The Under-the-Radar Grocery Store Aldi Fans Will Love

Especially during a pandemic, smaller grocery stores like Aldi are all the rage with customers who are avoiding crowds and don't want to choose from 20 varieties of mustard, but there's one you may have long overlooked: Save A Lot. Around since 1977, the 1,280-store chain has been breathing new life into its stores with more private labels; brighter, cleaner decor; and an expanded selection of fresh foods. So how does this veteran compare with much-buzzed-about Aldi, the ruthlessly efficient German import? Read on to find out.

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Location, location, location: While Aldi is aggressively targeting suburban areas, Save A Lot still aims to serve a variety of locations — urban, suburban, and rural, according to Sarah Griffin, the chain's director of communications. It bills itself as a "neighborhood grocery store," and the location I visited bore out that promise, in a more densely populated area of town where it would be in walking distance for many shoppers and reachable by public transit for others.

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Like Aldi, Save A Lot has a much smaller footprint than your typical supermarket and carries a more limited assortment of products — about 1,800 per store, according to the company. Still, the store I visited was more spacious than Aldi, with wider aisles and more square footage throughout to navigate. Anyone who's been in a crowded Aldi lately might appreciate the extra breathing room.

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No one has ever raved about Aldi's merchandising — most products are simply stacked on the shelves in the boxes they came in. At Save A Lot, the scene is much the same, and the chain is able to save money (and pass the savings on to customers) by forgoing fancy displays.

My local Save A Lot has a slight edge here: Though some stores are open even longer hours, most are open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., giving shoppers a little more time to tackle their shopping lists than Aldi, open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. except for Tuesdays and Thursdays, when stores open at 8:30 a.m. for senior shopping.  Still, at either place, don't expect to find the lights on when you have the midnight munchies. Again, this is all about efficiency, since keeping the store staffed and running in the wee hours is costly.

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Like Aldi, the Save A Lot I visited also requires shoppers to unlock shopping carts by inserting a quarter. Of course, that helps ensure their return, and allows workers to focus on stocking shelves or checking out customers instead of wrangling carts. Griffin says that not all Save A Lots have the quarter-for-a-cart system yet, but the company has gotten good feedback from those that do.

One of Aldi's more unique attributes: The "Aldi finds" section, which offers an ever-rotating assortment of seasonal items, housewares, apparel, and other items you don't expect to find in a small grocery store. There's nothing comparable at Save A Lot, where the focus is almost entirely on food. Of course, that's not necessarily a bad thing, especially for shoppers who want to avoid impulse buys.

While more than 90% of the items Aldi stocks are its own store brands, Griffin says the percentage at Save A Lot is lower, at about 70% store brands and 30% name brands. The more even mix was definitely noticeable while I browsed, with big names including Coke, Lay's, Kraft and Little Debbie sharing shelf space with Save A Lot brands like Coburn Farms (dairy), J. Higgs (chips and snack food), and Kurtz (condiments). Still, Griffin says the chain has been steadily reworking its store brands, and shoppers can expect to see new private label products popping up..

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Just like Aldi, Save A Lot makes sure customers know exactly which name brands its own store brands are trying to imitate. The red circular logos on Ginger Evans cake mixes strongly echo Betty Crocker, while the colorful lettering and font on Kiggins Cinnamon Crunch cereal is a dead ringer for General Mills' Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Whether they taste similar, of course, is still up for debate — but you can check out our Aldi taste test here.

One of the more surprising parts of my Aldi shopping trips has been running across plenty of specialty items, including gluten-free selections, organics, and even some high-brow foods like imported chocolate or craft soda. I kept my eyes peeled for similar items at Save A Lot, but it's clear the store is focused on stocking the basics. One bright spot: a big assortment of ethnic foods.

Aldi carries a surprisingly comprehensive selection of wine and beer, and on my last visit, I noticed everything from ready-made mimosas and champagne to sangria and hard cider. My Save A Lot, on the other hand, offered mostly mass-market domestic beer like Budweiser, Busch, and Coors, plus a very modest selection of inexpensive wine including the Arbor Mist and Barefoot brands.

Related: 15 Best House Wines From Costco, Aldi, and Trader Joe's

Save A Lot struggles in this department, but so does Aldi. Limited square footage puts the squeeze on household goods and toiletries, and neither store offers much beyond the bare minimum. While there was a decent variety of cleaners and paper products at Save A Lot, beauty and health selections were scant. As with Aldi, prices were also lackluster — I could get a three-bar pack of Irish Spring at Target for 30 cents less than Save A Lot, or a tube of Banana Boat Ultra Sport sunscreen for $1.50 cheaper.

In a bid to keep checkout as efficient as possible, Aldi doesn't accept manufacturer's coupons. Save A Lot has no such qualms, which makes sense given that they carry more national brands. There are also occasional store coupons on Save A Lot's Facebook page and website. Want to pay by check? Before the pandemic you could do that here, unlike Aldi, but right now they're emphasizing contactless payment.

Want Save A Lot groceries delivered to your door? Like Aldi, they've partnered with Instacart to allow customers to shop from home.

Dedicated Aldi customers scour the chain's circulars before they shop, and Save A Lot customers would be smart to do the same. Some marquee deals for a week in September 2021 were 69 cents each for cucumbers or green peppers and $1.99 a pound for boneless pork loin. Also look for "weekly wow" deals, which are limited-time savings on less prominent items, and "special buys," which focus on name-brand items that the store may not always stock. You can snag paper circulars at the store, and they're also available online.

In an effort to bring in shoppers who might be wary of store brands, Aldi backs purchases with a "double guarantee" that gives shoppers both a refund and a replacement for an unsatisfactory item. Save A Lot's guarantee isn't quite as robust, but there were plenty of signs in the store reminding shoppers that they're able to bring back items for a full refund if they aren't satisfied.

Aldi devotees would feel right at home in the checkout line of my local Save A Lot. Both chains require you to purchase your own bags (it's a dime for plastic, 7 cents for paper at Aldi) so it's best to bring reusable totes if you have them. Like Aldi, Save A Lot also puts multiple barcodes on its store brand packaging for faster scanning, and requires customers to bag their own purchases at a counter in front of the store.

Save A Lot beat out Aldi, Family Dollar, and other discounters in a 2016 price survey that determined which store offered the lowest opening price points on food — that is, the absolute cheapest item on the shelf in a given category. And the chain crows about its store brands, which it says can save shoppers a mint over other retailers. A store ad highlighted savings up to 67% when customers switched to store-brand pasta, condiments, chips and other favorites over national brands.

But what about Save A Lot's store brands versus Aldi's? A quick comparison of nine common grocery items like same-size packages of diet soda (Aldi, $2.44; Save A Lot, $2.49) tortilla chips (Aldi, 89 cents; Save A Lot, $1.19) and apple juice (Aldi, $1.09; Save A Lot, $1.49) showed Aldi was easier on the wallet six times. The times Save A Lot came out ahead (for example, 6-ounce yogurt cups for 33 cents vs. 35 cents at Aldi, and 10.7 cents an ounce for fruity cereal vs. 11 cents at Aldi) it wasn't by much.

Related: 30 Things to Know Before Shopping at Aldi

All in all, Save A Lot surprised me. My local store was clean and uncluttered, it was easy to find what I needed, and the prices were at least in the ballpark with Aldi, which is no small feat. Bargain hunters can find good store-brand deals at both stores, though the product mix is a bit different: Aldi sprinkles in upscale items like organics and imported cheeses; Save A Lot sticks to the basics, but gives shoppers a much greater selection of name brands.

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