Are these 'cheaper' shops really cheaper?

I did a big shop today in Aldi and stocked up on store cupboard basics like olive oil, flour, cleaning products, plus fresh meat, fresh flowers and vegetables and frozen foods. It came in at less than £43. The only thing that I don't like from there is their coffee and so I wait until Tesco or Sainsbury have a special offer of my favourite brand. But the quality of Aldi meat and fish is excellent and I always get their fresh boned turkey crown and ham in orange and brandy at Christmas because there's no waste on it. their stollen is divine too

A friend and I have developed a great routine where we shop at Aldi, great quality and prices for most things. Then we drive round to Sainsbury to avoid parking in Aldi for more than 90 minutes. We manage to find £5 worth of stuff we can’t get in Aldi and so have 2 hours free parking in Sainsbury’s. Then flushed with our success we head for coffee at a local, non multinational coffee shop. Small pleasures! ?
PS my only failures in Aldi have been low fat mayonnaise which is watery and instant coffee. Horribly weak!

I’m with annodomini. I really rate Aldi’s fruit and veg (it used to be poor, but they improved it dramatically). It does go off more quickly that the big 3 supermarkets, but I also suspect that is a good thing! Aldi individual Ciabattas are the best and half the price or less of Sainsbury’s and M&S. I buy 6 or 8 packs at a time and keep them in the freezer. Aldi’s chocolate is delicious and obviously uses the more expensive part of the cocoa - there are three grades of cocoa butter according to which part is used. Belgium chocolate and Aldi’s uses the highest grade. American ‘chocolate’ like their Hershey Bars uses a lower grade.

They have also brought out some new savoury tarts suitable for Vegetarians. Goats Cheese and Caramalised Onion and something with Spinach. Both are delicious and only £1.29. Much nicer than the slightly watery options from Sainsbury’s and M&S at £2.99!

We buy organic milk, tinned tomatoes, kidney beans etc. We shop at Sainsbury’s for these and some other things. Aldi are more limited on organic stuff (although it’s increasing. They now do organic potatoes and Milk - though only small bottles).

I use Tesco for most of my bulky shopping (home delivery or instore), ASDA sometimes if I go into next Town (£3 for 3 hours parking refunded if you spend £10+).

I love M&S, their fruit & veg lasts best & I like a lot of their food.

I have a good local shop which sells mostly locally produced fruit & veg. We have a good butcher in Town. I try to buy local produce where possible. My little shop is brilliant as I can buy a couple of carrots, one leek etc if I want so no waste.

I don't like our Lidl, we don't have a local ALDI yet. I do buy some of my shopping in Home Bargains.

Morrisons & Waitrose are about 8 miles away. Sainsbury's is the least favourite of the "big 4", I find it more expensive & often can't get what I want.

Hooty I see you have already said that

At our local Lidl, if you feel a bit pressurised because there is a long queue behind you at the till, you can pile your goods back into the trolley and there is a long counter where you can pack at your leisure.

pensionpat It's truly amazing how many toolkits/sets of screws/useful DIY bits - all absolutelyessential - that DH manages to find in the centre aisles of Lidl (no Aldi near us so we don't get to one very often)!

So no, it is not cheaper shopping in Lidl or Aldi

I think the manufacturers are down-sizing but charging the same price Morgana. I bought our usual mango chutney and it looks like half the size of the jars I used to buy!

Re having to be quick packing your shopping at Lidl's---at our local one, some of the staff actually help you pack if you're a bit slower than they think you should be ! I've shopped at Lidl's for many years now, long before it became fashionable. People used to look down on me for shopping there, but they've changed their tune now.

I find a lot of the Aldi or lidl brands better than the 'real' ones. There has only been a couple of things I've disliked.

All the supermarkets have bakery items out to be coughed and sneezed on. It is unfair to single out Lidl. I agree that buying these items is not acceptable. I also never buy from the front of any shelf in a shop. I reach to the second tin or item to avoid the previous touching and sneezing by others upon those items too.

I think Aldi and Lidl take a bit of getting used to. I didn't like either at first, but quite like Aldi now, I do my main shop there and finish off at Tesco or Asda, or Iceland even. Aldi own brand stuff (mostly) is as good as branded, you just have to try it. Their mature cheddar, yogurts, cream, quiche (to name a few) are as good or better and cheaper!

You do have to pack in a different way to avoid the feeling of panic at the tills! Just lob it all back in your trolley and then go to the shelf at the back to pack up at your leisure. There just isn't time to bag pack at the till unless you only have a few items.
Our Aldi is also pretty good at opening up tills if more than 2 queuing, not so much in Lidl.

Nearly all firms have started packaging foodstuffs in slightly smaller quantities. This way the price remains the same for the packet and they hope we don't notice they have cheated us out of 18 or 20 grams of foodstuff!

It's not just one chain of supermarkets, they are nearly all at it.

I can't stand out local Lidl. Went there once when it first opened and walked out after a couple of minutes.

My husband goes there every so often as he likes to browse the middle aisle with the weekly top ups of gadgets and on offers non food goods.

