Target Vs Aldi: Which Has The Best Steak?

We think it's fair to say that both Target and Aldi have cult followings — each enticing its customers with weekly deals, unique items that are only sold in its stores, and overall friendly shopping experiences. Aldi is specifically known for its budget friendly shopping experience, while Target is a one-stop-shop that makes any store-run easier. When it comes to groceries specifically, both stores have a wide variety of options to choose from — including steak.

Now, we know that many people are extremely specific about where they get their steak. Some people only go to a butcher, some have one specific trusted grocery store in mind, and others just want to find the best deal in town. If you've never tried steak from Target or Aldi, keep reading to hear the pros and cons of shopping at each store.

We took into account variety, price, quality, sourcing, and overall customer reviews for each of the stores' steaks. From there, we were able to get a full scope of what you can expect from each store, and will hopefully help you make a better decision next time you're in need of a good steak.

Once you (safely) get past all of the clothing, beauty supplies, and home decor, you'll find Target's grocery area. Target doesn't have a butcher, so you will find the steaks alongside the other refrigerated meats like chicken, ground turkey, and other varieties. The steaks are packaged in containers ready for you to grab off the shelf.

As you're searching, you'll find quite a bit of variety of steak options. When searching on Target's site under a specific regional zip-code, we were able to see that it sells about 10 to 12 different steak cuts.

All of Target's steaks are Angus beef. You can get petite sirloin steaks, which come in a pack of two. You can get a nice hefty ribeye or New York strip steak. It has T-bone steaks available, perfect for a barbecue. There's a six pack of chuck tender steaks that you can pick up, perfect for cooking for a group of people. Overall, we think Target has a solid variety of steaks on hand.

When visiting Aldi, you're much less likely to get distracted on your way to the meat department, since the store is just a food market. The meat section looks similar to Target's — as again, there's no butcher. You will see all of the steaks lined up on the shelves alongside other meat varieties.

All of Aldi's steaks are labeled as Black Angus, which is specifically known for its reliably tender and flavorful properties. There is a large variety of steaks at Aldi, and similar to Target, it has about 10 to 12 options to choose from.

It has a three pack of eye of round steak, which is similar to a tenderloin. There's also a three pack of petite sirloin steaks. If you're looking for a big cut, you can go for the Black Angus skirt steak, the strip steak, top round steak, or top sirloin steak. There's also other more unique options, like boneless beef country style ribs or beef stew meat, which is basically cubed pieces of steak. You're bound to find a cut of steak that'll work for what you need at Aldi.

Aldi is known to be an affordable grocery store that people can depend on. Its website even states, "Aldi focuses on providing high quality food and everyday low prices to all of our customers." When comparing the steak prices from Aldi to Target, there truly was no contest.

For reference, these prices are specific to one suburban region. If you wanted to get a strip steak at either store, Target's will cost you $16.69 per pound while Aldi's will cost you $12.79 per pound. With a $4 difference for nearly the same kind of steak (both USDA Angus steak), that's a big jump in price on Target's part. Now, if you were shopping for your family and needed to get some petite sirloin steaks, Target will charge you $13.99 per pound while Aldi is charging $7.99 per pound. That's a $6 difference, for again, the same type of steak. As we compared many other cuts of steak, there was an average range of $3 to $6 difference between the two stores, with Aldi always being the cheapest.

You're probably wondering why Aldi is so much cheaper than Target. There are many reasons, but one of the main ones is that Aldi carries a smaller variety of items. This helps the store focus on what actually sells, and it doesn't lose out on money in that sense. Now, Aldi's meat is cheap specifically because it sources the meat from regional farms, which cuts down the cost of transportation and storage.

If you're wanting to find a fairly large variety of popular cuts of steaks, you'll be safe heading to either Target or Aldi. Just by looking at the types of steaks they each offer, the comparison between the two is fair game. However, the stores do carry different sizes of steaks and different package options.

