to not get why people like Aldi/Lidl so much?

[lucydogz]

yes, I know it's really cheap, but, appart from some things, the food just is poor quality. When I last went there, my DH was enthused about how cheap it was, but the eggs, porridge oats, jam, mayonnaise, digestive biscuits, and plums I bought were not good at all. I see why people would shop there if they hadn't got any money, but, if you can afford to, why not go somewhere better?
If anybody can tell me about any things they do well I'm prepared to be convinced.

YABU.

I buy the Lidl free range eggs (Scottish £1.75 for 12 large) and they are great Never had a bad one (although I did once get a box of 6 double yokers )

All the food I get there is qood quality: Parmesan, duck breasts, free range whole chickens and chicken breasts, 30 day aged joints of beef, salami, pastrami, Emmenthal, Full fat Greek yoghurt, cream, lamb steaks, coffee beans, jaffa cakes (better than McVities - more orangey with thicker dark chocolate), frozen venison steaks....I could go on and on

Dh has been studying to be a Master of Wine and says their Cava is excellent - and brilliant value at only £4.99.

Their cantucci are seriously addictive (I can't have even one as I'm on a HFLC diet and wouldn't be able to stop myself having more). Their wee amaretti are also lovely. I always get a couple of packs for dh of course when they have them in stock.

If you load your stuff carefully onto the belt and have big bags ready in your trolley, you can fill your bags as quickly as they scan them. I now get frustrated at Tesco and Sainsbury's et al that their cashiers are too slow

I do still go to the big supermarkets - but only once a fortnight or so for the things I can't get at Lidl, like Twinings Earl Grey tea or freshly squeezed orange juice or clotted cream.

Some of it isn't as great - sometimes the sausgaes, for example MOst of it is so much cheaper, it can;t be beat, really - I mean, a 20p saving on babycorn, ham is cheaper, meat is cheaper, etc.

The meat at Aldi is red tractor approved & has won awards. Definitely not sub standard quality. Everything I've had meat & fish wise is very very good.

I regularly buy whole chickens from Aldi, always delicious and juicy. I recently did an online shop with Ocado and ordered a chicken. I cooked it exactly the same and not only did the thing shrink, it was dry as fuck, even though I basted it regularly, same as I always do!

prettybird

(although I did once get a box of 6 double yokers confused)

that's meant to be good luck!

This again, is it? Are these threads started by marketing people for the other big supermarket chains?

grumiosmum "Do they sell organic free-range eggs from British farms? Because that's the only kind I buy."

I just checked both Aldi and Lidl and yes, they both do. Organic, free range and British.

I have a few Aldi and Lidl stores in a 5 mile radius and (sadly) have tried most of them out. Some like other supermarkets I've been too have bad store managers so their fruit and veg goes off very quickly, while others they last as long as the other supermarkets I shop at. One thing with their stores is that I've never seen an out of date product on their shelves unlike Waitrose, Asda, Tescos and Co-op.

Oh and they don't chuck stuff at you.

Some of the Aldi stores are their new smaller town stores so they don't have trolleys. You are expected to have your bag open to pack quickly and/or be able to use your hands to pick things up so you do not block the people behind you in the queue getting to the payment/packing area.

Some of the Lidls have self-service tills so again you get nothing chucked at you.

I only went into my local Aldi once and I hated it - grubby. I know this doesn’t mean all stores are the same but it just put me off. However, our local Lidl is brand new and very nice, apart from the check out scanning speed, good grief! I prefer Morrison’s, and I do like Sainsbury’s but they are so much more expensive. My latest fave is Home Bargains - great for toiletries and cleaning stuff but not so good fresh veg. Waitrose is not as good as it thinks. Their quiche Lorraine isn’t a patch on Morrisons, and their German sliced ham is twice the price of Morrisons. I thinks it caters for the snobs in life.

You learn what is great and what's not.

The whole chickens are great. Ditto the low fat mince, beef and turkey mince. The specially selected Aldi ham is great. Cheeses too. Yoghurts are lovely, and their fresh desserts in pots/glasses are bargains.

I got a full weekly shop, plus absolutely loads for Christmas (prosecco, Bailey's, crisps, nuts, stollen, truffles, desserts etc and a Wow! toy for charity donation) for £130.

Just needed persil (allergies!) and branded cola from normal supermarket.

Op....you do realise the same foods are made or prepared in the same places and different packages put on them. I know this as most students who worked in such places. I personally think idll fruit and veg is better than waitrose. Best meat is morrisons.

Best bread morrisons. I personally cant understand why anyone shops at sainsburys as its vvvvv expensive. I shop mixture of idll and morrisons with a couple of tesco items thrown in. Idll has the best bin bags ever. Its the heavy duty ones.

I see why people would shop there if they hadn't got any money, but, if you can afford to, why not go somewhere better?If anybody can tell me about any things they do well I'm prepared to be convinced.

