ALDI & LIDL Food and Drink Worth Trying?

[Cheese Mechanic]

NWTony said:

I saw that and was tempted, especially since it is now reduced to £5. I've never had caviar before

From that experience , sadly, the only way to try "real" caviar, is to bite the bullet and pay for the proper stuff. I have never had Beluga, but have had the pleasure of Oscietra and Sevruga, both (to me) were real taste sensations. Most of it is farmed these days, but still of high quality.

A number of online retailers supply caviare , well worth the expense, just for the occasion.

[Baryonyx]

I've been trying this from Aldi today, the 'Exquisite Collection' Muscadet. I think it was £5.99 for a bottle. It's fking great stuff. I've never really delved much into the Loire Valley wines or a Muscadet in particular but it's very nice. Dry, acidic and very fresh.

[Gretchen]

Cheese Mechanic said:

From that experience , sadly, the only way to try "real" caviar, is to bite the bullet and pay for the proper stuff. I have never had Beluga, but have had the pleasure of Oscietra and Sevruga, both (to me) were real taste sensations. Most of it is farmed these days, but still of high quality.

A number of online retailers supply caviare , well worth the expense, just for the occasion.

As a child I spent weekends at a friends house in my village where her parents had frequent dinner parties. We grew up on eating Caviar and nibbling on other various delicacies without giving it thought.

Shame really as I rather liked the stuff but can't afford to indulge in it as much as I did aged 7-15!

[bingybongy]

On returning from Iran approximately 20 years ago, my old man produced some caviar which he assured everyone was the real McCoy.

We gave it the cat.

[Steamer]

A couple of things I do like for the price:

1Kg fresh Lasagne - quite good if I'm in a rush
Smoked ham - lovely
Hovis bread 800g - 80-something pence a loaf
Racer bars - as good as, if not nicer than Marathons (sorry Snickers! I'm old school)
Granny Smith Apples - usually great

But.. Crisps?

[HarryFlatters]

Baryonyx said:

I've been trying this from Aldi today, the 'Exquisite Collection' Muscadet. I think it was £5.99 for a bottle. It's fking great stuff. I've never really delved much into the Loire Valley wines or a Muscadet in particular but it's very nice. Dry, acidic and very fresh.

I was just about to post this, it's really very good indeed.

I also like the Alsace Pinot Blanc.

[Boobonman]

Steamer said:

A couple of things I do like for the price:

1Kg fresh Lasagne - quite good if I'm in a rush
Smoked ham - lovely
Hovis bread 800g - 80-something pence a loaf
Racer bars - as good as, if not nicer than Marathons (sorry Snickers! I'm old school)
Granny Smith Apples - usually great

But.. Crisps?

I'm sure someone has already mentioned these, but the Aldi prawn cocktail crisps are sublime and now a permanent feature in my kitchen.

[Vron]

The 'Passions' Cheese and Onion hand cooked crisps are delicious - so much so that I have had to stop buying them because I eat the whole bag.

It's disappointing that more have switched to Aldi as they are frequently out of stock now of my regular buys:

Hoi sin and garlic stiry fry sachet sauce disappeared for weeks
Porridge Oats - none for 2 weeks now in 3 stores
Frozen raspberries - none !!

Booo!

[majordad]

Vron said:

The 'Passions' Cheese and Onion hand cooked crisps are delicious - so much so that I have had to stop buying them because I eat the whole bag.

It's disappointing that more have switched to Aldi as they are frequently out of stock now of my regular buys:

Hoi sin and garlic stiry fry sachet sauce disappeared for weeks
Porridge Oats - none for 2 weeks now in 3 stores
Frozen raspberries - none !!

Booo!

I used own a mini supermarket , over 9 yrs ago. Retired now and enjoy shopping everywhere incl Aldi. I'm amazed how they regularly run out of stock and not only special offer lines, everyday items. IMHO it's due to their managers and assistant managers who often are just going through the motions when doing their orders. You see them with the handleld ordering device looking at the shelves in a vacant gaze. I wonder why this happens? If you don't have an item three things happen, one you can't sell it so you can't make a profit, two your customers will stop looking for it in your shop and three they will look elsewhere. Two of the items listed above are good sellers, any shop must have them on the shelves all of the time.

