How good is Lidl.

[Noidea2114]

We need to tighten our belts so I'm thinking of trying Lidl.
Is there anything that you could recommend.
We normally use Asda or Morrisons.

See plenty of people who love the place say the fruit and veg arent so great....

Nothing to do with snobbery at all.

I think it depends on your store, our Lidl is great the fresh food last well, I don’t like their chicken but their beef and pork is good.

Another one I’ve visited was awful fruit and veg rotting as being put out etc

Again aldi is hit and miss too the local one is rubbish but one 30 miles away (one my commute) is amazing

I actually think the fruit and veg is better in some ways. If you buy a melon or peaches for example, they're much closer to the nice ripe ones you buy on holiday in the Med, rather than hard things that never get properly ripe, but naturally, that does mean they don't keep so long.

In our house we love

Snack sized apples
Snack carrots
Fruit loaf
Brioche rolls
Milk filled croissants
Garlic and herb spatchcock chicken (today's dinner actually)
Bockwurst
Kabanossi
Strawberry crisp chocolate
Giant chocolate buttons

From bakery: custard and muscovado plait

If I think of any more I'll add. I'd say we buy 90% of our shopping there per week. We're in Ireland.

I love the Lidl near me, it’s like going shopping on holiday in France. Our Aldi is dreadful.

If you want stuff to last I prefer costco. Their fruit and veg are like the kind you can get directly from farms - they will last for over a month provided you only wash as you need it and store it properly. The only exception seems to be bananas. Waitrose is good for essentials and all types of loose fruit and veg.I find Lidl and Aldi stuff goes off within days and there is no hygiene kept in their bakery - kids are often allowed to touch / lick and put back.

I do agree it must be different from store to store as our fruit and veg always lasts for ages. The loose vine tomatoes actually taste like tomatoes and their avocados & mangos are ripe and flavourful. The potted herbs actually live on when you repot them as opposed to Sainsbury's ones.... 🤨

Our meat is great and usually British and we buy the free range whole chickens which are excellent and full of flavour.

Dairy is excellent, has my favourite muesli (blue packet) and the low GI brown boule is delicious.

I disagree that it is basic food - I'm a food snob and want good quality, tasty food!!

We have a good sized Sainsbury's nearby so that's where we used to do our day to day shopping and used to go to Lidl maybe once every two weeks to stock up on basics.
When lockdown started and we decided to only do big shops as seldom as possible I immediately decided I would rather go to Lidl than Sainsburys.

Items that in my opinion are far better at Lidl than branded items somewhere else
Greek yoghurt
Cream cheese
Gorgonzola
Elfie potatoes (unbelievable tasty)
Milk chocolate (in a blue package, 100g for around 40p)
Wines - I don't drink, but buy different ones most times for my husband, based on Lidl's grading system
german rye bread with sunflower seeds
Premium sausages
Pepper sauce (in little sachets)

I find their fruit and veg fine. As previous poster mentioned, you have to check the packages - I have found some very bruised apples a couple of times

Also obviously Christmas items - before I discovered Lidl I could only get certain Christmas food items at Waitrose for much higher prices (and less choice)

I do all my shopping at Lidl’s , Aldi and home bargains luckily for me they are all near my house. I went in to Asda last week as I need a new microwave only went upstairs and looked at home wear and cloths, didn’t bother going downstairs to the food part of the shop as I just don’t like it any more.

I shop at Lidl regularly. They are very good for :

Bakery
German sausages, cured meats etc.
Cleaning products
Dried fruit & nuts
Yogurt, their Greek style is the cheapest &best
Chocolate, they sell Ritter Sport!
Wine
Themed food weeks, eg Italian, Greek, Alpine.

Not so good:
Beer - v limited range
Fruit & veg -cheap but quality & range often not the best
Ready meals - ditto
Choice - I can’t get everything I want al Lidl.