If you you saying people only shop in Aldi if they can’t afford to shop in Tesco/Sainsbury’s/Morrison’s YABU

I Spent 20 years shopping in Tesco because that’s where I always went. I just started to get really annoyed when all their meat was suddenly “from Holland” and left my oven tray full of water and the veg was all from Estonia/Holland and was going mouldy within 2/3 days of being in the fridge.
I have since found Aldi is far superior in the fact that the meat and veg is mostly British and certainly the meat has far less water in it than compared to Tesco ‘from holland’ meat. The 5% mince is really low fat, steaks are tasty, joints of meat are succulent and tasty. The veg lasts the whole week from Aldi rather than going mouldy within 4/5 days from Tesco. Eggs is eggs, bread lasts fresher from Aldi the only iffy thing I’ve found is the “norpak” spread which I’ve had go mouldy after several weeks but that might have been an odd fluke.
I do buy branded stuff once a month -soap powder, gluten free stuff, any other stuff I can’t get from Aldi-from Morrison’s but overall it is much better quality in Aldi, last longer and is slightly cheaper as a bonus.

I think the food is better than asda and tesco.

I love no piped music and tanoys going off every two minutes. Lidl is one of the few shops I can take Autistic DS1 into with minimum stress.

I like that Lidl staff are on a better than minimum wage. I'm in the North West and its a good wage for this area.

I rate lots of items at Lidl and Aldi and they're my go to stores for a big shop.

Some products that have historically been harder to get in the UK are great in Lidl like whole Salami's.

My head has been turned though as we have a new 'Food' store though in town, Polish I think. Its rather lovely with waxed paper wrapped meats and a lovely deli counter. A Hungarian food warehouse has also opened near by with amazing herbs, spives, pulses and smoked meats with price per kilo you'd normally pay for a lb. The DC say its like being on holiday at home because you have to translate all the packaging to work out what lots of things are.

So many things there are great. Some are not. It probably does take a few shops to work out what you like and don't.

I prefer the chocolate, chocolate bars, tomato soup, baked beans and tea. I find the wine, meat, eggs, milk and tinned tomatoes the same as Sainsburys for half the price. I don't like the cheese, croissants and think the fruit and veg is poor quality. But overall the shop is so much cheaper and I just pick up the veg, etc at a different shop during the week.

YABU as it's not poor quality at all. I have worked with a major food production company that supply to M&S, several 'normal' supermarkets like Tesco and Asda, and also Lidl. They've always said that M&S are by far the fussiest in terms of quality so if a product's suitable for them then that's the highest bar. Lidl is second however in terms of quality testing and ingredients used!

I'm fussy about food and much rather lots of Lidl and Aldi products to those from the other supermarkets.

Aldi is my favourite shop, I could afford to shop anywhere, but love their stuff.

I also like Lidl bakery, often the bread is warm, everything is freshly baked.

YABU. Aldi and Lidl products are great quality for the most part, certainly better than Tesco. The snobbishness towards them seems to be a very British thing.

YABU

If it's not for you then don't go, there really isn't an issue. Don't really go to lidl often as it's a bit out of the way for us. We do go to Lidl reasonably often for some things- the milk and yoghurt is actually the same we used to buy from tesco or morrison's but costs significant less, for instance. Their breakfast cereals, most vegetables and most of the cold meats are fine, though I do tend to buy veg direct from local producers as I like to support them. I'm not so keen on some of the fruit, can be ok but on other occasions not so much. Cereals are ok, though buy oats and things like meat and eggs from local producers. Not tried the fresh meat, so can't really comment. But then, I wouldn't buy from tesco or morrison's as I think their meat is of poor quality compared with what I can get from local farmers and butchers.

For the price paid, they are more than reasonable. The stores are basic and queues can be longer, but that's what happens with "no frills". I think some of the veg is on a par with, or better than, the likes of tesco's. Someone told me that often their veg is more local than tesco and other big supermarkets as they need to keep shipping costs down. No idea if that's true though.

I just buy mainly branded stuff and I didn’t recognise many of the brands in Lidl and Aldi. I only like Total Greek yoghurt and Flavhavans oats, DH only likes Scott’s oats and they probably don’t sell them so easier to order online I also only like Andrex pebble toilet roll and have to get that from Amazon now as only they seem to sell it.

The Lidl Full Fat Greek yoghurt is now higher fat and lower carb than Total , so I now prefer the Lidl yoghurt

I struggled with finding nice food in Aldi and Lidl but then my dd started spending loads of time at her bfs and his mum shopped st Aldi so dd was able to say what was worth buying.

I've now been shopping in Aldi for 4 weeks and apart from the ketchup 🤮 and mayonnaise 🤮 most stuff is great. I've saved an absolute fortunes.

I used to be a Sainsbury's shopper. However I now shop at Aldi and Asda. I have found the chicken far better quality at Aldi than Asda, it is far more tender when cooked. Aldi also do 5 percent fat beef meatballs which are far leaner than what I can obtain in Asda or Sainsbury's. I also tried the cheaper brand of stuffing and gravy in Aldi and can't tell the difference (and I'm quite a fussy eater). There are certain brands that I always go to Asda for but I have been pleased with things I have purchased in Aldi.

Insomatic The Aldi mince was ok on.top of the pack when I got home and went to use it the mince underneath was all brown and slimy. It was in date. Really put me off of Aldi