German ALDI Prices vs US ALDI Prices (34 Different Products!!)

I'm convinced that buying groceries in the US is SOOO much more expensive than it is in Germany! So I decided to finally put my curiosity to rest and compare German Aldi prices to US Aldi prices. Was I right?? Click to find out!

**i used the conversion rate of 1€ = $1.13 for this video

Hi! I'm Kelly and I am an American who lived in Germany for 18 wonderful months. While I lived abroad before in Turkey and had done quite a bit of traveling beforehand, those 18 months in Germany definitely broadened my perspective of Germany, Europe, and even the US in so many different ways! I wanted to share my perceptions with you guys through YouTube so that maybe you can gain context to things you've heard about, or learn new information or a different perspective, or maybe this is everything you've heard before and further confirms your world view. No matter what the reason, I hope that you enjoy my videos! Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and turn on notifications so that you always know when I'm posting new content :)

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#germany #germangroceries #aldi #usgroceries #price comparison

[ArnoSchmidt]

What I find very interesting is, that despite of the low taxes in the US and the 7/19% sales tax in Germany many products are cheaper in Germany.

[der_bruehl]

Probably transport is part of the price difference in produce. Bananas and Mango come from South America / Mexico and are closer to the US then Europe...

[Anakianaj]

I start to understand why Americans seem to eat out all the time. Cooking for yourself is /SO MUCH/ cheaper in Germany.... but when I look at those US prices it's easy to imagine it is cheaper -or doesn't make a difference - to eat out in the US.

Edit: Also, after scrolling through some comments: Yes, ofc this comparison doesn't factor in every detail (size of the supermarket in the country, supply chain, sourcing etc. pp) - but this is not some kind of economic study. This is just some small scale private experiment that doesn't claim to be a case study - let alone factor any of the economic aspects in. It simply answers the question: "What prices will I see when I walk into ALDI in the US and what will I see when I walk into ALDI in Germany?"

[jfajman]

I'd be curious how the US Aldi's supply chains and sources, especially produce, compare not only to the German Aldi but other US stores. It's insane that many of those produce items are more expensive in the US when you consider just how much of our produce is domestic compare to other countries.

[a.solitary.candle]

Basically it seems that the healthier the food, the more expensive it is in the USA, and vice versa. Could explain the higher obesity rates in the US? Interesting video, thank you :-)

[bubba]

Every time I see a notification from youtube and I see it's from your channel, it puts a smile on my old face.

[Zack-kyqf]

Thank you so much for this excellent comparison. I really appreciate the effort you put into this.

[lisal]

Cool video.
But to be honest I as a german wasn´t really surprised. The german grocery market is one or even the most competive markets in the EU. In my village its rather normal to see Porsches, BMWs and Mercedes in the Aldi parking lots. It´s quite normal to compare 100g or kilo prices, everybody does it not just the poor or lower middle class folks. It´s way more expensive to buy the same products in France, the UK or Italy, especially milk products, eggs and meat.

[Kidneys]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but did you mix something up with eggs and sugar? You said both is cheaper in the US Aldi but your chart showed that it's the other way round.
And the chips you showed in the German Aldi are an expensive brand. We also have off brand chips which are way cheaper.

[kayf]

The fact, that Fresh Milk is cheaper than "sugarsoaked sented water" aka Coke bothers me every time.

[Gazer]

Living in Norway I can only cry in envy over the cheap prices regardless of country...
The VAT is 25% as a main rule, 15% on food and drink and 12% on transportation, lodging, tickets to venues and similar.

[jonadabtheunsightly]

Within the US, prices vary hugely depending on exactly where you go. For example, if you compare the Aldi in Mansfield Ohio against the one in West Palm Beach, Florida, you'll find almost everything is more expensive in West Palm Beach, except a couple of things (e.g., limes) are way cheaper. On the whole, I'd say comparing Munich to DC was probably a good call, but people who live in other places are gonna look at those prices and go "Waaa?"

