The Grocery Chain To Avoid When Buying Lunch Meat, According To Reddit

Although it's undoubtedly convenient to grab all groceries from a one stop shop, stores shine with particular strengths and weaknesses. Subsequently, equally important to prioritizing the best value products is avoiding the bad ones, thereby minimizing unwanted disappointments. And few low quality goods leave a literal bad taste in the mouth quite like lunch meat. Slimy, bland, and watery are not the characteristics you want from your sandwich protein, so heed to the advice of Redditors and avoid buying cured meats at Aldi.

Sure, the beloved retailer does get a lot right, but some of Aldi's best and worst foods lie in close proximity. For all of their success in the cheese department, the lunch meats from this grocer just don't hit the spot. Some shoppers even took to Reddit to express their outrage; "WHY is the ham slimy?" notes one user, while another remarks "You don't even know what [you're] eating by the smell and taste." Some items garner a worse reputation than others, with the meats in clear packaging especially noted for their low quality. If you do need to pick up cured meat in store, the Italian style products receive better reviews. "Salami is the only one I'll buy," remarked another Redditor. Generally, though, most suggest heading to a different store for this weekly shopping component.

Such low quality offerings likely boil down to one central characteristic: Aldi locations don't come with a deli counter. By avoiding staffing, maintaining, and stocking such a section of the store, the retailer manages to keep their costs extra low; one of the reasons Aldi groceries are so cheap. Although such a move improves the costs of other products, it does cap the lunch meat quality. "Nothing at Aldi is going to stack up to proper deli sliced meats," said a user on the same Aldi Reddit thread. After all, you can't ask for a desired quantity or thickness, inquire about the flavor, and certainly forget about a free sample. "I'll happily drive to another store with a deli counter," stated a different commenter.

Furthermore, in order to preserve quality from the processing facility, packaged lunch meats typically contain additional preservatives and other unsavoury ingredients, hurting the culinary experience. So, if you glance at the Aldi packages, make sure to check ingredients — "The only one that is okay ish is the organic smoked turkey," a Redditor noted. Truthfully though, if you're looking for cost-effective lunch meats, head elsewhere, or even consider making your own deli meats at home for ultimate savings.