to think Aldi and LIDL

[winkywinkola]

are not discount supermarkets as described on the radio all the time. Nor are they selling products of lower quality. I find it irritating that this image is constantly projected in the media.

I feel they are reasonably priced supermarkets instead of the hugely expensive top three. I mean, Tesco was bitching because it only made £3bn profit last year.

The products in Aldi and LIDL are just as good/flawed as in the other supermarkets.

I think it's important to get rid of the perception of 'discount' supermarkets so that better competition emerges and the consumer can have lower prices all round.

Lack of customer service? Every time I go into ALDI and want to check out with my shopping- I can do so in 2 minutes. Meanwhile in Tesco, the managers are flouncing about thinking they are too important to open another checkout and instead waste more of my time finding someone else to do it.

I now get the majority of my shop at Aldi or lidl.

I find I do spend about half of what I do at asda or tesco.

The only thing I don't get is washing powder or loo roll but tend to get them in pound stretcher or home bargains.

Occasionally pop into asda for a create your own pizza or hair colour but that's about it.

I can get much more fresh meat and veg for my money in Aldi than I can in asda or tesco

I can do a weeks shopping in Aldi in about 20 mins which suits me fine! I love that the only choice you ever have is cheap or cheaper

I cut about £150 a month off overall shopping/groceries/toiletries etc when I switched 2 years ago, on a small family (me and 2 dc's with regular visitors for meals) Still do a top up in Morrisons every few weeks for things I can't get in Aldi, still works out miles cheaper even with newer more expensive Aldi prices now.

Lastly, products last much longer at home I've found and also seem to be fewer food miles on the whole than same products at Morrisons/Tesco/Asda .

I've had 2 new Alsi open up near to me and they seem to knock them up on small sites in a quick time so am hoping their massive expansion doesn't affect prices too much.

The aldi sausages seem to be supplied by the same supplier as the waitrose ones but they are a pound or so cheaper

It depends what you think is good customer service. For me it's efficiency and Aldi wins every time :)

30 pounds per week

I think it depends what you buy from the supermarkets to be honest. I personally feel that Aldi is overrated. I like a few items from there, but all of the products that the media rave on about, or the ones in the offers leaflet tend to be of limited stock and therefore sell-out long before I get there.

I hate, hate, hate Tesco with a passion and never go in there. They are the most greediest, unethical supermarket in the country, with stores everywhere you go.

I tend to shop between Asda, Sainsbury's and M&S, but I also love a bargain so buy a lot of toiletries and household items from Home Bargains, there is a BIG price difference for major brands in there compared to the supermarkets.

I quite like Lidl, they carry a lot of major brands. Unfortunately, the nearest one to me is a fair few miles from me and in a really, really rough area. You get a lot of alcoholics and drug addicts in there. One guy was stopped by a security guard for shoplifting, and he
threatened the guard with a syringe.

However, in answer to your question, Aldi and Lidl are discounters, purely because their stores are very basic with regards to decoration, layout and ranging, and they don't sell ten of everything like the major chains do. I
don't find the term "discounter " a problem. Some people are snobs, I am not one of them.

Sorry about waffling on OP, but I always feel I have to explain everything in detail. Must try harder not to ramble.

YANBU

Aldi and Lidl are German Supermarkets not Budget Supermarkets. They are considered completely normal mid market shops in Germany.

I prefer Morrisons though.

We too have a cashback / points credit card.
It pays 1% cashback on most purchases
2% on purchases from the issuing organisation.

Savings by shopping at Lidl instead of Morrisons (our only other supermarket) are far more than 1% so we shop at Lidl using a debit card, stick everything else on the credit card, pay it off in full monthly, and use the cashback to get the DCs' Christmas presents each year.

I reckon that the credit card cashback scheme would have to be paying at least 10% for it to work out cheaper overall than shopping with a debit card in Lidl. On many items the price difference is closer to 30%. On a few regular purchases (e.g. comparing their Formil 2 in 1 to a supermarket washing liquid) the savings are even greater.

However we are a vegetarian family, cook from scratch, and don't purchase any alcohol so I am not sure how much those factors would skew someone else's shopping costs.

