Are you too snobbish to shop at Lidl ? You might be giving your money away !

in_over_my_head_2

lynzpower wrote:

lots of ethical reasons not to shop there in terms of employment rights

http://www.checkout.ie/News-print.asp?id=592

http://www.billybragg.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=3901

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/KYE/x-kye-Mar2005.htm

That's pretty disturbing... where do you draw the line between picking up cheap food and violation of human rights??

[Lidl in the Czech Republic] "female workers were allegedly forced to wear headbands during their menstruation periods so that supervisors would allow them more bathroom breaks than other staff"

I use Aldi, and apart from the cheap food I like that there is ample parking next to the store unlike Asda where you have to park miles away because the place is so HUGE. The international food is delicious - their frikkadelen (spelling?) meatballs are lovely with pasta and a tin of their cheap tomatoes, the bratwurst and brockwurst, whole salami etc. I even bought a new toilet there not so long ago, when my old one decided to wobble it's way free of the floor (but that's another story!), for £60 and it even has a dual flush

However, on the downside I find that their fruit and veg doesn't last as long in the fridge as supermarket produce, and you have to inspect what you're buying - last week they had a whole crate of rotten potatoes on display at full price. And the staff quite obviously have no customer relations training at all, at best they are disinterested and at worst downright rude.

That's my opinion anyway:whistle:

milkydrink

I go into Lidl/Aldi (not sure which one it is!) for UHT skimmed milk, because I like the plastic stoppers on the tops of the cartons. I go about once a month & get 2/3 cartons. I also get their part baked rolls - because they do wholemeal & the uswual supermarkets just do the part baked in white, & browns better for us.

But I wouldn't do my normal weekly shop in there, they are quite small & don't have a big selection of things. You can't get salad bars, cooked chickens, baked-in-store bread ECT. I wouldn't be able to do our weekly shop in there alone.

Do the fans of Lidl/Aldi, ONLY shop in there & not need the others for the bulk of their shopping.

I wouldn't buy meat in there either. You can't get normal everyday brands, like your ariel, heinz, andrex, cif, you know the usual stuff.

I'm a fan of M&S too, but feel tempted to buy too much high calorie stuff in there!!! Waitrose is my "local" shop, but I hardly ever use it. All in all I'm a Sainsbury fan.

in_over_my_head_2

Wilkies for toiletries and cleaning products!
All brands and much cheaper than the supermarkets

In fact, has anyone else noticed British brands sneaking into Aldi?? They now sell Tetleys tea, Branston pickle and Hovis bread to name a few... and they're no cheaper than the likes of Asda.

pudding06

You can't get cooked chickens, ECT. I wouldn't be able to do our weekly shop in there alone

.
can in our aldi!!!! can also get coleslaws, potato slaads etc, prepacked salad leaves. etc

mind you our aldi has just had a major facelift and is lovely to shop in now.

pudding06

I

am a Lidl/Aldi Snob and proud of it, The only supermarket for me is M & S, and to me it IS moneysaving, as I dont waste any food, if i shopped elsewhere food would be wasted

I think i'm a reverse snob. I used to shop at m&s when I was younger, and obviously child free and 2 of us working, but wouldnt dream of it now.

I know its supposed to be nice food but I just refuse to pay the prices and when I recently( in sept) tried some reduced stuff quite frankly I didnt think much of it. It was one of the rarae occasions I made it into the town centre and wasted my money.

so each to their own, I'll be an Marks and sparks snob, you can be a lidl/aldi snob

pudds

tobedifferent

My Mum and Dad are total food snobs, no doubt about it, they will pay for quality. They know it and can more than afford it. They love good food and dine in great restaurants all over the world. I wouldn't say they are Aldi Converts though. Aldi preachers is much better!

I don't suppose they have ever thought about Aldi as a discount supermarket though. My father spent most of his working life in Germany and thats where most people he knows shop. When Aldi arrived in Reading they went there for that reason, but they do love the prices. My Mum may be a food snob but she's a true MSE, our freezer was always yellow sticker heaven! She wants good quality and a good life within her means but she'll get it as cheap as she can. In her own words 'I will quite happily give my money away and do regularly, but I choose to give it to a more deserving cause than Tesco.' It was my Mum who told me buy 13p value tomatoes, 'they cook down too a much tastier sauce than those expensive thick sauce ones do.'

