The Most Overpriced Foods At Aldi, According To Customers

Aldi has long been known as the budget grocery shopper's paradise, with the lowest prices for everything from staples to snack foods. Lately, though, many Aldi shoppers have complained of higher prices and lower quality for items that were once a guaranteed deal. While some Aldi items are just a few cents more expensive than Walmart or a regional supermarket may sell them for, these differences add up when you're doing a big weekly shop.

Not even Aldi is immune to recent inflation, but worse products and smaller packaging has left customers feeling like some grocery items are now overpriced. These factors have prompted some longtime Aldi customers to turn to big box stores or regional grocery chains for better prices or better quality on meat, dairy, and pantry items. 

This list of the most overpriced foods at Aldi includes the items most criticized by shoppers due to recent changes to the quality or packaging of the product. Each item costs more at Aldi than at budget grocery competitors like Walmart or even some local grocery stores. To make the most of your grocery budget, skip these overpriced items on your next trip to Aldi. The pricing of items at Aldi and other stores, of course, will depend on your location.

Many loyal Aldi shoppers have long found bacon to be one of their favorite deals. They got delicious bacon for a far lower than average price, enabling more tasty breakfasts at home. But more and more once-satisfied shoppers are now unhappy with their Aldi bacon. Some find the bacon fatty and hard to peel apart, while others report an odd taste or an unpleasant smell, all part of a larger trend of complaints about Aldi's meat quality over the past few years.

Bacon quality seems to vary widely between Aldi locations, as plenty of customers have reported no issues with their favorite bacon items. Even if your bacon is delicious as usual, you might be overpaying for it. You'll pay almost a dollar more for a 12-ounce package of bacon at Aldi than you would at Walmart. Aldi's Appleton Farms center-cut bacon costs $4.95, while a similar bacon product at Walmart is just $3.97. When adjusted to per-pound pricing, Aldi bacon is more expensive than some regional grocery stores. Tops, a northeast chain, sells a pound of thick-sliced bacon for $5.69. A pound of Aldi's bacon would cost $6.60, nearly a dollar more.

Aldi's yogurt might be a good deal compared to fancy name-brand yogurts, but it's overpriced compared to many other stores we checked. A 32-ounce container of nonfat vanilla yogurt costs $2.85 at Aldi, but just $2.76 at Walmart. Depending on your location, Tops is even more affordable, selling a similar type of yogurt for about $2.69. Walmart and Tops also had better prices than Aldi for their store-brand varieties of Greek yogurt.

In some regions, you might find a better deal at Aldi than at a store like Kroger. Kroger sells its store-brand plain yogurt for $2.99, more than 10 cents more than Aldi's, and its Greek yogurt is more expensive than the Aldi counterpart too. But shoppers might not want to get too attached to an Aldi yogurt, even if it is a good price. Some customers say their favorite yogurt has changed recently, making it not worth the buy any longer.

Like several of Aldi's meat products, hot dogs from the store's Parkview brand feel overpriced due to their quality rather than their actual cost compared to other stores. Consumers say the hot dogs, including Parkview's classic dogs and jumbo franks, feel small and can have an odd texture. Food reviewer Sweatpants Joe Eats deemed these franks "not a good bun-to-dog ratio" and noted a slimy feel to the hot dogs. More recently, other shoppers have said that Aldi changed the recipe entirely, adding beef to the usual chicken and pork mixture and ending up with an unpleasant taste.

Aldi's classic hot dogs, made with chicken, pork, and beef, cost 99 cents for a pack of eight hot dogs. (The jumbo franks weren't available on the Aldi website at the time of writing.) While less than a dollar for a pack of hot dogs might seem like a steal, shoppers' complaints point to low-quality ingredients as a factor in that super low price. Spending a little more for a different brand is worth it to avoid the problems with the Parkview hot dogs.

Like some of Aldi's meat products, milk and dairy is another big category that shoppers say is suffering from higher prices and increasingly worse quality. A gallon of Friendly Farms whole milk at Aldi will cost $3.09, while the BJ's store brand is a few cents cheaper, at $3.03 per gallon. Walmart's Great Value whole milk is far more affordable than either of these, running at just $2.42 per gallon. Milk prices may be lower or higher than this in some regions, but consumers still report higher costs at Aldi than other stores.

