To think that food in Aldi looks suspicious

[ILikeMilk]

Yesterday I decided to visit Aldi after reading about it on mumsnet. Did not buy a thing. Everything looked a bit weird. Is it just me or this shop is not nice at all?

I LOVE ALDIS, & so glad I have one near enough to visit regularly

Nothing suspicious about it might be brands you don't recognize, but I generally find the quality of the stuff I do buy, to be BETTER quality for less money, they have some fantastic fruit & veg deals, & it last better too & juice drinks ( we go through a LOT of cranberry) have a much higher % of actual fruit compared to the other big names...again at a much cheaper price

& DD is allergic to additives, so we are used to reading labels & they are no worse than other Chains, better in fact with the things we buy

Got to admit I too was "sniffy" when it first opened, but its definitely won me over ...eating a lovely Aldis crumpet with Aldis best butter as I type:)

MmeLindt When the first Aldi opened in our town they cashiers had to memorize the prices. DP went for a job there as the pay was really good but you had to memorize about 1,000 prices. I remember beans and spagheti were 7p and White Knight(cheap baileys) was £2.99
The Aldi near us now has proper scanners but nowhere to pack your bags so you throw it back in the trolley.
The range of foods in it are great. Dp lobves the meats and I love the brioche

Looks strange but tastes better than many of the other supermarkets

I usually shop in Tesco bu we have an Aldi nearby-ish. We've been once but I wandered round in a bit of a daze and didn't buy much. If I give it another go, what do I need to try?

Other than those Choco Leibniz (sp?) biscuits of course

Blatherskite EVERYTHING!! ha ha! I don't buy much frozen stuff, but I don't anyway so I don't tend to look at that section much. The fruit and veg is great, try the cereals and pasta, olive oil is delicious. Also all the chilled deli stuff is really nice.
Tell a lie the only frozen thing I buy is the Tarte fin roasted vegetable pizza, it's square, specially selected range. It's the best frozen pizza you can buy in my opinion

we like their frozen fish & sea food

their fruit juice is good too

4 pint milk for 99p

love the brioche & chinios too :)

agree on the olive oil & huge bottles for peanuts

basmati & white rice good quality, so is their pasta
(yes not wholemeal, but wholemeal isn't good to eat with everything s it can block the absorbtion of certain minerals

passata is good & dirt cheap @ 33p

their seeded white sliced white loaf is tasty, (looks brown as seeds cooked in it)

butter is nicer than other places

good cheese continental selection & loved what we've tried

a good hand of lovely sweet baby bananas @ 99p & a bag of fun sized apples @ 89p DD loves both

we swear by their fresh coffee too, lots of choice, we like the americano :)

their hellmans rip of mayonaise is lovely too :)

Oh, & I bake a lot, & swear by their basic Flours, even good for bread & pizza :)

& our Cats LOVE their cat treats, (the long stick ones)

Is it really that much cheaper? I daren't go in very often as I'm vulnerable to the 'middle aisle'. Come out with some widget that seems brillant and innovative at the time. Some good cycling and running stuff though. Or am I thinking of Lidl. Mix the two up.

for some things such as Pasta, Bread, Milk, Olive Oil, Flour etc it is, yes it IS...but for others such as butter its a similar price, but nicer quality

I was vulnerable to that Isle too....utill I was swayed by a very inovative looking "gutter guard"....only to get home to have DH laugh his head off at me....as we don't have gutters ...that cured me

I love Aldi and Lidl because of the cheapness, quality and precisely because, in some ways, it reminds me of being on holiday abroad!

Baked beans - half the price of leading brands and just as good
Ham - the only place you can buy British ham at a reasonable price
Tomatoes - half the price of Tesco
Bread - their wholemeal bread stays fresher than almost any other bread I've tried, and it's cheap
Ditto to lots of things

They only have a couple of staff who they utilitise effectively, they sell things out of the boxes. You are saving on overheads basically.

I was very sceptical of Aldi but my parents converted me. Once I realised that their meat products still carry the Little Red Tractor and are just as good, if not better, than Tesco, then I was happy to go there.

ROFL if money wasn't an issue, the heathen that I am, I would buy double the amount of things from Asda, Aldi and Iceland.

Don't care for M&S and cannot stand the superiority about Waitrose!

Anywho, the new Aldi choc chip brioche is bloody lovely!

Free range chickens for a fiver, great wine! Had their salmon wellington on Sunday - it was fab. I love Aldi. You can stick Tesco where the sun don't shine

The bread is horrid imo, like thin air.

It depends what you're comparing it with. I'm comparing it with £1.20 Hovis/Kingsmill crap, or Tesco's own brand that's stale when you buy it.

Waitrose here is RUBBISH had too many "iffy" experiences with their fruit & veg & too far away to take it back easily, & sadly M&S not an awful lot better

did used to love my local London 1s when I lived there though

DH loves their seeded bread, he prefers it to the Burgen stuff we used to buy....& its half the price..., DD & I aren't really big sliced bread eaters, so can't really comment

Sorry,nipped out for a while. We used to use a photo album to memorize all the prices. Twice a week you had to sit down with the manager and you went through the whole book rattling off the prices.Any more than 2 mistakes ,out of well over 700 items I believe, and you would get a written warning. Three written warnings and you're out!! As in you have just lost your job. Good pay and fair work conditions otherwise you where just expected to work hard and as efficient as possible. I used to come back from my annual holiday and use the last day to freshen up my memory. Thought nothing of it and loved my time there. It set me up with a very good work-attitude for the rest of my life. As for the speedy cashiers,we used to try and ring in the items before they hit the conveyer belts so in the time it took for the customer to take it out of the trolley and put it down.....

Ooh yes passata is great and their pressed apple juice is excellent.

If money were no object I would still shop at ALdi once a month (can't do without that choclate or parmesan), but would buy a little more at M&S and a little less at Sainsburys.

Last time I went in I was pleasantly surprised at the prices so filled my trolley. Ended up chucking most of it away as it tasted awful. Probably OK for fruit and veg and a few tried and tested items.

YANBU

We love Aldi too. Luckily we have one close by that we visit regularly. I think their products are great on the whole. It saves us alot of money by shopping at Aldi too.

I do my main shop in Aldi every week and then get the other few bits and pieces I can't there from Sainsburys. Works out a LOT cheaper and better for us.

DD LOVES the brioche, the plain rolls not the choc chip loaf. The cheesey baps are good too.
Cartons of passatta, olive oil, olives, deli meats, fruit and veg, crisps, biscuits and their frozen fish is all great. Their pasta and rice etc ok too.

"Their pasta and rice etc ok too" - well to be fair you can;t really go wrong with pasta and rice can you!

Though if like the OP you rely on convenience foods, I'm not sure its the place for your main shop.

we have a lidl but the last wine i bought there made my arse bleed and the beef tasted of nothing at all

Kewcumber, I am not only after convenience foods, I just like the option of fresh pre-prepared dishes that I can pop in the oven on my uni nights (DH and DS wont eat left overs). I also like exotic fruit, I cook alot with lentils, rice, stews, etc. Lots of fresh salads too. And yes, you CAN go wrong with pasta.