ALDI & LIDL Food and Drink Worth Trying?

[garreth64]

Looks like they have the xmas special drinks in again.

I picked up a bottle of the Chevalier 1989 Grande Champagne Cognac for £29.99 today. They only had 3 bottles on the shelf so thought best not to hang about as I missed out on a similar one a couple of years ago.

https://www.aldi.co.uk/1989-grande-champagne-cogna...

Also got a couple of boxes of their specially selected mince pies, as they won the BBC Good Food blind taste test.

[V8mate]

garreth64 said:

Also got a couple of boxes of their specially selected mince pies, as they won the BBC Good Food blind taste test.

It's the 'Luxury' ones in the green box (Fortnum & Mason clone) that you want. The Specially Selected (in the black box) aren't all that. Well filled, but soggy bottoms

[garreth64]

V8mate said:

It's the 'Luxury' ones in the green box (Fortnum & Mason clone) that you want. The Specially Selected (in the black box) aren't all that. Well filled, but soggy bottoms

Yep it's the luxury ones in the green box with the frangipane topping, but just to confuse matters they do say Specially Selected on the box as well.

Just had to try one and did think it was very pleasant.

[markcoznottz]

battered said:

I fi d their layout a damn sight easier than Morrison. That's why I keep going. In and out, 20min. Morrison? An hour.

Dislikes? Poor range and they dump good products for cheaper ones without warning. Or they just drop poor sellers. They have just dropped a yogurt that I loved. It was made in Germany, I suspect by Zott, and it was great. It's now UK made, not sure where, maybe Dairy Crest. It's nowhere near as good. They did the same with a cider that was great and is now vile.

Why do big firms do that?. Costco are the same. Aldi and Lidl are doing this with loads of lines. It will kill the goose, as middle class buyers like a bargain, but not if it tastes like ste, might as well put the two quid in and go to Waitrose, or simply go without.

[rsbmw]

garreth64 said:

Looks like they have the xmas special drinks in again.

I picked up a bottle of the Chevalier 1989 Grande Champagne Cognac for £29.99 today. They only had 3 bottles on the shelf so thought best not to hang about as I missed out on a similar one a couple of years ago.

https://www.aldi.co.uk/1989-grande-champagne-cogna...

Also got a couple of boxes of their specially selected mince pies, as they won the BBC Good Food blind taste test.

Cognac any good? I grabbed the 28 year old single malt and it's excellent.

[rsbmw]

rich85uk said:

Riley Blue said:

BTW - the Aldi Christmas food catalogue thudded on to our door mat the other day, it's well worth a read.

Got mine yesterday, Aldi are making a big effort this Christmas

I flicked through it and decided I'll get just about everything for Xmas dinner from Aldi. Marketing success.

[andburg]

just been in and picekd up some of the sweet potato fries for a try.

couldn't help but pick up some La Goudale and a couple of the new range of beers they have started stocking for a try.

unfortunately xmas stock is everywhere so i also took sherry and a truckload of lebkuchen, the milk choc coated stuff is lovely

[soxboy]

Just bought a bottle of Gin Mare, £28 compared with £40+ at other outlets (rarely on sale in UK).

Think we will be stocking up for our Christmas dinner there too after looking through the catalogue (which ironically came inside the 'free' Telegraph I got at Waitrose on Saturday).

[Tony Angelino]

Anybody had one of the 3/4/5 whatever bird roasts? Thinking of giving one a whirl. Also after years of having varied (mainly low) levels of success with turkeys from local butchers and farm shops at various generally expensive price points I'm possibly going fora turkey from either Aldi or lidl this time, either those or sainsbury where I bought 2 on 27th December for only a few quid, yellow sticker specials but they were pretty good.

[battered]

Tony Angelino said:

Anybody had one of the 3/4/5 whatever bird roasts?

I've manufactured a good few! They're rather good, if you have enough mouths to feed. The birds with a high fat content go a long way to basting those without, so if the food technologist does their job correctly in terms of the stack order the end product can be very good. Certainly better than the usual dried-up turkey that is so difficult (if not impossible) to get right.

[RammyMP]

Tony Angelino said:

Anybody had one of the 3/4/5 whatever bird roasts? Thinking of giving one a whirl. Also after years of having varied (mainly low) levels of success with turkeys from local butchers and farm shops at various generally expensive price points I'm possibly going fora turkey from either Aldi or lidl this time, either those or sainsbury where I bought 2 on 27th December for only a few quid, yellow sticker specials but they were pretty good.

The MIL gets the roly poly turkey every year, they are good but they sell out quick. I wasn't keen on the 3 bird roast.

[FiF]

markcoznottz said:

battered said:

I fi d their layout a damn sight easier than Morrison. That's why I keep going. In and out, 20min. Morrison? An hour.

Dislikes? Poor range and they dump good products for cheaper ones without warning. Or they just drop poor sellers. They have just dropped a yogurt that I loved. It was made in Germany, I suspect by Zott, and it was great. It's now UK made, not sure where, maybe Dairy Crest. It's nowhere near as good. They did the same with a cider that was great and is now vile.

Why do big firms do that?. Costco are the same. Aldi and Lidl are doing this with loads of lines. It will kill the goose, as middle class buyers like a bargain, but not if it tastes like ste, might as well put the two quid in and go to Waitrose, or simply go without.

The big supermarkets are just the same, they have to prat about with ranges and recipes. Change for change sake sometimes, then they flannel like mad when questioned.

Tesco had an item in their bakery, can't remember what it was now, maybe some sort of pie, but it was bloody lovely. Problem was always sold out very early, usually by 9:30 am.

Anyway they stopped selling it, caused complaints, the discussion on it would have been worthy of a Dave Gorman found poem at one point.

Customer: Errm, have you any of those excellent apple pies? (might not have been that but it'll do)
Tesco: We've stopped selling it because we don't sell many.
Customer: It's always sold out by 10am
Tesco: There's no call for it, we don't sell many.
Customer: Because you only put about 6 out and they all sell out straight away, and you then don't have any more.
Tesco: We only put a few out as there's no call for it, we only sell a few a day.
Customer:

Same with Sainsbury's.
Why do you no longer stock x
No space for it in the freezers
There's a gap where it used to be.
Discontinued product, not available to us.
Why are you still stocking it in your other store in xxxxx then if it's discontinued, why is it still available online.
Bigger stores have more space and that was a premium product.
That other store is half the size of this one, which is a flagship store btw, and the other place is right next to a very crummy council estate, hardly likely to be buying a premium product. (Judgemental I know, sorry.)


Sorry, /rant. Should have had more swearing.

[markcoznottz]

Yes it's strange. Such decisions are often forced through by new middle management/ area management who are empire building. Reducing the quality of their premium lines (Aldi/Lidl) makes no business sense, as presumably these are more middle class shoppers,who are not AS price sensitive. I noticed Aldi's premium lasagne now a different supplier, poor quality meat but the same price. It would be interesting to hear from anyone who works for such a business and why such decisions are made.

[Pothole]

markcoznottz said:

Yes it's strange. Such decisions are often forced through by new middle management/ area management who are empire building. Reducing the quality of their premium lines (Aldi/Lidl) makes no business sense, as presumably these are more middle class shoppers,who are not AS price sensitive. I noticed Aldi's premium lasagne now a different supplier, poor quality meat but the same price. It would be interesting to hear from anyone who works for such a business and why such decisions are made.

Short term profit? Gotta be.

[garreth64]

rsbmw said:

Cognac any good? I grabbed the 28 year old single malt and it's excellent.

Haven't tried it yet, might save it for Xmas if I have the will power.

[SpeckledJim]

markcoznottz said:

Yes it's strange. Such decisions are often forced through by new middle management/ area management who are empire building. Reducing the quality of their premium lines (Aldi/Lidl) makes no business sense, as presumably these are more middle class shoppers,who are not AS price sensitive. I noticed Aldi's premium lasagne now a different supplier, poor quality meat but the same price. It would be interesting to hear from anyone who works for such a business and why such decisions are made.

It makes great business sense if few people notice that it has got 'worse' and stop buying it as a result, compared to the production savings to be made.

It's always a juggle, and solely offering 'excellent' products means to most people you'll just look impossibly expensive.

Also, most people consider some things worth spending good money on, and others only worth the lowest entry point. If it is whisky or butter, some will go for the most expensive whisky and the cheapest butter - but others will be the other way around, so you can't keep a specific group happy by simply pitching at a single 'quality level' for everything.

There's also the position of the product amongst other products. The gapping will be carefully pitched, and moving one product up or down in price or quality might not make much sense viewed in isolation, but be done for a good reason in portfolio terms.

Very complicated stuff and I believe ALDI and LIDL are very good at it.

[battered]

markcoznottz said:

Yes it's strange. Such decisions are often forced through by new middle management/ area management who are empire building. Reducing the quality of their premium lines (Aldi/Lidl) makes no business sense, as presumably these are more middle class shoppers,who are not AS price sensitive. I noticed Aldi's premium lasagne now a different supplier, poor quality meat but the same price. It would be interesting to hear from anyone who works for such a business and why such decisions are made.

It is emphatically NOT forced through by middle management! I work in food manufacturing, for their suppliers. It's driven by central purchasing and in turn by the marketing dept of the retailer. They work out who's buying what (from things like till receipt analysis, which is a marvellous tool and absolutely guarded to the death by ALL the retailers) and pitch the price point and quality accordingly. Aldi above all others are absolutely driven by price and they are constantly driving down their prices with reverse auctions, where suppliers compete for business against a specification. Not the best, you will note, but a specification that may or may not taste better than something very similar. The last negotiation I heard about started at BELOW manufacturing cost for our site, and the salesman shut his book before the bidding had even started.

Factor in also that Aldi have small stores with fewer lines. Any line not pulling its weight is ruthlessly dropped. I've seen some great products fall by the wayside simply because they weren't selling in the volumes wanted. This is the case throughout all retailers but especially the discounters.

[mad4amanda]

This it is all about margin and return on shelf space £££s.

Edited by mad4amanda on Tuesday 15th November 20:22

[HTP99]

Aldi have dropped a coffee that I like, it was only an instant but in the vein of Nescafe Azera; in a more premium looking tin as opposed to a jar, it's lovely but I've not seen it for months now.

[markcoznottz]

mad4amanda said:

This it is all about margin and return on shelf space £££s.

Edited by mad4amanda on Tuesday 15th November 20:22

But is it ultimately self defeating?. It may keep the shareholders happy though.