Aldi Virgin

tallulah73

I normally do my weekly food shop at Morrisons but a new Aldi is opening this week just down the road from me so im gonna give it a go and see if I can save some money!

What are your opinions on Aldi prices and products?
are there any items I should avoid?
I love my brands when it comes to washing powder & fabric softener, has anyone used Aldi's own washing products?...any good?

DCFC79

tallulah73 wrote: »

I normally do my weekly food shop at Morrisons but a new Aldi is opening this week just down the road from me so im gonna give it a go and see if I can save some money!

What are your opinions on Aldi prices and products?
are there any items I should avoid?
I love my brands when it comes to washing powder & fabric softener, has anyone used Aldi's own washing products?...any good?

We use the d/washer tabs and theyre fine, there is a thread on here about whats good and not in aldi.

You havent said but ill inform you anyway:

You know its trolleys only(unless they have given new stores baskets) but if you only want a few items then you can either take your own bags and put your bits in them OR pick up a cardboard box from the shelf (or from the cardboard trolley, the staff dont mind) and use that to carry your items round.

Most people couldnt (but depends on the person/s) do a full shop in the store due to not everything is stocked you can get in tesco or asda etc eg might only sell 2 brands of baked beans whereas tesco would sell 10/15 varieties of baked beans.

If your using a trolley then once you have loaded your shopping onto the belt and once its your turn DO NOT try and pack the shopping once it gets scanned, the process is once its scanned through you put the shopping in the trolley and then once finished your pay as you would normally and you can either pack your shopping on the bench by the windows OR you can pack it outside at your car. And you pay for bags which are 3p for a normal bag and 10p for a bag for life or 50p for a freezer type bag(prices may not be correct due to not having worked for aldi for over 4 years.)

Unlike in sainsburys, tesco etc theres staff on the shopfloor and on checkouts well in aldi theres only minimal staff so if you get to a checkout and theres a queue in front of you of say 3 or 4 people dont fret as you do get through quick OR the assistant will open up another checkout and tell you to load your items on the belt and once your loaded he will call for an assistant to serve you. Oh and its either cash and debit cards only(credit cards might be accepted but you could ask)

Majority of the above also applies to lidl too.

Oh and the fruit and veg can be good but you would need to get there early to get the best choice as it can go fast esp when on offer. The meat is also good too, turkey crowns(easter and xmas) have been good in the past.

Heres the thread i was on about plus another 1.

Things like charging for bags, having minimal staff, less packaging for items when delivered, no contract cleaner all mean costs are kept to a minimum so they can offer great/low prices on items.

purple45

DCFC79 that was a great reply, I wouldn't have thought of all of that advice!

I was just going to say that the range of cheese is great and really cheap. Fruit and veg can be cheap but you can't guarantee to pick up what you need as the quality can vary. The weekly ranges of special offers are always worth checking out and the quality of items tends to be really good for the price. I've bought electrical and other household items. I also buy tissues, tablets, food bags etc from there at a great price.

Piggo_2

We've tried the chickens, ham tinned fish and they're really nice. Also the tinned tomatos, tomato puree, yoghurt, chocolate and crisps are really nice.

DCFC79

purple45 wrote: »

DCFC79 that was a great reply, I wouldn't have thought of all of that advice!

I was just going to say that the range of cheese is great and really cheap. Fruit and veg can be cheap but you can't guarantee to pick up what you need as the quality can vary. The weekly ranges of special offers are always worth checking out and the quality of items tends to be really good for the price. I've bought electrical and other household items. I also buy tissues, tablets, food bags etc from there at a great price.

It helps with having worked there, yes the cheeses are good and i like the cheddars. My mum buys the tissues from lidl (but i guess the aldi ones are the same) and they quite good.

I could copy it into a word doc for future ref.

dottydeb

Hi, I concure that you can't really do a full shop in there. So, it probably means shopping in there first and comparing prices. And then having to go to another supermarket as well. Which may not be a bad thing, as it's best to try and find the bargains each supermarket has each week. Of course, this is not possible to do for everyone, dependant on distance and transport costs which you need to add into the equation.
Aldi are good for bread, pet food. Some frozen stuff. Wine, toiletries. etc. It all depends on what you usually buy. They don't have special offers like other supermarkets. But they do have 'special buys', every Sunday and Thursday. And they change every week and are well worth checking out.
You need to buy carrier bags and so always take your own bags.
The checkout system, is quick. Usually involves your shopping going back into your trolley and then you have to go and pack. That, takes some getting used to. And can be a pain, if you have loads of stuff. But you get through the checkout in record time, usually.

DCFC79

dottydeb wrote: »

Hi, I concure that you can't really do a full shop in there. So, it probably means shopping in there first and comparing prices. And then having to go to another supermarket as well. Which may not be a bad thing, as it's best to try and find the bargains each supermarket has each week. Of course, this is not possible to do for everyone, dependant on distance and transport costs which you need to add into the equation.
Aldi are good for bread, pet food. Some frozen stuff. Wine, toiletries. etc. It all depends on what you usually buy. They don't have special offers like other supermarkets. But they do have 'special buys', every Sunday and Thursday. And they change every week and are well worth checking out.
You need to buy carrier bags and so always take your own bags.
The checkout system, is quick. Usually involves your shopping going back into your trolley and then you have to go and pack. That, takes some getting used to. And can be a pain, if you have loads of stuff. But you get through the checkout in record time, usually.

take some getting used too - Its pretty easy,

a pain - its just common sense when you think about it, the staff have to scan x amount of items a minute of every customer wanted to pack the shopping a sits scanned the items per minute would totally nose dive and the assistant would get moaned at for it being so low(depends on the manager).


long time no see,

*SallyCinnamon*

cold meats and cheeses are excellent.... if like my OH you take a packed lunch... fruit & veg are great....I ordinarily would agree and say you cannot do your whole shop there, however, just back from my sister's in Spain and she only uses Aldi & Lidl

DCFC79

Aldi used to do some nice frozen deserts but not sure if they still sel them, i remember 1 was rhubarb with something or was it plum.

OP check the website for the specials but depends if you plan to go first thing on thursday/sunday as you get a better choice as they cna sell pretty quick.

lonestarfan

The large fresh chickens are great about £3.99. I won't buy Tescos now even when they are 2 for £7 as they are badly bruised and bloody under the skin whereas the Aldi ones look good and always cook lovely. Cheese and cooked meats (baked ham or german ham for 99p) are always in our shopping! The small multi bars of milk or white chocolate are a great hit with my family!

shellsuit

Their own Rice Krispies and Coco Pops are just like the proper ones and are only 99p a box.

Their maris piper frozen roast potatoes are gorgeous and only 75p a bag! They do big fat chunky maris piper chips too, which aren't cheap at £1.89 a bag, but they are the nicest frozen chips I've ever had!

15 frozen yorky puds for 59p, their own sage and onion stuffing is 37p and their fresh chickens are really good value!

I always get their fruit and veg....apples bananas, oranges, grapes, plums, pinapples, mushrooms, broccolli, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes etc.....all really good value and really fresh.

Their cheese and meats are nice too, and they do have quit a large selection of these.

Their 2L's of pop are great. 45p, and the dandelion and burdock one is especially tasty! Their own Coke isn't far off from tasting like Pepsi. Put it this way, I used to be a brand w hore and changed to getting 90% of shopping from Aldi. I've got 2 fussy teens and they prefer the Aldi Coke and Aldi 'Sprite', to the proper ones.



The only thing I don't rate is their washing tablets and fabric conditioner, so I've gone back to my Bold