Admit it. Even when the exterior design took shape and was undeniably Aldi, you were hoping against hope that you would drive down Victory Drive one day and see the red hibiscus logo you have longed for.
Despite the proximity to Whole Foods, we all prayed that the property that was the nearly hundred-year home of Johnny Harris would become the 912’s first Trader Joe’s. Instead, what opened on August 8 was the area’s third Aldi outpost, the originally German step-sibling of the popular American grocery chain.
In 1979, after the suburban Deutsche corner store split into Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd, the former bought Trader Joe’s to enter the U.S. food marketplace and now has nearly 2400 stores spread from sea to shining sea. As of August, TJ’s was topping out at 593.
We wanted Monrovia, CA. We got Batavia, IL.
Nearly five years ago this very week, someone played a dirty trick on us, tacking a homemade ‘Trader Joe’s Coming Soon’ sign in the former Sav-A-Lot née David’s Supermarket storefront window in Starland.
As soon as I saw it, I did reconnaissance on behalf of the local TJ’s faithful and spoke with Kenya Friend-Daniel, then Trader Joe’s National Director of Public Relations. Her most hopeful statement was, “Savannah is not a place we have ruled out.”
In the meantime, the Hostess City has not been ‘ruled in’, evidently, and three Aldis have been bespoke built while the wait for palaka aloha-clad Crew Members ringing bells continues.
One of presumably thousands who wanted #594 to be in the 314blankblank, I know that I will frequent the latest Aldi location semi-frequently because it is close to our house and because, like all of us, I would love to knock a few dollars off of our weekly grocery bill.
NOT QUITE A ‘SUPER’ MARKET
On the company’s website, the Aldi 101 code contains the following: “Keeping things simple at ALDI comes down to one objective - giving you high-quality products while helping you save on groceries.”
Amen to that, at least as much as I can replace certain national brand staples with “exclusive brands.”
It is difficult to imagine how much more congested Victory Drive traffic can get, so the Atlantification of this stretch at least looks nice with Aldi set against the backdrop of the Aventon Savannah condo complex that flanks Kerry Street.
The interlocking brick parking lot is inviting, cavernous, and immaculately landscaped, easily accessed via East Victory or Wicklow Street. The square-lined structure seems kit-built, fitting the altogether austere, economical ethos of Aldi’s concept. This is a BYOBag store where, for a Quarter In-Quarter Back, shoppers rent their carts and do the lion’s share of their own checking out and bagging on the counter that runs the full length of the store’s side window wall.
Two staffed checkout lanes might seem spartan, but two Kroger branches never have more than that open at any one time. Face it: we are all working for Home Depot and Target with bigger bills our ‘pay’.
On a dismal and rainy Sunday September morning, exactly one month after its grand opening, more than two dozen cars were in the parking lot by 9:30. Inside the chilly store, shoppers ran the span from first-timers who ambled down each aisle, looking carefully and sometimes quizzically at the unfamiliar labels, to obvious Aldi experts, probably happy not to be driving down to SR 204 or out to Pooler.
Much like Trader Joe’s, Aldi’s produce is better looking than it might be, considering the significantly lower prices than the Amazon brand grocery a quarter mile away: boxes of baby spinach for $2.79, a two-pound bag of lemons for $3.87, really great blemishless 79-cent avocados, and several varieties of NatureSweet snacking tomatoes.
I bought a pound pouch of Specially Selected French beans for $2.99, which beats Kroger’s cost by more than a buck and almost halves Whole Foods’ price.
The north wall of this Aldi is almost entirely bread with loaves of all kinds, looking very much like this section at Trader Joe’s. Four different Specially Selected brioche buns look very nice, and for half the price of the ubiquitous Nature’s Own, I decided to give the L’Oven Fresh Honey Wheat sliced loaf a try.
Instead of a big box bread aisle that offers five different manufacturers of essentially the same loaf, Aldi has many breads each under one label.
Maybe I am wrong, but I cannot imagine that much flavor or quality disparity exists between brand’s shredded cheeses. I was happy to buy a three-cup bag of Happy Farms Colby Jack for just $2.39. Melted into a chicken quesadilla pie, my wife and I will never detect a difference.
