Are Paper Products Actually Cheaper At Aldi?
Aldi has very consistently bested its competitors with food prices over the last several years, while also garnering global fans of its specialized foods, personal products, and home essentials. The chain doesn't boast traditional discounts or sales, marketing its regular prices as already the lowest around. You need only check the e-newsletter for "Aldi Finds" or peruse the fan fave Facebook page, Aldi's Aisle of Shame, to tap into the special products available, like these 13 items we recommend buying.
While we're familiar with Aldi's lower prices for, say, eggs, what about paper products? Are the essentials such as toilet paper and paper towels actually cheaper at Aldi? The answer is yes, they are. Aldi's two main paper product brands are Boulder and Willow. Boulder is comparable to the popular Bounty paper towel brand, while Willow is an alternative to Charmin brand toilet paper.
Boulder also offers a 250-count paper napkin package that's a heck of deal, but for these purposes, we'll compare only toilet paper and paper towels. While prices will vary regionally, we compared Aldi brands Boulder and Willow to Bounty and Charmin, respectively, at both Walmart and Target, and Aldi comes out on top. Price comparisons were at stores in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the comparisons were for everyday use paper towels and two types of popular toilet paper choices that include ultra soft rolls and ultra strong rolls, 12 counts each.
Aldi's paper products are a steal, but is cheaper always better?
Across the board, Aldi prices for all paper products were lower than both Target and Walmart. We compared Aldi brand Boulder ultra paper towels to Target's Bounty in the same size, and the Aldi brand came in at $9.69 compared to Target's Bounty for $16.99. Over at Walmart, the same Bounty Paper towels were cheaper than at Target, but several dollars more expensive than Aldi brand paper towels, coming in at $19.90.
Next we compared toilet paper in 12-roll packages. Aldi's Willow brand ultra soft toilet paper was $10.99, while the ultra strong was $10.15. Target's Charmin brand toilet paper in ultra soft was $14.99, as was the ultra strong. Walmart's Charmin ultra soft was $14.97, and the ultra strong was $19.98.
While Aldi is clearly coming in as the winner by several dollars on each of these paper products, it's worth mentioning that not all paper products are created equal, and certainly, personal preferences aren't either. We find that toilet paper preferences, for example, are very specific. But one Reddit thread discussed the Boulder brand paper towels in terms of both performance and price, and the consensus was that the Boulder ultra (green package) did a bang up job, with one commenter saying "I use their paper products regularly (napkins and paper towels mostly) because of the cost and effectiveness. They don't tear and are absorbent."