The Big Problem People Are Having With Aldi Finds

A couple of days ago, Aldi fans grouped together on the store's Subreddit thread to air a big complaint. Under a post titled "I wish Aldi would put limits on some of the find items," they bemoaned the fact that, every week, people would arrive at the store with two or three carts to purchase the entire stock of goods offered under Aldi's Finds section.

The products featured here, as the blog Aldi Reviewer explains, are limited-time offerings — also sometimes called a Special Buy. They're usually found in one or two aisles and have special signage for designation. Moreover, they're products that Aldi does not typically sell, meaning that when you miss out on an Aldi Find, you miss out on the possibility of ever being able to purchase it again. Unless the stars align and it reappears, at which point you will presumably be beaten to the punch by the multiple cart hoarders. 

More gallingly, the commiserating Reddit users noted the people who buy up all of these limited-time specialty goods typically resell them on Facebook or Ebay at a higher price due to the demand — and basically turn a profit on something that should be accessible to all.

These complaints aren't new either. Eight months ago, another round of grumbling bubbled up on Reddit about these very same hoarding practices: "Aldi Finds (and Aldi in general) have an increasingly large internet following," the poster opined, "with people having entire Instagram accounts, Facebook groups, and blogs dedicated to their weekly finds and seasonal items. This means people are swarming the stores as soon as possible, and also hoarding large amounts of items; some are even doing this to resell them for profit."

Of course, the scarcities might also be caused by a host of other legitimate issues ranging from the disrupted supply chains of the pandemic to an increase of shoppers at Aldi in general due to their affordable prices.

However, there are steps that the company as a whole can take – Aldi Reviewer published an opinion piece with some additional thoughts, after lamenting how the once fun Aldi Finds have now punctuated the year with repeated Black Friday feelings, especially in cases when the find is something that could make life during the pandemic more tolerable — like the fabled toilet paper. 

Their suggestions to address these issues include putting the products out only as of the ad date and not before (as the store is alleged to do), instituting a ticket system they use for the wine calendar, and setting limits on how many Aldi Find products a customer can have. With those new practices, perhaps one day, Aldi Finds could become fun once more.