Aldi in Maine

There are 2,000-plus Aldi stores in 39 states across the country. Recently, Maine became the 40th state when the Aldi in Maine opened on Brighton Avenue in Portland. We visited a few days after its opening.

What the Aldi in Maine is like

We are experienced Aldi shoppers, having visited stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, New Hampshire and more. I can tell you this: the Aldi store in Maine is one of the largest footprints I’ve experienced when shopping with the brand. A recent newspaper article says the entire space (retail and storage area) is 25,000 square feet. I would guess it is nearly double the size of the Aldi store in Newington/Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which is where we’ve been shopping when we needed to go to Aldi.

If you’ve never shopped at Aldi, it’s no Market Basket, Hannaford, Shaw’s or even Costco. It’s a small-scale store that is completely manageable to shop. It’s also a no-frills store. Similar to the produce aisle at Costco, you’ll find warehouse boxes filled with fruits and vegetables. The racks of bread are on trays that look like they rolled right off the truck. Even packages of cookies are shelved still in the cardboard box they were probably shipped to the store in.

Speaking of cookies, Aldi is one of the best places to find knock-off Girl Scout cookies or Girl Scout cookie dupes. When it’s not cookie season and you’re craving peanut butter patties aka Tagalongs or Caramel DeLites aka Samoas, you’ll find them at Aldi, under the Benton’s store brand name. At one point they also carried a chocolate mint cookie that didn’t look like Thin Mints but tasted just like them. I did not spot them on our trip to the Aldi in Portland, Maine.

While Aldi does carry name brand products, it stocks many of its own store brands, such as the aforementioned Benton’s cookies. Other brand names you’ll find here include:

• Barissimo Coffee
• Beaumont
• Burman’s
• Chef’s Cupboard
• Earth Grown
• Fit & Active
• Friendly Farms (we buy this yogurt)
• Happy Farms (we buy this cheese)
• Live G Free
• Lunch Buddies
• Millville
• Simply Nature
• Stonemill
• Winking Owl (if you live in a state that allows Aldi to sell wine; Maine does. It’s a boxed wine.)

Other things to know about shopping at the Aldi in Maine

As I mentioned earlier, Aldi is no frills. So no frills that you need to use a quarter to get a shopping cart. Don’t worry: you get it back when you return the shopping cart. Also, don’t be surprised if someone offers you a quarter for your cart. It’s kind of like Aldi good karma.

Also, you have to bring your own bags, which I realize isn’t such a big deal in Maine now that you have to pay for bags anyway. But you can’t bag your own groceries as you’re checking out. Instead, like at Costco, the cashier transfers your items from the belt back to your shopping cart as they check you out. Once you’ve paid, you can go to a nearby countertop to put everything in bags or once you get to your car. Shopper’s choice.

If you prefer to have someone else do your shopping at Aldi or anywhere else in the Portland area, you can sign up to use Instacart.

Use this link to pay $0 in delivery fees on your first 3 Instacart orders.

FYI, you can use Instacart to shop for not only groceries at Aldi, Costco, Hannaford and Shaw’s but also products from Best Buy, Ulta, PetSmart, Lowe’s and many more stores.

You can find affordable organic food at Aldi. This includes fresh produce as well as frozen.

Aldi offers a guarantee called Twice as Nice. If you’re not satisfied with anything you’ve purchased, you can bring it back, the store will replace it and refund your money. If you don’t have your receipt, you’ll get a gift card.

The Aldi Aisle of Shame

I would be remiss in writing this review of the new Aldi store in Maine if I didn’t tell you about the Aldi Aisle of Shame. No, it’s not called that in the store: it’s technically called Aldi Finds, usually the center aisle of the store, and it’s where you’ll find random household goods and products, sometimes toys or clothing. It’s a lot like picking through the overstocks at Marden’s.

You never know what you’ll find. Why do they call it the Aisle of Shame? I have no idea. Maybe people are embarrassed at how much they like buying random goods at Aldi. We’ve had great luck in the Aisle of Shame with lamps, rugs and even marked down carbonated lemonade.

Located at 1100 Brighton Avenue, in the Pine Tree Shopping Center near Lowe’s, Aldi is open 7 days a week, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Let us know if you have any thoughts, comments or suggestions on shopping at Aldi, here in Maine or elsewhere.