1st shop at aldi never again !

Horace

zoeleigh wrote: »

.

I actually said that I don't like things like pork lasagne etc wherever it's from.

Lasagne isnt made with pork mince - certainly not the ones in Lidl.

Before anyone starts looking down their nose at my choice of supermarket, I have been known to venture into M&S and even Waitrose on occasion but unfortunately, I am on particularly hard times at the moment so luxury shops like M&S and Waitrose have to fall by the wayside. A typical Tesco shopping bill is £50 the equivalent in Lidl is £20.21 :-)

The best things in Lidl:

Their 1kg Lasagne (if you slice some tomatoes on top it makes it extra nice)
Cloudy Lemonade (no cancerous sweetners in it) 37p
Charmin loo rolls 24 roll pack £6.49
Their ice cream
Danpak spreadable butter - not too bad but doesnt spread easily
Mozzarella pizza
Dentalux Herbal toothpaste
Lidl's own jaffa cakes
Chocolate
Cooked meats
Yoghurts
Chicken cordon bleu

I will not buy frozen chickens, fish products (am allergic to fish) but most other stuff I will buy. I prefer to buy fresh meat from my butcher. I very rarely eat a ready meal preferring the cheaper option of cooking my meals from scratch.


I just cannot understand this food snobbishness that people have.

Zoetoes

Lasagne isnt made with pork mince - certainly not the ones in Lidl. One of my posts somewhere in this thread will explain the pork lasagne.

Before anyone starts looking down their nose at my choice of supermarket, I have been known to venture into M&S and even Waitrose on occasion but unfortunately, I am on particularly hard times at the moment so luxury shops like M&S and Waitrose have to fall by the wayside. A typical Tesco shopping bill is £50 the equivalent in Lidl is £20.21 :-) You could probably buy for the same cost in Tesco if you buy their value range.

The best things in Lidl:

Their 1kg Lasagne (if you slice some tomatoes on top it makes it extra nice)
Cloudy Lemonade (no cancerous sweetners in it) 37p
Charmin loo rolls 24 roll pack £6.49
Their ice cream
Danpak spreadable butter - not too bad but doesnt spread easily
Mozzarella pizza
Dentalux Herbal toothpaste <--- This could be the very one
Lidl's own jaffa cakes
Chocolate
Cooked meats
Yoghurts
Chicken cordon bleu

I will not buy frozen chickens, fish products (am allergic to fish) but most other stuff I will buy. I prefer to buy fresh meat from my butcher. I very rarely eat a ready meal preferring the cheaper option of cooking my meals from scratch.


I just cannot understand this food snobbishness that people have. You're telling us that Aldi/Lidl foods are better quality than leading supermarkets/brands foods, so if we're buying poorer quailty foods then we can't be food snobs, can we?

DaisyClaire

dzug1 wrote: »

I've had the same problem, and yes I do keep it in the fridge.

I think the problem is that (in this case) Lidl don't. It comes frozen and is left in the yard to defrost. Sometimes they leave it there too long.

No, Aldi milk does not come in frozen.

MrsE_2

Silicon wrote: »

Why do you only eat "good quality cuts"? Surely it's more important, both in terms of flavour and of conscience, that the animal is properly reared. As above - a cheaper piece from a decent animal will be far above a "better" cut from an intensively reared one. Most supermarkets (and I see you shop at Waitrose & M&S so it's slightly less valid ) hang their meat for a maximum of 21 days (Sainsbury's Taste the Difference & Tesco Finest). There's a very good butcher here (Ginger Pig) that hang their rump for 45 days - the difference is more than noticeable.
Obviously processed food is to be avoided like the plague but that doesn't mean Aldi & Lidl process all their food. TBH I'd rather choose from there than Tesco - German welfare standards are higher than here.

When I say I only eat good quality cuts, its because I like unprocessed - as far from "a la turkey twizzlers" type meat as possible.
I don't want to eat bits of an animals nose, ar5e, ears, feet, etc.
I just want lean ungrizzled cuts. I buy the happier chickens & the happy chickens eggs.
I like Sainsburys taste the difference beef. I like M&S very lean mince.
I will only eat the top of the range (finest, TTD) sausages.
I do care about animal welfare. I would rather buy less meat & eggs than buy battery chickens or eggs.
I don't wish to eat every little bit of an animal, its not for me. Roasts, steaks, chops, rashers & only the best for sausages & mince. BUT I would rather eat less than buy processed or grizzly or "value" meat.