Before this visit, I had never eaten a Clancy’s chip of any cut or flavor. The mesquite barbecue kettle chips are just fine and would easily stand up to a blind taste test with Kettle Brand or Lay’s and will save you well over a buck a bag.
Even better: Clancy’s Original Veggie Straws are puffier than the Sensible Portions paradigm and are half the price.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Perhaps the strangest element of an Aldi is its commingling of commonplace name brands and largely lesser-known labels. The cookie section is chock-full of Benton’s and Choceur boxes, but it also has Oreos. Not some knockoff called ‘Yoreohs’. Actual Nabisco Oreos.
Around the corner are big jugs of Starbucks caramel macchiato, for caffeine’s sake!
Here and there, big grocery name brands stand out - Betty Crocker, Chobani, Keebler, Reese’s, and Tyson, just to name a few - and all at a substantial savings. In only one column, I cannot do a deep dive into a cartful of price comparisons, so I will use the 64-ounce tub of Blue Bell ice cream as a sole litmus: $7.99 at Aldi and $9.49 at Kroger.
By the way, when we want ice cream, we go to Leopold’s, Culver’s, or Doki Doki, but I figured that this buck-and-a-half retail gap was worth mentioning.
Only slightly less odd is the double-take when you see packaging whose colors and fonts look so familiar but bear novel names. The precut Lunch Mate meats are the deli doppelganger of Hillshire Farm, and the boxes of grains are quasi-Quaker.
Coke products share a shelf with Summit Cola alongside Summit Red Thunder rubbing cans with Red Bull and Celsius. Campbell’s and Maruchan are right next to Chef’s Cupboard, Brookdale, and Deutsche Küche.
A quartet of butter sticks beats Kroger’s cost by 50 cents. The Nature’s Nectar not-from-concentrate orange juice is only $3.45 for a 52-ounce jug. I go through two every week, so this is now my O.J.
LET’S MEAT AT ALDI
Once the Abercorn Street Aldi opened on the Southside in 2019, I have occasionally ducked out during a free period and zipped through the Windsor Forest side streets, looping the back way around Roger Warlick Drive and Apache Avenue, for a targeted grocery trip.
More often than not, those visits have seen me buy orange juice, frozen fruit, and red meat.
Like all Aldis, the new store boasts an impressive selection of steaks, not every cut but enough to give us all another option. Benumbed by post-COVID prices, it is nice to see skirts for $9 a pound, $7 chuck roasts, and two-for rib eye bargain packs for $11 a pound.
The non-frozen fish offerings are few, but I picked up a gorgeous two-pound side of salmon for $18.
During my coaching years, which were filled with late nights in gyms and gut-bomb meals out of necessity, our freezer was well-stocked with Trader Joe’s prepped-and-packaged frozen fare: gnocchi and taquitos, potstickers and pot pies. That arm of Aldi’s sister store has always stood out with truly tasty meals and intentionally global goods.
Understandably, Aldi is far less expansive and not nearly as international in this area. No Baingan Bharta, Jumeokbap, or Portuguese Bacalhau Tartlettes, but you can fill your freezer with Bremer cheddar pierogies and gyros, Kirkwood poultry products, Season’s Choice hash brown patties and crinkle cut fries, and everything from Mama Cozzi’s Pizza Kitchen.
Way back in our Baltimore days, I resigned myself to the fact that even the most super supermarket could not offer one-stop shopping, each falling short in supply, cost, or both. Even though Trader Joe’s fulfilled the majority of our weekly list, we had to go to Giant or Whole Foods to supplement fresh fruit and veg and most meats.
In our ten years in Savannah, the same need to multistore has held, and I am okay with that until we move to a village in France that has two boulangeries, one boucherie, and a weekly marché for cheese, eggs, and seasonal produce.
For now, Aldi joins the mix as a convenient alternative, one that hopefully creates even more competition in Savannah’s supermarketplace, particularly with the neighboring chain. After all, the Amazon acquisition did not make Whole Foods’ meat prices any more affordable.
Aldi (1651 East Victory Drive) is open every day (9 a.m. to 8 p.m.), as are the stores on Abercorn Street and in Pooler.
