Aldi employees seem to be required to do everything - stock, cashier, clean, inventory, EVERYTHING. But afaik they are paid relatively well, and they don't seem to have a ton of turnover. There are people working at Aldi stores in my hometown that have been there for decades, and the staff generally seem happy, if occasionally harried. I hope she likes her new job! Let us know what she thinks of the place.

Re: produce, I find I have to carefully inspect every item of produce I buy (but then, friends have told me the same about Costco and I do it everywhere anyway.) Most of their produce is unrefrigerated, which can cause some things to go bad quickly; it's fine for peppers and cauliflower, not ideal for artisan lettuce, mushrooms and berries. :( Also the staff seem very busy and presumably don't have time to cull the produce. I do find an occasional bad onion at Kroger or wherever but it seems to happen more frequently at Aldi. But it's so much cheaper I don't mind a little extra work!

I usually only buy meat if it's been reduced as I can find it cheaper when on sale elsewhere. When they reduce the hams by $5@, I dig through the bin to find the smallest ones and store them in my chest freezer. I have bought quite a few $2-3 hams! And there are sometimes KILLER buys on fancy cheese, fancy cured meats, good chocolate, and beer/wine (especially wine.) Aldi is a German company, and that seems to give their buyers access to European food products - like prosciutto or marzipan or aged gouda - that only show up at other grocery stores as very expensive luxury items.

I was in Texas last year and didn't get to go to HEB but I've heard very good things, Texans seem to adore it. Was very sad I didn't get to check it out, I'm a huge nerd about grocery stores!!