Missing in Action: Our Aldi Regular Buy Wish List

Last Updated on December 20, 2016

 

MissingAldi is a limited-inventory grocer. That means that, as a smaller, more tightly focused store, it has to be more picky about what goes on its shelves compared to other, larger groceries. The upside is that Aldi’s pickiness — along with other practices — translates into an inexpensive selection of good stuff. The downside is that there are some things you can’t find there.

We feel like Aldi does a pretty good job with the essentials, and their Special Buys often fill some of the other needs at certain times of the year. Nevertheless, there are a few things we wish they would have on the shelves more often. Here, then, is our Aldi wish list for the Regular Buy section:

Bath Soap

One major item missing from the regular Aldi lineup is an honest-to-goodness bath soap. Now, they do sell one kind of bar soap, but it’s a moisturizing bar that is more suited to facial washing than the whole body. We’d love to see another option, something more like Dial, Ivory, or Zest: a soap dedicated to bath and shower use. We’d be especially pleased with a body wash, but another kind of bar soap would be fine, too.

Dental Floss

Aldi sells toothbrushes and toothpaste, and on rare occasions even sells an electric toothbrush. But somehow they don’t carry dental floss, at least not that we’ve seen — not even as a Special Buy. Any dentist will tell you that floss is really important in tooth and gum health. Doing so would be easy and would take up only a small amount of inventory space.

Mouthwash

Notice a trend here? Mouthwash isn’t as essential for some people as floss, but it is still a potentially important part of tooth and gum health, especially for those predisposed to gum disease. A generic in the vein of Scope or Listerine would not be hard to come up with, and it wouldn’t even need to be too large. It would take up a little more inventory space than floss but could still be reasonably small. So far we’ve only seen it as a Special Buy in our neck of the woods; we’d like to see it more regularly.

Adult Vitamins

To be fair, recent research has been mixed on the need for vitamins, especially if a person has a balanced diet. Still, Aldi already carries children’s vitamins, so it’s confusing why they don’t carry adult ones. Generic pharmacies would probably trip over each other to have a space on Aldi’s shelves, and they would only take up a small amount of inventory space.

Mild French Fries

Notice that we haven’t talked much about food items, since Aldi is pretty comprehensive with the essentials there. One thing we’ve noticed, though, is the absence of a traditional unseasoned french fry. Aldi does carry a Regular Buy seasoned fry, but they are a little on the spicy side. The store also carries unseasoned steak fries or crinkle-cut fries as Special Buys from time to time, but they are only occasional items. We wouldn’t mind seeing steak fries or crinkle-cut fries as a full-timer in the store’s frozen section.

Natural Cleaning Products

Aldi has a pretty good selection of cleaning supplies, but we wouldn’t mind seeing some that used more natural cleaners rather than harsher chemicals. After all, Aldi has made major moves to eliminate artificial colors and other things from their lineup, so why not also look into cleaning products that are better, too? We’ve come a long way in knowing what substitutes for harsh chemicals and it wouldn’t be hard to phase in better options on store shelves.


Have any other ideas on your wish list? Think one of the items above is a Regular Buy in your area? Let us know in the comments.

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About Joshua

Joshua is the Co-founder of Aldi Reviewer. He is also a writer and novelist. You can learn more about him at joshuaajohnston.com.

5 Comments

  1. I’ve seen adult vitamins and crinkle cut fries there. I’ve purchased the fries. The dental care items would be an improvement. You may consider Dove to be a beauty bar, but a dermatologist told us that it’s the BEST soap for your skin PERIOD. Those soaps you mentioned were too harsh and drying. My missing list would include “seasonal” items. I’d like to have them year-round. While I agree that some items are necessities, I suppose it would be an impossible task to meet everyone’s preferences.

    • I was there today and didn’t see adult vitamins, so it may just vary from store to store. I’ve only seen crinkle cut fries on Special Buy in the past; perhaps that is changing. (I’d be all for it.) I don’t mind having a beauty bar in Aldi, but I wouldn’t mind having a second option, too! Those are the challenges of a low-inventory store.

    • I’ve also seen (and bought) adult vitamins at ALDI in the past … it seems like they’ve really cut down on their drug/HBC items in the decade or so that ALDI’s been in Maryland, where I live. I remember wondering whether I should buy the regular adult vitamins or the 50-plus kinds, LOL. I also agree that Source is a fine bath soap – my docs have also recommended Dove and Caress because of their moisturizing properties. I’m married to a man, however, who needs a soap with triclosan or a similar antibacterial substance, because of a skin condition. Dial white is one of the few soaps that he can use!

      As for my “MIA” list – I really wish ALDI carried a wider variety of frozen meals, especially “Fit & Active” ones. Lean Cuisines and such are some of the few items that I have to visit the other grocery stores for. I also wish that ALDI carried facial tissues in the cube-shaped boxes that didn’t contain lotion. Our bathroom is tiny and the cubes are the only types of tissues that fit on top of our toilet, but, once again, my husband has a reaction to the lotion in the ALDI product. Oh, and I would LOVE it if ALDI made their lavender-scented dryer sheets and scented laundry crystals “regular” products rather than “special buys.” Great website, BTW!

  2. What a great newsletter! I feel like I’ve discovered the motherlode of helpful newsletters! I’m new to Aldi but it is quickly becoming my favorite store. I also love Trade Joe’s and appreciate reading about their items, too. Interesting back story of the two brothers who founded Aldi and TJs respectively. Thank you so much for enlightening my grocery shopping experience!

    • So glad you’re enjoying our newsletter! Thanks for reading.

      Looking at the list above, which is a few years old, it’s interesting to note that Aldi has added a few of these items that were previously not in stores. They now sell adult gummy vitamins, and they have a few option for French fries that aren’t spicy.

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