Why You Should Think Twice About Buying Lunch Meat From Aldi, According To Customers

Aldi does several things incredibly well that keep customers coming back, from creating its beloved Aldi Finds program (which refreshes every Wednesday) to providing several must-buy items that the chain is known for. However, no store is perfect, and one undeniable weak spot for the chain is its lunch meat, which is frequently criticized by even the most dedicated Aldi fans for its poor taste and texture.

Aldi sells packaged containers of lunch meat — the majority of which are produced by Lunch Mate — and Aldi-branded, deli-sliced lunch meat that comes in plastic bags. While both have come under fire in the past, the Aldi-branded deli meat is especially detested by consumers, as has been noted routinely on the r/Aldi subreddit. Over the years, customers have told horror stories about the meat, ranging from it being generally unappetizing to it causing bouts of food poisoning. One Redditor expressed their especially unsavory experience with the deli-sliced line of products, saying, "It's slimy and sticky at the same time. Has a flavor like you are eating something rotten. Just the lowest quality lunch meat I've ever seen in my life." While some weren't quite as harsh on the line of products, the general consensus remained that the chain's lunch meat is well below the standard set by other grocery stores in the United States.

Low-quality meat is already hard to excuse, but even an improvement in the general quality still wouldn't fix one glaring issue with Aldi's lunch meat: The chain lacks an in-store deli counter, a staple of countless other supermarkets in the country. Beyond limiting customers who want to get deli meat sliced exactly the way they want it, the lack of an in-store deli also puts the freshness of the meat into question. To amplify this concern, some of Aldi's customers have noticed that some of the chain's lunch meats have notably distant expiration dates. While this isn't inherently a bad thing, it has led some to feel even more distrustful of the meat.

This lack of a deli counter results from the company's commitment to keeping meat prices remarkably low. To do this, Aldi uses the fewest employees needed to operate a store at one time, meaning that the chances of the chain creating additional departments at its stores are highly unrealistic.