We have Aldi and Lidl. I've tried them both and really wanted to like them, especially Aldi as it's closest, but I just don't like them.

We're not massively fussy eaters, but we just don't like a lot of their food. I also have a coeliac DD and I can't get GF products (flour, etc) in ours

Aldi is OK for top up shops and we buy a lot of their fruit and veg, but I find I can't get half of what I need, and end up going to Sainsbury's anyway.

The customer service in our Aldi is dreadful, you can be queuing for half an hour to go through the till as they've only got one open and all the other staff are studiously ignoring the only cashier's increasingly desperate calls for help

Speedofsound, do you live by me :o there are always fights in either mild or aldi nr where I live too!

Lidl not mild!

I agree with you OP, we prefer Lidl (Aldi at a push) because my husband is European (not British) so it has more of the types of things we eat (olives, feta cheese, mozzarella) cheaper- and the quality is not lower than the large supermarkets. I also like the lack of choice as I am terminally indecisive and find visiting a large Tescos extremely stressful. I also don't care about brands except perhaps baked beans (which I get branded 3 for a pound at the 99p store).

My DH works at waitrose and we still shop a lot at Lidl as it works out cheaper than using his staff discount at work. I went in today and got three massive bags of shopping. Popped into waitrose to get the last couple of things (one bag) and nearly spent as much as in Lidl. I love cooking, I am very picky about quality - Lidl has some fantastic products and their fruit/veg is excellent. I can take or leave Aldi.

Miaow I agree, I just don't look!

Lidl's bed linen is great though for children, all 100% cotton which is hard to get in the UK which thinks polycotton is just fine.

Stealth transfer from Tesco to Aldi for me. Each week I go to Aldi before Tesco and each week I'm spending a little bit less in Tesco and a little bit more in Aldi. Fruit and veg much better in Aldi, jams, chutney, nuts, ordinary cheese too. Bread is the same but cheaper. I tend to rely on Tesco for vegetarian and gluten free stuff, branded cereal and soy products only now.

Lidl do take credit cards, I used mine in there today.
I'm a total Lidl convert, the food is great, it takes me half the time to do a weekly shop and it's much cheaper. My regular £120 a week Tesco shop is between £75-80 a week and we are eating way better. My caveat though is that hour local Lidl has just been done up and is quite pleasant now, it used to be revolting so I stuck to the major supermarkets. The only things I have to go elsewhere for are, egg noodles, sweetened soya milk and lime cordial. I can live with that.

Yabu. I went to lidl last week but walked out empty handed as I couldn't find products with ethically sourced ingredients, like palm oil that hasn't been sourced by destroying rainforests. The prices may be cheaper, so they are a discount supermarket, but at what price?

To get served quickly go at 5pm on a Saturday. It's deserted!

I love Aldi. Save 30-40 pounds a week by shopping there. Not to be sniffed at!

I loathe Tesco and I would never buy meat or fish from their stores. Their "Finest" range is mostly crap (bar perhaps their French Brittany butter with salt crystals).

I've seen fridges turned off during the night and I've personally seen staff putting a pack of chicken breasts that was left by the checkout back into the shelves. No idea how long it lingered there.

I usually shop at Sainsburys or Aldi, but Morrison's fish counter is exceptional for a British supermarket - fresh and loads of variety; I can usually buy fresh quid, octopus, monkfish and lemon sole there.

Their meat counter has also never let me down (the pork loin, lamb steaks and beef fillet are all excellent and the prices are very competitive).

quid=squid

Owllady ahem. I live in a posh area I'll have you know.

Lidl is nearly 10 miles away from me where the riff-raff live.

Joking aside, that is a long distance to drive for a few items of shopping. But heavens, the area is rough. I think that Lidl opened in the late 90s, or so I heard.
The syringe incident was scary though, and I was a prosecution witness in court. So, it has been a few years since I was last in there.

Do you, or does anybody else like Home Bargains?

I would love to shop in Aldi or Lidl but they don't accept credit cards and that's what we use to take advantage of cash back per month. If that ever changes I will be there like a shot.

They do in Glasgow.