Is There A Best Time To Shop For Meat At Aldi?

Aldi has a reputation for offering inexpensive meat, which is partly made possible by cost-saving practices like cart rentals (which cut down staffing costs) and emphasizing affordable brands exclusive to the chain. However, rumors abound that you can score even cheaper meat by shopping at certain times to find marked-down items. Once a product approaches its use-by date, Aldi may reduce the price significantly to get it out the door. And because shoppers are invested in getting these major deals, some people try to determine when they have the best chance to find such discounts.

We hate to burst your bubble, but there doesn't appear to be a specific day or time when the store is more likely to slash meat prices. According to one Reddit thread, these adjustments can occur on just about any day of the week because they're based on a product's specific use-by date. As one commenter put it, "There's no special day that they mark down perishable items. It gets marked the day before it expires. It's essentially random from a [customer's] perspective." Elsewhere on Reddit, an employee at the chain stated that meat is sometimes marked down on Sunday nights. But that practice could vary from store to store and still wouldn't account for the discounts related to an item's use-by date.

Even if you can't predict specific use-by discounts might, knowing how to identify marked-down meat products will make deals harder to miss when they do occur. The most obvious sign of discounts is the red stickers on the packaging, which can feature a reduced percentage or dollar amount. Keep in mind that items can have more than one red sticker, in which case you can receive more than one discount. The store also uses signage to advertise discounts for multiple items, in which case you may see a sign on the display case. 

Aldi shoppers should also become acquainted with the store's weekly ads, which can be viewed on its website or through the chain's email newsletter. They tout a wide range of products, including different types of meat. For example, as of this writing, the ad features chicken breast, lamb steaks, spiral-sliced ham, and pork roast. 

It seems likely that shoppers will continue to inquire about the best days to find big discounts. However, the idea of an optimal time appears to be one of the many Aldi meat myths people have fallen for (such as the bizarre rumor that the store was selling bacon grown in a lab).