Silicon

zoeleigh wrote: »

You could probably buy for the same cost in Tesco if you buy their value range.

The point the Aldiistas are trying to make is that you don't have to buy the value range to achieve that.

Aldi & Lidl are able to achieve the same quality (for some things: YMMV) because they don't run the regular things that we expect from supermarkets. So:

No reward card means no staff analysing your shopping habits (actually a few very highly paid PhDs writing the software, and a team of people analysing the results).

Compare the actual number of people in Aldi/ Lidl to your average Tesco - they're not volunteers at Tesco.

Smaller sites, in less fashionable parts of town; cheaper rents.

Several of you are complaining that Aldi/ Lidl don't stock everything you want. A good sized Tesco stocks about 30,000 different lines (including 45 types of washing powder etc. ).

The average Lidl has about 800.

That means smaller stockholding, smaller deliveries, fewer staff restocking, faster ordering. Ironically it means that there are likely to be fewer reduced items as the stock turnover is far higher; a well run store is going to have fresher stuff as there's less to keep in stock.

It's not a fair comparison but it is horses for courses.

zoeleigh wrote: »

You're telling us that Aldi/Lidl foods are better quality than leading supermarkets/brands foods, so if we're buying poorer quailty foods then we can't be food snobs, can we?

It doesn't mean that.

It means that you/ we are paying over the odds for the stuff we don't really need.

The snobbishness comment, I believe, comes from an adversity to paying for cheaper, unknown stuff, as opposed to brand names.

It's a common phenomenon from holidays to food to clothes.

MrsE_2

Silicon wrote: »

It doesn't mean that.

It means that you/ we are paying over the odds for the stuff we don't really need.

The snobbishness comment, I believe, comes from an adversity to paying for cheaper, unknown stuff, as opposed to brand names.

It's a common phenomenon from holidays to food to clothes.

I have changed from buying value stuff, years ago when DD was young & we had to watch every penny, to middle of the range stuff as you get a little more comfortable, to taste the difference, finest, extra special, M&S & Waitrose.
I now have a taste for the top of the range stuff.
My DH & I like to have one real good holiday a year (with tickets & spends about 4k), treat our DD (& each other) well at xmas & birthdays, get nice stuff for our home & eat bl00dy well. We like middle of the range clothes & I like top of the range toilitries (& handbags:o )
We don't smoke, we drink once in a blue moon, we don't go out hardly ever (we like being at home & we work very hard, so our free time is for doing things at home). We don't gamble.

We work hard for our money & THIS IS THE WAY WE LIKE TO SPEND IT!:D

trixie73

frugallass wrote: »

the WORST thing about shopping at Aldi is the speed that the checkout operators fling your food through the scanner - they then growl at you and tell you to take your stuff to the side counter to pack your bag - not a nice attitude, not everyone knows the routine ! :mad:

i know what you mean, they dont half go at some speed when putting your shopping through. do you think this is because they are paid alot better than checkout staff at asda, tesco, etc and are expected to work at speed?

connacher

i know what you mean. i have 2 kids nd they dont hve baskets so i go about like a shop lifter and put things into my eco carry bag, with a kid in one hand and trying to grab all of my shopping at the till as the person throws it at you then starts serving the next customer.
i like the offers they have and i live next to one so it is handy. still do my full shop in asda tho.

happymum168

The staff at my local Aldi are very friendly and efficient , no flinging around the cream cake nor squeezing the bread like some other big supermarket staff do.
It is very much depend on the individual staff's attitude to work. It is the same in all service industry like hotels, hospitals.............

DaisyClaire

trixie73 wrote: »

i know what you mean, they dont half go at some speed when putting your shopping through. do you think this is because they are paid alot better than checkout staff at asda, tesco, etc and are expected to work at speed?

They are paid more because the entire store runs on those staff - the cleaning, the stocking up, the serving etc. Faster till speeds equals more customers through the checkouts with minimal staff paid, this equals a better inventory and thus the products can be kept low priced and the staff can be well paid.

No excuse for growling at you though.