Good and bad buys from Aldi and Lidl

MysteryMe

One of the main selling points of Aldi was the super 6 fruit and veg deals. I buy a lot of fruit and veg in Aldi for my parrot, and that particularly includes "exotic" stuff as that is more akin to his natural diet than a Cox's Pippin so I know that they don't just sell traditional fruit and veg. I also see lots of fresh meat and fish in mine. The Grimbsy store needs to up it's game!

candygirl

ScarletMarble wrote: »

Re supermarkets stocking junk food. All do it. For example the Asda near me has loads of students. Loads of ready meals, Pot Noodles. Their hot drinks section is half the size of a similar sized Asda in a more respectable area. Less ready meals.

Students and council housing affects what supermarkets stock the most

This isn't true of my local store, which is literally next door to the humungous university flats!

Happygreen

It'll be interesting now to see how the new store will be stocked, I thought most of them have about the same stuff everywhere.

Re junk food, I can't see that Lidl and Aldi are offering more than the "big" 4 in relation to fresh or upmarket foods. On the rare occasions I frequent one of the large superstores I despair at isle after isle of choice of rubbish! The only thing that A & L will probably never have is a fresh fish counter...but I never expected a fresh bakery in store either, who knows.

System

I think the five Aldis that are within 6 miles from me in different directions have the same ratio of junk (salty snacks, pies, pizzas etc) to 'cooking' food - fresh meat, flour, dried pasta etc, despite having different categories of people living nearby.

Though there is an Iceland a couple of miles from here. Go on the odd time as have more ambient items. But as its on the edge of a council estate, 90% of the freezers are full of junk - Greggs stuff, chicken nuggets, 4 freezers of chips, 89p ready meals (never tried them but sound rank). Then they have just 2 freezers with frozen veg and 2 freezers with frozen plain meat - chicken portions, turkey roasts etc.

ClaireJ23

Lidl have 1kg packs of risotto rice for not much more than the 500g packs in Sainsbury's and Tescos.

Also, Aldi are doing pudding rice for half the price of the main supermarkets.

maman

candygirl wrote: »

This isn't true of my local store, which is literally next door to the humungous university flats!

My Aldi is in a very mixed area, very cosmopolitan, students, couples, families, singles in bedsits, retired people, people of all ages and from all over the world. It's got a great buzz and a great range of foods. I rarely need to go elsewhere.


Until supermassive raised it I hadn't though there would be different stock in different areas.

Cornucopia

I'm not sure it is a major issue for Lidl & Aldi. I've been to many of their stores in widely-ranging areas, and the vast majority of stock is the same. (I wonder just how much Sun-dried tomato Antipasti they sell in some stores?)

You may find some extra products in larger stores.

Other chains, particularly the convenience store versions of the Big 4 probably have a more pronounced selectivity based on location.

There does seem to be a slight issue with scruffy stores in certain locations. (I can think of one such Aldi). In those stores, there can be empty, scruffy, badly-arranged shelves, and this might create the impression that certain lines are not stocked, when in fact they have simply not been replaced on the shelves.

Feral_Moon

supermassive wrote: »

I think Lidl/Aldi are great if you're shopping and don't much care about your waistline, but as someone with a bit of a mental relationship with food/fatness, I'd rather avoid junk food and pre-prepared food, but that seems to be what the emphasis is in Lidl and Aldi.

For some reason, it's all about cheap versions of chocolate bars, wine, cake, pie, burgers etc etc etc. When it comes to trying to shop realistically for 2 people who are attempting to live very healthily, the range of choice in those places is very small.

Quite the contrary! Everything I buy from Aldi is fresh. I don't eat any processed rubbish and I cook everything from scratch. I find it quite insulting that you assume people shopping at Aldi neither care about their health nor waistline!

Feral_Moon

maman wrote: »

No they don't but they sell their basic herbs and spices very cheaply which frees up cash to go to Waitrose/Sainsbury's for the more unusual ones. At least I will when I've finished the paprika I brought back from Spanish trip.


They do sell anchovies though.;)

Couldn't agree more! This is why I use Waitrose as a backup for those niche products that Aldi don't stock. If they were to extend their range then they would just become another supermarket along the lines of the "big 4" and prices would rise accordingly. Some people are never satisfied though

maman

Feral_Moon wrote: »

Couldn't agree more! This is why I use Waitrose as a backup for those niche products that Aldi don't stock. If they were to extend their range then they would just become another supermarket along the lines of the "big 4" and prices would rise accordingly. Some people are never satisfied though

Like you, I'm a convert!!


What supermassive has done is raised the issue that not all Aldi's seem to have the same range of stock and it does seem to be a bit more than size of store. I'm fortunate that mine seems to be one of the good ones and it's kept quite clean too. Recently you do seem to have to negotiate pallets a lot in the aisles but that's because they're restocking as quickly as they can when deliveries arrive. Our staff are very polite and helpful too.


Didn't get out today so missing my Friday bottle of Cremant du Jura tonight.;)