I much prefer Lidl to Aldi if I had a choice between the two (I know you didn't exactly ask for a comparison but I can't help but compare them). But it probably depends what sort of food you like. I love their fresh bakery and they sell a lot of continental foods and brands - for example I prefer branded ketchup and mayo which I can't get at Aldi. I find Lidl change it up a lot and have different things each week which I prefer as I get bored when it's repetitive but there's not so much choice that it's overwhelming. For me Lidl is a lot better laid out and less cramped too. I really rate Lidl and I'd go as far to say it's my favourite supermarket. I can get everything I need from there.

If you're still wondering...

We shop in all of them. Different shops for different things.

I wouldn't buy meat form Aldi or Lidl, we really don't like it. However, the deli selections, some of the fruit and veg (always closest to each now status), some of the tinned basics, tomatoes, beans etc are brilliant. Decent chocolate too.

Cleaning products of all sorts and that Random Aisle of Crap can sometimes throw up something decent.

Christmas always starts with crisps, nuts, panettone, etc, the variations are great.

But we've never been able to do a whole shop in either. They don't hold some of the things we think of as essential.

My best advice would be to go on looking for specific items to test. See which you so and don't like.

Aldi is so much better

@Prayingforchange

Aldi is so much better

I don’t think Aldi is better, but I do think they have a different emphasis to Lidl. Aldi have wrapped themselves in the Union Flag and have effectively become a cheaper version of a normal British supermarket.

Lidl have deliberately stayed quirkier, more individual and more German / continental in their look, feel and range of products.

I love the fresh fruit and veg (not bruised and lasts longer than aldi), the bakery is brilliant, the ready made salads and pasta pots are great, love the fresh meat and range of cheese. The cherry active (i think its called) tastes the exact same as activia in fact i think it just has a different label. Frozen food i love the chilli cheese bites, roast chicken and turkey, ice cream range. Their version of twix is better than actual twix. I didnt like their version of gusto pods or azera coffee.

The only way is to shop there with an open mind and try things for yourself. Lidl is my nearest shop, less than a mile away and I have been shopping there for years, when I first shopped there I would be one of a few cars in the car park, now I have to hunt for space! My Lidl is very busy and have a very fast turnover of fruit and veg - I buy the majority of my food there out of choice.

We get around 70% of our shopping from Lidl and the remaining 30% from Tesco. If I could find everything in Lidl I would definitely buy them there as it is much cheaper but same quality as Tesco. I managed to get a 1.5kg pack of plain flour for 45p today, in Tesco they charge £2 for the same thing!The bakery especially is brilliant, and we find that the meat is good as well.

I like Tesco and Sainsbury’s because of the scan as you shop and the easiness of it. Lots of choice too, but that can also be a bad thing.
I also like the fact they do things like reduced salt baked beans and other reduced salt foods.
I’ve tried Lidl’s twice this month, first time spent £65 and then the second time £100. However the £100 shop included two bottles of wine and a £9 joint of lamb.
So is Lidl really a third cheaper on average than Tesco or Sainsbury’s?
Admittedly there are things in the main supermarkets that I can’t get in Lidl’s and I hate the checkouts at Lidl’s but I guess that’s their design model to be a cheaper alternative.

If you buy Asda and Morrisons own brand the price won't be that much different. You will just have less choice.

I love Lidl - I do most of my shopping there and just pop elsewhere for the few bits they don't do. I like the limited choice and the fact that the till areas are not surrounded by sweets and chocolate.

Things I especially love are
Greek yogurt - the big tubs
Olives/stuffed chillis
Salmon in pastry from the freezer aisle
Nuts and seeds
Cheeses

It's shit beyond shit. Their fresh stuff goes off the day after you buy it. The whole town where I live knows this it's quite funny/sad really. The small sainsburys is always sold out of fresh food!

We've got one within a 5 min drive & use it all the time. Flowers tend to last well, bakery section is lovely, fullers earth cat litter is good value & my 6 mth old kitten gets through a bag of their own brand junior car food a week.
Just started going back to the gym & bought some gym leggings & a top for a tenner

We laughed at their new advert about fresh fruit and veg.... Yes its "specially selected because they have an eye for picking out the ripest food just before it turns so it looks good on the shelf, costs them peanuts and rots the day after at home."