I shop between 3 different Aldis (depending on where I have been before I shop) and they are all lovely. Good selection and very helpful and nice staff. There is always at least 1 on the floor to answer questions. The quality of the goods is excellent, things that are going near to date are quickly marked down and I have never had any poor food. A couple of months back they had big corn fed chickens reduced to just £2 (and at full price they were the same cost as Asda Smartprice) as they were going out of date. I bought 5 and froze them, they have all been lovely. My favourite is their own version of Pimms, its called Austins and is £4.99 (although on offer it gets as cheap as £2.99) compared to £11.99 for the same size bottle of Pimms, you can't tell the difference.

Another great thing about Aldi is that they have different food specials on every few weeks, it might be italian food and then mexican etc etc. However when this promotion ends they reduce any remaining food to sell it a.s.a.p. Last week I got 2 huge boxes of Egg Pasta for 30p each which doen't go out of date until August 2008! A couple of months ago I got about 15 jars of Jalapeno Peppers for 30p each (twice the size of the jars in the main supermarkets which cost £1.19!), they don't go out of date till late 2008 and they'll be lucky to last to the middle of 2007 ! I could go on about these deals all day but you'd get fed up and shoot me. Thats if you haven't given up by now, why use 10 words while 5000 will suffice, thats my motto! :rotfl:

On the other hand the Asda which is right behind the Aldi I shop in most is absolutely horrible, it smells, its dirty, they don't keep the shelves well stocked, there is often meat on the shelves which is passed its use by date, the staff are rude and the queues are horrendous as they only have about 3 staff on whilst the rest chat to their mates. I only ever go to this store to mystery shop now, I've done 4 there and they obviously don't listen to the feedback. However I occasionally go to another Asda which is clean and bright and the staff faultlessly helpful.

One bad store does not make a bad chain, although I think this thinking is more prevelant in the budget chains like Aldi. I think it all depends on who manages the store and shows itself in different ways.

I'm sure I could make good use of R&R's etc and save money on my shopping, however I work full time and am self employed part-time, total around 85 hours a week if you include travelling and compulsory breaks at my full time job. I've tried this once and the time spent planning and implementing this method far outweighed what I could have earned at home and cost cutting at Aldi and my local market (can be done in a lunchbreak)! Thats not to say its wrong its just not right for me.

In final summary (thank the lord I here you shout - although I will just ask why you gave it this long ), since I started to really face my debts I spend less time shopping, Aldi, quickly round, less queues, on the way home and my local market, in my lunchbreak, save a fortune. And I eat so well, far better than I did when I was splashing the cash and had more time! Courtesy of my mates on the market and Aldi I have had fresh langoustine with garlic butter and homemade bread, lobster, scallops, salmon, organic chicken, organic porkchops, beautiful steak, monkfish tails wrapped in parma ham (monkfish ends from fish market, parma ham from aldi) amongst other lovely meals. I've cut my bill for food, cleaning and beauty from around £300 per month to just under £100 a month. I could slash lots more off this and still eat a healthy diet but I love my food and its a luxury pleasure for me. But so what, now I can afford it! :j

System

Ive never shopped at either but I have tried and it has done nothing for me. I prefer the brand supermarkets because I have never had reason to complain. I have been into Aldi and Lidl and I was disappointed with a range of things. However, when I was in Belgium I wouldn't think twice about shopping at them because there was not a marked difference in quality. Wilkinsons/Llloyds or Semi-Chem (Scotland) for bathroom gear etc and I shop at Morrisons as they do a lot of Buy one get one free deals.

newleaf

I like to think I am selective, wherever I shop, and I am also a 'shopping tart'. Maybe I'm unusually lucky, but my local Lidl is very good, nice staff, good choice of products, cheap, and on the one occasion I had a faulty item I returned it and got an instant exchange with no questions asked. Of course they sell some things I wouldn't dream of touching - but so does every other supermarket!

woohoo_postingid

Lidl, Netto & Aldi are all great on price and selection. The problem is that they only ever have 1 till open and the queues are always huge! :mad:

Plus I'm a clubcard points addict :rotfl:

moanin'minnie

I would'nt class myself as a shopping snob but I just dont like lidls, I dont like a lot of their stuff some of it is ok but mostly I dont like the store,I think you can save as much by shopping carefully in tescos,iceland etc. and your local greengrocer and butcher can give you better quality and value than lidls meat and veg which I find is of poorer quality. Also their staff need personality transplants, in my local lidls the staff are all foreigners who dont talk just grunt at you ( I have nothing against foreigners before anyone gets on their high horse)