Be Excellent To Each Other

Reading some figures that said in the 12 weeks to December the 7th all the major supermarket chain sales were down 1-3% with the exception of Waitrose that rose 6%

Aldi and Lidl were up 15-18% in the same period.

I have both Aldi and Lidl close to me but have never been, I almost went before Xmas to look for the cheap desert wine but there was a accident on the way there so I turned around

Anyone use them? I have some friends who were 100% Waitrose who love them now, but all they ever tell me is how much cheaper and better the pistachio nuts are Not exactly staple food!

I've been a few times but usually found that I couldn't get everything I was after so ended up having to go to a normal shop.

I think I use ALDI more than any other supermarket now. The range is ok, I still use ASDA for branded stuff (Heinz etc). My cost of my weekly shop has dropped a lot.

There's an Aldi down the road from me, and I'm making an effort to shop there more often. I've not had an issue with anything I've bought from there so far.

They seem to have started an extra special range too.

Went to Aldi last night as Mrs T needed something from there for work. Just looked like a market stall with brand rip-offs everywhere. Is the stuff actually comparable?

...and don't give me the usual "it's all made in the same factory" crap. It doesn't work like that in reality.

Some things are. Butter is, for example.

Aldi make their own though, I think. Some of it is perfectly fine (garlic bread, "Coco Pops"), some of it is rank ("Red Bull", "Coke").

Yes it does in a lot of cases.. The extra special yogurt is in the same tubs as ASDAs and in the same flavors just cheaper.

Yeah the copies of known brands are just knock offs, though. The chocolate digestives and the jaffa cakes things that are obviously packaged to resemble the real thing are pretty awful.

It really doesn't work like you think. Yes, it is made in the same factory, on the same lines, but the quality of the ingredients is different for each customer.
They don't just put the same stuff in the box and change the label.

The cranberry cookies are nice.

Most of Aldi's and Lidl's products are awful, way worst that the similar priced white brands of portuguese supermarket chains.

But these stores are good for stocking up before a party. Lidl peanuts and pretzels are incredibly cheap and acceptable. Also, Lidl's Bailey's liquor kock-off is also ok and probably less of half the price of the real thing.

I like their Blue Rat and puffin chunks.

Most of our fruit and veg comes from aldi. Dry goods too.

There's a fair amount of stuff we buy from Aldi that's perfectly acceptable. I've only used Lidl a couple of times and that's always been far worse quality - look at the meat content on their pies and sausages for example.

Lidl's lasagna was probably the foulest thing i ever ate.

My dad, who "loves a bargain", shops almost exclusively at Aldi. And their Christmas serrano ham means everything that passes my lips over the festive period has in some way been infused with the stuff.

But he's fallen in love with this shop, which sells out-of-date/soon-to-be-out-of-date goods. In bulk. He doesn't like Polos. He now has 42 tubes of polos past their use by date. He bought a tube of what looks like wasabi toothpaste for what 0.01p. It's like a supermarket for people who actively participate on HotUKDeals.

http://www.approvedfood.co.uk/biggest_savings

Not sure about Aldi and Lidl but my sister it law used to be an internal auditor for Kerry foods and went all over the world doing audits.

As it was an internal audit all the sites were always very nice to her and she always got a tour.

She said there was a place in the UK that had separate vats for the same food say Chilli and they were doing it for Tesco, M&S, Asda, Sainsbury's

Recipes would vary slightly if from Budget to Luxury ranges but it was all done in the same place.

She said some of the places in the US were huge, blocks of cheese the size of a sofa and their own slaughter houses to process meat

Aldi is fine, it sells a lot of stuff for less, beer and biscuits and wine and things like that are cheaper and comparable. Their meat is also very similar, I mean bacon is bacon, unless you are buying the very best stuff it is all pretty similar (in taste at least). Their beef mince is beef mince, but cheaper (it may be cheaper for a reason, but tastes the same), but mostly it is things like cold meats and stuff that it is good for; you can get Parma ham for 1/2 the price of waitrose, the veg is a lot cheaper and comparable in quality - it is generally loose anyway so you can choose the item you want. It is does have issues, but in general it is a fair bit cheaper there than Waitrose, and I haven't really noticed a massive difference in quality.

Aye. Mrs T works in the industry. If you buy a pre-packed sandwich in the UK, it will have been made in one of two factories regardless of who it is packaged for.
The actual sandwiches inside are completely different though, and made to different recipes with different quality ingredients and to different costings.

Lidl really has grown up.. It has won 'best vegetables in the supermarket ' for 5 years running now in the netherlands and their dishwashong tablets (W5) win awards too.. So you can get most stuff there now..

Aldi i use for normal washing powder, cheap but good olive oir and german curry-sauce
(There are two quite separate aldi chao s by the way, nord and sud... Makes an interesting read).

german curry?

Aldi chao s?

The Lidl Stollen is great.

I eat panzer the stuff.

Nice work

I did nazi that coming.

I've seen him when he's eating it too, he goebbels it up.

I've heard positive tales of their Reich krispies

They sell wafer thin mints; I luftwaffe thin mints.

I once went to Lidl to buy some things for a picnic and decided to get Russell some ham. They had a choice of one variety of ham, and I think it was 97% water, 3% 'other material'.

And the things I wanted they didn't have. And the shop smelled really bad, and the woman at the till was racist.

I went back once more, about a year later, and wanted a miniature greenhouse. there were a few but every single one was broken.

I like the Morrisons 'Match & More' card, because it only took a couple of trips to get £5 off, and they price match Aldi & Lidl, but also have everything we need. And we have a Tesco 10% off discount card, so tend to shop between places.

I knew you were Goering to say that!

I can Goebbels down an entire pack.

ERP. Repetition.

Aldi-level thread, Aldi-level responses.

I made the mistake of assuming Curio was being current.

Don't go blaming your sub-par pun game on me!

Sub-Spar more like

BOOM