If you're wanting to get a few large cuts of meat, we'd recommend heading to Aldi for a wider variety there. It has about five to seven options for large, multiple serving sized steaks depending on the location. Target, on the other hand, has about three to four options. Now, Target may be a better place to stop if you need smaller cuts. It offers multiple packs of two and six in many different steaks, like sirloin or chuck tender.

Both stores also offer a variety of steak cuts that are great for different purposes. Target has a pack of Angus beef steak specifically cut for sandwiches. It also has a 14 ounce container of Angus beef steak strips, which could be great for nachos or fajitas. Aldi offers black Angus cubed steak, which is great for burgers. It also has thin sliced beef for carne picada, which is basically thinly sliced beef that can be used in a variety of Mexican-style dishes. Depending on what you specifically need, either Target or Aldi will most likely have it.

Knowing that Aldi's steaks were incredibly cheaper than Target's, some may assume that Target's steaks are higher quality and fresher. After a bit of a deep dive, we learned that it's not necessarily true. Right off the bat, we checked both stores' websites to see what they said about its meat. Aldi's FAQ section shares, "Aldi beef contains no artificial ingredients, is minimally processed and has no artificial preservatives or dyes." The site also shares that the beef is fresh, never frozen, and vacuum sealed. Meanwhile, the Target site doesn't have any information on the freshness of its meat.

In a YouTube video that Aldi USA shared, it gave us a deeper understanding of its process with the steaks. The video shows that even though Aldi doesn't use a butcher, that doesn't mean that the meat isn't fresh. Aldi works directly with the meat supplier, who cut and package the meat for the store. That way, the individual stores don't need to unpackage the meat, cut it themselves, and repackage it for sale. All of the meat comes vacuum sealed as well, which ensures there is no bacteria growth — ultimately ensuring that the steak remains fresh.

Jason Schilling, Aldi meat buying director shared, "By setting our standard to USDA Black Angus meat, we ensure our meat has consistent marbling, making it reliably high-quality and perfect for your summer barbecue." So, if you were hesitant about Aldi's steak quality after learning how affordable it is — think again.

At its core, sustainability is producing food in a way that is positive for the environment, the consumer, and the economy. Sustainability has become a large conversation over the past few years, and consumers are more and more interested in every company's efforts to take steps toward sustainable practices. Aldi and Target each acknowledge aspects of this on the company websites, so we dug in.

Target has a section on its website dedicated to animal welfare. Since Target uses many different suppliers for its products (food products and non-food products), it keeps a high level of standards and commitments that each supplier must follow. In terms of its steak products, Target ensures that high levels of animal welfare are practiced. It specifically follows the Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare, which believes that every animal be treated humanely. In 2023, Target began to offer a line of steaks from Verde Farms, which is organic, grass-fed beef. This was a great step by Target to offer products from a company with such great practices.

Aldi has a lot of transparency on its website as well, sharing that the company focuses on corporate sustainability in all aspects. When it comes to animal welfare specifically, Aldi shares, "​​We're committed to the well-being of animals in our supply chain and believe that proper animal care practices are based on science and ethical obligations and values."

Many of us never quite know where the food we're eating actually comes from. For bigger grocery stores, most people assume it's brought in from one specific supplier. For Aldi, which is considered a smaller grocery store, it actually sources its meat (as well as produce and other food items) from regional farms. This means that each location has a direct relationship with specific farms that will then produce, package, and send directly to Aldi. According to Jason Schilling, Aldi's meat buying director, each of its stores receives fresh meat deliveries on a daily basis.

Butchers also source their meat locally, and that's one reason why many people are drawn to butcher shops as opposed to large grocery stores. Aldi and butcher shops alike have relationships with the local farmers, and that way they are both able to ensure fresh and high quality meat. The only difference from the butcher meat to the Aldi meat is that at Aldi, your steak will be pre-cut and vacuum sealed. That does mean that you have less control over the cut of meat itself like you would at the local butcher, however, the quality is most likely going to be very comparable.

