10 Things Aldi Does Better Than Trader Joe's

There are so many different grocery chains to choose from, but few have as devoted a following as do Aldi and Trader Joe's. The two grocery stores share a lot of similarities, from their smaller-than-normal footprints to their mostly store-brand offerings and cult favorite products. But, of course, there are plenty of differences between them as well. Although some seem to regard Trader Joe's as a higher-quality grocery chain, there are some areas in which it performs noticeably worse than Aldi, which is known for its low prices and easy-to-navigate stores.

We've compiled this list of just a few of the things that Aldi seems to do better than Trader Joe's. These points may solidify your love for Alsi over TJ's, or perhaps it'll make you venture to Aldi in place of your weekly Trader Joe's run. Either way, it's a good way to better understand Aldi's offerings — and why so many people are fans of the brand. Next time you're considering where to do your grocery shopping, consult this list, and you may just become another die-hard Aldi fan.

If you're looking for the newest, trendiest food product that you saw on TikTok, there's a good chance that you'll find it at Trader Joe's. TJ's is known for its wide array of seasonal and often limited-time products that you won't be able to find elsewhere. A lot of these products are snacks, frozen food, or prepackaged items that make for a quick and easy meal or snack, but that won't necessarily help you stock your pantry full of actual groceries for the coming week. Sure, it's always nice to have something exciting on hand to snack on between meals, but for most people, that's not going to be the bulk of their shopping cart.

Aldi also stocks its fair share of fun, snackable foods, but for the most part, it's a grocery store filled with actual groceries, like fresh produce, bread, meat and vegan protein staples, and a variety of pantry staples like dry pasta and beans. A bag of carrots and a loaf of fresh sourdough bread are, admittedly, not as exciting as a lot of the more hyped items that you'll find at Trader Joe's, but ideally, those kinds of foods will make up the majority of your weekly diet if you want to be healthy and not spend a fortune on groceries. For the most part, Aldi isn't selling a ton of viral, gimmicky products like Trader Joe's is — and that can be a good thing.

Depending on where you live, Trader Joe's may be one of the cheaper grocery stores in your area. For example, in big cities like NYC, Trader Joe's is often one of the most affordable chain grocery store options. However, that doesn't mean that Trader Joe's is absolutely the cheapest place to get your groceries for the week — especially if you have an Aldi nearby. In fact, most of the time, Aldi beats out Trader Joe's in the pricing department, meaning that it's probably a better place to do your weekly grocery shopping if you're trying to lower your grocery budget.

This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. While Trader Joe's boasts a ton of trendy products and fun-looking, well-decorated stores, Aldi is a bit more bare-bones in its approach. You won't find hand-stenciled lettering advertising the newest soup dumplings or checkout lanes stocked with unusual candies like you often will in Trader Joe's, and you even have to have a quarter with you if you want to use a shopping cart. But that more modest approach helps to ensure that your grocery bill isn't too high at the end of the month, and we're grateful for the affordability that Aldi provides.

Most of us could do with having more produce in our shopping carts. Not only is it generally more affordable than a lot of ultra-processed food, but getting more fruits and veggies into our diets is good for just about everyone. So, when you're looking to stock up on produce, where should you go? Aldi might just beat out Trader Joe's on this front as well. For example, bananas are one of the cheapest produce staples you can have on hand, and you're going to find a better deal on the fruit at Aldi. So, whether you grab them for an easy, on-the-go snack or you bake them into a banana bread, Aldi should be your first stop when you're on the hunt for bananas.

But a good produce section is about so much more than just a fruit staple like bananas. Generally, Aldi tends to sell its bulk produce for less, too — perfect for times when you're meal prepping or shopping for a crowd. Aldi also tends to have a larger produce section than Trader Joe's, and a lot of Aldi locations have more organic produce options than TJ's. So, fruit and veggie lovers, you heard it here: Aldi is your go-to store for produce shopping.

Don't get us wrong, we love shopping at Trader Joe's. But ultimately, it's less of a grocery store than it is a snack store. Sure, there are some staples you can buy at the chain, but it offers significantly fewer of those staples than you'll find at other grocery stores. What Trader Joe's does offer, though, is a huge variety of different snacks that often rotate out, so there's always something new to try.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with snacking, but if you want to save money and eat healthy, the majority of your food shouldn't be snacks. Rather, you should be making more room in your diet for healthy meals made with whole foods — not with the latest chip flavor Trader Joe's has recently rolled out. There are still plenty of snacks to choose from at Aldi, but since they're a bit more streamlined and less hyped, there's a good chance you're not going to be quite as attracted to them as you are at TJ's. If you're trying to cut down on snacking (or just save money by making snacks at home), you may want to shop at Aldi the next time you need to pick up groceries.

