Supermarket chain's popular item may disappear from shelves

There are certain products consumers tend to grow attached to.

If there’s a specific T-shirt brand that feels good against your skin, that’s the one you’re going to want to load up on. If a specific water bottle feels comfortable to drink out of and keeps your water at just the right temperature, you’re going to want more than one.

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You can stock up on certain products once you find a winner. But with food, that’s a lot more difficult.

Food, by nature, has an expiration date. And that extends to shelf-stable products.

It’s true that you might buy a box of crackers with a “best by” date that’s three months out. And you may even be okay to bust into those crackers six months after buying them without them tasting stale.

But eventually, even non-perishable grocery items are going to go bad. You won’t necessarily get sick from eating them. But the taste might be off. And that’s a bad thing for snack products in particular.

Supermarket chain's popular item may disappear from shelves.

Image source: Edelman/AFP via Getty Images

Discontinued grocery products are bad news for consumers

Losing a beloved supermarket product can be a huge blow.

Even when you’re able to find a similar item, if it’s something that’s a staple on your weekly grocery list, it’s hard to say goodbye. And if you have kids who are picky, switching brands could be a problem.

That’s what makes shopping at grocery stores like Trader Joe’s so difficult.

Trader Joe’s is known for its rotating inventory. But that means you might fall in love with a given product, only to never find it again.

And you can’t just stock up on food products you really like, because eventually, their quality is going to decline. And in the case of perishable goods, you have even less leeway.

Aldi may have to pull a popular item from its stores

While Trader Joe’s discontinues products on a regular basis as part of its broad strategy, Aldi may be forced to remove a popular product for a different reason.

Mondelēz International, the maker of popular cookie brands that include Chips Ahoy! and Oreo, has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Aldi. Aldi is being accused of copying Mondelēz's packaging, and Mondelēz claims that Aldi's similar packaging is “likely to deceive and confuse consumers.”

Mondelēz is suing for monetary damages and is asking that Aldi be barred from selling its “copycat” versions of Mondelēz's famous cookies.

Of course, this isn't the first time Aldi has been called out for producing “knock-off” versions of brand names at a fraction of the price. The budget supermarket chain has created its own version of everything from Goldfish crackers to Velveeta cheese.

Aldi is known for selling products made by its exclusive brands that are similar to national brands but priced much lower. This time, however, it may have taken things too far.

All you need to do is look at a box of Aldi's chocolate sandwich cookies with vanilla filling to realize that the packaging could easily be mistaken for a box of Oreos if you're grabbing items off the shelf in a hurry.

Of course, the upside is that Aldi's version will probably cost you a lot less. But it's easy to see where Mondelēz is coming from.

That's bad news not just for fans of Aldi's version of the Oreo, but Aldi fans in general.

More retail:

If the chain is forced to pull this product, other food makers might come after Aldi for similar infringements. As a result, a number of your favorite low-cost Aldi products could disappear for good.

And while you could stock up in case that happens, you'll want to do so with caution — because while actual Oreos are delicious, and knockoff Oreos are pretty darn good in their own right, stale Oreos are just plain gross.