Are these 'cheaper' shops really cheaper?

Hmm, all very interesting. Think I will head off to Lidl this pm. And will look up the closest Aldi. Have to say, currently order shopping from ocado, which is very good and reliable but very tempting.

I tried and failed to shop at the cheap supermarkets. The vegetables are ok but the range is limited. I don't buy processed meats unless its the home made ham from our butcher. We have a good Morrisons for bread and fresh veg (our bakers and green grocers closed of course when Morrisons opened). I go to Sainsbury for the bigger shop. The butcher for meat and the fish shop for fish.

We have an Asda, Tesco and Lidl in our small town and Morrisons 10 minutes away in the next town. The quality of the meat and veg in our Lidl is very good. I do a weekly shop in Morrisons, a top up in Asda and once a month I visit Lidl for jam, olive oil, and various continental items. I bulk buy baby wipes for my granddaughter who has very sensitive skin, as they are so much cheaper than the well known brands. Also their wines have won awards and I buy their more expensive wines as gifts for family.
The only downside about Lidl is that centre isle. Any savings I make are blown away on stuff I don't need!.
However, I do find the cooked meat dates are never very far in advance. .

As I work in a well know big supermarket I usually do most of my shopping there as I have 10% off.

There are lots of people who come with the vouchers, that give money off their shop if it shows they could have bought cheaper elsware.
You have to go on the website and print of the voucher to redeem the money off your next shopping bill.
Hence it does keep customers coming . The least I have had through my till was prob about 67p..the highest was £16 last week where it was a toy.

Also there is a customer who comes in with lots and lots of these vouchers, buys almost the equivalent of shopping and ends up paying virtually nothing because of the vouchers. Of course you have to input the codes etc but if you have time to do this and are quite good at it, it can save you money.Must say I never do it myself as I only buy small bits at a time.
What people are seem to be doing now is bulk buying when items are on offer....

I wonder how much all those vouchers cost them in paper and printer ink bikergran

hmm yes ...as sometimes they come printed on an A4 sheet ....but others come minuscule lol ...Im sure with techy they will develop app on phone or something wizzardary lol but they are coming thick and fast at the moment.

I'm the worlds worst at using vouchers - I either lose them or forget they're there until they're out of date. My DIL works for one of big supermarkets too and regularly gets huge discounts on stuff just in date or past it - how soap powder can be past it I don't know! My son says she'll come home from her late shift with cakes neither of them should be eating

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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. ?

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'

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 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!

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 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".

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 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

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 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.

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 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.

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.