On that note, whether you prefer shopping at Aldi or Trader Joe's might depend on how much time you actually spend cooking. Because Trader Joe's has so many easy, prepared items that you can grab and go, it's great for people who don't like cooking (or never really learned how to). After all, you can just make your way to the frozen food section and pick something up for dinner every night of the week.

However, that's not the most budget-friendly way to feed yourself, and it certainly doesn't help you grow your cooking skills. If you're the kind of person who actually does enjoy cheffing it up in the kitchen from time to time, Aldi may offer a better shopping experience. Since you can find more actual single-ingredient items there (like produce or fresh meat, for example), it's a great place to go when you have a new recipe you want to try out. Trader Joe's, on the other hand, may be missing the specific ingredient you need, even if it is stocked with cauliflower gnocchi or the like.

If you're like most people, then there are probably a few grocery staples that you get every time you go to the store. For example, someone who doesn't eat meat might pick up a pack of tofu essentially every time they go shopping, just to make sure they have it on hand. On the other hand, meat eaters might pick up a pack of ground meat, like ground beef, so they have it on hand to make whatever meat-centric dishes they have in mind for the week.

For those people, Aldi is probably going to be your best grocery shopping option, since it boasts some of the lowest ground beef prices around. When compared to Trader Joe's and Walmart, Aldi ground beef comes in at the best price. And considering how pricey meat can often be, buying your ground beef at Aldi on a regular basis throughout the month can save you a considerable amount of money. Plus, the meat quality is generally pretty high at Aldi, so you know you're getting a good value.

Although you can find Aldi locations scattered throughout the U.S., it's not an American brand. Aldi hails from Germany, and with those German roots come some seriously delicious European, specifically German, products. The chain is known for holding an Aldi German Week, when it's possible for customers in the U.S. to stock up on their favorite German products, like Bavarian pretzels and German-style pickles. You'll also find a wealth of European sweets and chocolates, which can be hard to find at other stores (and expensive when you do). It's also a great place to look for European cheese.

You'll be able to find some international products at Trader Joe's, particularly in the cheese and wine sections, but it doesn't have quite as many interesting international finds as you'll encounter at Aldi. When you want to try something different than what you usually see at your favorite American grocery store chain, Aldi might just be the best place to visit.

It's no secret that it can be prohibitively expensive to make a charcuterie board at home, even when you're doing all the assembling yourself. After all, fancy cheese and cured meats, not to mention other munchies like olives and cornichons, are not exactly the cheapest items you'll find at the grocery store. But when you're planning a party or you just really want to treat yourself to a snack-y dinner on a Friday night after a particularly hard week of work, a charcuterie board can absolutely be worth the expense. Why pay more for those charcuterie essentials, though, when you don't have to?

If you're buying roughly the same type of charcuterie products from Aldi and Trader Joe's, the Aldi basket is probably going to cost you less. The difference in price may not be huge, especially if you're making a smaller snack plate. But when you're building a big charcuterie board for a crowd, Aldi probably is the better place to get all of your ingredients.

If you've ever gone to a Trader Joe's in an urban area at 5:30 p.m. on a weeknight, you know just how crowded and overstimulating the store can be. Because TJ's is such a popular grocery store, it can often be packed at busier locations, particularly when the 9-to-5ers are off work. For the people who can't stand a packed grocery store and dodging hordes of people just to grab a few dinnertime essentials, Aldi may offer a better shopping experience.

Of course, whether your local Aldi or Trader Joe's is busier largely depends on your neighborhood. However, in our experience, we've found that Aldi is almost always less crowded and chaotic than its counterpart. Although we'll go out of our way and brave the crowds at Trader Joe's if there's something we need specifically from the store, it's just not worth it to shop at TJ's over Aldi when the latter offers such a calmer, more relaxing shopping experience.

One thing that we love about shopping at both Aldi and Trader Joe's is the fact that they have amazing return policies. For example, Trader Joe's will accept returns for just about anything, even if you don't have a receipt. That can save you hours of searching through your jacket pockets just to find the receipt you got from the store a week ago. But however generous Trader Joe's return policy is, Aldi's is even better.

Aldi offers what's known as its "Twice as Nice" guarantee. Basically, the company is so confident in the quality of its products that it says if you buy something that doesn't meet quality standards, Aldi will both replace and refund the items. So, yes, you get your money back along with another product. Customer service is important anywhere you shop, and the fact that Aldi is willing to go above and beyond with its return policy might just make you feel more inclined to shop there.