Tell me about lidl!!

LesD

Popped in today to change a faulty jar of peanut butter and ended up spending £15!

Anyway, some advice for the OP.

You must be as confused as any of us regarding the references to credit and debit cards in this thread! Unless, that is, you have found time to read all the other threads on Lidl, Aldi, etc! It seems that Scottish shops take credit cards, but few south of the border! If I'm wrong on this, I'm sure someone will correct me. But the point is, Lidl do different things across different parts of the country. This is especially true of their weekly specials. I suggest you go to their website and sign up for the weekly email to see what's hot in your local store.

There also seem to be 'fors' and 'againsts' on the fruit and veg front. My own view is that you need to be careful. They don't usually have large stocks and tend to leave the oddments around longer than the big boys. Having said that, I picked up 3 large lemons for 20p and a massive pomelo for £1.49 today. And before Christmas they had a vast display of 2-3 kg boxes of oranges and clementines at 'half price' And very good quality they were too.

Specifics we like (some mentioned above):

£4 dishwasher powder
99p 1.5l orange juice
£1.99 2x250g ground coffees (various varieties - haven't managed to try them all yet!)
£3.99 8x500ml Carlsberg
£9.50 70cl Kentucky Bourbon (although I understand this is made in Europe!)
Tinned mackerel in olive oil (can't remember the price)
Basmati rice
Bread-making flour
Crunchy breakfast cereal (99p)
Special mueslis (when on 99p special - usually £1.49)
American-style peanut butter
Spicy asian sauce
Craytails in brine
Frutti del Mare pizza
Various cold meats
£1.99 rechargeable batteries (special that comes round frequently)
£1.99 replacement car wiper blades (another recurring special - but not so frequent!)
Plug-in air fresheners (99p refills)

One thing we don't like is their Horseradish Sauce - very runny!
The Tartare Sauce is only so-so too.

red_devil

i have used aldi for the occassional thing but mostly you get what you pay for i bought biscuits and crisps that had no taste/bland and washing up liquid that you had to use loads of it and it was awful, cant beat fairy it lasts ages and soap that was awful and made a mess everywhere. Crap stuff also leaves an aftertaste in your mouth. Things that were ok were sauces, yoghurts, and of course milk and eggs that type of thing where you cant go wrong and salad stuff.

Inactive

Ophie wrote: »

The bag thing is a pain if you happen to be driving past and think... ooohh... I fancy some pear juice and a circular saw...

Just leave a couple of shopping bags in your car boot.

You do remember shopping bags?;)

I use the cheap and cheerful ones that fold flat.

SharkyGeorge

Lidl chocolate chip ice cream is to die for. And their chocolate is pretty good too (I have a sweet tooth in case ya couldn't tell)

Kathryn17

Hi,
My other half used to work at Lidl and he said not to buy fruit and veg on a Sunday because they don't have a delivery that day. We shop there regularly and I do find the fruit and veg to be of a better quality during the week.
I recommend their probiotic drinks as they are good value.

towiggum

My other half cannot resist the bargains in the specials aisle, always finds something, be warned! We buy the canned tomatoes and sweetcorn, cheese (I like the emmenthal), chocolate (25p bars are v.good), salami, premium diet cola (the basic version is pretty awful) and mince. No one's mentioned the frozen chicken curries--we stocked up when they were on for 99p, especially the Jalfrezzi. OH is not a fan of the bread or fruit and veg, she doesn't think it lasts very long, but I'm not as convinced and can be v.good price.

towiggum

Oh, and just had one of their salami pizzas (not the frozen kind). Wasn't great.

Kathryn17

I have bought their blueberries a number of times and find them to be of very good quality and the price is much cheaper than other supermarkets. I tend to eat blueberries quite quickly anyway so find no point in spending a fortune on them when I can get them cheaper!

Their mini cheese and tomato pizzas are fine, though I haven't tried any others.

They are now doing more brand names, though as someone has already mentioned it varies between stores, but it seems they are always adding new lines.

hex2

Re the shopping bag/boxes problem. I have a blue ikea bag (25p or so?) that lives in the car boot, plus a lidl freezer bag. This is usually enough for a full trolley load. I unpack and put the bag back in the car, works well for us.

Horace

Their dentalux herbal toothpaste is one of the best at 79p - my teeth have improved no end since I started using it so says my dentist.