Doreen’s Deals

We all have our favorite grocery store.

Shoppers have rated their favorite supermarkets and the Northeastern grocer Wegmans once again came out tops, according to a new consumer survey.

Not at all surprising, Publix came in No. 2, Trader Joe’s took the No. 3 slot, Aldi was No. 4 and Texas-based HEB rounded out the Top 5. Costco was No. 8, Sam’s Club was No. 10 and Whole Foods was No. 11.

Not at all surprising, Walmart came in dead last of the 22 chains ranked. Winn-Dixie was No. 17 and Target came in at No. 18. Safeway (Publix just acquired its Florida stores) came in at No. 21.

Market Force’s 2018 Grocery Study asked more than 12,800 consumers to rank stores on cleanliness, items stocked, fast checkout, customer service, convenient location, sales, promotions and value.

Nobody asked me to rank the stores. If I had taken the survey, I would have given Aldi the No. 1 slot.

That’s saying a lot since we have more grocery chains here in South Florida than pesky iguanas. (I just had to slip in a lizard reference, since writing about iguanas is almost as much fun as writing about grocery stores.)

My family has come to appreciate Aldi’s high-quality store brands — almost as much as I appreciate the prices. I almost exclusively shop there now, with rare stops into Publix to grab name-brand items I can’t get at the Illinois-based grocery chain.

Recently, Aldi remodeled my Fort Lauderdale store and expanded its offerings of refrigerated and frozen goods, housewares, wine and other staples. The store is roomier now, and got a much-needed upgrade in the produce aisles, adding refrigerated organics.

The chain also recently finished updating stores in Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Tamarac, with plans to remodel more South Florida stores by year’s end, said Chris Hewitt, an Aldi South Florida division vice president.

The company is investing $1.9 billion to remodel and expand more than 1,300 stores across the country over the next few years, Hewitt said. Look for a second store coming to Plantation, in addition to the location on West Sunrise Boulevard. An opening date hasn’t been set.

This weekend, I’ll be stopping in to stock up on some of my favorite Aldi products — which cost half of those at Publix — for a July 4th barbeque on Wednesday. Like Trader Joe’s, Aldi stocks about

1,300 private-label products, which look strikingly similar to national brands and come with a double-moneyback guarantee. Many of the products have won awards for their quality and have a Good Housekeeping seal. I’ve returned a product only once when K-cups failed to properly puncture in my coffeemaker. I got my money back and got to pick a package of ground coffee as a free replacement. Not a bad deal.

I highly recommend the organic grass-fed ground beef ($5.99 per pound), hamburger and hot-dog buns are just 85 cents a package, and you can’t go wrong with any of the frozen desserts, including the bake-yourself apple strudel. Clancy’s potato chips ($1.79) are as good as Lay’s; corn is 19 cents an ear; and the bratwurst ($5.89 for six) on the grill was a hit last time I made them. Other favorites in my house are the cereals, which are less than $2 a box; the authentic Wisconsin cheese Kringle ($3.99); frozen riced cauliflower ($1.89 a bag); and 12-packs of Bell Vie flavored sparkling water ($2.49), which rivals expensive LaCroix. I also love the Simply Nature organic brand, too. The lamb chops (when they’re available) are incredible. Even though the wine section at my store got an attractive expansion, I still prefer Trader Joe’s for wine. It’s cheaper.

Out of everything Aldi stocks, the paper goods are my favorite. I like my premium paper towels and toilet paper, I will not lie. I had been forking over $16-$20 each for big packages of Bounty paper towels and Charmin bath tissue. Not anymore.

Aldi’s paper towels, bath tissue, paper plates, napkins and plastic zip-seal bags are the best I’ve ever used. The nine mega rolls of Willow Ultra Soft bath tissue is $6.99; eight rolls of Boulder Ultra paper towels are $5.99. Forget Kleenex. Willow tissues are just $1.29. They are all outstanding.

My only criticism of the chain continues to be the check-out process. Lines are long (but they do tend to move quickly) and the clerks are too rough with the goods as they quickly scan. I’m not crazy about bagging my own groceries (the redesigned store now has more room for bagging, which helps) and I’m not in love with how you must deposit a quarter to get a shopping cart. I do get a kick out of the shopping cart quarter exchanges that happen frequently in the parking lot between customers.

But the stores are clean, bright and well stocked, the employees are helpful and the value is outstanding.

If we had a Wegmans (and you know it’s only a matter of time before we get one), I wouldn’t be shopping there, either.