Let’s Talk About That “New” Aldi Shopping Website

A screenshot of the new(ish) Aldi online shopping site.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Like every Aldi Reviewer post, this one is the opinion of its respective author. Comments are welcome, but be mindful of our Community Guidelines.

In September of 2023, Aldi fans on social media started buzzing about a new Aldi website — or at least, a site they believed was new — that offered online shopping. The origin of this buzz seems to have come from an article written by a website at the end of August. I won’t share the link here because we have several issues with the article in question, including the clickbait nature of the piece and the accuracy of the claims it makes.

Suffice to say, though, that the article got people talking. In addition to the chatter on social media, we’ve had multiple readers email us about it this past week.

So here I’d like to clear the air on what we know about this Aldi site. Is it new? And does it upgrade the Aldi experience?

Read on.

What is this website?

It’s new.aldi.us. And it’s powered by …

Ahh, we meet again.

That’s right. This Aldi portal is in partnership with Instacart.

In fact, this is one of three shopping portals Aldi currently maintains through Instacart. The first is Instacart’s own website, of which Aldi is among the many possible stores. The second is shop.aldi.us, which has been around for a while and functions more or less like Instacart. And now we have this site.

When was this site launched?

We don’t know exactly, but we do know it has been around for a little while. My fellow Aldi Reviewer writer Rachael told me she first learned about it several months ago, in an email from Aldi that has long since been deleted. She couldn’t recall the date, other than that it was a while ago. (More about her thoughts later on.)

Aldi isn’t especially helpful here. Outside of that email, Aldi did not heavily promote the launch: the company did not issue an accompanying press release or social media post, at least none that we can find. Notably, recent press releases on Aldi’s news page still reference the older shopping portal, shop.aldi.us.

I was able to find one press release from Instacart, back on June 1st, that mentions new.aldi.us. So it’s at least that old.

I’ve reached out to Aldi PR to see if they can help me pinpoint the date. At the time of this post, I have yet to receive a response.

Does this site do anything that the other Aldi  shopping sites can’t do?

Not that we can see.

It’s a slick-looking website, to be sure. We think the interface works well, and selecting and searching for things is a breeze. We think it has a little better aesthetic than the standard Instacart site. It does get credit for having a couple of minor bells and whistles that Instacart and shop.aldi.us don’t have, like quick access to the weekly ad.

Really, though, it’s mostly the same. All of them have you select curbside pickup or delivery. All of them allow you to customize substitutes and leave additional notes for the workers. All of them allow you to select a time window. And all of them seem to offer the same selection of products at the same prices.

Does this site have any price advantages compared to other Aldi shopping sites?

The jury is out on that one.

Before I explain, a disclaimer: in my tests I made my way to the checkout screen just short of completing the order. It’s possible that, after submitting payment, the other side of things may be different.

For delivery, I ran a couple of identical test orders through both Instacart and new.aldi.us, and while the product prices were the same, the fees varied. In general, the service fees on new.aldi.us were lower, both on small orders (~$10) and and larger ones (~$35+). Instacart tended to charge a flat $4.00 service fee, while new.aldi.us varied from $0.92 to $2.75 on my orders depending on the size. The delivery fees, on the other hand, were mixed: on my small order, new.aldi.us had a lower delivery fee, while on a larger order their delivery fees were the same.

I also ran small identical trial orders for curbside pickup. For me, the total prices there were nearly identical in all cases.

In short, while it’s possible there is some hidden variable I’m missing, on the surface the Aldi site may save on fees compared to Instacart or shop.aldi.us when it comes to delivery. They appear to be more even on curbside, at least in my tests.

Does this site have any disadvantages compared to other Aldi shopping sites?

As a point of fact, yes, it does.

One, you have to create a new profile — your existing Instacart account won’t cut it. You can link your new.aldi.us profile to your old Instacart account for some purported benefits.

Two, new.aldi.us does not accept all of the payment options that Instacart and shop.aldi.us do. The new site doesn’t currently accept SNAP or EBT. The new site also does not currently accept PayPal.

Three, switching from pickup to curbside is much easier on Instacart versus new.aldi.us. On Instacart it’s a simple click of a tab; on new.aldi.us you have to go back to the main page and key in a new location. The latter is a pain, actually, and at least once it glitched out on me and I had to do it a second time.

Four, the new.aldi.us site does not have some of the promotions that Instacart does. I had a promo for a free delivery on Instacart that did not show up on new.aldi.us even after I linked the two accounts together.

Five, it is a little-discussed but important fact that Instacart’s site offers coupons on select name brand products sold at Aldi. It’s rare, since Aldi doesn’t sell many name brand products and only a few name brands get coupons, but it does happen. At the time of this post, for example, Miracle Whip was discounted on Instacart if you bought enough. The new.aldi.us has no such deals.

Also, the interface differences may be a matter of preference. I actually like the search bar and search results better on Instacart versus new.aldi.us — and yes, there are differences — but not everyone may feel the same way.

Can you have things shipped through the mail on this site?

Nope. Just curbside or delivery via an Instacart worker, same as before. Aldi US doesn’t have online shipping like Aldi UK or Aldi in China, at least not yet. And there’s nothing on new.aldi.us to suggest that such functionality is forthcoming.

Why did Aldi build this new site?

We don’t know. Aldi is a famously efficient company, and having three shopping portals running simultaneously seems like the opposite of efficient. It’s possible Aldi has reasons behind the scenes related to either cost,  functionality, or some other factor. It’s also possible Aldi plans to shutter one or more of the other portals at some point down the road, but that’s just speculation. Whatever the reason, it isn’t clear to us.

Should I use the “new” Aldi site or one of the old ones?

When Rachael first learned about it months ago she opted not to write about it because she didn’t feel it did anything that existing sites didn’t do. Having looked at it more closely this past week, I’m inclined to agree. While it is an alternative to existing ways to purchase Aldi products online, we’re not convinced it’s all together a better way. It has a few advantages, but it also has more than its share of disadvantages. If we were using online shopping regularly, we’d probably stick with Instacart proper or maybe shop.aldi.us, at least for now.

Thoughts on new.aldi.us? See anything that we missed? Let us know about it in the comments.