A Bleak Christmas for Tesco ?

Scritti

anotheruser wrote: »

How can you say Aldi are cheaper?
That's a largely sweeping statement that simply isn't true. Aldi charge for carrier bags, while Tesco don't. Not that I am defending them, I am an Asda shopper all the way.

I would consider Aldi but:
> I simply don't like the look of their stores (disorganised).
> Product names I don't trust.
> Smaller trollies.


But then I expect the Aldi bubble to pop in the coming years too.

What a strange post!

"How can you say Aldi are cheaper?
That's a largely sweeping statement that simply isn't true."

No, it's a largely sweeping statement which simply IS true. I don't even understand why you would think it's not. Odd.

"Aldi charge for carrier bags, while Tesco don't."

Er, what's your point? You'll soon be forced by law to pay for all carrier bags anyway. And the Lidl & Aldi bags that you pay for are good quality, not like the ones in Tesco which are apparently made from tracing paper. Anyway, just take bags with you when you go shopping, it's not difficult. And the amount I save on one or two items would pay for the bags if I forget to take them anyway. To say that Asda or Tesco is cheaper than Aldi because you don't have to pay for carrier bags is absolutely ridiculous.

"I would consider Aldi but:
> I simply don't like the look of their stores (disorganised).
> Product names I don't trust.
> Smaller trollies."

>Who cares about that when there's 25-50% to be saved on the cost of your shopping??
>There are approximately 3 billion posts on these forums saying that the Aldi brands are the same or better than the brands you're familiar with. How will you ever know if you don't try new things?? I DO trust their "product names" because I've tried them and found them, 99% of the time, to be excellent and great value for money.
>Smaller trollies??? (speechless)

Each to their own. I like Asda and agree there's a lot of good cheap stuff (especially compared to Tesco & Sains) but anyone who doesn't give Aldi a chance and try their food is missing out and wasting money on products which are identical or sometimes worse just because they come in a more familiar box or packet. More fool them.

I_luv_cats

I am a Supermarket Tart.

Normally local Morrisons

BUT LATELY

Ocado (when had 2 months free delivery)

Tesco for a few weeks with vouchers offsetting delivery charges.


I used to visit Tesco (30 mins away) regularly but not worth the trouble.

Pootle_3

I've been shopping at Aldi for a couple of years now, it has reduced my spend on groceries by about 30%.

I find the products good quality (I cook from scratch mainly, so cannot comment on the ping meals) and I love the fact that the stores are smaller, I can shop quickly and get out again in no time.

My store is clean, tidy and well planned out, I don't live anywhere posh either!!

geordie_joe

Scritti wrote: »

but anyone who doesn't give Aldi a chance and try their food is missing out and wasting money on products which are identical or sometimes worse just because they come in a more familiar box or packet. More fool them.

Talk about sweeping statements that simply aren't true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What about people like me who don't live near an aldi or lidl. I haven't tried either shop, but not because I am a fool, it's because I don't drive and it's just too far to travel to shop there.

I'm sure you love shopping at aldi, but please remember that more than half the people in the UK can't shop there, whether they want to or not. And I don't suppose any of them would like to be accused of wasting money and being a fool just because aldi haven't opened a shop close enough to them.

stephen77

I have never found Aldi 30% cheaper than ASDA.
Asda do value lines which are often cheaper than aldi.


quality is often on individual basis depending often on the supplier used.

VfM4meplse

I'm a bit disappointed with Lidl atm - I went in for chocolate at the weekend, and picked up some onions, carrots and lemons - all of which I subsequently find to be cheaper in Aldi, by about 20p each. (Not much, just an irritation). I also bought a box of eggs for £1.35 that FarmFoods were selling for £1. So that lost me £1 this weekend

Edwardia

Travelled for 1.5 hrs today to meet up with my shopaholic mother and visit the new Marks and Spencer at Bexhill. The Food Hall has zillions of products, you're really spoilt for choice.

But the one thing I found really noticeable was the eyewatering prices. I can find organic products in Sainsbury's, ASDA, Lidl and yes even Ocado, which are cheaper than M&S prices for conventional food !! :eek:

Don't know how many M&S Food Halls and Simply Food stores there are - my town doesn't even have M&S - but I don't recall this being mentioned before.

It's all very well showing pix of cute lambs on packaging and giving us the farmer's potted life history, but if the lamb is fed on GM feed or the peas are sprayed with pesticides umpteen times, why would anyone pay M&S prices ? It's not like the frozen peas have M&S laser etched into each one.

In fact a journo cooked a dinner party for the Evening Standard and none of his friends twigged that the free range chicken etc came from Lidl.

