Why Aldi's In-Store Bakeries Didn't Take Off In The US

Don't hold your breath if you live in the U.S. and you're hoping that Aldi will add a bakery to the store near you. The discount supermarket chain tested adding bakeries to a handful of stores in 2018, but they didn't last long. There is not much information about what happened to the Aldi bakeries or why the German grocery chain decided not to keep them. No official statement has been made, nor is there any mention of bakeries on Aldi's website.

To get to the bottom of what happened to Aldi bakeries in the U.S., we have to rely on claims made by ex-employees on message boards like Reddit, where one commenter, who claimed to have worked in an Aldi with a bakery, shared, "The initial novelty was great; people would go crazy over the cheese and chocolate twists. But ... COVID really did a number on sales." According to the thread, some stores were forced to throw out products at the end of each day, which was costly for the grocer.

Another Reddit thread provided a list of Aldi's with in-store bakeries in 2019. And, in the years since, updates have been posted in regard to which facilities have closed. That includes shuttered Aldi bakeries in Downers Grove, Naperville, Batavia, and Elk Grove Village, Illinois, and in Elkridge, Maryland.

While it seems that U.S.-based Aldi stores with in-store bakeries are a thing of the past, the grocer does sell plenty of baked goods. The house brand bakery items come from brands like L'oven Fresh, Specially Selected, and Bake Shop, with some items ranking higher on our Aldi bakery taste test than others. 

The Specially Selected items at Aldi were first introduced in its European stores, and after they proved popular, they expanded to the U.S. in 2013. On the Aldi website, the Specially Selected brand boasts over 400 different products, ranging from brioche buns to butter croissants to sourdough crumpets to iced buns. Aldi doesn't advertise where it sources products for the Specially Selected label, but it has been reported that many of the specialty items, like coffee,  cheese, and pasta, come from Europe. Even Aldi's chocolate is a European import. But other products under this label are sourced locally using high-quality ingredients while still maintaining a lower price point than big brands. 

There is plenty of speculation that Bimbo Bakeries is behind the L'Oven Fresh bakery items. It's also been reported that Post makes some of the Aldi cereals, and there is evidence that House of Flavors is behind the Sunday Shoppe ice cream. Even though Aldi works hard to source quality products, not everything is a hit, and there are plenty of products worth buying, while others are worth skipping.