A Bleak Christmas for Tesco ?

A._Badger

Edwardia wrote: »

The Grocer reported back in February that Lidl is the quickest supermarket to shop in.
http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/companies/discounters/lidl/lidl-is-the-quickest-supermarket-to-shop-at/236162.article

It certainly would be for me.

A/ They don't sell half the things I need.

B/ The ambience wouldn't drive me out.

paulineb_2

A._Badger wrote: »

Personally, I think the Aldi/Lidl thing is a fashion craze driven largely by novelty. I have tried both, several tines, and haven't been impressed. Life is too short to wander down cheerless aisles of stacked cardboard boxes clustered around bring 'n buy style tables with a random assortment of machine tools, tennis shoes, knock-off electrical goods and heaven knows what, all laid out as if a madman had done the job with a hand grenade. And then you're expected to sample your way through countless copy brands in the hope of finding something resembling the brand you have used for 20 years, all for the sake of saving 5p.

Tesco, on the other hand, has ruined its reputation by its meanness, predation, aggression, involvement with adulteration scandals and appallingly badly managed PR. Heads really need to roll, before there is serious trouble.

If all three vanished, I wouldn't shed a tear.

Thats not how my local aldi looks, yes there are aisles where you get limited edition goods, but certainly not aisles of stacked cardboard boxes. My local aldi is clean, I know where everything is and the customer service is much much better than Ive ever found at Tesco. Oh and its much cheaper. A tin of aldi tuna at 49p looks decent, the stuff they are selling in Tesco for 49p is mush. I actually think aldi products are superior quality to a lot of what you get in Tesco and always have been as far back as I can remember.

Aldi also do sell a certain amount of branded products too.

I actually find my local tesco store fits the description of jumble sale more at times. You never know where anything is, aisles are always being moved and if you ask someone, they never know where anything is either.

A._Badger

paulineb wrote: »

Thats not how my local aldi looks, yes there are aisles where you get limited edition goods, but certainly not aisles of stacked cardboard boxes. My local aldi is clean, I know where everything is and the customer service is much much better than Ive ever found at Tesco. Oh and its much cheaper. A tin of aldi tuna at 49p looks decent, the stuff they are selling in Tesco for 49p is mush. I actually think aldi products are superior quality to a lot of what you get in Tesco and always have been as far back as I can remember.

Aldi also do sell a certain amount of branded products too.

I actually find my local tesco store fits the description of jumble sale more at times. You never know where anything is, aisles are always being moved and if you ask someone, they never know where anything is either.

I realise we are almost at the point where daring to criticise Aldi or Lidl has become a burning offence in this country, but while the good people of this forum gather wood and search for the matches , I'll continue to say how depressing and dull I find their stores and how poor their selections of products.

Mercifully, the choice isn't Aldi/Lidl or Tesco. There are others.

sniggings

paulineb wrote: »

Thats not how my local aldi looks, yes there are aisles where you get limited edition goods, but certainly not aisles of stacked cardboard boxes. My local aldi is clean, I know where everything is and the customer service is much much better than Ive ever found at Tesco. Oh and its much cheaper. A tin of aldi tuna at 49p looks decent, the stuff they are selling in Tesco for 49p is mush. I actually think aldi products are superior quality to a lot of what you get in Tesco and always have been as far back as I can remember.

Aldi also do sell a certain amount of branded products too.

I actually find my local tesco store fits the description of jumble sale more at times. You never know where anything is, aisles are always being moved and if you ask someone, they never know where anything is either.

totally agree, I was a snob before, never went in them as I was thinking they would be real nasty inside, now Aldi has opened 5 mins away, I thought I would go in the first day to see for myself and was surprised how good it looked and the prices, the staff are really helpful too.

No cardboard boxes, Tesco on the other hand looks cheap and nasty compared to Aldi and as you say their cheaper lines are poor quality compared to Aldi.

In my local Sainsburys the white label chips are £1, and for that you get the "white label" so everyone sees your being cheap, and 1-2cm chips as they are the off cuts of "proper" chips, whereas in Aldi you get a normal looking bag of chips for the same £1 and the chips are massive, not left overs, and I not just saying it but the are the best tasting frozen chips I've had

Pont

I've noticed my local Aldi's carpark is chocco with Beamers and Chelsea Tractors these days - sign of the times?

However, I find the checkout at Aldi terrifying! They're so fast I can never keep up!

sniggings

Pont wrote: »

I've noticed my local Aldi's carpark is chocco with Beamers and Chelsea Tractors these days - sign of the times?

However, I find the checkout at Aldi terrifying! They're so fast I can never keep up!

:rotfl: yeah that is my only complaint about Aldi, they have those daft checkouts where there is nowhere to pack your stuff, I normally go 2-3 times a week as I don't do a big shop, but prefer to buy little and often, and I can't even pack my one bag as fast as they scan them, not sure why they scan so fast as they just have to wait whilst I catch up, then I have to walk over to the bench to put my bag down whilst I get my money out, then walk back to pay.

MysteryMe

My Aldi is lovely, well presented stock, brightly lit and very clean. Atmosphere is fine. The car park is not full of old bangers either.


I did go into another Aldi 20 miles away on Weds, it was not in a rough area or anything like that and it was a complete tip. I was shocked how bad the store looked with stock all over the place spilling onto the aisles and looking really down market. If that was my local store I would be bemused by people praising Aldi as well!

Doc_N

EllieWellie wrote: »

You don't have to change supermarkets to make savings - you can stay with the same one and make savings by changing shopping habits and eliminating waste. I've done my main grocery shopping at Tesco for years and my average spend has barely changed. Their online delivery service has been excellent for us, and I see no reason for us to change. Not everything in Aldi/Lidl is 20-30% cheaper than the big stores.

On average, the saving genuinely is around 25-30% - and that really does apply on most comparable items.

I do agree that if you want online shopping, Aldi and Lidl are not for you, but you do pay a big premium for that - and I don't mean the delivery charge.

You can trade down to the Tesco 'value' lines to save money, but they're priced at much the same level as Aldi standard lines and are of much lower quality.

paulineb_2

A._Badger wrote: »

I realise we are almost at the point where daring to criticise Aldi or Lidl has become a burning offence in this country, but while the good people of this forum gather wood and search for the matches , I'll continue to say how depressing and dull I find their stores and how poor their selections of products.

Mercifully, the choice isn't Aldi/Lidl or Tesco. There are others.

Thats entirely up to you, I was just commenting that my local aldi didnt look like your description.

And Im not a fan of lidl and dont shop there.

OverRated

We have everything except Waitrose within 10 to 15min of us.

We used to do big weekly shops (£120+) at Asda then moved to Tesco and now use Riverford, Lidl and a ~£30 month shop at Tesco.

Toilet roll from Home Bargains.

Wife isn't a fan of Aldi but I tend to prefer it over Lidl.

Tesco do a small number of items we like - cartons of Organic Chopped Tomatoes for example that we rather over what the others offer.

Actually we use Amazon for some items thinking about it.

Tesco does a Shop & Scan now so it does make shopping a millions times easier plus much simpler to keep an eye on spending before checking out.

For what it's worth I'm not parked up at Lidl because we are feeling the pinch but because we actually rather it for some items. I will agree it is a little dull shopping there with their pile high approach but I have noticed a change in the last year. They do tend to have a random mix of items in the centre of the store - never even bother looking at them to be honest.

I do think Tesco will have a difficult Winter. Not bleak - to be fair given their previous 'high life' they were only going to stumble at some point. They are getting things wrong however but I will agree with one post - it does seem almost fashionable to include Lidl and Aldi in your weekly rounds.