To hate Aldi!

[user263781638]

I've tried to like it, I mean it's cheap as anything but, every single time I buy meat specifically chicken it smells vile! Like it's gone off and it's rubbery 😷
This isn't just the one Aldi I've been to lots around my area and out of it and it's all the fucking same! That's another load straight in the bin and I'm off to Sainsbury's tomorrow.

So AIBU and picky or has anybody else experienced this?

Absolutely love Aldi - won't and don't need to shop anywhere else now.

I spend on average £20 a week on my daughter and I. And yet to discover a product we don't like or have issues with longevity with

I’m a bit meh about Aldi, Lidl however I love and do all my shopping there.

The experience varies massively from store to store. I live near a high street style store which has lots of turnover and the shelves are constantly being restocked. The fruit and veg always lasts and is very good quality (better than my local Tesco and Sainsbury's high street stores which don't have as much turnover perhaps). The store is very new and the staff are amazing. I really enjoy shopping there, even though I have been thoroughly spoilt by living near a Waitrose and m&is previously.

That said, I went to a normal "superstore" style Aldi recently and hated it. Found the layout messy and even though it was busier than my local store, they didn't have as much choice. But the aisle of crap wasn't huge....I spent about 30 mins there !

When I was in there the other week (totally forgot about this till you mentioned staff) a guy serving on the till just upped and left mid serving and quit 😂 it actually had me laughing probably because I was in the other queue I wouldn't have been as amused if he was serving me mind.
All the other members of staff where dumbfounded all looking round and questioning if he'd quit 😂

Aldi Outdoor breed, Uk pork, Oak and Beechwood smoked streaky bacon - is amazingly tasty - no watery gunk coming out of it either - half the price of the equivalent in Waitrose.

Aldi and lidl are shit, I shop there only because I can’t afford to shop in Asda every bloody week and it’s the lack of choice which makes me spend less, which is why I go.

Their fruit is shit, their cooked meat is shit, cheese is shit, everything is shit there and bland.

When the kids are grown up and left Home, when I’m financially better off I will never set foot in there again. The whole place reminds me of being skint and struggling, of having to make a tenner last 4 meals to feed six of you.

Well, fish DOES smell, it smells of FISH, unless it is frozen! if you dont like Aldi, dont shop there, mine, the car park has plenty of high end cars, so people arent just shopping there beause of the price. There are Morrisons and Sainsbury nearby. I find Morrison have short sell by dates. blackheartgirl, I think your life is probably shit, you dont HAVE to go to Aldi or Lidl. I cannot stand Iceland, the only frozen thing I will eat is peas, and Asda, it looks like a warehouse, the staff are rude. I went there the other day for papers just because it was near and the time was getting on. Cashier, didnt make eye contact or speak once, he left half my stuff on the belt, when it was mentioned didnt even apologise. Anyone who has German friends knows they are fusy and would use these stores if they were rubbish

I mean would NOT use these stores if they were rubbish.

Off topic - but can you tell me more about meat being 'off' - i find the smell of chicken nauseating but i dont think it's 'off'
how do i know?!!

I wish Aldi had a quick till (5 items or less), sometimes I forget something and have to pop back for it. Tills are full of customers with full trolleys and its very rare that a customer will let me go before them.

Aldi is great for a lot of things and their chocolate is way better than Cadbury's, Nestle and Mars.

I also like their 'surprise aisles' - you can get some really useful stuff there, for a reasonable price.

Don't be taken in by their price-comparison marketing, though - just because Aldi don't offer Heinz beans for sale doesn't change the fact that Asda sell their own-brand beans, alongside the Heinz ones, which will be comparable in price to the Aldi ones.

Never buy meat from there, though - it's awful. Asda meat tends not to be great either. If you don't have a decent proper butcher near you, buy meat from somewhere like Sainsbury's or Morrison's and, ideally, not the cheapest price-band stuff. Economy cheapo own-brand beans, pasta, cheese etc - absolutely yes; but never the meat.

And much as I like Aldi for certain things, I find it hard to believe people who claim to get all of their shopping from there. I'd be very disappointed to lose Aldi, but we could never get all of the groceries and household stuff we need/want without also using the 'main' supermarkets as well.

I love Aldi. Easily saves £25 a week and get more nicer food for our money. The local Aldi has fruit that keeps way better than any of the other supermarkets. I do a monthly sainsburys shop and spend
a small fortune and my fruit goes bad within a couple of days.

