We Visited Aldi on National Advent Calendar Day

Another Advent calendar release day has come and nearly gone at Aldi. Hopefully, it was a good one for you.

Starting back in 2018, Aldi turned heads when it advertised wine and cheese Advent calendars alongside its long-time chocolate Advent calendar. The wine calendars were such a hit that they sold out in less than five minutes at our local grocery store. The holiday season has never been the same at Aldi since then.

Thankfully, now that Aldi is several years into the Advent calendar business, they seem to have fine tuned their operations. Calendar launch day in 2019 was much better. Things seemed to go all right in 2020 as well. Last year, Aldi even proclaimed the day an official holiday: National Advent Calendar Day.

This year, Advent calendar launch day may have been somewhat hindered by supply chain snarls that are plaguing all retailers these days, but our observations were that things went off smoothly for the most part. What follows are some of our observations about what we saw during the opening hour of National Advent Calendar Day at Aldi.

Let the Games Begin

As in years past, there was a line outside the Aldi store we visited before the store officially opened for the day. The line stretched past the store itself and in front of other businesses in the adjoining strip mall. People seemed to be orderly and calm.

Popular Advent calendars just inside the store at opening time, with employees directing customers.

It took a few minutes for everyone to get inside the store. The anticipation was palpable as we waited for customers ahead to file through the line.

Aldi employees had some of the more popular Advent calendars set up on pallets near the store entrance so customers could easily and quickly find them. This included the wine Advent calendar, the beer Advent calendar, the hard seltzer Advent calendar, the cheese Advent calendar, and the My Friend Gnome Kit. It appeared that more employees than usual were scattered all over the store to help customers find products and make sure operations were running well.

Chocolate, coffee, and toy Advent calendars near the center of the store, just minutes after opening.

Coffee Advent calendars.

In the middle of the store, on an endcap, were the chocolate Advent calendars, nutcracker chocolate and truffle Advent calendars, the coffee Advent calendar, and some of the toy Advent calendars.

Cat and dog treat Advent calendars and toy Advent calendars on the shelves shortly after opening.

Toward the front of the Aldi Find aisle were some more Advent calendars, including additional toy Advent calendars plus the cat treat Advent calendar and the dog treat Advent calendar.

Toy Advent calendars.

Additional cheese Advent calendars were also in the Aldi Find refrigerator section toward the back of our Aldi store.

Missing in Action

There were a few notable Advent calendars missing, including the brand-new Moser Roth Luxury Chocolate Advent Calendar and the Bee Happy Craft Advent Calendar. Multiple Aldi fans on social media remarked that their Aldi stores had no chocolate Advent calendars of any kind on release day. It’s likely that these missing calendars are delayed because of shipping issues that are beyond Aldi’s control. Hopefully, they’ll show up within the next few days or weeks.

Moser Roth Nutcracker Advent Calendars.

Choceur Advent calendars.

Early Birds

One of the most surprising things we saw in our local store on Advent calendar launch day had nothing to do with Advent calendars. We weren’t expecting to see a crowd gathered around the Aldi Find freezer waiting to score their Butterball turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but that’s exactly what we found. We’re happy to report that everyone who came in for a turkey got one, or several, and store employees brought more turkeys out from the storeroom.

Aldi employees did a great job restocking the turkey freezer in addition to helping customers find Advent calendars.

Other Observations

When we left around 45 minutes after the store opened, there were still plenty of calendars of all types left on the shelves, including the popular alcohol and cheese calendars.

Wine and beer calendars about 30 minutes after the store opened.

Hard seltzer calendars 30 minutes after the store opened.

We purchased the basic Choceur chocolate Advent calendar, the Moser Roth nutcracker chocolate Advent calendar, the cheese Advent calendar, and the My Friend Gnome Kit. We were hoping to score one of the Moser Roth Luxury Chocolate Advent Calendars, but perhaps that will happen another day.

Cheese Advent calendars.

We even stopped at another local Aldi store just a few minutes down the road to check out their selection, and it was identical to the first store. They still had plenty of alcohol and cheese calendars and other calendars, but no luxury chocolate calendars or craft calendars.

My Gnome Friend Kits 30 minutes after the store opened.

We doubt any of these calendars will stick around for long, so if you haven’t yet dropped into Aldi to get your Advent calendars, you should go soon. Happy shopping! And don’t forget to thank your local Aldi employees because they’re working hard these days.