Paying a few cents more for a gallon of milk might not be a big deal if Aldi is a more convenient place for you to shop for other groceries, but you might want to consider some shoppers' concerns about milk expiration dates. Some Aldi customers have reported purchasing milk with a best-by date that's just a few days later or that spoils very soon after opening it. If you don't use up milk quickly, you might end up with a lot of wasted dairy. Another consideration: a smaller selection of milk. Shoppers say it can be difficult to find some sizes of 1% or skim milk in some Aldi stores, so if you need a particular fat content in your milk, Aldi isn't a guarantee.

Finding your favorite brand-name soda, cereal, or snack at Aldi might seem like a no-brainer way to get a great price, but that's rarely the case. A six-pack of mini cans of Coca-Cola costs about $4.85 at Aldi, but approximately $3.99 at a northeast regional chain. A sharing-size bag of M&M's runs around $4.79 at Aldi, but only $4.34 at Walmart.

Brand-name items aren't a good bet at Aldi for a couple of reasons. Aldi focuses heavily on its own brands, a critical piece of keeping prices low across the store. Carrying a name-brand product requires a lot of negotiation and potential additional fees, which increase the price by the time it gets to your shopping cart. When Aldi does carry name-brand products, it won't accept manufacturer coupons for any of them. On its corporate website, Aldi explains this is because it "negotiates the best possible prices" with big brands. You're more likely to find a good deal on a specific brand at your regular supermarket, especially if you look for manufacturer coupons or pay attention to weekly sales.

Store-brand ice cream has helped many ice cream lovers stay within their grocery budgets, and Aldi's Sundae Shoppe brand offers lots of generic versions of popular frozen treats. Customers rave about some items, like the gelato and ice cream sandwiches, but find other items disappointing, like a Creamsicle-flavored ice cream and chocolate-covered banana bars. The regular ice cream, in 48-ounce containers, doesn't seem to have many die-hard fans, but it doesn't have any haters either. It's a fine choice if you're not picky about your ice cream; consumers who are picky tend to prefer other store brands or Aldi's Specially Selected premium ice cream.

Whatever ice cream treat you choose, you'll probably find yourself paying more at Aldi than at a competing store like Walmart. A 48-ounce container of regular ice cream costs $3.25 at Aldi. That's 25 cents more than store brands at Walmart, Kroger, and Lidl. The novelty ice creams at Aldi are generally cheaper than name-brand counterparts, but still more expensive than similar items at these other stores. Take chocolate-dipped sundae cones, for example. The brand-name Drumsticks cost nearly $10 for an 8-pack at a regular supermarket, so Aldi's price of $6.29 for their Sundae Shoppe product is a lot of savings by comparison. But Walmart's Great Value sundae cones are more than 50 cents cheaper, at just $5.76. Store brands like Kroger have similar prices to Aldi, and you're more likely to find those items go on sale.

Budget-conscious shoppers are increasingly skipping the meat section at Aldi, particularly when it comes to versatile staples like ground beef. There aren't many specific complaints about the quality of Aldi's ground beef, but it's similar in price to supermarkets with in-store butcher departments. Some consumers say they can find better deals and better quality on ground beef at these grocery stores, especially if you keep an eye on weekly sales.

Prices might vary from store to store, but we found that you'll pay $5.19 per pound for Aldi's 80% lean ground beef. This is lower than the regular price for the same fat percentage at some supermarkets — Vons' ground beef is typically $5.99 per pound, and Kroger's ground beef can be over $6.50. But while this was being written, Kroger's ground beef was on sale, bringing the price per pound down to just $4.99, a better deal than Aldi. We also found some stores whose regular ground beef prices were lower than Aldi's, like Hannaford, which sells 80% lean ground beef for around $4.49 per pound.

Baking supplies make frequent appearances on Aldi shoppers' lists, but you might find you're paying more there than at competing stores. Some customers have pointed out that Walmart is a cheaper option for these supplies, even considering recent inflation. Sugar in particular has gotten more expensive across the U.S., according the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but Walmart has managed to keep its sugar at a lower price than Aldi. A 4-pound bag of granulated white sugar costs $3.46 at Walmart, or 86 cents per pound. Aldi's bag of sugar is $3.65, or 91 cents per pound.