I buy our fruit & veg from Morrison's. Always have as the fruit & veg produce has always been far better quality, than Tescos which is also reasonably local to us.

Used to shop in Tescos and buy top up of fruit and veg in Morrison's. Morrison is the only supermarket of the top 4 we use now.

I do use Farmfood though not for meat. Much of there tin brands such as Heinz etc is cheaper than Morrison's.

Meat and fish: I buy from an online butcher

For special occasions I use M & S sometimes.

I would probably use Iceland and Aldi if they were local to me. As we dont have transport I dont.

Household products such as washing up liquid, laundry detergent, laundry softener and dishwasher tablets I buy in bulk/catering size off eBay as that my last far longer and much more economical

Only use Morrison's for online shopping

We do one shop at Aldi where i buy a lot of times and one at Morrison's each week where i buy most other items. My sons say they like the chicken in Aldi and we love the cheese. Anything pastry we get at Morrison's because they have a baker in store and often warm.

I love shopping at Lidl and find the quality excellent. The in store bakery is wonderful (I know they just pop it in an oven -no real prep is done in store but the bread and savoury items are amazing), the Greek yoghurt, flavoured hummous, cheeses, tinned fish, luxury muesli, dark chocolate (about 40p and superb!), wine, beer, detergent, fabric conditioner.........I could go on and on. I am always pleasantly surprised at my bill. Lidl and Aldi have forced the big supermarkets to keep prices in check and, best of all I love not having to decide which of 15 different brands of one item to select and not having to walk for miles during a "quick shop".

Tins and dried goods from Aldi, anything they don't do I get from Sainsburys and meat from local butcher. If I do it all at Sainsburys it's £30-£40 more expensive

I still like Sainsbury's. We don't have any Lidl or Aldi shops near here but I did visit one once to get some cheap stuff for a charity lunch we were organising. We didn't get salad there as it looked rather sad. We found the cheese tasteless ditto cooked meats. Coleslaw etc was OK. I did get a brilliant sunbed though.
What I do notice about Morrisons & Tesco is that their sell by dates are very short compared to Sainsburys & Waitrose.
I have made a big saving by using our excellent local butcher who keeps his prices below Sainsbury's & as I only have to buy exactly what I need instead of a pack I am saving a lot of money- plus the meat is just gorgeous & all free range too.
I agree eggs look smaller but I've never weighed one!

I don't like Aldi food at all (don't know Lidl as we have no local store). There are no brands in Aldi, just their 'fake copy' brands which annoy me. I sometimes buy their 'non-food' items, such as baby bowls or similar special purchases. I don't eat meat so I can't comment on that. The stressful cash tills system alone would stop me shopping there regularly.

I was always a Sainsburys shopper and would spend up to £100 a week in there. After retiring and divorcing I now shop for meat and veg in Aldi and have to say the meat ie rib eye steak or sirloin steak is to die for. I am annoyed with myself that I could have saved myself a small fortune over the years if I had shopped at Aldi instead. I dont mind the short sell by date on fruit as it demonstrates they aren,t drowning in 'preservatives'

Morgana
Stores that you can order from online will deliver at a minimal charge.Look for the cheapest slot They attend to any problems with your order very quickly.
I have used this service on many occasions as I live out in the sticks. Were you really saving money considering your recent experience. ?

Yes I agree Blue Belle...the veg and fruit is good in both Lidl and Aldi. I like both stores. The worst store in my area is Asda...they seem to have lost their edge....there's never anything on the shelves. Yesterday I went in for some powdered milk and was told by a supervisor that they didn't sell it ......completely untrue! as I had previously bought their own brand milk there...........I managed after quite a while to find a tin of their own brand powdered milk...which they had moved to another location in the shop. I took it straight to the supervisor and admonished her for poor customer service.

I love Lidl too - no Aldi locally so have not tried it. Quality and price of fruit, veg, meat and fish is really good, much better than our local Sainsbury. I've not found that the contents of tins or jars is reduced, though obviously there is a little less choice and not much in the way of low fat foods: yoghurt, cheese, custard etc. Less organic but some free range meat.

Since a new Lidl was built ten minutes away (walking distance) from where we live, we now do most of our shopping there. Some products we still buy from TESCO, which is a ten minute drive away .

The products are good, and the fresh fruit and veg doesn't last long enough in our house to go over.

One thing I like about Tesco is the 'scan as you shop' facility in our branch, where there's no queues and we can just zip straight through.

There's ALWAYS a queue at Lidl no matter the time of day, and I find that mildly irritating as they don't have a self service till there.

We have found ourselves buying more from Lidl now e.g. a large ready basted chicken is £4, but £5 in Tesco; rump steaks are £5 for two, whereas they are £5 for one at Tesco; & the freshly baked bread and rolls are gorgeous in Lidl.

£ shops you usually get less in - companies are producing smaller packs for them
I always shop around from £ shops to waitrose - swings and roundabouts

lol yes ..also the "whoopsie" things.....(yellow labels)