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

KxMx

I tried the Deluxe handcooked 150g bags of crisps recently.
Having bought Cheddar & Onion my initial thoughts were that they'd put salted in the bag by mistake, however though the flavour is subtle and takes time to register, it's really nice and texture wise they are brilliant. 

Hash browns are a generous size and okay taste wise, prefer Iceland but would buy again. 

The potato waffles are smaller and less thick than other supermarket ones, but I actually prefer them. Easier to cook to a nice crispy finish.

I was very tempted by the beef empanadas!

Rosa_Damascena

GillyLucy said:

For anyone who  is a fan of Batts salad cream which has not been in stock in my area for ages, it was back in stock in Lidls Southend Greyhound retail park this morning .

Did they have the ketchup?

GillyLucy

Sorry Rosa-Damascena I did not notice if any ketchup (I've still got 4 Daddies from Iceland when 70% free for £1 in the new year!!)

S_uk

A number of weeks ago I switched my shopping from Lidl to Aldi after the former was still having some issues with stocking certain items in my local store. Looks like I haven't been the only one (snippet from recent article in the Grocer):

Aldi is taking sales not just from the big four but also Lidl as inflation piles pressure on retailers and shoppers.

Some £8.1m of spend switched from Lidl to Aldi in the 12 weeks to 4 September, latest Kantar data reveals. It’s the highest level of switching from Lidl to Aldi since 2018.

It’s thought Lidl may have suffered from poor availability levels, with its Twitter team fending off regular complaints from shoppers in recent months about empty shelves in numerous stores across the country.

Earlier this month, Lidl twice tweeted it was “experiencing some issues in our distribution centres” in reply to separate complaints about two stores – in Banbury and Hamworthy – having “empty shelves” with “so many items out of stock”.

The Banbury shopper said the issue had been “going on for ages”, adding: “I asked the manager, who said they keep getting let down by deliveries.”

Following enquiries from The Grocer, Lidl deleted its reply to the Banbury shopper, saying it had been “incorrect” and blaming “localised issues” instead of issues in DCs.

PLRFD

I was in local Lidl yesterday lots of empty shelves not seen it for a while but noticeable yesterday.

penguin37

The lidl we use is struggling stock wise too, but the staff are so lovely I'll keep faithful to them. Plus Aldi is tricky to navigate with a wheelchair. 

Brie

S_uk said:

A number of weeks ago I switched my shopping from Lidl to Aldi after the former was still having some issues with stocking certain items in my local store. Looks like I haven't been the only one (snippet from recent article in the Grocer):

Earlier this month, Lidl twice tweeted it was “experiencing some issues in our distribution centres” in reply to separate complaints about two stores – in Banbury and Hamworthy – having “empty shelves” with “so many items out of stock”.

I don't know about Banbury but Hamworthy is a, shall we say, "challenging" neighbourhood.  I've noticed this with other Lidl's in that the better neighbourhood stores appear to get priority for stock.  Likewise the bigger stores also seem to get priority.  Then again the same works in our area for Tesco.  Our local one is a small store (but not an express) and has been out of stock on a number of items whereas the huge Metros have full shelves.  Possibly this is due, in part, to having less storage space so shelf restocking isn't as easy.

S_uk

I would sometimes change between shopping at the two Lidl stores in my area, one in a nicer area and one a less nice one and to be honest I found the same issues with stock in both.

I thought it was interesting in the article how a spokesperson said the problem in a particular store wasn't at all about problems at their distribution centres, even though they had previously stated it was. On various facebook groups I'm on there have been comments made recently by people saying they work for Lidl, who said that staff recruitment at regional distribution centres has very much been an issue that has caused problems getting stock out to stores.

maman

That's interesting @S_uk, I've tried to get rye bread for the last 2 weeks in different Lidl stores with no success. ☹️

fatbelly

I'm having difficulty finding Lidl porridge oats, olive oil spread and ready salted crisps