A Taste of Germany!

No, it wasn't a German restaurant or a fake Oktoberfest, it was simply a trip to ALDI'S! It brought me back instantly to Heidelberg, Bad Aibling, and Rosenheim! Just like Germany, you have to put a quarter in the shopping basket to unlock it from the others and use it. When you are done shopping, you have an incentive to put it back, because you get your quarter back. (That costs a euro or 50 euro cents in Europe.)

Roll it into the store and there are the same aisles stacked with products in boxes with their prices displayed above. They had a lot of German (and some Italian) products: wafer cookies, white asparagus in a jar, German beer, wine, bratwurst, spaezle noodles, sauerkraut, candy bars, gummi bears, and a million cheap, off-brand products along with a few name-brand ones. I hadn't come with anything in mind, but I left with $45 worth of great stuff, all much cheaper than the big-name super markets like Publix and Kroger.

One lady in the store said, "Look at how cheap these frozen chicken wings are! They are twice that price in Publix!" I agreed with her! So is the Swiss cheese, the yogurt, nuts, rice, fish, and ham! It's out of the way, but it's worth it to go there once in a while.

Just like Germany, you bag or box your own groceries as the clerk puts them directly back in your basket. Once major difference, though: the American checkout clerks are at least twice as fast as the Germans, many three times. Anyone who has been in a German supermarket knows what I mean by this.