The thing I resent Tesco for, is the price war. It means the supermarkets compete and spend millions on marketing, instead of keeping prices low. And despite their promises, the total offers are always on a small percentage of the millions of products in store and relatively few are offers on fresh food.

The second reason why I dislike Tesco, is because the price war means I have to spend an inordinate amount of time searching for the cheapest prices for the things I want to buy. It's time consuming and hitting multiple supermarkets in one day is tiring.

Even the standard prices differ wildly between stores eg
Burgen = 1.50 Waitrose £1 Iceland
Hayward's Piccalilli = 1.89 Tesco £1 Iceland
President butter = 1.50 Budgens 1.70 Sainsbury's

None of those were offers but if you were buying two loaves of Burgen a week in Iceland you would be paying £52 per year less than the person buying them in Waitrose - for exactly the same thing.

surfsister

I never shop at Tescos now awful shop, high prices, often as high or higher than my local Co-Op and I can walk there with no hassle. Also always huge queues at tescos, people wait ten minutes at the checkout then spend another 5 trying to find their credit card, then their points cards! grr

Waitrose is great for the free drinks!!! and newspapers! and waitrose mags!

Scritti

geordie_joe wrote: »

Talk about sweeping statements that simply aren't true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What about people like me who don't live near an aldi or lidl. I haven't tried either shop, but not because I am a fool, it's because I don't drive and it's just too far to travel to shop there.

I'm sure you love shopping at aldi, but please remember that more than half the people in the UK can't shop there, whether they want to or not. And I don't suppose any of them would like to be accused of wasting money and being a fool just because aldi haven't opened a shop close enough to them.

Another odd post.

Firstly, nothing in your post in any way even argues against my "sweeping statement".

Secondly, why would I account for the people who for whatever reason can't access an Aldi before posting?

If you can't get to Aldi then just disregard my post.

Someone did this the other day. Pointed out that they have difficulty getting to Aldi because of a disability and / or not having transport.

Well just disregard my post then as it doesn't apply to you. Why should I add a caveat to every post saying "please disregard all of my words if you live 200 miles away from an Aldi"?

I wouldn't waste my time doing that and would expect a mature, intelligent individual to understand that I was obviously suggesting that to have access to Aldi and not even try it in order to save money is daft, I'm obviously not trying to upset anyone who would have problems getting there.

I would hope my posts might make you think "I wish that Aldi would hurry up and open near me so that I could give them a try" not "he's saying I'm a fool because I haven't booked a coach to travel to a supermarket to buy some baked beans". I just don't understand how some people manage to get the wrong end of the stick and take offense when someone is merely trying to be helpful. And I'm frankly bored by it now. The majority of people on these forums are great but there's always a few who almost seem to be trying to annoy others. Maybe they're just a bit over-sensitive but it's just a bit tiring.

I used to laugh at the idea of buying the "weird, cheap-looking brand rip-offs" in Aldi. I eventually saw the error of my ways and it's saved me loads since. People posting on these forums convinced me to try it and I've saved loads of money since without feeling like I've sacrificed any quality. I'm SO glad I gave the place a chance. I've managed to pay off my overdraft and even start saving because of the cash I've saved in the last year or so. Because of this, I DO like to recommend Aldi every chance I get. Perhaps it might help tip someone else into giving them a go and help them financially too. That's the only reason I big them up - to possibly help someone, not to get into pointless discussions with people, especially those with absolutely massive post counts who clearly have far too much spare time on their hands.

This is the first and only time I'm going to bother "defending" myself in this way as it's just petty and pointless and a waste of my time. If shopping at Aldi is not an option for you then just ignore any posts recommending you shop there. I don't understand why this is an issue for anyone. Regardless, I will simply ignore anyone who raises this non-issue again in future. Thanks.

Scritti

stephen77 wrote: »

I have never found Aldi 30% cheaper than ASDA.
Asda do value lines which are often cheaper than aldi.


quality is often on individual basis depending often on the supplier used.

It's generally around 30% or so cheaper than buying the equivalent brands in a "regular" supermarket.

Obviously, own-brand goods will be slightly cheaper and value stuff cheaper still.

If you're saving money buying value goods, that's something I'm all for if the quality doesn't suffer too much.

The reason I love Aldi is many of it's products are often identical to the big-name branded products but often a LOT cheaper.

I could certainly shop even cheaper by just buying Sains Basics / Tesco Value / Asda Smartprice items (and I did live off this stuff for a few months before finally trying Aldi) but, for me, paying a bit extra to shop at Aldi means I get the perfect balance of price and quality.


But, yes, the 30% cheaper thing is referring to name brands. I still do get some of the value stuff from the other supermarkets if I like them as they are very cheap.