ALDI & LIDL Food and Drink Worth Trying?
Discussion
Well I came out with what looks like a lot of shopping for £35 which is a bargain compared to the usual weekly shop. Raw meat will be purchased from the butcher.
First thoughts regarding the quality of food are very positive. The fruit and veg were far cheaper than TESCO/Sainsbury's and look to be equal or better in quality, the salad tonight was good. I went for the more expensive cold meats (still good value) and they were very good indeed. Finished with a couple of own brand cornetto type things and was surprised how tasty they were (other supermarket own brand ones are rubbish).
I don't like the whole charging for bags thing (I never remember to bring my own), they seemed surprised to have customers so the 2 tills open had big queues, they have cut trolley parks to save money (you have to walk all the way back to the store), and the customers seemed to have thousands of irritating kids running around.
Overall, I'll be going back. Using the butcher, ALDI and out local market I should be able to remove all TESCO spend and up the quality of the food we eat for less money. I expected to leave with a few items and purchased most of the non meat week shop there.
First thoughts regarding the quality of food are very positive. The fruit and veg were far cheaper than TESCO/Sainsbury's and look to be equal or better in quality, the salad tonight was good. I went for the more expensive cold meats (still good value) and they were very good indeed. Finished with a couple of own brand cornetto type things and was surprised how tasty they were (other supermarket own brand ones are rubbish).
I don't like the whole charging for bags thing (I never remember to bring my own), they seemed surprised to have customers so the 2 tills open had big queues, they have cut trolley parks to save money (you have to walk all the way back to the store), and the customers seemed to have thousands of irritating kids running around.
Overall, I'll be going back. Using the butcher, ALDI and out local market I should be able to remove all TESCO spend and up the quality of the food we eat for less money. I expected to leave with a few items and purchased most of the non meat week shop there.
snowdude2910 said:
Ah man shopping, as I like to call it. No f
king around just one of everything until you get to the things you like a choice of, like meata, cheese and cereals. Oh and no faffing around putting change back in your purse or neatly stacking things into bags while everybody waits they practically kick ditherers out of the way, just the way it should be :-)
Yes I'd agree with this, I did take some bags but just shoved it all in the trolley! There was a queue but the girl on the till banged the items through at lightning speed.king around just one of everything until you get to the things you like a choice of, like meata, cheese and cereals. Oh and no faffing around putting change back in your purse or neatly stacking things into bags while everybody waits they practically kick ditherers out of the way, just the way it should be :-)Update on the food- the tomatoes and coffee were rubbish.
Mobile Chicane said:
The freezer section is also worth checking out: two partridges for £4.99 (they're £5.99 each in Waitrose), £1.99 for 500g of frozen raspberries. I could go on...
I'll see if ALDI's freezer section is the same. I've been very impressed. As you say the veg is excellent. The bulk of the shopping will be done here from now on (bye bye TESCO!). I'm based away from my London Waitrose at the moment (3 min walk away normally)
Gretchen said:
There isn't an Aldi locally. So I shop Lidl, Albeit not for everything I admit. But cooked meats and ham, sausages etc (look at the actual Pork content on the label in comparison to the Tesco version - typically Lidl will be 98%, Tesco is often 65%. This applies to frozen products too, Pies, Burgers etc). Lidl Fruit and Veg is graded higher than that of Tesco too, so much better quality for almost half the price.
To be honest I might not have tried it until recently (the ignorant idea that cheaper = worse as I think many people had before the recession) but i'll be using them as the first port of call from now on based on this trip.
TESCO beware - the recession means it's perfectly acceptable for anyone to be seen at the likes of ALDI and we they won't be coming back!
With few exceptions the quality of the items I purchased on my first trip last week was better than other supermarkets, and cheaper. As I said earlier the coffee was really rubbish and the tomatoes were fairly bad. Everything else was great, so I ventured back this evening.
ALDI ERROR 1 - arrived at 7:50, I didn't realise they close at 8. ALDI error 2 - i had loads of silver and notes but no pound coin for trolleys. No problem- i'll get change... there was a massive queue. Okay, I'll shove it in a basket... apart apart from the appear not to do baskets???
Anyway, I grabbed a box (what a strange place!) and shoved what I could in there. I was back quickly at the till after my 3 minute supermarket sweep was up, picking up lots of veg, fruit, olive oil, balsamic, cold meats and some of those croissants recommended above.
The checkout guy was very helpful using and scanned / entered the items in the box so it didn't have to be repacked in a way I would have been shocked to see in TESCO.
Minimal bill, but clearly I'm not a regular. It still has the novelty of shopping abroad at the moment. Lessons learned. Bring a pound. Arrive early. Many Audis and mini SUVs noted in the car park.
ALDI ERROR 1 - arrived at 7:50, I didn't realise they close at 8. ALDI error 2 - i had loads of silver and notes but no pound coin for trolleys. No problem- i'll get change... there was a massive queue. Okay, I'll shove it in a basket... apart apart from the appear not to do baskets???
Anyway, I grabbed a box (what a strange place!) and shoved what I could in there. I was back quickly at the till after my 3 minute supermarket sweep was up, picking up lots of veg, fruit, olive oil, balsamic, cold meats and some of those croissants recommended above.
The checkout guy was very helpful using and scanned / entered the items in the box so it didn't have to be repacked in a way I would have been shocked to see in TESCO.
Minimal bill, but clearly I'm not a regular. It still has the novelty of shopping abroad at the moment. Lessons learned. Bring a pound. Arrive early. Many Audis and mini SUVs noted in the car park.
BorkFactor said:
Aldi Aberdeen at £8.99 a bottle. Very nice, and plenty of flavour. Leagues ahead of supermarket stuff around the same price!
Afraid that is just my hands and head being distorted in the reflection
I had a couple of glasses of this with my father last night; very pleasant indeed, I even decanted it. Afraid that is just my hands and head being distorted in the reflection
At the cheaper end of the scale, I can't get enough of the prawn cocktail crisps from their variety pack (not purchased by me, I have to add). So wrong, but so right.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/dec/1...
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/dec/1...
Guardian Article said:
This Christmas, you can buy luxuries such as lobster, caviar and fine wines from the discount supermarkets. But can they compete on taste as well as price? Here are five festive steals and five false economies
1,000 posts on this thread as well - the only really one I have started on this car forum is on discounter supermarket food. Oh well!Du1point8 said:
So I may have got a look off the OH of WTF as I walk in with this.
This week I will be mainly sweating serrano.
It weighs in at 6.5kg
We purchased one of these on Friday for the office (!). The lure of owning a ham for £10 each was irresistible. It's definitely not the best, but passable. After attacking it for half a day I think we realise it's rather a lot of ham. This week I will be mainly sweating serrano.
It weighs in at 6.5kg
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