We shop in Aldi most weeks and the chicken and vegetables are both fine.
(DH always cooks the chicken though as I find raw chicken blurgh but the mince just smells of mince)

We've just moved and have upgraded to Asda as there's only a tiny Aldi here.

I know people (and not just skint people) who absolutely swear by Aldi, but I just don’t get it. I do like the bakery aisle in Lidl, and can deal with them if I just need “something for lunch” or even “some meat and veg for dinner”, but couldn’t do a whole shop with a list or needing specific ingredients for a recipe. And it would just annoy me then having to go elsewhere anyway. I usually get home delivery from Tesco. I save money that way by not being distracted by extra stuff going round!

HiI think we either love or hate Aldi. I belong to the latter. Have been there maybe 3x and each time vow never to return. First, I didn't know you have to deposit a coin to get a cart, and I had no change on me that day so I had to carry everything in my arms that grew shakier by the minute. Second, I didn't recognize ANY of the brands they offered (Hathaway cookies? Clooney fries? are Anne and George getting royalties?), and though I'm not all that picky about brand names, if I'm going to consume all those unnecessary calories from cookies and French fries I want to be sure they taste good. Third, I had roughly 10 items on my shopping list, 5 items Aldi simply didn't have. They weren't strange things eithera supermarket not carrying sour cream? Weird. Fourth although it was a Saturday morning, there was only ONE register open and not surprisingly, 12 customers in line. Also frustrating was that the customers in front of me were buying tons of groceries whereas I only had those 5 items from my list. In the old days, those people stocking up for the month would have politely asked me if I wanted to go first but no, they pretended they didn't notice. As if all this weren't enough, you have to bring your own bags, something else I was unaware of, so I had to continue carrying my goods out to my car. The second time I went was because of an emergency need for bread, and it was basically the same story 1 register open and the customer ahead of me had at least 75 items to buy, not offering to let me go first. I suppose it would have set her back a minute if she had. I put my loaf of bread down and walked away. I cannot shop in a store that has so little regard and consideration for its customers!

I used to deliberately avoid aldi, but became so fed up with the poor quality fruit and veg at morrisons. Most of what we bought went off within a few days. So, I decided to try aldi...brilliant. I love their premium sausages, We buy their big 12 fillet packs of chicken...never once had a problem.
Also tried asda, but just found it hardwork navigating through 30 brands of the same sodding thing. Plus the constant pressure to add more to your trolley - No Ta!!

No. I'm fine with aldi….no complaints whatsoever.

I agree with the posters who say if you don't like it don't shop there. I don't like and don't shop there because it is total crap.

DB works for a meat packaging plant.

Asda and Iceland meat are the shitty quality stuff.

Lidl, Aldi, Tesco and Sainsburys meat is all exactly the same meat, in different packaging.

Marks and Spencer get the best bits.

Zombie thread

Ive been shopping in aldi for years now
.. never had a problem! But i tend to shop every 2-3 days rather than a big "weekly" shop!

When they closed aldi for a refurb & I had to use big supermarket instead I really noticed how much cheaper my usual shop is.
My budget doesn't stretch to much veg/meat but generally what I have bought has been fine. I agree with PP that the packaging can make it whiff on opening but then passes.

I don't think the own brand items are always on par even if similar price. Tesco do the same maple oat bar pack as aldi so expected it to be just different packaging but Tesco's wasn't anywhere near as good. It could also go other way.

Having worked in few factories it is often from same suppliers, sometimes supermarkets have differing specifications but things like fruit/veg are same line just packaged/ labeled up for various supermarkets.

Its frustrating when aldi is out of stock of an item as isn't the usual supermarket range to opt for similiar/different brand

Agree with you on most things in Aldi for me are substandard. We keep trying just incase as so many do say it's good. I don't think I can be bothered trying again now. In 5 or 6 years I've come to the same conclusion everytime we eat what we buy from there.

Fruit no organic options in ours, so I don't buy it. Meat no organic so we don't buy it, no organic milk. Occasionally there is yoghurt that is. The rest of the pre packaged things has more salt and sugar or more unknown identified additives. Apart from a couple of cereals I buy the kids Weetabix equiv and rice crispy equiv.

Bleech I find very thin, alcohol actually they do a nice fruit Cider very cheap.

Ok so occasional cereal and fruit Cider we can buying there.