Good and bad buys from Aldi and Lidl

RichByName

I'm converted to Aldi now. There's a few things that I don't like, but I work around that - for example, the crisps still contain MSG, the frozen king prawns are soooo much saltier than those available at other supermarkets (we now get the 450g packs at Iceland for a fiver), they don't sell hash browns, the range of curry sauces for under a quid is limited, and the strawberries life seems shorter than that of other supermarkets and compared with their other fruit and veg. That's about it though as far as the grumbles go - and we can work around that by going to Lidl funnily enough.

Otherwise, absolutely love it, and their nappies are awesome. We were very reluctant to go for supermarket own brand after an awful experience with our youngest getting a terrible nappy rash after using the Sainsburys ones for four days, but gave Mamia a go after positive reviews - we're converted. We've saved so much compared with Pampers and I'm no longer having to spend time keeping a sharp eye out for a bargain with Tesco, Boots, Superdrug or whoever and they cost about 2/3rds of the 'on promotion' Pampers price.

A big :T to Aldi from me. And a :T to Lidl for their supporting role.

bylromarha

RichByName wrote: »

the frozen king prawns are soooo much saltier than those available at other supermarkets (we now get the 450g packs at Iceland for a fiver)

.

We hate the aldi King prawns too.

We go to lidl for ours now - La Caldera frozen king prawns "between 22-28 prawns" - 250g for £2.69

tigs33

Very impressed with Aldi today, used my vouchers from the mirror including the £5 off £40, paid for shopping and was outside loading the car when the cashier came running over to me to see if she has applied the £5 (normally I check but didn't this time), she hadn't applied it but came out with a £5 note in case she hadn't.

Now call me cynical but I doubt very much I would have got that level of service if one of the other supermarkets had made a similar mistake.

VfM4meplse

tigs33 wrote: »

Very impressed with Aldi today, used my vouchers from the mirror including the £5 off £40, paid for shopping and was outside loading the car when the cashier came running over to me to see if she has applied the £5 (normally I check but didn't this time), she hadn't applied it but came out with a £5 note in case she hadn't.

Now call me cynical but I doubt very much I would have got that level of service if one of the other supermarkets had made a similar mistake.

I have not come across a single slacker in Aldi, which is all the more reason to love it! The Eastern European girls at the tills in particular are brilliant, last time I was in Aldi when it came to paying for my items we realised the previous customer had left her card in the machine....she grabbed the card, closed the till down and ran out into the car park to find the customer. She was so fast, back at her till and taking payment from me in 15 seconds flat, it was like watching Wonderwoman

Doc_N

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I have not come across a single slacker in Aldi, which is all the more reason to love it! The Eastern European girls at the tills in particular are brilliant....

Totally agree - they all work extremely hard, but they do seem happy in what they're doing.

My vote for the most ineffective, laziest shopworkers: the Co-op. Doesn't much matter which Co-op - they all seem to spend more time chatting than actually working.

~Chameleon~

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I have not come across a single slacker in Aldi, which is all the more reason to love it! The Eastern European girls at the tills in particular are brilliant, last time I was in Aldi when it came to paying for my items we realised the previous customer had left her card in the machine....she grabbed the card, closed the till down and ran out into the car park to find the customer. She was so fast, back at her till and taking payment from me in 15 seconds flat, it was like watching Wonderwoman

The town I visit to shop at Aldi has a high EEU population so many are employed in the store and they all provide exemplary service from what I've seen so far. Take last night for example. I completely forgot to hand over my £5 vouchers prior to checkout and by the time I realised the total was already at £60ish. The girl stopped the till, refunded the last few items to bring it back to near £40 then checked me out using a voucher and kept an eye in it herself to check out at £40 each time as I had three vouchers to use. Could never see that happening in Tesco et al.

Oh, and just to compliment them further. There was a screw up on the banking system this week which meant the last two transactions I made earlier in the week went through twice. They've not only refunded those transactions but also compensated me generously for the interest I've lost whilst that amount was absent from my account! :j

What's not to love about Aldi??

~Chameleon~

And whilst we're at it, the cheapy £5 Belletti Prosecco tastes far better than Tesco's Finest :dance:

A._Badger

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

What's not to love about Aldi??

Oh, there are things, believe me! The fact that its stores tend to look like jumble sales organised by a madman, for one. It does have some products that are extremely well priced for the quality offered, but the near-worship of a mere supermarket can make Apple's infamous 'fanbois' look like objective consumers.

recovering_spendaholic

I really do think that the quality of meat and poultry is better at both Aldi and Lidl than any of the big supermarkets. I bought one of the frozen turkeys which were reduced to £9 last week and it was wonderful!

I also think the cleaning stuff is as good if not better than top brands.

nickyhutch

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

And whilst we're at it, the cheapy £5 Belletti Prosecco tastes far better than Tesco's Finest :dance:

It's lovely isn't it? Especially with Chambord.