Good and bad buys from Aldi and Lidl

Zeusiblue

candygirl wrote: »

Their own brand gin , is nice with tonic, ice n lemon:beer:

I can second that. Also their coconut rum is nice too with ice, coke and a slice :beer:

Tyler_Du

The undercoat & gloss paint available today (Thurs) is marked as £4.99 but scanned @ £2.99 for me

System

Just returned from Aldi = the store 2.75 miles from here.

Bought 8 bottles of wine costing an average of £4.15, tins of kidney beans, jam, 2 more bottles of Pear and Apple fruit and barley, apricots (99p for 6 - excellent), cornflakes and veg. Cost after Mirror coupon - £35.65

I also wanted tonic water. I didn't see any. There was a soft drinks tower with mixer drinks - only bitter lemon, ginger ale and soda water. Have Aldi stopped tonic water? Checked all along the soft drinks section - nope.

I picked a small trolley. There were four I when I did this. After I put my shopping in the boot of my car, I pushed back the trolley to the trolley bay. There were 5 customers all having a £1 coin to hand. I had to put the trolley back as I used a token. These customers were all in their 60s and 70s. They all said they cannot use a big trolley as they find it difficult to bend to reach the bottom of the trolley for various health issues. I used a small trolley to control my spending! I put the trolley back and walked back to the car whilst the 5 customers were fighting over one trolley

Come on Aldi, the UK has an aging population and therefore increasing numbers of bad backs etc. Please increase your 'bad back' trolleys. I am going to phone customer services and see what they say about it.

captainbeaker

Feral_Moon wrote: »

They sell mashed potato in the chiller cabinet. I've never tried it as I'm not that lazy to buy ready made mash lol

Not lazy, as make mash from potatoes when have time, but this makes a nice mash when short on time pour into bowl and zap in microwave 10-15 minutes and a nice mash ready to eat, i sometimes add extra seasoning and dash more butter but it's very nice and not artificial tasting like powdered mash.
Feeds 4 for around 69p so can't complain usually 99p in other supermarkets.

VfM4meplse

dlusman wrote: »

Good price on some of the other Valley Spire Cheddar next week ( 29th -> 4th )

Mild £1.39 for 350g ( £3.97 per Kg )
Vintage £1.59 for 350g ( £4.54 per Kg )

I bought on 1/2 price offer 87p/350g so more like £2.49/kg.

Stuck many in the freezer

Happygreen

Did I mention the Venison sausages before? The were of offer at Aldi on Tuesday, there they are Scottish Slimmers. I hardly bother with pork sausages any more since L & A both stock Venison.
I do have to do a proper comparison of the lamb mince when I get a chance. OH used one packet each recently and he said one was very fatty and the other one much better quality - of course he didn't remember which was A and which was L...

tomtombeanie

Doc_N wrote: »

It's odd how the dates vary from store to store. There are two stores in this area - one usually has 10 days on the milk, and the other one just 6 or 7.

The store nearest us is the one with the short date (always packed, so that's no excuse) so the milk now comes from the Tesco next door to it. Much longer date (always) and a much more reliable supply. I'm no lover of Tesco, but their milk supplies are far more reliable than Aldi's.

I have four aldi shops quite close to me (!!) and I think the freshness of perishable items depends on how good the manager of the shop is. From my understanding, each shop orders there own stock (unlike Asda who seem to be controlled by head office) so if the manager is getting the amounts wrong, things may end up hanging around for a while. I have a favourite aldi of the four I use and always go there when I need fresh stuff, as their dates are always the best. I know quite a lot of the staff there after 5+ years of shopping and they tell me their manager is fab. When I need store cupboard items, I go to one of the other ones nearby so I can see what specials they have (because that varies as well, after the initial stock up on Thursdays and Sundays).

Doc_N

tomtombeanie wrote: »

I have four aldi shops quite close to me (!!) and I think the freshness of perishable items depends on how good the manager of the shop is. From my understanding, each shop orders there own stock (unlike Asda who seem to be controlled by head office) so if the manager is getting the amounts wrong, things may end up hanging around for a while. I have a favourite aldi of the four I use and always go there when I need fresh stuff, as their dates are always the best. I know quite a lot of the staff there after 5+ years of shopping and they tell me their manager is fab. When I need store cupboard items, I go to one of the other ones nearby so I can see what specials they have (because that varies as well, after the initial stock up on Thursdays and Sundays).

That makes a lot of sense to me. It would certainly explain the differences in milk 'use by' dates between the two stores - and probably also why one of the two stores is always missing price labels, and is always difficult to negotiate because of the pallets of food left blocking the aisles.

It would also explain, perhaps, why there was a carton of milk on display yesterday 4 days past its 'use by' date.

System

I phoned Aldi's customer service and said tonic water is not a core line!! !!!!!!? Tonic water is the most popular mixer drink.

Going on mySupermarket to find the cheapest deal

A._Badger

Doc_N wrote: »

That makes a lot of sense to me. It would certainly explain the differences in milk 'use by' dates between the two stores - and probably also why one of the two stores is always missing price labels, and is always difficult to negotiate because of the pallets of food left blocking the aisles.

It would also explain, perhaps, why there was a carton of milk on display yesterday 4 days past its 'use by' date.

It certainly bears out my experience, too. I have two choices of Aldi branches, both quite a drive away, one long established, the other new. They are like chalk and cheese in terms of stock availability. Sadly, the one that's further away (the 'mature' branch) is the better by far.