Two-hundred people were waiting outside when southern Manatee County’s new grocery store opened Wednesday.

Several more were waiting in their cars and fighting for parking spots.

I personally wasn’t all that keen about being out front of the new ALDI that early in the morning.

So what is it about the grocer that had people standing in line as early as 7:15 a.m. for the 8:45 a.m. grand opening?

Especially when the only freebies given away were ecofriendly, ALDI grocery bags?

The new store is the third piece of a grocery store trifecta at the intersection of State Road 70 and Lockwood Ridge Road, and there are a few things that set the Germany-based chain apart from its two nearby competitors —Walmart Neighborhood Market and Publix.

The grocer is low-cost sister company to Trader Joe’s, which opened its first Sarasota store just a few years ago. ALDI has a streamlined process to selling groceries, and the company claims it can save a shopper 50 percent on groceries per year.

But that means a few oddities.

• Shoppers have to put a quarter deposit on a cart, which encourages shoppers to put it back where they got it and keeps the company from having to hire workers to retrieve them.
• Customers have to pay for or bring their own bags.
• You can get just about anything at ALDI’s, but it’s an unknown ALDI brand and there’s usually only one choice.
• Still the store offers a double guarantee on all its products. If the item doesn’t meet the shopper’s expectations, ALDI will refund and replace it.

So it’s not your Publix experience. But if it can slice my grocery bill from $60 to $30 it might be worth a try.

I munched on some of ALDI’s biscotti last night.

While it didn’t taste like it came from Pastry Art downtown, I didn’t feel the need to return and reclaim my $2 and something cents.

And. It did fix my sugar craving.