Aldi snobbery

dickydonkin

wellblechstrumpf wrote: »

Good morning, I am new to this forum.
As it happens I am German living in the UK.
There are some facts might be worth to know:
- I wonder how Lidl treats his UK staff? In Germany they had some problem after it became public that they controlled their staff a bit too much. Also clothes are produced in Asia under questionable circumstances (child work and they pay their produces very few salary which causes troubles for families over there)
- Aldi managed somehow to push down the prices for bananas which caused also problems for the banana workers in their home countries.
There are further negative examples.
I am aware that Aldi and Lidl can be cheap but the question is on which back this was achieved. Probably the same is valid for the other English supermarkets but I am not familiar with those.
Banana is therefore not always a banana and sometimes it might be good to think where the food comes from and under which circumstances it was produced. I understand that it is tough at the moment in the UK and I see the effect in my own purse, however it is not always about the price solely.

In Germany is a tough price war going on between supermarkets and discounters. But a test showed that a basket full of own branded products cost the same as at Lidl or Aldi. Difference was around 1Euro only. Open your eyes and compare.

Obviously I cannot comment on the German shopper, however, here in the UK - many cash strapped family's don't give a hoot about the provenance or ethics of how a product is manufactured or obtained - the bottom line is the price!

When supermarkets are able sell complete school uniforms for the price of a chicken - it is inevitable that somewhere down the supply chain there will be exploitation - and that is not exclusive to overseas manufactures and producers. Many of our own industries are squeezed by the money grabbing stores as well!

Edwardia

My local Lidl only sells Fair Trade bananas and has quite a few organic products whereas my local ASDA sells a few organic veg but nowt else. I did wonder how Sainsburys could sell a certified Fair Trade cotton tshirt for £4 before buying it anyway.

lmp0507

I always find myself amused with the look of horror on people's faces when I openly admit to shopping at aldi.
Or the look of shock when someone enjoys a meal at my house then finds out it's from aldi!

Me and my partner previously shopped at asda spending around £80 for a fridge freezer and cupboard shop weekly! We are both on rather small incomes as we work part time and found it was a bit ridiculous to be spending so much!

Also as our local asda is around 4 and half miles away and neither of us drive, we spent a fortune getting a taxi there and back! However we discovered out nearest aldi is a mere 1 mile away, and out of curiosty we decided to a do our weekly shop there and have never looked back!
Plus we can get a pretty much identical shop for £40/£50 a week, with considerably cheaper taxi fares, so it's win-win.

Saving around £30/£40 a week means we have much more money for non-essentials to treat ourselves with.

I've found our local aldi cheap, clean and well presented, It's also smaller than our huge asda super store and my shopping time has been massively reduced, from an hour and a half in store at asda to around 30 minutes in aldi!

The only gripe I have is that trolleys must be packed un-bagged then taken out and rebagged, and that they charge for the carrier bags, but besides that no complaints!

I have no issue with food quality, and after tasting the disgusting asda smart price chicken breasts compared to the standard (and cheaper) delicious aldi chicken breasts, I certainly know where I shall be continuing to shop.

Snobbery? Pah.

cheeswright

I have really tried to shop at waitrose
but just ended up with a long walk on a shiny floor
I've been in M&S and actually picked things up..before putting them back
Insainsburys... same
and so on

I feel ill at the thought of paying some of the prices the larger supermarkets charge for food
and I'm not badly off

but I do cook, a lot - not using convenience food may be a big point of difference between the customers here?

and I have found the fresh and other unprocessed foods at Aldis to be at least equal to if not superior to most other supermarkets (no lidl nearby) I wonder if others posting here are the same - hence the preference?

nickyhutch

Just discovered my cats are Aldi snobs. They wont eat Vitacat, preferring to call it "Sh!te-a-cat".

minxie

I went back today for my second shop using my£5 off voucher, and I tried some other things that I want brave enough before:

Rice krispies, very good.89p
Choc chip cookies, very good 79p twin pack
oreos, again very good 69 small pack
broccoli a good size fresh and only 55p
best buy 4 choc mousse for 45p and vegetarian using pectin rather than geletine, as my son is a very fussy veggie, top marks, just as good as cadbury.
racer bars 5 69p (snicker bars) smaller than the real thing, but just as good.

day/night cream the resorative is very good and only 1.99 per pot.
Fresh meat, is excellent and the pizza's at 1.49 are greaat value.

I think I should be on commission for singing their praises so highly

The list goes on and I shall continue to try new things every week,
5 bags of shopping for just under £40, bargain!!!!!

alliwantistosave

nickyhutch wrote: »

Just discovered my cats are Aldi snobs. They wont eat Vitacat, preferring to call it "Sh!te-a-cat".

My cat is exactly the opposite, He will only eat vitacat in gravy. If we put anything else in front of him he won't eat it! I have wasted loads of money in the past trying to get him to eat something else but he wont! Trouble is my local Aldi is 50 Yes 50 miles away :eek:

So if we are ever passing an Aldi we pop in to stock up. I just wish they would open one nearer but we have 3 lidls instead.

nickyhutch

alliwantistosave wrote: »

My cat is exactly the opposite, He will only eat vitacat in gravy. If we put anything else in front of him he won't eat it! I have wasted loads of money in the past trying to get him to eat something else but he wont! Trouble is my local Aldi is 50 Yes 50 miles away :eek:

So if we are ever passing an Aldi we pop in to stock up. I just wish they would open one nearer but we have 3 lidls instead.

DS just told me I bought the wrong one - £1.99 for 12 pouches, and the pouches are plain silver. Apparently they've had the one up from this before, and quite liked it, so I'm cruel calling them snobs

This stuff is more jelly than meat so I can see why they're turning their little snooty noses up at it

I'm lucky in that there are 3 Aldis on my 9 mile trip to work.

hamish222

nickyhutch wrote: »

Just discovered my cats are Aldi snobs. They wont eat Vitacat, preferring to call it "Sh!te-a-cat".

My snobby persian looked at me as if I was unstable when I bought a sachet of Vitacat for him to try. Sniffed it and walked out with his nose in the air. He does like their cat treats though.

nickyhutch

hamish222 wrote: »

My snobby persian looked at me as if I was unstable when I bought a sachet of Vitacat for him to try. Sniffed it and walked out with his nose in the air. He does like their cat treats though.

I wouldn't mind but mine are common as muck moggies who just have ideas above their station :rotfl: