Opinion: We Hate the New Aldi Ad Format
EDITOR’S NOTE: Like all posts on Aldi Reviewer, this piece is the opinion of its respective authors. Also like all posts, comments are welcome, although we ask readers to be mindful of our Community Guidelines.
If you’ve ever found yourself thinking, “the internet is not what it used to be,” no, you’re not crazy. Tech experts have pointed out that, in recent years, many major corporate websites have declined in quality. A focus on profit has, it seems, increasingly hurt the user experience. We’ve seen it in everything from search to information websites.
The formal name for this trend is platform decay, but some tech journalists are also tossing around a more crude term to describe it. Whatever you call it, users end up being the losers on it.
We never thought that Aldi — a company that is fairly old-school in its online operations — would be a company that we would associate with platform decay, but right now we feel that way.
What Happened?
In December of 2024, the grocer overhauled its online ad format entirely. The whole story is its own post — which we’ve written, by the way — but the short version is that Aldi moved its ad previews to a different site.
Out was a format where you view all the details for next week’s Aldi Finds.
In was a list without any details at all, and no upcoming food Aldi Finds.
Aldi made other changes, too, including to its phone app, which make the upcoming ad less accessible and the current ad harder to sort out. The current ad is a pain on desktop, too: at the time we wrote this post, for instance, the current Aldi Finds list spans a full 399 products across fourteen pages (!), making it a huge chore to browse.
We’ve gotten an earful from readers about how frustrated they are by the new format. Judging by what we’ve seen on social media and on the reviews for Aldi’s phone apps, we suspect Aldi has gotten an earful, too.
Why Did Aldi Do It?
I reached out to Aldi asking that exact question. Here’s what an Aldi customer service rep said:
Thank you for reaching out.
We recently changed our ALDI Finds webpages to further optimize your shopping experience.
The new and improved website experience is fully shoppable, allowing you to shop for your favorite ALDI Finds and groceries online.
You can also see all Finds in stock in your zip code including product details and variants.
Thank you for being an ALDI shopper!
That lines up with what we suspected: it’s about driving more online purchases. Aldi now pushes shoppers looking for upcoming Aldi Finds into new.aldi.us, an Instacart-powered portal Aldi launched back in 2023. At that time, we couldn’t figure out why Aldi would do it, since it’s one of three different Instacart-powered shopping portals Aldi uses.
Now, it seems Aldi had been planning it to be the backbone of its new ad experience. When people go looking for the Aldi ad, the grocer directs them to a shopping portal. From there, shoppers can buy products, which they can get either through Instacart delivery or curbside service.
Aldi doesn’t just want shoppers to peruse the ad. They want shoppers on their app or on their site to make a purchase then and there, a little like shoppers on Walmart and Amazon might do. In the retail business, they’re trying to get what are called conversions.
Are There Any Benefits?
For shoppers, not that we can see. There isn’t anything in this shopping experience that you can’t get through the Instacart website and app. Everything this portal offers, you could have gotten two years ago from Instacart … which makes sense, since Instacart powers this whole experience.
As for Aldi? I’m sure Aldi believes it will see benefits in the form of more online conversions, or purchases.
But we think that comes at a cost for the store. There are plenty of Aldi shoppers who used the old upcoming Aldi Finds ad to strategically plan out their weekly Aldi trips. Now that is gone. Aldi may discover that removing that translates into lost dollars, especially since chatter about upcoming products made for major online hype. You can’t buy free publicity like thousands of excited Aldi shoppers talking up the next big Aldi Find hit. That virality is lost.
So … How Do I Navigate the Upcoming Weekly Ad?
Unless Aldi changes course, this experience will be the new normal going forward. In our view, it is a diminished experience. You have to understand that going into things.
That said, the best option remaining is the scan of the upcoming Aldi Find Sneak Peek. You can find it on the Aldi website or, on the app, by clicking “More” in the bottom menu, then “Weekly Ads.”
The Sneak Peak isn’t as good as the old upcoming ad: it typically doesn’t have all the Aldi Finds for a given week, and it doesn’t have nearly as much detail as the old upcoming ad listing. In fact, it may not have any product details at all beyond price. But sometimes it does. It is also clickable, unlike the new upcoming ad format. What’s more, if you have the app and an account, you can create a shopping list of upcoming Aldi Finds, just like you could with earlier versions of the Aldi app.
Closing Thoughts:
In case it wasn’t obvious, we’re frustrated by the new ad format Aldi has launched. And while we understand the business reasons, we’re not convinced it will ultimately make the best business sense. We’ve read and interacted with many, many shoppers who used to plan their trips around the upcoming ad, only for Aldi now to replace it with an inferior experience. There are some ways to salvage that experience, but it’s not like the old one.
We don’t know what will happen with this down the road. We do, though, hope the grocer is listening to what shoppers are saying.
I can’t express how much I (and others on Aldi reddit) agree with you! This will cost them sales. I used to see AOS finds, go for specific items and then buy other items. now I’ll only go for what I know, when I have a long list. thank you for taking your time to discuss this, to contact them. greatly appreciated wishing a great 2025 to you and yours, Gillian
Gillian summed it up perfectly. I could check the finds on my phone browser (so not using work computer) and decide if I wanted to stop on my way home.
And now I don’t bother, and just go when I need groceries and it’s worth the trip to Aldi, as opposed to the closer grocery stores with easily accessible online ads.
