Popular grocer has concerning news for customers

Inflation has pushed many consumers to change the way they’re spending money.

Nowadays, many are dining out at restaurants less frequently and focusing more on cooking meals at home to reap the savings.

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Restaurants are notorious for marking up the cost of the items they serve, and for good reason — they need to make a profit and cover all of their overhead. But if money is tight, it pays to limit restaurant spending and focus more on the delicious meals you can make in your own kitchen.

Related: Costco makes sneaky food pricing change, angers members

You should also know that while food prices are up across the board, the cost of restaurant food has been rising at a faster pace than grocery prices. So that’s another reason to limit dining out and spend more time mindfully shopping for food.

Discount grocers can offer big savings

There’s a reason stores like ALDI have such a loyal fan following.

Unlike other supermarket chains, ALDI doesn’t load its shelves with national brands you see advertised all the time. Rather, the bulk of ALDI’s products are private-label products.

Related: Kroger borrows key Target and Costco pricing plan shoppers love

Some might call those products “generic” or “off brand.” But they’re typically less expensive versions of the products you might find with fancier packaging elsewhere. And when you’re trying to spend less to put food on the table, it pays to forgo labels and focus on the products you’re actually getting.

This isn’t to say that ALDI doesn’t carry any brands you might recognize. But more than 90% of the products the store carries are exclusive to ALDI, so you won’t find them anywhere else.

ALDI has bad news for customers

Buying groceries at Aldi can often feel like taking a gamble when you’re not familiar with the brand you’re purchasing. Much of the time, that can work out perfectly fine. But recently, ALDI customers encountered an issue with the store’s Happy Farms Colby Jack Cheese.

ALDI was forced to voluntarily recall the cheese after stainless steel fragments were discovered to have made their way into it. The recall applies to products sold in Connecticut, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

It just so happens that this is the first time Happy Farms has ever needed to recall a product. But the same can’t be said for ALDI in general.

Related: Costco raises more membership fees

This recent recall marks the 69th time ALDI has been forced to pull items off of its shelves since 2018 due to quality issues. Those issues have run the gamut from mislabeled products (which could be dangerous for consumers with food allergies) to contamination with salmonella.

The FDA has since declared ALDI’s cheese recall a Class II event, where ingesting the product could have minor adverse health effects on the body.

“From time to time in the retail world, questions regarding a product’s quality or safety — or errors in its packaging or shipment — may arise,” ALDI said on its website. “On those rare occasions, ALDI has a plan to swiftly and effectively remove such products from the store.”

Consumers who purchased the contaminated cheese shouldn’t hesitate to return it to ALDI for a refund. But while ALDI will no doubt take steps to make things right for shoppers who brought home the problematic cheese, the store now faces a very serious blow to its reputation.

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As it is, some consumers are hesitant to give ALDI their business due to a lack of brand familiarity. If ALDI continues to experience issues with product quality, it could not only discourage new customers, but also potentially drive existing customers away.

Consumers today are definitely motivated to save money on food. But they’re unlikely to do so at the expense of their health.

ALDI, meanwhile, is planning to open more than 225 new stores this year as part of an ongoing expansion. 

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