Enthusiastic home bakers who can go through 10 pounds of sugar relatively quickly find better prices on sugar at bulk warehouse stores. BJ's 10-pound bag of sugar costs $8.29, or 83 cents per pound. These stores often require annual memberships, but since the savings extend to all your other baking essentials, it can still work out in the home baker's favor.

Cereal aficionados tend to salivate a little bit when they first see the Aldi cereal aisle, full of low-price dupes of your favorite sugary childhood breakfasts. Many Aldi shoppers have been loyal to the store-exclusive Millville brand for years, even saying Aldi's version is superior to the brand-name cereals that inspired them. But a string of recipe reformulations have left more and more shoppers dissatisfied, choosing to splurge on the brand-name cereal or seek generic versions at other stores.

If you're really not picky, Aldi will save you a few cents per ounce on generic versions of your favorite cereal. (Packaging and sizes differ widely between cereal brands, so it's easier to compare prices by ounce rather than a single box.) For Cinnamon Crunch Squares, Aldi's Cinnamon Toast Crunch dupe, you'll pay 16 cents per ounce. A bulk bag of Malt-o-Meal's version of this cereal will cost you 19 cents per ounce. Many shoppers have found that these savings aren't worth the recent decline in the quality of Aldi's cereals.

Shoppers have noticed price jumps in Aldi's baby food selection for a while now, with the price of fruit and vegetable purée pouches jumping from 89 cents to 99 cents per 4-ounce pouch. A similar baby food product from Walmart of the same size costs 87 cents. Kroger sells a brand that's just 85 cents per 4-ounce pouch, but sometimes goes on sale for as low as 67 cents. Like brand-name items, a lot of baby food products may be fairly easy to find good deals on in other grocery stores. You'll generally pay on the higher end for baby food at Aldi.

In some places, Aldi customers have noted that baby products are harder to find than they used to be, especially some baby food items and other essentials like diapers. Aldi does have a smaller selection of baby products than supermarkets or big-box stores, especially since it discontinued its store-brand baby formula a few years ago. The products it does carry tend to be overpriced.

There's a good reason Aldi shoppers get excited about the seasonal arrival of the Grill Master collection. It's an impressive 7.37-pound box of frozen meats, which included three kinds of USDA Choice steak, burgers, boneless pork chops, and boneless chicken breasts in 2025. Some customers have reported finding this item for truly incredible prices, but it's also frequently overpriced. Meat prices are highly correlated with quality and depend on a variety of other factors, so whether or not the frozen meats are overpriced can change easily.

Consumers say the Grill Master collection retails for $59.99 when first released each year. At this price, you're getting meat for about $8.13 per pound. That's only a deal for the steaks, according to the most recent consumer grocery data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The beef burgers, pork chops, and chicken breasts are significantly overpriced. Thankfully, Aldi seems to routinely mark down this item, with shoppers on Reddit reporting finding it for as low as $40 in 2024 and $32 in 2025. If you find this collection at $32, you're getting a much better deal at $4.34 per pound of meat. That's still overpriced for chicken breast, but a great deal on steaks.

Orange juice from any brand is notorious for shrinkflation, a term for when a product makes its packaging smaller while keeping the price the same. If you're paying the same amount for orange juice as you always do, you may not notice right away if the bottle is just a little smaller. Consumer reviews of Aldi orange juice from 2019 show a 59-ounce bottle retailing for $2.19, but they note this is smaller than comparable products from other brands, which at the time were 64-ounce bottles.

In 2025, Aldi shoppers found 52-ounce bottles of not-from-concentrate orange juice for $4.09. We found some stores where it's still $3.99, but be on the lookout for rising prices or shrinking bottles. Consumers report that Tropicana recently changed its bottle size to under 50 ounces, and we found a 46-ounce bottle at Kroger. Since citrus production is struggling in Florida and other key growing regions, we could see further shrinkflation at Aldi and other stores. Savvy shoppers might do better to keep an eye on supermarket sales and manufacturer's coupons rather than risk a suddenly overpriced orange juice at Aldi.