Teutonic Tuesday — Aldi

I know that the Aldi stores in the U.S. have a bad rap — and I can imagine that Jamie's right when she says that they smell like dirty underpants and have great deals on such delicious things as Mr. Pudding Pudding and Winking Owl wine. I never went to one myself when I lived in the States, mainly because I was not about to have a quarter handy to put in a shopping cart in order to use it. I was a Food-4-Less gal myself, even though I did work at Dillons throught college.

Aldi here in Germany, however, is a mecca of all things delicious and inexpensive. The stores are (usually) pretty clean:


The one we like to frequent even has shopping carts with an attachment for baby car seats:


And one can also return plastic water bottles with ease and delight:

They have THE BEST chocolate in all of Germany, a great selection of lunch meats and, during the Easter and Christmas seasons, a shrimp ring that nearly caused a divorce here in the Schuster house:

(It was back in the day, pre-baby, when we were wanting a baby. I politely let Björn know that if he was interested in finally using his sperm for good instead of evil, that RIGHT NOW would be the most appropriate time THIS MONTH to do so. He dismissed me with a flick of his hand, citing an overdose of shrimp ring.)

Even Harper seems to enjoy our visits there:


And where else can you get such big boxes of wine for dirt cheap?


Anyway, we love us some Aldi. Sure, there are some stores that are just ghetto fabulous; and when the new Aldi offers for non-food items come in (on Mondays and Thursdays), you can very quickly find yourself fighting off old people and Turkish housewives for the last package of these: