Aldi wins !

As far as foodstuffs are concerned --- Yes they are cheap, but lack the quality of some other Supermarkets.

Is that a statement of provable fact or your personal experience? When I started using Lidl it was simply because, as the cook at home, I found  that their meat products were way better than the offerings of our local large ASDA store. I found the same for their veg and salad and their prepacked deli type stuff was also good. Price was never a consideration. I have no real experience of Aldi other than the fact that in the distant past I found their range poor but I doubt that to be the case these days.

In fairness so do most supermarkets. I suspect Aldi have invested in that area of their assortment to heighten awareness amongst better off customers to encourage them to come along and see what they offer. The UK supermarket industry is pretty highly developed. As a result of this the likes of Aldi and Lidl, as value supermarkets, have to attract those customers that have previously shopped in the larger existing chains. To throw off the chains what might be perceived as down market they introduce things like a good wine choice to encourage the better off customer to give them a try. Its a formula that seems to work although they still have a relatively small percentage of supermarket sales in the UK at around 7%.

David

I don't think they are down market, just different to what was the norm a few years ago in U.K. Supermarkets. They are small stores compared with the four biggies, and certainly don't stock anything like the range of products. You could go into an Asda, a Tesco, A Sainsbury's, a Morrisons, and they would all sell virtually the same range of products, perhaps with the odd tweak or specialism somewhere. But along came Aldi and Lidl, selling much more continental style produce, displayed very differently in the early days, and suddenly new meal opportunities along with some very interesting none food items are a change from the norm.

I think both the home grown supermarkets, and the continentals have changed in last few years to better suit U.K. tastes and habits, and make the UK supermarkets take a look at their prices to compete. I remember we were astonished at our first Aldi shop. Tried it to see what all the fuss was about, filled a trolley with very similar products, but found ourselves spending half the money! Some of the products with strange sounding brand names turned out to be absolutely delicious as well, much I admit to our surprise. Other things have not been to our taste, so once tried, we haven't gone back. We don't eat meat, so I can't comment on any aspect of this in any supermarket, but Aldi is great for everyday cheeses, some lovely veggie options, and excellent variety of frozen food products. I love the quirky specials as well, cycling gear, caravan stuff, stove and wood cutting tools, thermal gear, gardening stuff...........ok, might not be super douper quality, but at the prices it doesn't matter if you only get a year of usage out of some cycling gloves or socks! 

We are lucky enough to have lots of choice on our doorstep, so we make the most of it. It's fun putting the posh cars to the owners inside as well. I got to Aldi to find a fairly old Rolls Royce in the car park one day. That couple took no spotting whatsoever......she was in a long fur coat (think 1950's glamour!) and he was in a fawn long wool coat with cravat and Trilby. They both had a trolley, hers with food, his clinking gently full of wines and spirits! They were having a ball!

I've never thought of Aldi and Lidl as downmarket, I saw the concept doing well in Germany years ago and like their products. They are a no frills set up and the prices reflect it. In fact if you want to save money on daily or weekly shopping they far outstrip the competition, all the offers and points elsewhere are not going to cover the lower prices in these two places. However it is basic shopping on offer and if you want more choice or ambience you'd have to look at other shops.

I quite like Aldi for certain items. However, they are as bad as everyone else when it comes to product shrinkage. The coffee beans we bought changed from 227 grams (8ozs) to 200 grams (7ozs) price the same. So now there is very little difference in the price of a similar product elsewhere. Until they shrink there's anyway.☹️

Considering the fresh food in both Aldi and Lidl is probably sourced from the same producers as the majority of other supermarkets in the UK then not sure where the "lack the quality" stands up

Of interest to credit card users, now that Aldi are accepting Amex there is an offer of £5 back on a £10 or more spend, available till April.

I was extremely disgusted this week when shopping for food in Tesco. Wanted a Sweetheart Cabbage, which they had, but found that it had been grown in Spain! Don't we grow cabbages any more?  Plus it was in a plastic wrapper. Why? They were all the same price regardless of weight.

COMPOSED THIS WHILE THREAD STILL ON PAGE 2 BUT SEEMS I DID NOT CLICK REPLY!

I needed Lavazza coffee, Leffe beer, some Chinese five spice powder, and an odd sort of light bulb. Aldi and Lidl had none of them but Tesco did.

I am never slow to teasingly accuse my wife of being a brand snob BUT there is no point in us shopping at either Aldi or Lidl as they do not stock what we want to buy-that is the brands that we have tried and found we like over our considerable number of years of retail experimentation.

An added issue for us is availability-our nearest supermarket with a a car park is 18 miles away-so a lot of our shopping is done whist out and about doing other things so places on the outskirts of towns are far more convenient.

To quote the ad-'like brands, only cheaper'-sorry I don't want something that's like what I like-I want what I like.

I would rather take the line of the old Volkswagen ads that, more or less, said "why buy something like a VW when you can buy a VW". Oh and yes I have, in the interest of research, visited both.

Takethedog-even firefighters are seasonal at Newquay, never mind firelighters, and the heliport was great if you could afford the app £300 fare for the flight.

Ha ha, sorry about the typo A&J!  You need to start shopping around for bargains, this visitor got a flight to Isles of Scilly for £80! Anything rather than the boffing Party aboard the Scillonian!