To say you're all wrong about Aldi?

[Rabbitheadlights]

Just that really, I've nipped into Aldi in the past for the odd loaf and picked up a few bits. DP and I discussed and decided to do the 'big' shop there last week.

It's been a disaster, to start with I couldn't find fruit or veg with more than a couple of days shelf life on them and everything I've substituted so far has been either underwhelming or disgusting (1/4 pounders filled with gristle) 🤮 with a couple of exceptions (salmon Wellington, sliced ham) the bread was mouldy the next day and still had 2 days on the use by. The nappies are just awful.

I spent £219 on Friday last week and I've since been out and spent another 150 and will likely need more before the next "big shop" on Friday.

Lidl was seriously more posh in Italy than they are here.

In Ireland we're not obsessed with things being posh or not. Everyone shops in Aldi, there's no indication that it's for poor people.

🙄 Well I and my family also shop in german discounts, so I am not obsessedd with "posh" was biylt lighthearted, but fine. But that description.of aldi was not really like the aldis I went to here. Sounds like higher standard there

@UnreasonablyPissedOff

I wish people would post the locations of these substandard Aldis so the next time I'm in the UK I can visit one - for the spectacle - with the aisles full of insect ridden, mouldy inedible, unbranded food of questionable origins & aisles of jumble sale tat...sounds like it could be found in a tableau in the London Dungeons!

As I said already I literally don't recognise these descriptions & now feel even more grateful for our lovely bright clean airy aldi which has chalkboard style signage & is ful of fresh produce, lots of which is local.

Last night we enjoyed Specially select Irish Black Angus fillet steak, baked red rooster potatoes with Irish salted butter, steamed tenderstem broccoli, roasted organic Irish carrots, homemade peppercorn sauce
Accompanied by a delicious bottle of Carianne, Cru des Cotes du Rhone from the specially selected range
Wexford strawberries with Irish double cream afterwards.
A vase of the most beautiful peonies & scented stock on the table only added to the enjoyment
No mould, no insects, no flies, no angst just a very delicious dinner!
I wish you could all have Aldis like ours!

Join the lidl and aldi Facebook groups, when people praise or complain about products, staff or stores, they always say which store it is. Warning though - some of the photos attached to the complaints are gross, so don't browse while you're having lunch!

@Bryonyshcmyony

I don't understand my local ASDA. It seems to have a vast array of ready meals and sweets and alcohol and then tiny half aisles of actual food

We have this with ours. It's useless. But asda few miles away is great. Different demographic. The other area has more immigrants and different ethnicitiea and their asda has considereably bigger choice of fresh stuff and spices etc. Also mega rice packs.

That’s so strange I’ve never had a problem with anything like that.
Co-op however is an absolute nightmare, fruit is always off the day after getting it whatever the dates say!

I find the fruit and veg perfectly acceptable, and it isn't like there is a greengrocer nearby as an alternative. A lot of it is grow just down the road as well. If you are finding it a few days away from compost then you are not storing it correctly, or it's something that needs to be used quickly. Also I find a lot of their other products are simply better than other supermarkets.

Our household income is in the top 5%-10%, and we spend £130-£150 on Click and Collect each week (for five people). I simply do not want to waste at least £50-£70 a week it would cost to buy the same food and household items elsewhere. It's one hell of a saving, on the local alternatives - Tesco, Sainsbury's and Waitrose, and I just don't trust the fresh produce from Tesco or Sainsbury's, I've thrown so much meat and fish away from there before the use by date in the past. Awful. Saving £50 a week - it's over £2,500 a year.

In my area, Aldi and Lidl are not full of people on a low income only, it's full of sensible shoppers who want good value for money.

Also Sainsbury's locally in particular is an appalling shopping experience. The store is massive, takes ages to get round and even when it's quiet the tills take forever as they understaff them and allow a big queue to build up. Aldi is always quick, even when you think it's really busy and going to take ages.

I appreciate local branches differ, but ours is absolutely brilliant and I only ever buy bits from other stores if I can't get it in Aldi. The online click and collect range in huge though and they are better stocked than Sainsbury's, who are always running out of stuff.

@Womendohavevaginasnick

I did a comparison shop once. Put everything I needed in my Asda online shop basket, went and got the equivalent at Aldi. Total price ended up the same bar a few pence. And I find Tesco cheaper than Asda because of clubcard prices, so I stick with Tesco cause the quality is better and their fruit and veg lasts ages, and a lot is sold loose like a greengrocer.

I agree

@Harebrightcedarmoon I think it's fantastic that some stores are brilliant, just wish that ours was.

Over the years I have tried to do my shopping in various different Aldi's and failed. Yea I do spend less compared to other supermarkets when I leave the store. But once all those extras are purchased because Aldi don't do it or it's naff quality, I've actually spent more.
And meat wise maybe we've been really unlucky as There always seems to be loads of pork items but not much choice in other meats.

They always smell and the meat is just gross. I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.

@SchrodingersImmigrant it's funny isn't it how neither of us recognise the opposing descriptions of Aldi stores on here?
My description is 100% factual / truthful.
As a pp said literally everyone here shops in aldi & there's no snobbishness attached to it at all.
Most of the stores are relatively new & they're clean & bright with good parking.
My nearest branch is about 10 years old now & I've been shopping there since the very beginning. About 3 years ago it was closed for a week or so & it had a renovation job, when they introduced market place style chalkboard signage etc
There's v little turnover of staff & we see the same people working there & they're all v nice & friendly.
We do most of our shopping there because it's on our route home, it's small enough to be in & out v quickly & we highly rate the products that we buy
We don't ever buy ready meals so I cannot comment on them
We also shop in M&S & Supervalue & find them good for a change at times
During the first lockdown when travel here was v restricted we shopped at a local Tescos. It was fine as it ensured we had food & toilet rolls etc but I really didn't rate it & it's significantly more expensive for what we were buying.
I would not choose to shop there on a regular basis. V few Irish products either & I realised that was important to me
V few Irish products in M&S either but the quality of everything is so superior to Tescos I can sort of overlook that sometimes

We get our nappies and wipes from Aldi, have never had any problem with them.

I don't know why, but there is definitely a difference between branches on Lidl (I know the thread is about Aldi, but I've heard the same). In my nearest branch, the fruit and veg is very hit and miss and usually lasts a short time. However, in the next town the quality of fruit and veg is brilliant. However, if I add in the cost and time of travelling 20 miles it doesn't make it worthwhile, so get it from Sainsbury's where I've never had a problem with it keeping.

@switswoo81

Not on a low income and do all my shopping in Aldi. Fruit and veg is perfect, most of the meat is local (I'm in Ireland) . I know a farmer who produces eggs for Aldi and there standards are extremely high. Tesco would cost multiples of the amount I spend in Aldi and it's an absolute rip off for lower quality.

Exactly the same here. But having done both, the Aldi's in Ireland are much higher standard than England. Nearly all the meat is locally sourced and the stores are more modern and better designed. The staff are all Irish or living in Irish communities so it goes without saying they are all going to be more friendly and helpful

We find that the two aldi's in our town have huge variations in quality which is quite bizarre.

When we were students we were ardent Aldi shoppers, and sort of put up with the fact that fresh fruit and veg did not last the week before becoming ready for the bin if not eaten, and that meat wasn't always top notch. If you haven't the money to buy elsewhere, you adjust your meal plan accordingly I suppose. Now we have the budget to spend more, we find the quality of Ocado fruit and veg far superior, and prefer to buy all meat from the butcher.

We now use Aldi as a monthly stock up for shelf or freezer stable items mostly, we're due to go today actually and the list is cleaning and laundry products, jars, tins, packets, crisps/crackers/biscuits, various butters, cheeses, pizzas, teabags, baking ingredients, juices etc. Saves us a good whack compared to buying all of these from Ocado, without compromising on quality.

Yy orange

Also live in a town with 2. They are different. One stank to high heaven last time I went in there but otherwise appeared clean. The other had a massive box of green mince the staff were either clearing off the shelves or putting ot on the shelves not sure which.

well that's good for you that you haven't had mouldy stuff from Aldi. other people have though so surely you can see why that would put people off?! 😂

err yes, course. I'd be TOTALLY put off. 🙄 @Missushbb

Actually thinking about it I've never seen "mouldy" food in any supermarket barr the odd raspberry in the bottom of a punnet.

It's not something I've experienced. Aisles with mouldy food. Lucky me eh.

I really don't like their fruit and veg, it doesn't last any time at all.

I want to be able to shop at Aldi or Lidl. I have tried. But I can’t get even half of my shop in either because I have a DP who requires Gluten Free and neither seem to sell hardly any GF stuff with any reliability. One week they might have stuff but then nothing for months.

I don’t have the time to dick about going to two or three different shops every time just to fill in the gaps. When I go and do my shopping I want to get everything I need in one go and I want to know (with as much certainty as possible) that when I do go the shop is more than likely going to have everything on my list.

If you see mouldy food for sale you need to report it to the local Environmental Health.
The only product that I have ever had an issue with is the broccoli that turns in a couple of days and the toilet paper doesn't drsintegrate as quick in the septic tanks we have in rural Ireland (nice thought when shopping) so avoid these. Everything else is absolutely fine and significantly less expensive. I would say the quality is better than Tesco in Ireland.

@Rinoachicken

I want to be able to shop at Aldi or Lidl. I have tried. But I can’t get even half of my shop in either because I have a DP who requires Gluten Free and neither seem to sell hardly any GF stuff with any reliability. One week they might have stuff but then nothing for months.

I don’t have the time to dick about going to two or three different shops every time just to fill in the gaps. When I go and do my shopping I want to get everything I need in one go and I want to know (with as much certainty as possible) that when I do go the shop is more than likely going to have everything on my list.

In Ireland both have a large selection of GF food, all the time. Ireland has the highest rate of coeliac disease in Europe though, so that might be why.

I can see why we have the issue and disagreements here. Looks like aldi UK and aldi Ireland are on totally different level

Looks like aldi UK and aldi Ireland are on totally different level

No - my local Aldi here in Scotland and many Aldi’s I’ve visited across the UK if we’re on self catering holidays haven’t been stinking and full of mouldy food. As I said upthread, we can afford to shop elsewhere (that seems to be very important to some on MN) and would if I was faced with some of the horrendous experiences some posters report.

I hope all of you who have had these awful experiences are reporting them to your local Environmental Health depts.

I use one Aldi nearby that is only 2 years old. Do weekly shop in there, lack of choice means it is quicker and the only.spending pitfall is the middle aisle.

The only issue I ever have is with the carrots - I think they are either washed in the bag or washed then bagged, the ends go slimey quickly. But I just dry the carrots off and they last well.

The next town has 2x Aldi and 1x Lidl. The Lidl is fine, used to shop there before the Aldi I use opened. But the 2x Aldi there are comically different to each other. The one next to the Lidl was permanently, before Covid, like a jumble sale or a supermarket in the middle of panic buying. Stressful and disorganised and hard to navigate. The other one was like someone had put a small supermarket into a large supermarket space. Empty. Disorientating. Not enough stock.

It really depends on the store in terms of stock and freshness. Which is pretty wild really.

I use Tesco as the fancy shop now, so get stuff for Christmas food there. It is noticeably more expensive though. And the same quality food as Aldi. Tesco Basics is not as good quality though.

Aside: always impressed with the supermarkets in Ireland! Supervalu and Dunnes with their fresh meat, fish, bakery and the really fancy ready meal options. Fruit and veg quality excellent.

@Bryonyshcmyony

I don't understand my local ASDA. It seems to have a vast array of ready meals and sweets and alcohol and then tiny half aisles of actual food

My local Asda is like that, we also have a small Tesco that is pretty useless. Sainsbury's is generally OK but I have complained, more than once, about stuff in the bakery being days past it's best before date and on a delivery had to complain about a chicken that smelt awful when I opened the wrapping. I've never smelt meat that was so disgusting. They gave me a refund but it meant we had beefburgers instead of roast chicken for Sunday lunch.

I've also had to take fruit back to Sainsbury's as when I opened a punnet the top layer was fine but the stuff underneath was rotten.

Last week I had to throw out some M&S potatoes as they were black all through so I guess it can go wrong at any shop.

I don't use Waitrose as we don't have one.