Why Fans Are Arguing About The Size Of Aldi's Take-And-Bake Pizzas
While getting its footing in the U.S, Aldi was seen as a low-cost, low-quality place to shop – at least by some people. NBC contributor Dana McMahan, once had that perception, picturing "frozen food and limited, sad produce." Of course, its reputation has greatly improved. Even McMahan, who did not become an Aldi regular, described shopping there in 2019 as "definitely sticker shock, in the best possible way." And while some Aldi items have deeply loyal fans, not all of its products are big hits with customers.
Aldi's produce, for example, is definitely a miss for some shoppers. On Reddit, a critic described it as "TERRIBLE always going bad super quickly." Someone else presumably joked that it goes bad on the car ride home. An Ohio-based customer complained to Reader's Digest that the store's chicken requires so much cleaning and cutting during prep that they're "not left with much chicken" to cook. Others have described Aldi's prepackaged chicken breasts as being tough in texture and generally of not great quality.
Maybe complaints are to be expected with meat and produce, but with pizza? How can you go wrong with frozen pizza? As it turns out, when it comes to the Take & Bake pizzas, size really does matter.
Pizza lovers just want every inch they paid for
After opening their 16-inch Take & Bake Mega Meat pizza, a disgruntled Aldi shopper vented their displeasure on Reddit. According to u/jwatkins12's measurements (photo included in the post as evidence), the pizza only spans 15 inches in diameter. In other words, the pizza is "12% smaller than advertised, missing out on 25 square inches of pizza."
The numbers didn't add up to some users. One person commented, "Sue! No, but serious, wtf. I literally want my extra 12%, Aldi! What gives?" Another person responded, "Shrinkflation." However, some Redditors suggested that the pizza could grow as it bakes, for a final diameter of 16 inches. And one person, who seemed very unmoved by the complaint, said the OP should just "grow up." Others felt that the likely small price tag made that "massive" pie more than worth it, regardless of whether it was missing an inch.
Others wanted to know how heavy the pie was, suggesting the size of the pizza is less important than the weight. (Presumably, the reasoning is that the pizza could use the same amount of ingredients as a 16-inch pie, making them equivalent.) Unfortunately, the original poster commented that they did not weigh the pizza prior to eating it, so we have no way of knowing if it was is truly smaller than advertised on the packaging.