As obvious Aldi stans, we often find ourselves perusing r/Aldi on Reddit, seeing what the latest buzz is. On a thread talking about Aldi purchases during the 1990s, we were admittedly among familiar company with the Redditor who commented, “Aldi was unheard of where I live in the 90’s.” Turns out, there were plenty of people who shopped at the adored and affordable Aldi in the ’90s.
We have to admit, though, that after looking at what people bought at the popular grocery chain decades ago, we’re content sticking with the Aldi Finds of 2026.
Technicolor Toilet Paper
One user commented, “Does anyone else remember the 4-packs of colored toilet paper they offered? I remember blue and pink packs. Can’t remember if there were others.”
While we’d have written that off as a fever dream, the shopper was not alone in recalling multicolored T.P. Other users chimed in: “Toilet tissue was one of the most unexpected cultural differences I encountered while studying in France. Not just colored, but also scented. I remember there being vanilla (which still strikes me as bizarre), lavender, orange blossom, rose, and mint scents, each with a coordinating color.”
Elle Woods would absolutely wipe with that, we’re sure of it.
Technology
Though Aldi has quite the varied selection, tech products aren’t often something we see there now. In the ’90s, though, it was a different story. Redditors recalled that the store used to be much more of a pallet warehouse type of place, with someone saying they even bought their first laptop there.
Another commented, “In 5th grade I got Donkey Kong Country from Aldi when Wal-Mart was sold out.” What a time to be alive.
Even Cheaper Treats
We’re genuinely envious of the person who wrote, “My favorite thing about Aldi as a kid was the random boxes of pop that was 15 cents a can, you never knew what you would find in there. I remember finding the Mario and Luigi pops all the time.” That’s a core memory if we’ve ever heard one.
One Obvious Consensus
Left and right, we saw tons of comments about how, back in the ’90s, Aldi’s food products — especially fresh foods — were questionable and far from popular. Back then, shoppers mainly visited for deals on random things rather than treating the store as the one-stop shop it is today.
“Everything seemed to be on pallets then,” one shopper recalled. “We had a whole aisle of just canned stuff. They would sit down an entire pallet of green beans or something and a lot of people would buy a whole flat. I feel like the entire store was just pallets with prices hung overhead. My worst memory is their chips, though. My parents were always trying to cheap out on chips and they were AWFUL. Every single bag. Staring at that pallet of chips in total disdain is a core childhood memory.”
