great friendly staff.
visit frequently. love shopping here.
Always clean, great options
awesome prices.
Love there coffee capsule range
great tasting food

Approximate cost: $30

Sometimes it's a mixed bag at Aldi - a bit like your shopping. They have an excellent and I really mean excellent range of their own brand products which are sourced from international and Australian suppliers. The quality of the biscuits, cereals, canned goods, chocolate, ice-cream, breads, dairy and fruit and veg. to name a few, cannot be faulted.

We love Aldi brands - great taste and exceptional value for money. With a larger family, that's really important.

But the downside is, there is not the range of product choice as there is at other places. Although, I have noticed just lately that actual Brand Name products such as Kraft Vegemite are on sale here.

Now, some people dislike the "warehousey" feel, but I don't. You grab a box and wander the aisles, collecting a good quantity of stuff, which you know is cheaper than the alternative. But then there's the wait at the checkout. It's usually long. Only one or at most, two checkouts and some people have whole trolley loads.

Then their cashiers seem to have been given a speed-bar-code-zapping course. You feel like you ought to be wearing a baseball glove to catch your groceries as they come whizzing off the conveyor. That's why you got a box. Just ram it all in, buy a 15c plastic bag, or a woven one for 79c and take it to the big shelf and sort it out leisurely so you've got it all neat and where you want it.

The other exciting thing about them is the unique products which keep turning up in the middle section. Like magic mushrooms they pop up for a few days and disappear, never to be seen again. Be careful what you buy. I got some fantastic Large size polo shirts for only $7 and that's a bargain. But I don't need to take these back. If you buy the amazing whizz-bang coffee machine or vacuum cleaner or bench drill and something goes wrong - you may never be able to do anything with it. Although they do carry some sort of a warranty. I haven't tested that yet.

Parking is good here - plenty of room.

All in all, I'd say the good far outweighs the bad. Then you can pop into another place to top up what you can't get here. Like my cat's favourite dry munchies - Aldi's aren't to his taste.

And if you really want to enjoy your Aldi experience - buy a box of Bellis ice-creams - they are tiny, like little fairy cones but like a choc-top from the cinemas - mint, strawberry or vanilla. They are only $3 or so with 12 in the box and you all just eat them in the car - 2 or 3 each, until they are gone.

I've been to Aldi's in Europe and some called Lidl which are the same except much huger. Takes a half a day just to get around.

Ours are smaller, but the adventure is the same.

Approximate cost: $At least 30-40% cheaper for their own brands.