Why Waiting To Buy Meat At Aldi Can Be A Good Idea

As it turns out, there are a plethora of smart ways to save even more money at Aldi the next time you hit the budget-friendly grocery store. For the best deals on the chain's meat products, the best thing that you can do is wait. Among the many things that Aldi employees want you to know is that meat is always marked down the day before the expiration date. So, if you plan on using it quickly, check back closer to that printed date.

"Meat is marked down the day before it goes out," a supposed three-year Aldi employee shared on Reddit. "Most stores do them in the morning when date check happens." That said, the time of day seems to vary from location to location, according to customers. There's no need to be concerned about Aldi's long sell-by dates because Aldi uses a safe and highly effective packaging method known as "Modified Atmosphere Packaging" (aka MAP), which creates a different atmosphere within the packaging to extend the meat's shelf life.

Better still, employees are happy to oblige shoppers who ask them to mark down meat products that are within a day or two of expiration. "When I saw stuff that was one or two days from the expiration date, I politely asked an associate if they might be marking it down," one Redditor in the know wrote. "Both times the workers stopped what they were doing and went to grab the 50% off stickers." So, if you get to Aldi before the meat prices have been marked down, you can always ask an obliging employee.

Aldi's mark-down policy applies to most types of meat you can find in the meat and poultry section of the grocery store. Sales on close to expired meat typically range between 30% and 50% off, according to customers on Reddit, which makes for some of the cheapest cuts of meat around. Talk about a good deal.

While Aldi is one of the top chain grocery stores for meat, not all is worth buying. Some meat products we think you should avoid include pork chops, sausage, chicken breasts, and bacon. Many of the pork products used contain antibiotics and other chemical preservatives that are less than ideal. We also weren't crazy about Aldi's super processed prepackaged deli meat either. If you want to play it safe with poultry and pork, look for packages of meat marked as organic or "all-natural."

The red meat offerings at Aldi, on the other hand, are certainly worth waiting for, as there are several beef products that come from grass-fed, hormone-free cows. Some of our favorite Aldi steak cuts include thin-sliced boneless ribeye, Black Angus top round steak, grass fed skirt steak and New York strip, and sirloin, to name a few. If you're worried about purchasing a cut that's past its prime, consider only buying meat that you plan to consume the day (or week) after you buy it.