[Steamer]

majordad said:

Vron said:

The 'Passions' Cheese and Onion hand cooked crisps are delicious - so much so that I have had to stop buying them because I eat the whole bag.

It's disappointing that more have switched to Aldi as they are frequently out of stock now of my regular buys:

Hoi sin and garlic stiry fry sachet sauce disappeared for weeks
Porridge Oats - none for 2 weeks now in 3 stores
Frozen raspberries - none !!

Booo!

I used own a mini supermarket , over 9 yrs ago. Retired now and enjoy shopping everywhere incl Aldi. I'm amazed how they regularly run out of stock and not only special offer lines, everyday items. IMHO it's due to their managers and assistant managers who often are just going through the motions when doing their orders. You see them with the handleld ordering device looking at the shelves in a vacant gaze. I wonder why this happens? If you don't have an item three things happen, one you can't sell it so you can't make a profit, two your customers will stop looking for it in your shop and three they will look elsewhere. Two of the items listed above are good sellers, any shop must have them on the shelves all of the time.

They certainly went way OTT on the christmas stock at our Aldi by the looks of it. Piles of discounted mince pies next now sat next to Easter eggs.

Nice mince pies though.

[dazco]

majordad said:

I used own a mini supermarket , over 9 yrs ago. Retired now and enjoy shopping everywhere incl Aldi. I'm amazed how they regularly run out of stock and not only special offer lines, everyday items. IMHO it's due to their managers and assistant managers who often are just going through the motions when doing their orders. You see them with the handleld ordering device looking at the shelves in a vacant gaze. I wonder why this happens? If you don't have an item three things happen, one you can't sell it so you can't make a profit, two your customers will stop looking for it in your shop and three they will look elsewhere. Two of the items listed above are good sellers, any shop must have them on the shelves all of the time.

Have a look in their storerooms one day, pretend your looking for a staff member to help you, Lidl and Aldi are almost always 25% full, the rest just full of wheeled crates , cardboard and fresh air.

[IanA2]

majordad said:

I used own a mini supermarket , over 9 yrs ago. Retired now and enjoy shopping everywhere incl Aldi. I'm amazed how they regularly run out of stock and not only special offer lines, everyday items. IMHO it's due to their managers and assistant managers who often are just going through the motions when doing their orders. You see them with the handleld ordering device looking at the shelves in a vacant gaze. I wonder why this happens? If you don't have an item three things happen, one you can't sell it so you can't make a profit, two your customers will stop looking for it in your shop and three they will look elsewhere. Two of the items listed above are good sellers, any shop must have them on the shelves all of the time.

In Lidl at least the local managers get no say in the stock orders. All done centrally. They keep very little in storage, they have daily deliveries which are put on the shelf. Almost always, if it's not on the shelf, they don't have it.

[mph1977]

IanA2 said:

majordad said:

I used own a mini supermarket , over 9 yrs ago. Retired now and enjoy shopping everywhere incl Aldi. I'm amazed how they regularly run out of stock and not only special offer lines, everyday items. IMHO it's due to their managers and assistant managers who often are just going through the motions when doing their orders. You see them with the handleld ordering device looking at the shelves in a vacant gaze. I wonder why this happens? If you don't have an item three things happen, one you can't sell it so you can't make a profit, two your customers will stop looking for it in your shop and three they will look elsewhere. Two of the items listed above are good sellers, any shop must have them on the shelves all of the time.

In Lidl at least the local managers get no say in the stock orders. All done centrally. They keep very little in storage, they have daily deliveries which are put on the shelf. Almost always, if it's not on the shelf, they don't have it.

reducing stock holding is a way to reduce costs in the business
holding excessive amounts of stock at store is probably the worse place to hold it as the supply chain is not set up to transfer stock between stores ( becasue the delivery lorry leaving 'empty' isn't empty it's full of roll cages, pallets and recycling .... )

[NWTony]

majordad said:

I used own a mini supermarket , over 9 yrs ago. Retired now and enjoy shopping everywhere incl Aldi. I'm amazed how they regularly run out of stock and not only special offer lines, everyday items. IMHO it's due to their managers and assistant managers who often are just going through the motions when doing their orders. You see them with the handleld ordering device looking at the shelves in a vacant gaze. I wonder why this happens? If you don't have an item three things happen, one you can't sell it so you can't make a profit, two your customers will stop looking for it in your shop and three they will look elsewhere. Two of the items listed above are good sellers, any shop must have them on the shelves all of the time.

