Good and bad buys from Aldi and Lidl

Eliza_2

I do all my shopping at Aldi now. Having loads of choice just wastes my time, if I need tinned tomatoes I don't need loads to choose from, just tomatoes in a tin! And lots of the meat is red tractor, which is excellent.

The only thing I haven't tried is the mayonnaise 'as seen on tv'. Can anyone vouch for it? Is it really comparable with Hellmans? I don't want to spend quite a bit on it if it isn't nice - and I've had other supermarket own brand mayo before and it was manky!!


mmmm......cranberry cookies

Liz

Edwardia

Eliza wrote: »

lots of the meat is red tractor, which is excellent.

It's a marketing logo and unless you've read through the certification criteria on the Red Tractor assurance website you won't know that it's not super duper all singing all dancing. It might specify that farm dogs and cats have to be wormed regularly and records kept and how feed is stored and where it should come from.But it doesn't, for example, prevent farmers feed genetically modified crops or feed made from GM crops.

Eliza_2

No possibly not, but as I can't afford organic and free range, I at least feel that some sort of standard is being met, especially in terms of animal welfare and traceability of origin. I hate having the wool pulled over my eyes by claims that something is British made when the burger might have been made in Britain but the meat it was made from came from the moon.

So not perfect but better than nowt!

Alisha2008

Went to ALDI today and saw a new range of Angus beef selection (burguers and different steaks). Has anyone tried them? Steaks were around £3.50-£4 per unit.

I rarely buy steaks as I only like them if meat is really good quality, which is usually not the case at the supermarket, and the butcher is quite expensive..

kerleytops

Lidls apple and black currant cider is good.

BAGGY

The Aldi mayo is fine. I find it less salty than the big brand one. It's 10p more if you get the same quantity in the squeezy jar and for that i think it's worth less haasle.
I buy everything from Aldi fruit & veg, tea bags, soya milk, jam, cereal, bread, frozen fish is good (5 piece wild pink salmon for £3.99) they do smoked fish too, ice cream (the cheapest vanilla is better than sm version of 'normal' priced).
I only go to Lidls for swirly choc spread, slice gherkins, egg noodles and if the have offers.

samanthaknd

Went to Aldi last week and must reccomend their alterative to Lurpack called Norpack, Tastes just the same but at only £1.69 for 500g.

fluffycloudland77_2

Has anyone noticed their Aldi baked beans being hard? we've been using them for a couple of years and prefer them to Heinz but the last lot we bought have been all hard, even after long cooking times.

Is it just a bad batch?

Lucyadams184

We like the aldi ovencooked chips and the southern fried chicken. You can't beat the super 6 to. The chinease section is good to with the noodles and sauces for a stir fry.

georgiesmum

Doc_N wrote: »

Used to shop mainly in Lidl/Waitrose, but now Aldi's taken Lidl's place - nice new air-conditioned store, and much, much friendlier staff.

Lidl's main downside was the fruit and veg - OK to use on the day or shortly after, but not any longer than that. Aldi's a bit better.

Most of the other stuff's fine from either. But it would be, wouldn't it, since most of it comes from exactly the same places that produce for all the other supermarkets. One of the Aldi cheeses, for example, is from the same creamery that supply M&S - same excellent cheese, but a fraction of the price.

The big loser in all this? Tesco - why would anyone still shop there? High prices, poor quality, indifferent staff, and an unpleasant, aggressive, bullying company.

We have a fairly new Tesco Extra opened in Widnes. I love it. Plenty of space to walk around in comfit, and the staff are lovely. Nothing seems to much trouble for them. I bought a laptop a couple of weeks ago and they certainly went the extra mile for dh and I. We are pensioners so you can imagine how little we knew what to buy.
I make sure that i only buy stuff that is the same elsewere and they do have some great bargains at times.
Can't really understand why folk complain so much about staff in these large stores.If they do not do their job properly they get sacked. They have to keep to high standereds to keep their job.
Makes you wonder just what do some people expect an assistant to do