How Cat Lovers Shop at Aldi

Thanks to The Aldi Reviewer Cat for testing all the Aldi cat products, and for lying around looking cute while we wrote this post. 

Sure, you probably buy a lot of your pet supplies at actual, dedicated pet stores. PetSmart. Petco. Pet Supplies Plus. Maybe a locally owned store. Perhaps the online retailer Chewy. But how about Aldi? Yes, your favorite discount grocery store — that same place that sells “red bag” chicken, peanut butter cups, and the occasional treadmill or air fryer — is also a hidden gem when it comes to pet supplies. Aldi is the best-kept secret if you’re looking to score stuff for your feline friend(s). They offer everything from cat food to litter to occasional toys, beds, and treats.

Here’s how an Aldi shopping trip might go down if you’re a cat owner.

How Cat Lovers Shop at Aldi:

You enter the store and make a beeline for the pet food aisle, usually tucked away near the paper towels and laundry detergent. You stock up on the canned cat food in both sizes and a few bags of cat treats for good measure. You steer your cart away from the dry cat food because your cat always gives you the “all right, where are you hiding the real food?” look when you pour that stuff in her dish.

Standing in the pet food aisle reminds you of what a disappointment that inedible cat Advent calendar was that Aldi recalled during the last holiday season. This year, you’ll get the Trader Joe’s cat Advent calendar from Aldi’s cousin, since your cat happily ate the treats in that calendar last year.

You move on from the cat food and glance at the jugs of Aldi cat litter on the shelves. Their low price tag tempts you, but there are two things in life that are traps: 1.) your cat’s floofy belly when she rolls over and acts like she actually wants you to pet it, and 2.) Aldi cat litter. The first scenario leads to biting and scratching, and the second unleashes a Dust Bowl event in your house.

You leave the litter on the shelf and proceed straight to the middle aisle, also known as cat paradise.

One of our best purchases for The Aldi Reviewer Cat.

Today, you score a collapsible cat condo and a fluffy cat den that folds down into a bed. Maybe your cat will like those better than the Aldi warming mat you got her, which she almost never sleeps on, instead preferring to doze in a lowly Aldi shoe box. Such is the way with cats. The box is always better. You add a few cat toys including a scratching post to your cart, and you spot some small pet jackets marketed for dogs and wonder if your cat would wear one.

Aldi shoe boxes make perfect cat beds.

You already have two cardboard cat playhouses at home, but you drop another one in your cart for good measure and make plans to assemble it this evening while watching Animal Planet. You try to remember if you still have packing tape to reinforce the cat playhouse’s seams so the walls don’t collapse the first time your cat naps against them.

Put my new house together already, humans!

You wish you could find one of those soft cat beds that looks like a shark’s gaping mouth. You’ve seen hilarious photos of hapless cats seemingly getting swallowed up by Jaws on the Cats of Aldi Facebook group, but it looks like your local store is out of the shark cat beds. You’ll have to make do with the crinkly shark tunnel you bought at Aldi a few years ago. It’s less cushy but still Instagram-worthy.

Unsuspecting kitty in a shark mouth.

Before leaving the middle aisle, you put a bird feeding station, a bird feeder, and a bag of mixed bird seed in your cart so your indoor-only cat can better enjoy the view through the windows. Who needs cat TV on YouTube when you can set up your own cat-friendly entertainment?

Next stop is the dairy aisle, where you buy a flat of individual yogurt cups. You’ll save the box, with its multiple holes in the top, because it makes a great cat toy when you drop a small ball inside. (Thanks for the tip, Facebook Aldi fans.)

Free cat toy included with Aldi yogurt purchase! (Add your own ball.)

Before leaving, you choose a carton of ice cream from the freezer aisle, intending to eat it tonight after you’ve put the cat playhouse together. Your cat will probably stalk you the entire time you eat your ice cream in hopes of licking the bowl when you’re done.

That’s one adorable biscuit.

You forgot to bring your own bags to Aldi, so you grab a few empty boxes from a large cart full of assorted boxes. They’re great for carrying your groceries home, and they also make good cat beds. Because sometimes your cat would rather sleep in a cardboard jumbo buttermilk biscuit box instead of a fluffy cat bed. At least the cardboard boxes are disposable and easily replaceable when the cat coughs up a hairball in one.

You check out and head home to unpack all your groceries while your cat sits inside an empty Aldi shopping bag and pokes her head out to supervise. You check the Aldi website for next week’s Aldi Finds so you can start planning what new fun cat supplies you want to buy. You experience a brief moment of panic as you realize you may be turning into a full-fledged Crazy Cat Person. But at least Aldi makes it affordable.

Now, pass the canned tuna, please.