Good and Bad Buys from Aldi & Lidl *Do NOT Expire Please*

Happygreen

Big changes here at our local Lidl - they built an island in the car park for the trolleys (loss of about 10 parking spaces ) and are building an extension where the trolleys used to be. Apparently the bakery will go outside, so more room indoors.
After a year of Aldi opening I still prefer Lidl, not just out of habit. It's tidier and brighter, has wider isles and I do like the separated coolers for the meat products. And comparatively Aldi is not as cheap for the other items I regularly buy, although I do go in for specials and fruit and veg. The biscuit issue doesn't bother me, if we had any in the house we'd probably eaten them and didn't get ill. That can happen to any store with their suppliers...

[Deleted User]

Happygreen wrote: »

Big changes here at our local Lidl - they built an island in the car park for the trolleys (loss of about 10 parking spaces ) and are building an extension where the trolleys used to be. Apparently the bakery will go outside, so more room indoors.
After a year of Aldi opening I still prefer Lidl, not just out of habit. It's tidier and brighter, has wider isles and I do like the separated coolers for the meat products. And comparatively Aldi is not as cheap for the other items I regularly buy, although I do go in for specials and fruit and veg. The biscuit issue doesn't bother me, if we had any in the house we'd probably eaten them and didn't get ill. That can happen to any store with their suppliers...

Don`t you come on here being all logical

PLRFD

Just heard on the radio the recall is because of pest contamination.

A._Badger

I can't see this making the slightest difference to Aldi unless it becomes a regular occurrence, as it has with 'certain other stores'.

Possibly more likely to harm Aldi is being unable to cope with its own success. I was in a branch yesterday and it was clearly straining. The shop was packed, queues were quite long, plants outside were dying from a prolonged lack of water, quite a few mainstream items (dishwasher tablets, to name just one) were out of stock.

It doesn't take too much of that before the alternatives start to look appealing again.

Sandypan

I have been an Aldi fan and shopper for over 20 years, OH likes Lidl. Must admit that over the last 6 months I have been changing allegiance. My local Aldi store is now too busy, you often can't get on the car park and in store the aisles are too narrow and now too busy. There is a Lidl store right opposite and I started going in there out of frustration with Aldi and now like it much more. There is a better range of fruit and vegetables which appear to stay fresher for longer and good quality deli items. I think Aldi need to rethink before more people start looking elsewhere.

Cornucopia

It would be interesting to know how prices compare when people swap between A & L.

FWIW, I get the impression that although L's fruit and veg has a wider selection that looks nicer, it is priced much more along the same lines as the major supermarkets, whereas Aldi is generally cheaper, not least because of the "Super 6".

his_missus

I used to find that the veg at Aldi didn't have much of a shelf life and would turn bad after a few days but it seems to last at least a week now.
I still haven't tried Lidl, mum in law prefers it over Aldi though.

A._Badger

I know some regulars here swear that Aldi's fruit and veg are good but I have never found them very satisfactory at all, with the occasional exception. The main problem seems to be lack of freshness and the generally poor quality of certain items like onions and potatoes. In fact I make a point of going elsewhere for F and V.

That said, in every other respect, Aldi produce is still extremely good, I find.

VfM4meplse

buglawton wrote: »

My OH is the fruit bat but after trying all types of Aldi citrus fruit, thinks it rubbish flavourwise and we are returning to the local Waitrose fold for fresh fruit. Since Waitrose is local to us it's also easier to return outrightly bad fruit.

There is a big difference in priice. I prefer to shop from my local fruit stall and top up from Aldi / Lidl, usually its fine.

Doc_N

Cornucopia wrote: »

It would be interesting to know how prices compare when people swap between A & L.

FWIW, I get the impression that although L's fruit and veg has a wider selection that looks nicer, it is priced much more along the same lines as the major supermarkets, whereas Aldi is generally cheaper, not least because of the "Super 6".

Aldi or Lidl? Really don't care much at all, and by and large the prices tend to be much the same because they're very much in direct competition with each other. What it won't be, though, is Tesco or any of the others, apart from the odd one-off.

By choice we go to Aldi most of the time, but if a larger, newer, Lidl opened nearby (which it will be next year) we'd probably switch.

Not remotely bothered about the 'contaminated' biscuits, but the Aldi/Lidl haters love to latch onto something like this.