Dexter & N. Maple

Looking forward to NEVER shopping here. What a disgusting addition to the northwest side of town. I hope most Ann Arbor residents will join me in boycotting this low quality, unsustainable type of shopping experience.

Cheap food is bad for your body and the world. This store requires its customers to enter through metal gates and pay a deposit just to rent a shopping cart. But hey, you can get low grade steaks for 2 bucks…..

While I usually enjoy being a contrarian here, I have to pile on and say that Ross is 100% right. Aldi’s is horrible, a sort of Matt Millen or dark energy in the universe of food stores. A complete waste of a lot. One can only hope that eventually it will close and be replaced by something more congenial.

I was curious because of these comments so stopped by today to check on progress. Check-out lanes are being equipped but all shelves still empty. No metal gates in sight.

I don’t understand the antipathy. But I’ve never visited an Aldi. They also run Trader Joe’s and I understand they use some of the same principles, such as house brands and acting as their own distributor. It sounds potentially useful as a way to get staples and basics. Any more information out there on exactly why they exert all this negative energy?

There was an Aldi’s near me when I was in Ohio. The concept is discount staple foods (spaghetti sauce, etc.) This would be great if the discount goods were either a) brand names or b) reasonable quality. But unfortunately the discount brands are just horrendous.

If they have decent goods, that would be great.

This sounds so class based to me. Some people can’t afford to spend five bucks for a loaf of bread at Plum Market. Some people struggle with each mill of addition property tax. Some people are on the verge of losing jobs, losing a house or are one paycheck of being homeless. There is a certain portion of Ann Arborites who don’t get that and look down on the kind of customer who needs to save a few dollars at a place like Aldi. It’s ok to shop at Whole Foods and have the CEO actively trying to torpedo national health care? IS Meijer, a Michigan owned company that pays for worker health care “dark energy in the universe of food stores” too. When Zingerman’s had drivers cross the U of M Nurses Strike picket line years ago, was that perfectly wonderful corporate behavior? I probably won’t be a shopper at Aldi either–I usually shop at Trader Joe’s, Plum, Knights Market and Arbor Farms. But this contempt of stores like Aldi is more evidence some in this town are clueless about how the other half lives.

The quarter deposit on shopping carts has been in place in Canadian supermarkets since I was in high school there, maybe twenty years ago. It is motivation to return the carts in an organized fashion without having to pay as many cart cowboys. The whole concept is kind of like a cross between Ikea and Costco without the necessity of 2 gallon pickle jars. I’ve been by the one in Canton. Not so bad, just no frills. The Euro cheap chic vibe should do well in Ann Arbor.

Not yet mentioned: Sign says grand opening November 20.

Duh. Wonder how I missed the grand opening sign.

I used to live in California, where one local supermarket didn’t allow you to take carts to the parking lot. I can understand a little when I see Kroger carts abandoned by the side of the road along Maple. Before they moved, Ace Hardware on Stadium had poles on them so you couldn’t take them outside either.

By the way, does everyone know that Aldi was built with tax-increment financing? That is, they will not pay any tax on the increase in the value of their property caused by its redevelopment. It’s fun to get the benefits of a high-tax community without having to pay for them! But don’t hold your breath waiting for the city to give you tax increment financing on improvements to YOUR property.

Nonetheless, any store that lets Northwest-siders grocery shop without crossing the Jackson/Maple/Stadium intersection can’t be all bad.

To be more precise, the development made use of the county brownfields program. It uses TIF financing to pay for cleanup and certain development costs of qualifying properties. I don’t know the specifics on this development, but not all expenses associated with development are usually paid for and the TIF arrangement expires after a certain number of years. The program has sometimes been controversial. I believe that it was also applied to the Michigan Inn property.

Alan,

If you knew my family and its diet you’d realize that this isn’t snobbery- based! ;-) We never shop at Plum Market, Knight’s, Arbor Foods, Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s — they are all too expensive and too precious! We shop exclusively at Kroger’s and Meijer’s and I for one welcome our new Wal-Mart overlords in Saline.

Searching my conscience I have to admit that there is a class distinction here — from what I remember of Aldi’s brands, their quality is way below even Kroger or Meijer generics. From a purely personal view, it’s an entire store in a convenient location (see #9) full of stuff in a category I like — food! — that is too low quality to buy — thus my feelings about the “dark energy”. I suppose that’s snobbery, of a sort.

My experience with them in Ohio was awful. It sounds like maybe the Aldi in Canton has some better stuff, I hope that’s true here.

Fred, thanks for the info. I was projecting a big percentage of Ann Arborisms onto your comments and that probably wasn’t a good thing. Knights and Trade Joe’s are pretty resonable price-wise actually but my point was lots of backlash against stores like Aldi’s is class based, many times from folks who don’t have to count pennies. If the quality of Aldi’s is horrible, then I’m guessing they’ll be toast soon enough. But at least the site was cleaned up from what it was previously and that is a positive thing.

Trader Joe’s has great prices on many high quality items (like organic pasta, for example) – I was pleasantly surprised when I started shopping there, because I assumed otherwise.

As a shopper who’s preference would be to shop at Whole Food’s/Plum Market and Trader Joe’s, but currently is strapped for money and live on a very tight budget and work seven days a week to feed and take care of my family. This type of lower-grade market serves a very good purpose for those who normally can’t afford the higher priced markets and other’s like myself who struggle just to make end meet currently.

Just like any other market you choose what to purchase, and hopefully look at the ingredient list on the package prior to purchasing.

No one in society is “better than the other”, we just think we are !

Just stopped by to check out Aldi, (and no similarity whatsoever to Trader Joe’s was noted). There is a little bit of everything at fairly low, very reasonable prices but not much variety or choice within different types of food items. A rather surprising fact that emerged at the checkout register was that Aldi takes only cash, food stamps, or debit cards–no credit cards accepted.

I used to shop at a supermarket in north Kansas City whose motto was “we are a cheap outfit”. The message is no frills but really low prices. That’s the idea here.

They are similar to Trader Joe’s in that they have all house brands and act as their own distributor. Not a gourmet establishment however.