I find Aldi's stock control annoying. I wanted some shampoo lasdt week and I normally buy the big 1L bottle of "Salon" shampoo, basically because it is 1L and lasts longer so i don't have to keep buying it. Anyway, none in. Well I'm not that arsed, shampoo is shamppo if I'm honest, how about the green tea , minty fresh one, conditoner, conditioner, conditioner, label says shampoo, conditioner, more fking conditioner. I'll try next week.

I shop after 8pm, because I get easily annoyed by other people dawdling round whilst shopping. Monday night to really limit the crowds and what do I get, pallet after pallet after pallet in the middle of aisles so you can go one side only, blocking the shelves. This on top of practically no fresh fruit n veg left either.

Loaves of bread. I used to get the farmhouse white sliced but now I just get the one with a reasoable best before date, I'm tired of checking the dates and finding that it's tomorrow. As I may have mentioned I'm not a keen shopper, I don't want to do it twice, so I want a loaf that can last a week.

Unknown prices for things. The goods are on the shelf, but there is no clue as to what it costs. The fact I am wondering what is costs means that they had a good chance of a sale. No price, no sale

Complaining here isn't going to help, I might just contact Aldi. I can't believe that any of this is corporate policy.

[SpeckledJim]

NWTony said:

Unknown prices for things. The goods are on the shelf, but there is no clue as to what it costs. The fact I am wondering what is costs means that they had a good chance of a sale. No price, no sale

Aldi are terrible for this. My spend with them is reduced by hundreds of pounds a year because they don't price the stuff on the shelves.

It should be giving someone seriously sleepless nights, because it's such a stupid thing to fail on.

Especially for such an otherwise high-performance operation.

[Riley Blue]

IanA2 said:

In Lidl at least the local managers get no say in the stock orders. All done centrally. They keep very little in storage, they have daily deliveries which are put on the shelf. Almost always, if it's not on the shelf, they don't have it.

I once cut the ribbon to open a new Lidl store (don't ask....!) and was shown the 'store room'. It was little more than an unloading bay; the manager told me stock rolled off the lorry into the store with very, very little held in reserve.

[IanA2]

Riley Blue said:

IanA2 said:

In Lidl at least the local managers get no say in the stock orders. All done centrally. They keep very little in storage, they have daily deliveries which are put on the shelf. Almost always, if it's not on the shelf, they don't have it.

I once cut the ribbon to open a new Lidl store (don't ask....!) and was shown the 'store room'. It was little more than an unloading bay; the manager told me stock rolled off the lorry into the store with very, very little held in reserve.

Yup...its a good system.

[majordad]

My point was not to highlight their stock holding out the back but the often blank spaces on their shelves. While the manager may have no say in the items of stock they do have a direct imput into the volume of stock ordered.
As another poster has remarked you do need to check carefully the sell by dates as they can be short. In my own
( Independent) shop we took special care to put milk for example that was shorter dated out the front so it was that one you bought. I also note they often have fruit that has gone bad in a bunch/bag and from poor handling, like bruised from just dumping one on top of another. You just need to be careful to check everything.

[FiF]

I have to agree with the above regarding our local Lidl. We're now very very selective about veg and fruit, and have stopped buying certain lines completely regardless of how good it looks or sell by dates. Potatoes being one example.

Having said that sometimes Sainsburys spuds have been a bit iffy, and had some very short life veg from Waitrose.

Was impressed with one thing though. I'd got one 5litre screen wash left from last winter and was a bit concerned when it didn't appear. Had I missed it?

Day before a forecast very cold spell, a pallet appeared.

[Vron]

Vron said:

The 'Passions' Cheese and Onion hand cooked crisps are delicious - so much so that I have had to stop buying them because I eat the whole bag.

It's disappointing that more have switched to Aldi as they are frequently out of stock now of my regular buys:

Hoi sin and garlic stiry fry sachet sauce disappeared for weeks
Porridge Oats - none for 2 weeks now in 3 stores
Frozen raspberries - none !!

Booo!

The Passions crisps have been repackaged and the recipe has changed. No good now.