Target, on the other hand, is an extremely large grocery chain. The website doesn't clearly state where it gets its meat from, but every steak product does say that the country of origin is the U.S. Currently, all of Target's steaks are sold under the Good & Gather brand.

The true information of where Target/Good & Gather sources its meat is well hidden. However, we can infer that since there is no mention of a special way of sourcing meat on its website, that Target follows what other large supermarket chains do to get its meat — from national suppliers. This enables the stores to get large shipments of the same quality meat, consistently.

Now, it wasn't always guaranteed that the steak labeled "product of USA" was actually made in the U.S. The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) used to have a sort of loophole that if meat was imported from outside of the country, but was processed in the U.S., it could be labeled "product of USA." In March 2024, however, the USDA created new rules that states that "a product must be derived from an animal born, raised, slaughtered, and processed in the U.S. in order to bear the label 'Product of USA.'" So, even though we're not entirely sure which factory Target is sourcing its meat from, we can be sure that the meat is at least produced in the country.

When all is said and done, customer reviews speak volumes about the quality of the food you're considering buying. When it comes to Target's steaks, the reviews are generally very positive. Just by looking at the star ratings on the website for the different steaks, every single one is rated 4.4 and above.

For the ribeye steak, Target customers commented on how juicy, tender, and marbled the cuts of meat were. Others were pleased with the high-quality and consistently tasty result they get every time they buy this specific cut. For the petite sirloin steak, Target customers raved about how soft, juicy, and delicious they are. One reviewer raved, "I'm very picky about my steak. Like, annoyingly picky. I usually get ours from a local butcher but I was in a pinch and saw the great reviews on these ones and I was truly blown away. They cook well, are so tender and juic[y] and are the perfect size."

The Angus beef steak for sandwiches is incredibly popular, scoring a 4.6 out of 5 with over 600 reviews. We love that this unique offering from Target is so popular with its customers. People shared that it was incredibly convenient to cook, tasted great, and is helpful for making a variety of different meals.

Unfortunately, Aldi doesn't have a review section on its website. However, after reading many different reviews on Reddit, blogs, and even our own Mashed writers' opinions, we were able to see that many of the customers are happy with their steaks at Aldi, too.

One customer who tried Aldi steak for the very first time shared, "I tossed three boneless ribeye steaks into the cart — they were $8 each so I was fairly skeptical ... I can't remember the ounces of the steaks — but they were giant! Easily over an inch thick ... I reverse seared them with Cajun seasoning and they were kind of amazing." We can see how the low price matched with high-quality taste made this customer so excited. Other customers on Reddit discussed how the Aldi steaks that they've had tend to be "consistently wonderful" as they are satisfying, fresh, and even comparable to their local butchers.

One of our writers for Mashed actually taste tested eight different steaks from Aldi, and ranked them from worst to best. Ultimately, the writer seemed to enjoy about six of the eight steaks that they tried. With a very critical eye, the writer shared every aspect of the steaks from the cooking experience to the actual taste. Overall, it seems that the Aldi steaks had a great taste (with a few exceptions, our writers need to be critical when the time calls for it).

With many factors at play, we've decided that both Target and Aldi are great options for steak. There are many factors to consider when choosing which store to pick up your next steak. If you're looking for larger cuts of meat, perhaps Aldi is your best bet. If you want smaller portions, Target is going to have a bit more selection. If you want to stick to a budget — definitely run to Aldi.

Aldi does seem to have higher-quality steaks, considering they are proven to be locally sourced. Both stores, however, maintain solid sustainability practices that make sure the steaks are coming from an ethical place. When considering the reviews, both customers of Target and Aldi seem very pleased with the taste and quality of the steaks that they've had. Knowing that you're bound to have a delicious tasting steak from either store, it's truly up to your personal preference.

When comparing the two stores, we utilized both Target and Aldi's websites for the most accurate and up to date information. Since Aldi doesn't have prices listed on the website, we used Instacart for one specific zip-code to compare both stores prices. We considered the variety of steaks offered, sourcing, sustainability, prices, and customer reviews to fairly and thoroughly compare both stores.