My wife and I have recently become almost obsessed with Aldi and now one Cape May County mayor says the discount supermarket chain will be opening a store in his township later this year.

Aldi has operated a handful of stores in our area over the past few years, but to be honest, I never thought too much about doing our food shopping there, maybe because I wasn't really up on what exactly the stores are all about.

ALDI, Vineland - Google Maps
ALDI, Vineland - Google Maps
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If you are unfamiliar with Aldi, here's what you need to know. It's a bare-bones supermarket with low prices. A typical supermarket might have a dozen different brands of canned corn for you to pick from -- Aldi probably only has one. And it's probably their own brand. You're not going to see a seafood department (but they do sell seafood), no in-store butcher (but they sell meat), no in-store florist, no pharmacy -- heck, you won't even see a customer service desk. They don't take coupons and you can't write a check. Waiting for someone to bag what you buy? Don't hold your breath 'cause you have to do it. Oh, and bring your own bags or you'll need to buy them. And you'll need a quarter to get a cart (you'll get it back when you return the cart). Everything Aldi's does (or doesn't do) lowers their prices.

Anyway, my wife visited the Aldi in Cherry Hill and fell in love with it -- and then I did aftyer we drove 45 minutes to go shopping there. Recently, we've been hitting their Vineland store. And now, in an article in Shore News Today, Middle Township Mayor Mike Clark says Aldi will be opening a store in the old Shop and Stop in Rio Grande by the end of this year.

On the flip side, while Aldi can save you a lot of money on your food bill, they're not big employers. Because it's such a bare-bones operation, each store typically only employs a small handful of people (maybe a dozen or so).

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