Is lidl/aldi a rubbish quality food store?

I've got a Tesconia, a Sainsbows, ASDA, a lidle and an aldi all within striking distance.

They all have their strengths and weaknesess... I'd say Sainsbows is the worst overall, but that's just like, my opinion, man.
 
I miss UK supermarkets so much, you guys have no idea how good you've got it.

Billa own the market here, they have stores every few hundred metres. The range is poor, the products almost entirely domestic (I notice this mainly in the beer section - no Singha, Tiger, Cobra, Kingfisher, Kronenbourg, Grolsch, San Miguel, Peroni, Bira Moretti...), and the fruits & vegetables would not make the clearance section of most UK supermarkets - I'd never seen a cucumber you could bend 90 degrees without it snapping until I moved here.
All this would be ok if it was also cheap, but it's not - it's very expensive.
I don't keep track of UK supermarket prices much but:

A branded tub of cheese spread €2.99
Own brand butter €2.89
Pack of vine tomatoes €3.79
2 chicken breasts €7.99

Not what I'd call reasonable.

Aldi is called Hofer here and it's broadly equivalent to Aldi in the UK in terms of price and quality.
Lidl has a very small footprint, and my closest store is a couple of km away so I don't often go there.
 
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arknor said:
if your lidl has the bakery countery with all the fresh bread and pastries then its worth going in for that alone.

IDK if they do them in UK though
this is from EU


Chia bread was addictive.

Whole bakery thing is probably a loss leader to get people in the door, also directly next to the front door.
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Lidl bakery is top tier for some things... We have 2 Lidl stores here and they both have one.
Loafs of tiger bread/sourdough/french stick are great and cheaper than others.... I wish I hadn't discovered their donut range.
Lidl ready meals are a mixed bag, some leave a lot to be desired but others (e.g. their deluxe lasagne, some of their own brand pizzas) are great and half or less the price of similar elsewhere.
My dad swears by Aldi stuff and he's probably right but they're a bit of a pain to get to/park at.

I do most of my basic shopping at Lidl and pick up a few other bits at Morrisons as I find their meat/veg/other ready meals a bit better wuality and longer lasting.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
It's totally hit and miss some stuff is absolute garbage other stuff is epic.
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I've not read the whole thread, but guess this is perhaps true based on my experience and bits I've read here. I've never really used them before a family holiday this year where Aldi was the local supermarket so we did a weekly shop there. Wow, there was some really bad product.... Runny, watery cream cheese, super watery ham slices, kinda tough bread. There were some nice bits we got, some nice caramel coffee... but most of the products were really poor quality.
 
Aldi and Lidl are fine. It's the staffing levels that are naff. Queues at checkouts are a nightmare. I suspect their employees are run ragged and paid poorly.
 
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BUDFORCE said:
Funnily enough I find Aldi fresh stuff better than Tesco, and Asda I think.

My local tesco where I shop the most often the quality of the meat is terrible, pumped up full of salt water and expensive.
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Actually, you're right. I think I'm being unfair really as the basic meats we buy from them chicken thighs/beef mince etc are all perfectly fine.

It's the fruit and veg they lack on. It just seems to spoil so much quicker than Sainsburys.

M&S stands alone as everything being exceptional but I hate that when we pop into the M&S Foodhall to get dinner for the night and pick up a few other bits before you know it your handbasket has £50 worth of food in there whereas any other shop would be £20-£30. Their fruit is unrivalled though. As I said I eat a pack of raspberries every day so I like to take notice of the grower and variety of the 'Berryword Jewels' are among my favourite. Often M&S will have them as their regular packet whereas other stores would sell those as their fancy deluxe ones
 
I thought they were paid decent?

We have found some Aldi stuff is going off quicker than it should lately. Might be down to the heat we've had.
Aldi certainly ain't cheap anymore. I have thought about shopping somewhere else recently but trouble is when I go into one of the main supermarkets I end up buying stuff I didn't go in for.
 
I love Aldi, I used to shope in waitrose and/or get sainsburys delivered. Since my missus introduced me to Aldi I've never looked back

Their steaks are amazing value for money, nando cloned chicken range is awesome, 100% pressed smooth orange juice equal to waitrose and a third of the price.

Just a few things I buy religiously amongst many others
 
Baldbloke said:
Aldi and Lidl are fine. It's the staffing levels that are naff. Queues at checkouts are a nightmare. I suspect their employees are run ragged and paid poorly.
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Decent pay for retail shelf stackers, but everyone is run ragged, going from dept to dept, fast working pallettese etc. Also expected to be manager in effect...

so really not that well paid considering what they do.

Most supermarkets are doing that now I remember when sainsburys staff had to sign new contract so everyone is trained up to be "multi skilled"...but no pay increase...and they cut staff numbers
 
Lidl is the "pikeyest" Supermarket here by a long way. Mostly German stuff but sometimes they have "British style back bacon, normal bacon" and they always have cheddar.
Fruit and veg is as good as any other shop.
In-store bakery is same as any other bulk mix bread.
Meat is all Swedish sourced and good price.
Huge checkout queues, the lowest level of customer service you could imagine, huge staff turnover, even by Swedish working standards it's surely a naff place to work. ( Makes sense to multiskill staff)
I only go when I see something is particularly on offer or when piri piri sauce is in stock :p they do these silly themed weeks, taste of Espanyol
 
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~>Dg<~ said:
meat can be good but in general most stuff is lower quality and lower priced for a reason like iceland. if you have no taste buds and low budget
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Iceland is predominantly frozen crap, three for a tenner rubbish, no comparison.
 
I don't shop at Aldi where I am as its too far to walk. The only things I ever go to Lidls for is Maribel smooth peanut butter with no palm oil about £1.25, and the Snaktastic 6 pack salt and vinegar crisps taste are really nice and strong for 89p.
 
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Other notables to save a few bob are Savers and Home Bargain for Chemist supplies, toiletries and cleaning products (the latter also for Albert Bartlett home fries). There is some tat however you can be surprised by an addition to the shelves.
If you predominantly shop big supermarket even with 'loyalty' cards, you will be paying more.
 
My Mum bought a tub of clotted cream from Aldi recently and it was missing the plastic seal on the top, the barcode was printed directly onto the surface of the cream. She took it back to the Aldi store and the manager was extremely rude and accused her of faking it. In the end she walked out and had to contact Aldi customer services directly.
 
pcfarrar said:
My Mum bought a tub of clotted cream from Aldi recently and it was missing the plastic seal on the top, the barcode was printed directly onto the surface of the cream. She took it back to the Aldi store and the manager was extremely rude and accused her of faking it. In the end she walked out and had to contact Aldi customer services directly.
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Most supermarket managers are blithering idiots and jobsworths.

Dealt with them idiots for a while.
 
We shop pretty much exclusively at Lidl/Aldi and have done for years. Just like everything you get some rubbish stuff but on the whole quality is absolutely fine and the price is good.

Lidl plus giving me 10% off one shop a month is nice as well, use that one to stock up on the household stuff that lasts.
 
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Aldi or Lidl for big shop, been doing that for years, wouldn’t go anywhere else. No point paying the extra when the meat, veg and regular consumable stuff like milk, kitchen roll etc are just the same (if not better) for cheaper.

Unfortunately still need to go to Sainsburys or that for stuff they don’t sell.

I think it depends what you’re after. If you’re into branded stuff and ready meals, they probably aren’t very good but things like fresh meat, veg, baked goods, you can’t go wrong.. i think even their sweet and alcohol selection is really decent too.
 
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