Aldi snobbery

debtfreewannabe321

Before I found MSE i was a regular at sainsburys/tesco/asda...i'd drive straight past the aldi because of a bad experience i had in there once! I was 2 days before my due date and having contractions at the till.......and because i wasn't quick enough putting the food on so the cashier could throw it in to the trolley at the other end she was tutting. Well hormones & me....i went mad and made her personally go and replace the 5 loaves of bread she had squashed, and a carton of juice that looked like it had seen better days after she'd thrown it in! By the time she got to the fruit she was putting it in so delicately that i could have wet myself laughing lol. It put me off though as they were so rude!!!

Once i found MSE i thought i would give it another go and by then another one had opened up the other end of town. I love it in there and can fully say i'm converted. It's a shame in fact that i have to go to tesco/asda/sains for anything!!

And i'm quite shocked to hear how much the staff are on :eek: esp when i've encountered some truly rude people in that first aldi when i used to go there!!

Oh and as for the car park i have to queue for a space nearly every time i go as it is so busy! AND there are always 4x4 in there and brand new cars. It's certainly not just for the poor (like me lol)

dfw

Decadent_Debtor

Just did a full week's shop in Aldi - £24!!! This is literally half what I would normally spend in Waitrose and I managed to get 95% of the stuff on my list. Aldi and Waitrose are the closest supermarkets to my house (literally across the road) like the devil and angel over my shoulder.... but I'm determined to always start off in Aldi and only head over to Waitrose if I can't get something in Aldi.

One confession though - I'm a total condiments snob! I have to get good old Heinz Ketchup and HP Sauce.

So, sauces aside, I am well and truly and Aldi man.

As for the shopping experience, I genuinely fear for my life in the local Asda and Tesco means going into town and traffic hell. Generally find Aldi full of pleasant older customers and younger bargain hunters. Love it.

Haffiana

I had absolutely no idea until I read this thread that people were snobby about Aldi and Lidl. !!!!!!? I am a Waitrose shopper, because it is the nearest to me and I like the quality. I won't shop at all in Tesco because the quality (particularly fruit and veg) is bad, and I genuinely find it more expensive than Waitrose for many things plus some of their pricing and labelling practices really annoy me, so I have boycotted it for a number of years now. It isn't a snob thing, it is me quietly doing my bit for my principles. I do occasionally go into a Lidl, but only if I am passing because there isn't one any where near me, and ditto Asda. There isn't an Aldi on this side of London at all. I wish there was.

I have to add that I live in a frankly upmarket area of London. A Poundshop opened here just before Christmas, and it is FULL of people happily showing each other what they have found, and telling each other how much money they are saving. These same people would be delighted if an Aldi or Lidl opened here, and would consider it a smart move to shop there if the quality was good and it saved them money.

Middy

My mum's relative was a chef until she retired a few years back. She cannot find any fault with any of Aldi or Lidl for fresh food and produce.

She says Aldi's cooked meats are the best.

Rmeek

bornintoit wrote: »

In response to a couple of posts here I was working on a checkout once and I fainted and collasped. I was not fussed over at the checkout while there was a big queue of people waiting to be served. I was able to be taken off the shopfloor to be cared for while another staff member was put onto the checkout to carry on serving customers. Why should customers have to wait to be served because me or another customer has a funny turn?

As I see it there are two options to this situation: -

1. She should have been taken away from the checkout area so customers can carry on being served and another checkout opened (as the SA was doing) if the queue had built up and if she needed a glass of water THEN get her one.

2. If the customer cannot be moved then an ambulance should be called and another checkout should be opened which is what the SA was doing.

Sorry if that sounds uncaring but that's the nature of the beast.

2 good points you make. However it is not the customer that controls this outcome it was the SA who simply made it quite clear she wouldn't be helping the customer. Do shops not have a duty of care these days towards their customers? The SA should have called another member of staff. It's lucky for the SA that it was just a funny turn and not something far more serious. Or are SA's now qualified doctors?

My instinct, and I'd like to think that many others also, would be to help the customer whilst handling the situation so that there was as little disruption as possible. I am quite sure that if this happened and I was in the queue, the last thing on my mind would be 'move away to the side will you as I have food to pay for!'.

Lizling

Those people who get all snobby about shopping in Lidl and Aldi might be interested to know that Lidl is every bit as popular with the wealthiest as Waitrose is now :rotfl: Not just based on my observations, but I actually have access to a lot of relevant data.

If Aldi's isn't the same, I'd bet it's because they haven't opened enough stores in wealthy areas (e.g. none in West London unless you go right out to Hounslow).

And +1 to Haffiana's observation about the pound shop! Honestly, I think bargain hunting has become very fashionable among people who don't really need to do it.

Vixie_Pixie

I cannot believe people do that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Aldi - me and OH have one very close to our flat so we do our main shop in there! We spent £33.00 in there today and came out with 6 carrier bags, 1 jute bag and one big rucksack full of food!

Their coke is 46p a bottle and tastes better than the real stuff!! Put it in a coca cola bottle and noone would ever know!

jollymummy

I am a Jones (so everyone will have to keep up with me and a recent Aldi convert, I can't stop telling everyone how fab they are and how much money we save compared to our usual Mr T shop - we are putting away about £25 a week from our grocery budget for next Christmas !!
I've even got my MIL who shops at Waitrose popping in for meat, wine and cheese - will fully convert her soon

PS I agree with Oakeyrose the staff at our local shop are lovely, much nicer than going to the huge Asda nearby.

bornintoit

Rmeek wrote: »

2 good points you make. However it is not the customer that controls this outcome it was the SA who simply made it quite clear she wouldn't be helping the customer. Do shops not have a duty of care these days towards their customers? The SA should have called another member of staff. It's lucky for the SA that it was just a funny turn and not something far more serious. Or are SA's now qualified doctors?

My instinct, and I'd like to think that many others also, would be to help the customer whilst handling the situation so that there was as little disruption as possible. I am quite sure that if this happened and I was in the queue, the last thing on my mind would be 'move away to the side will you as I have food to pay for!'.

I didn't mean to imply that the SA shouldn't have done anything I just wanted to say that an SA thinking about opening another till when this happens isn't actually uncommon. Also we don't know how many staff were there at the time Aldi doesn't have as much staff as the big 4 do and how busy they were.
Duchy doesn't mention this in her post nor does she mention any other staff member apart from the manager. One staff member would not be able to cope with this situation alone. Maybe this shows more a flaw in Aldi's system and lack of a policy or training when it comes to these types of situations.

Saturnalia

Haffiana wrote: »

A Poundshop opened here just before Christmas, and it is FULL of people happily showing each other what they have found, and telling each other how much money they are saving. These same people would be delighted if an Aldi or Lidl opened here, and would consider it a smart move to shop there if the quality was good and it saved them money.

I love to brag about how little I pay for things and can spend many a happy afternoon going round the pound shops! Who in their right mind would waste money?