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

Rosa_Damascena

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81960339#Comment_81960339

I know some people love them but to me they are just bland - or were until a couple of years ago, when I picked them growing along the east coast of Canada (Maybe the price - free - enhanced the taste?).

Doc_N

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81960537#Comment_81960537

With you on that. They seem tasteless these days. Grown for quantity instead of flavour, like most things. Understandable from a grower’s viewpoint I suppose, but not from the consumer’s.

Brie

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81960537#Comment_81960537

I quite get what you mean. When I was young and went to a summer camp in Algonquin Park (Ontario) we'd pick the wild blueberries - low shrubs on rocky outcrops. If we picked a small amount the camp cook would make blueberry muffins and if we picked a lot we'd get a pie. Yes the big fat berries sold here aren't a patch on the ones we picked - although I do enjoy them on my porridge. I'm hoping that these local ones will be more like the proper ones.

Rosa_Damascena

1kg bags of Laila chickpeas were knocked down £1.75 £1.29 in Aldi today, unsurprisingly nothing left in the cage.

PLRFD

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81961700#Comment_81961700

Indus brand chickpeas are this price all the time in Farm Foods also red kidney beans chana dal and red lentils.

Rosa_Damascena

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81961946#Comment_81961946

Handy to know - esp as the 2 stores sit cheek by jowl in Southend!

maman

Sadly our Farmfoods closed down (redevelopment of site) a couple of months ago and they say they can't find another suitable premises in the city. 🤔

Rosa_Damascena

I have been trying to buy less food this month and use what I have but was thinking earlier this evening its been a little while since Lidl gave away free goodies with every shop.Then this dropped into my inbox:

Not free, but even 50% off is not to be sniffed at!

Doc_N

Might be of interest to some here:

https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2026/04/aldi-lines-up-major-new-globally-unified-store-format-with-uk-and-ireland-in-scope/

Rosa_Damascena

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81963618#Comment_81963618

Sounds like common sense to me - although the larger of the 2 local stores had a bit of a rejig in the last 12 months with the introduction of the instore bakery. Something else I noticed this weekend was the bakery and biscuit aisles swapping places - other ends of the store. Possibly to encourage people to pop goodies into their baskets / trolleys as they came to the end of the store route?

There is currently an Italian food promotion going on in the seasonal aisles, panettone I note is not just for Christmas / Easter.