I do the same. There’s no incentive to shopping there for the AOS finds. I’ve been finding myself going to Publix and WInn Dixie again for sales again. Aldi was my “IT” store. Not so much fun anymore. I belong to groups on Facebook and I look at their items to see if it’s worth the trip. It was so much better going to the Aldi website to see their products. It’s almost like they don’t want us to see them. I know they’ve lost money as it stands now. I’m not the only one…
Thank you for breaking down the changes. Aldi shopping trips used to be exciting. I didn’t actually understand what had changed, but I rarely looked at the Aldi ads anymore. So much is driven by profit and excess. I avoid stores like Costco. You are forced to buy more than you want/need. Aldi’s specific recommendations kept my choices in balance. I am sorry they changed.
Thanks, Gillian! (The Aldi reddit community is pretty amazing, too!)
Agreed. Hate the new format.
Amen!!!
We shop early on Wednesday, the day the weekly sales start our area, we don’t receive the ALDI ad email till noon. There are no longer any sale flyers in the store. How are we to know the special buys or sale items!
I 100% agree that the changes are not positive for shoppers.
The new platform is not shopper friendly and will likely result in a drop in sales as the previous platform allowed the option of previewing all options of upcoming finds and plan for those purchases. Aldi has not done their dedicated shoppers any favors. Very disappointed
I agree! The item description is worse than worthless. It used to provide color/style options and size/dimensions, but now there is nothing. An upgrade should be better, not worse!
Don’t like new format
Totally agree. It should make things better, not worse.
I hate the new format too. If you want to see a certain item it forces you to scroll through things you don’t want to see.
Yes, this!
Sometimes, newer, just isn’t better. This sounds like it might be one of those times.
Agreed.
I was looking at the Aldi ad to plan my weekly shopping trip and somehow got a list of hundreds of items that seemed to be the Aldi finds for the entire year. I am very disappointed in this new format and hope Aldis comes to their senses and changes this back to the original much better weekly ad.
I’ve noticed the food Aldi Finds seem to be mixed in with Seasonal Items and possibly even some Regular Buys. It doesn’t make sense.
I love how you’ve boiled this all down to conversion rates, and suspect you’ve hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately, whoever came up with this scheme is probably paying another company to track this metric. To keep their client happy, that company will manipulate the numbers until they can make them say whatever their client wants them to say. So Aldi will be able to claim conversion rates are up, and if sales don’t follow along with that, there will be too many other variables at play for them to pinpoint the reason.
I am in agreement with you on this. I liked the details offered and they made a difference on me being likely to purchase. I am furthermore less and less likely to bother even picking up a “pictograph” “sale paper”. What is next, cartoon images instead? Eventually there is a saturation point on these kind of “finds”.
Anything pertaining to food items has become less and less relevant as I prepare to shop as well. The fewer “clean” dairy offerings and the limit on eggs is a turn off. We don’t need gums and fillers in staple foods! I found better and more reasonable offering at Kroger in November and December 2024 than at aldi. So I am keeping my options open elsewhere as I shop each week and not feeling as pleased with aldi as before. P.S. aldi, where did the canned chicken and ham go???
Thanks for being here Aldi Reviewer!
Just FYI: A lot of retailers are limiting eggs due to ongoing supplier struggles with avian flu. It’s not limited to just Aldi. https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/bird-flu-impact-causing-egg-prices-to-rise/ar-AA1xaUny
Old Aldi finds could all be viewed on one page. The new version has no fewer than 17 pages, with each derivation of an item getting its own listing. Are there any humans working on design anymore? This is objectively worse for consumers.
Yes, the sheer number of pages is so frustrating!
Could not agree more. And, I had also figured out that the new version is to drive immediate online sales. That’s not how I shop Aldi. It would be hard to find a more dedicated Aldi shopper than me – I literally planned a Wednesday morning shopping trip at least 45 weeks out of the year. I’m one of those shoppers that camped out for the advent calendars, etc. Now…I’m like…I have no clue what is coming for the next week – why bother. You don’t know what’s coming to the store until the DAY it’s already in the store. Sorry Aldi – a teaser that says “we will have some stuff next week, too – we can’t tell you what it is – but we will have some stuff” – BOO.
I feel the same way. Very uncertain from week to week and the workers never know…..
We feel the same as you! Wednesday mornings were an event for us. Now … it’s not the same.
Many users on /r/Aldi hate the new layout too. It seems whoever designs the Aldi website not only never actually studied good web design but did not get any opinions of any site visitors and Aldi customers.
I’m with the haters and honestly, I will not shop at Aldi as often if I can’t easily see the weekly finds. They are going to lose sales. Ugh!
I don’t know whose bright idea this was. I shop once a month for groceries. Aldi is on my run. The new format is difficult to navigate. I will not be purchasing as much there. It’s impossible to figure out what they have unless you have loads of time. I DO NOT and will just buy what I already know they have. That will cut my monthly shopping at Aldi in half. I hope they listen to their customers!!!
Indeed, this new format is very disappointing. Makes it so much harder to plan ahead. Seeing the details made it easy to plan ahead & add items to my list before each shopping trip. I do not want to have to wait until I get to the store to see the details, all that does is waste more of my precious time. So, without those details to assist in my list making, my lists are now shorter. If it is not on my list, I most likely will buy it.
lol, I meant to say that if it is not on my list. I most likely will NOT buy it.
It is difficult to navigate. It doesn’t provide necessary information so that I can plan. Since the rollout of the new ad, I only shop there once per month. They aren’t getting much money out of my grocery budget anymore. This is a huge fail. I don’t know who thought this would boost their sales. I have not read anything positive from shoppers!!!
A year later and I still hate the new format. It does not help me plan my shopping excursions as in the past. Now, I find myself shopping less than half as much at Aldi as I used to do. I’m sure there are some who like the new format for shopping online. I do not do that! I used the upcoming ads as a guide for my shopping experience at the store. Unfortunately, that is no longer possible. Newer is definitely not better in this instance!