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

General_Grant

I rarely visit Aldi but one opened nearby in December and I went in today - basically spending time while I waited for transport.

I saw a "reduced" section where items had 30% off red stickers on them but no indication of what the original price would have been.  

In other sections I found there was no shelf-edge label to price the items.

Is this common in Aldi?  That one has to have a memory for what the original price may be and trust that unpriced items will be good value?

maman

I wouldn't say so as my Aldi usually has shelf edge labels.

However, as Aldi prices are extremely competitive with other supermarkets then 30 %off (or 50 or 75 %) is always a bargain for something you'll eat quickly or can freeze. 

General_Grant

maman said:

I wouldn't say so as my Aldi usually has shelf edge labels.

However, as Aldi prices are extremely competitive with other supermarkets then 30 %off (or 50 or 75 %) is always a bargain for something you'll eat quickly or can freeze. 

Thanks.

I like that Lidl might only offer 20% or 50% off but the orange stickers do show the original price and the reduced price.

The missing SELs or misplaced products may be because it is a new store (opened about a month ago) and perhaps a lot of the staff are new.

harz99

Rosa_Damascena said:

andygb said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

Just reporting back on the Lidl Deluxe pistachio panettone, which we only got round to eating this week. I am the big panettone fan in my family and found it to be nice enough but could stop at a single slice, which I find impossible with one that is stuffed with vine fruit and peel. Other family members that are verbal about how much they dislike panettone loved it! So its really a cake for no-panettone lovers. We've still got 2 more to get through - Waitrose Tiramisu (technically a torta) and Lidl Deluxe Tiramisu .

Self control goes out the window where good panettone and stollen are concerned, they are so delicious.

Its a tough journey, but I am getting there. The trick for me is not to open anything until I have people to share it with and divide the leftovers amongst.

On a less positive note - the Nature's Pick apples (Gala I think) I bought from Aldi recently look good but are completely tasteless. I am going to have to cook them down with cinnamon to get any flavour out of them!

I'm just finishing a pack of Aldi Nature's Pick Braeburn apples, produced in Kent by AC Goatham who are a massive fruit going concern and in my experience supply good quality at a sensible price. I always check for imported apples to steer well clear of, especially the various French and Polish grown ones which never seem very nice.

On that note, oranges preferably from Spain or the Western Cape, Morocco at a pinch, never Chile, Brazil or India.

Grapes from Spain, Western Cape or Brazil only.

KxMx

I don't tend to look at where grapes have come from. I go by variety. My absolute favourite is crimson, and I avoid flame entirely. 

Rosa_Damascena

KxMx said:

I don't tend to look at where grapes have come from. I go by variety. My absolute favourite is crimson, and I avoid flame entirely. 

The difference in cherry varieties is enormous as I found out last year - am sure I posted at the time. The big black ones (I forget the name now) are heavenly. The piccolo ones are probably the least desirable of the lot.

Brie

Rosa_Damascena said:

KxMx said:

I don't tend to look at where grapes have come from. I go by variety. My absolute favourite is crimson, and I avoid flame entirely. 

The difference in cherry varieties is enormous as I found out last year - am sure I posted at the time. The big black ones (I forget the name now) are heavenly. The piccolo ones are probably the least desirable of the lot.

Were they Bing?  We used to have a tree in our backyard when I was a kid.  Story was that my dad had planted a pip (seed?) and it just grew.  Eventually it was cut down as the neighbours were complaining about the mess from the cherries and the birds that were nesting there due to the good food supply.  At that point the tree overhung the second floor balcony.

Rosa_Damascena

Rosa_Damascena said:

Brie said:

Well here's a thing!!

Chaos in Lidl yesterday - a sign by the entrance saying cash only and one of the staff saying the same to people going in.  I needed a number of things but only had £9 on me so was aiming for the bare essentials - strawberries and chicken.  Got to the tills to discover they were taking cards but they had to be cards, not phones or watches or whatever else.  So went round the shop again and back to a queue of 30 people at the self service.  There was one staffed till also working but it was cash only as the SS were all card only.  Scanned all my stuff including my Lidl Plus freebie only to discover that Lidl Plus wasn't working.  Got removed as wasn't an essential, paid and exited.  

Got home and decided to grump a bit at Lidl - easy to do on their app as there is a contact form on there.  I was polite, said what the problem was, asked if they could add my points to the app for me, asked also if they could extend the vouchers I couldn't use and were about to expire.  And then added if they could do either of those things I would be happy if they gave me a gift voucher that I could use for the food bank.  Polite salutation and expected a response sometime next week.

Imagine my surprise to get an email back in an hour with this......

Thanks for getting in touch. I'm sorry, we can’t add this missed receipt onto your monthly tracker. Each week I have a £20.00 voucher to give away as a Random Act of Kindness.  You made my day today, so I‘m sending it to you to give to the food bank.

Isn't that lovely!!  It's good to complain (politely) sometimes!!!

Lidl CS is fast to respond, particularly if you make contact via W'App and are always pleasant I find.

I went into Lidl again this lunchtime to buy some more cherries whilst still on offer. I had a good hunt around as the ones I hoovered up this week were the Kordia variety and I wanted to get hold of more. There were 3 different species available today: Vulcano, Korvic and Piccolo. Well I wasn't interested in the anaemic looking latter, but bought some of the others so I could compare and contrast to the one remaining pack of Kordia in my fridge:

I fished out the post, its the Kordia variety.

LindsayT

I rarely get to Aldi unfortunately.

I see they have American week and wondered if anyone knows if they ever have an Eastern European week like Lidl?

Rosa_Damascena

I hadn't noticed Aldi doing promotions by country / food culture before. US week in Lidl is no great shakes, the seasonal shelves get stuffed with the most plastic "food" imaginable.

I tried this earlier - again UPF, but my resistance was lowered by a combination of a 50% off sticker and curiosity. It was oily and salty - and surprisingly good! Much better than eggs.