Treatment of a mixture of alkyl aldehydes () with acid chlorides () in the presence of zinc metal powder and a catalytic amount of chlorotrimethylsilane (TMSCl) in dichloromethane brought about highly facile and effective coupling to give selectively the corresponding α- haloacylation and gem-bisacylation products, α-haloalkyl carboxylates and 1, 1- dicarboxylates (acylals), in good to excellent yields.