Good and Bad Buying at Lidl and Aldi (***Please don't expire***)

maman

As DocN said (sorry don't know how to quote without getting half the thread), labels and branding have a huge effect. You only have to watch those TV programmes where they put plain labels on all foodstuffs. Some people say they don't like, for example, their usual brand of coffee only to end up with egg on face. 😁

Rosa_Damascena

I tend to use Lidl day to day, purely because it's a good walk there and back and doable in an hour if working at home / when I get home in the evening. I actually much prefer Aldi, because the store is clean and well-organised (despite being situated next to a sewer works), but will only drop by if I am driving back from London in the evening. My impulse buys from Aldi tend to be frequent 

Doc_N

pumpkin89 said:

Doc_N said:

Conversely, I’d happily buy pretty much any Lidl product, with maybe a very small number of exceptions, knowing that they’re coming from the same suppliers that all supermarkets use, to almost identical specifications.

Surprising the psychological effect of a label and a brand.

I'm curious as to whether you've worked in the food industry?  Most supermarkets do use the same suppliers, but it's unusual for the specifications to be almost identical.  Waitrose and M&S almost always have higher specifications than other supermarkets, including Aldi and Lidl.

It's not psychology so much as differing priorities.  If I had to assess impartially, I'd say on the whole Lidl food might be 80% as good as Waitrose for 50% of the price.  I accept that makes it better value, but it's not equal quality, and to some people that's worth paying extra for.

Yes I have worked in the food industry,  and that's why I used the word 'almost' with identical.  It's all relative, but while the ingredients are rarely identical,  the real differences are usually small. Waitrose and M&S may have higher specifications,  though not always, but these are two special case charging more than the general market. 

There's an example of the psychology point on the Tesco website where two absolutely identical items get very different views. One is an Aldi price match low-end Tesco brand. The products are, as I say, absolutely identical apart from the branding.

eggandchips7

Aldi and Lidl's shredded wheat is identical tasting to the branded version. And quite a bit cheaper. 

MSE_Stephen

Hi everyone
We have removed several posts from this thread.
Please help us keep this thread open by sticking to the topic, "Good and Bad Buying at Lidl and Aldi"

Rosa_Damascena

I agree with the poster who recommended Bellarom (Lidl) Gold coffee. I actually prefer it to DE.

Stompa

What's happened to Aldi's yogurts? No plastic lids on any (and there must have been hundreds) of their 450g cartons today (across all types of yogurt). I know they often fall off, but this was ridiculous. Maybe there's a shortage?

203846930

Stompa said:

What's happened to Aldi's yogurts? No plastic lids on any (and there must have been hundreds) of their 450g cartons today (across all types of yogurt). I know they often fall off, but this was ridiculous. Maybe there's a shortage?

I noticed that in my local store as well and yet the ones in Lidl all have the lids.

203846930

'Easy peelers' from Lidl. I suppose at a push you could call them tangerines, are not particularly easy to peel nor are they very tasty, a bit bland is as much as I could say.

dlusman

Stompa said:

What's happened to Aldi's yogurts? No plastic lids on any (and there must have been hundreds) of their 450g cartons today (across all types of yogurt). I know they often fall off, but this was ridiculous. Maybe there's a shortage?

https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2020/02/aldi-to-save-68m-tonnes-of-single-use-plastic-with-plastic-lid-ban/