Joel V.
Yelp
I'm really disappointed with this location. We rent a house in Newport Beach for the holidays every year, and the Aldi near there is always great for picking up a few essentials, snacks, or something quick for the kids. I was genuinely looking forward to this new store opening near my office so I could run in for lunch items or grab what I needed to make dinner on my way home.
I've now been here about half a dozen times, and the best word I can use to describe it is lackluster. The store is disorganized, the shelves constantly have empty sections, and the cashiers are consistently rude.
About two visits ago, the cashier actually lectured me because I used a key instead of a quarter to release a shopping cart (I didn't have a quarter on me at the time). He told me I "couldn't do that" and that he hoped my key got stuck. My response was, "Well, I already did it, and I promise you I'm leaving with the key, even if it means getting a hammer out of my car." Normally, I'm not confrontational with retail employees, but you truly had to be there -- the attitude was unreal.
Then yesterday, I went on my lunch break to grab a few things for taco night. I grabbed the last bag of sweet potatoes on the display, only to find at checkout that they were rotten and leaking some kind of liquid all over the rest of my groceries. I handed them to the cashier and politely let her know, and asked if there were any more in the back since the shelf was empty. She shh'd me, rolled her eyes, and slowly reached for the walkie talkie like I was inconveniencing her. I stopped her and said not to worry about it. She rolled her eyes again, shh'd me again, and asked, "Are you sure?" I told her yes -- and that I'll just go to Sprouts across the street and from now on.
To make this even more frustrating, the person behind me in line (who turned out to also be an Aldi employee) was told by the cashier that they'd "been getting rotten sweet potatoes brought up all day." If that's the case, why not pull the batch? Why not warn customers? Why not do anything to prevent people from buying rotting produce?
To add to all of this, nearly every time I've visited, there are people outside "collecting donations" for charities I've never heard of. They are overly aggressive to the point that one actually grabbed a bag out of my cart. I had to tell him I didn't need help with my groceries or my cart and that I just needed to get back to work. He proceeded to ask where I worked, what I did, and even how much my watch cost before I finally just walked away. That's not just uncomfortable -- it's completely inappropriate.
Prices are reasonable, the location is the problem.