cashier: "Uh... I'll go look for one in the back." (Aldi employees are well-trained in dealing with the totally unexpected.)

Customer (to Suzanne): "You wouldn't believe the goods I have in my truck! I've got some finnnnne clothes! You see what I'm wearing? The clothes in my car are in wayyyy better condition than what I've got on!"

Suzanne: "Really?!"

Customer: "Yes ma'am! I got some real fine t-shirts, some nice slacks, oh you should see the slacks, the slacks are real fine!"

Suzanne: "Hmmm!"

Customer: I ain't gonna just donate them to some store, right?! They in real fine condition, those clothes! Imma get some cash for them at least!"

The friendly cashier arrived with the phone book just in time -- Suzanne may have been persuaded to go and check out the fine slacks.

I love Aldi.