Also, the prices on certain items (notably, produce) varies hugely depending on time of year, and some things just go up and down apparently at random. Potatoes are notable here, and also to some extent eggs, which have been cheap here lately: I bought eggs for 55 cents a dozen a few days ago, but another year they might be $2.99 a dozen, and there's no apparent reason for that fluctuation that I'm aware of. The price just... goes up and down from time to time.

They grow mangoes in Florida now and ship them to northern grocery stories on refrigerated trucks. Pineapples, in contrast, are shipped in from Hawaii or Latin America, I think by boat. (Then again, so are bananas, and they're cheaper than dirt up here. Like, I bought bananas the other day for 23 cents a pound, at Sav-A-Lot, which is broadly similar to Aldi. Why can't pineapples be 23 cents a pound? I'd buy fresh pineapple way more often, if it were 23 cents a pound.)

Olive oil surprised me. As near as I can tell, all of the olive oil sold in America is imported from Spain; Spain is much closer to Germany than it is to America, so I would have expected the price to be lower there.

Toilet paper is one of the few things we get at Sam's Club, even though it's a hassle. Because yes, it's overpriced everywhere else, and a few cents a roll adds up pretty fast.

On the whole, I would expect average grocery prices to be cheaper in America, but that's mainly because of the very different population distribution: if you compare population density maps, large swathes of America are the medium-density middle colors; Germany is much closer to that than e.g. France (which is almost entirely full of the very darkest and lightest colors), but on the whole Germany still has more of its population in large cities (where food is consistently more expensive) than is true in America.

[floriderfux]

Wow, I sure ain't expected this. I thought most everything in the US would be cheaper than in Germany. That was quite interesting! Thank you, Kelly =)

[Osmone_Everony]

Wow you have put a lot of work in this video. Kudos to you.
One question about the eggs: Do you happen to know if the eggs in America are mainly from battery hens? Afaik these are forbidden for a good reason in Germany. Freiland-Eier (as shown in this video at 7:27) are the best but of course they are more expensive due to higher production costs, but I'm happy to pay that for the sake of the chickens.

[gregkerr]

Most of Aldi USA's food is sourced from North and South America and prices fluctuate quite often due to supply/demand issues as well as seasonal ones. I've even seen Aldi's American style white bread fluctuate from 42 cents a loaf to 1.09 within the same year. Europe/local produce would require less travel hours to get to their destination....but at higher fuel prices than in the U.S. There are so many factors which go into grocery pricing. As a whole, there is very low margin to be made on groceries as it is a very competitive volume makes up for that. Some stores charge more because they have fancy bakeries and delis and so forth...others like Aldi, focus only on the core items and move volume. I shopped today at Aldi in Conyers Ga. and bought some canned goods (I know...fresh is best). Aldi had Brookdale beef stew, which is identical to Dinty Moore brand...for 1.69 whereas the other stores Dinty Moore brand is 2.99. I bought for cans of stewed tomatoes at Aldi for 35 cents a can. I didn't need them any time soon but price was too good to pass up.

[lukieskywalker]

The bell pepper situation surprises me every time you mention it. I just looked up the biggest exporting nations of bell peppers and it turns out that Spain, Mexico and the Netherlands amount to close to two thirds of world wide bell pepper trade. Spain and the Netherlands mostly trade within the EU, Spain almost exclusively and the Dutch sell 50% of their peppers to Germany and the UK and then the US and some other (again mostly European) countries. Germany receives 80% of their peppers from Spain and the Netherlands.
Mexico sells almost exclusively to the US and Canada.
Since Spain and the Netherlands are part of the European single market there are no tariffs or special taxes on those peppers, I don‘t know how that works with the US, Mexico and Canada.

Also someone has to tell Nalf that he can get Knoppers in the US. He is so in love with those it would be close to torture to let him find that out on his own.

[CocoaBeachLiving]

I didn't expect our Aldi to be more expensive! As always, beautifully presented. Thanks👍😊

[althompson]

I'd be interested in seeing comparisons of non-food items in the stores too, considering the huge sales tax on those in Germany.

[DENicholsAutoBravado]

I forgot that! Yeah. I was in sticker shock for bell peppers when I got back to the states.

[abcw]

So interesting! That bell pepper difference was shocking. Getting ripped off over 'ere!