Sainsbury’s take on Aldi in price war

A supermarket price war is usually good news for the customers. Bring it on.

Delighted.

I was doing a Mumsnet Insight Panel test of Homepride slow cooker sauces recently. I had to buy one each of two variants. My usual supermarket didn’t stock the range so I went to Asda where I managed to purchase one for £1. I found the other one at Morrison’s where they cost £1.50.
I am using that to illustrate that supermarkets exploit shoppers. If one store can sell a product for £1 how on earth can another justify a price of 50% more?
Competition is essential or we will continually be ripped off.
(Before anyone asks neither product was worth the money)

Our nearest Sainsbury’s is in a village a mile away. I had shopped there since opening about thirty years ago. I rarely go there now as they too often discontinue products and never give a reason why.
Before COVID it had a deli butcher and fish counters they were temporarily closed. However they are not going to reopen them apparently. They wonder why they are losing money it’s in an affluent area you would think they would cater to customers needs. Instead they are driving customers to go to discount stores further afield.

Pre-lockdown I would divide my shopping between Lidl which was further away and a very large Sainsburys. I got a bit miffed during the first lockdown as no matter how often I tried I could not get a home delivery slot from them and eventually got some with Tesco with whom I was not totally happy. We then had a brand new Aldi open which was nearer so started to shop there. In early December a new Lidl store opened, far easier & nearer to get to so I started shopping only with them, brilliant to start with as obviously few people seemed to realise it was there. This has now changed and it is getting busier each time I shop( once a week) . I do need to go to Sansburys (probably tomorrow) now as there are some things I just can't get at Lidl so I'm really pleased Sainsburys is going to be price matching as they were definitely more expensive overall.

I suppose it depends what sort of things they’re talking about? It all sounds great for the customer with some things but when there’s a price war over fresh foods - the Supermarkets don’t take the hit - the Farmers and Growers do? At the risk of being shot down, food seems much cheaper than it was years ago? Most GNs might agree that we only could afford a ‘roast’ on a Sunday and the leftovers stretched to 3 meals? Today, I know friends who have a Sunday roast and the dog/cat gets the rest. There’s steaks,
chicken breasts, chicken curry/stir fry and often something like pulled pork just for fancy sandwiches during the week too, not to mention breakfast bacon or sausage sandwiches! Sorry - a bit off topic there.

Some of us still ‘stretch’ a roast Georgesgran.

DH and I had a roast chicken on Sunday, we also had half a dozen chipolata sausages and bacon rashers with it as pigs in blankets.
Monday DH had chicken sandwiches for lunch, then dinner was a chicken hot pot casserole with left over potatoes and veg,
Tuesday chicken curry with remainder.
Carcase boiled up in slow cooker overnight, and frozen in pots to use in curries, soups etc.
I’m not mean, we like our food, but abhor waste.
All these meals were tasty and nutritious.
So many people on our local Facebook page must dine on takeaways the whole time, judging by the comments on there.

We’ve just had the last of 3-day beef from Lidl. Roast brisket beef and trimmings, then cold sliced beef with Colcannon mash and roast carrots, then the remains sliced in with stir fry vegetables. We squeezed a couple of sandwiches out of it and it cost me £7.19.

georgesgran made the point I was about to make. We should pay the proper price for our food not just try to get it ever cheaper. That just disadvantages the farmers.

I’d rather shop in Aldi than Sainsbury’s.

Me too.

It all sounds great for the customer with some things but when there’s a price war over fresh foods - the Supermarkets don’t take the hit - the Farmers and Growers do? At the risk of being shot down, food seems much cheaper than it was years ago
Yes, yet again it will be the farmer who suffers when there is a price war.

No wonder so many are in despair.
Before feeling overjoyed, watch This Farming Life.

I should also point out that Aldi may well treat farmers better than some other supermarkets.

Slightly off piste here but given that most of us might be Grans on this forum, I think it's a shame that some younger women (or men for that matter) don't know how to "stretch" for example a chicken or some meat over several meals. I was taught practical cookery & domestic science at school & know about 1st & 2nd class proteins, nutrition etc. Maybe if this subject were brought back into schools the need for food banks just might diminish?
Meanwhile, I did notice that Sainsbury's seemed more reasonable lately but I can't wait for my local Aldi to finish being rebuilt this coming summer & just across the road from my nearest Sainsbury's. Win, win!

I’d rather shop in Aldi than Sainsbury’s.

Another here. Fresh veg, meat, cooked meat, cheeses, yoghurt, baked goods, cleaning products and alcohol are all very much cheaper than any of the big name supermarkets and are superb quality. They've improved their stores to be lighter and brighter and the 2 nearest to me have much wider aisles so feel safer.

Aldi and Sainsbury’s came top in treatment of suppliers according to this.
www.fwi.co.uk/business/supermarket-treatment-suppliers-good-bad-ugly

kittylester

georgesgran made the point I was about to make. We should pay the proper price for our food not just try to get it ever cheaper. That just disadvantages the farmers.

Hear, hear. I have every sympathy for people on very tight budgets, who have to count every penny and shop wherever goods are cheapest.

But to my mind the rest of us should think more about where our food comes from, rather than be forever looking for the lowest common denominator. Food is proportionately cheaper now than it’s ever been. Obviously someone somewhere is losing out.

Sainsburys p****d me off with their overt woke signalling so have lost me whatever they do to match Aldi. Tesco have been matching Aldi for weeks now, look for their big red dot.

Their woke signalling? What’s that?

I know Sainsburys supported Black History Month. Was that what annoyed you?

Did you mean representing their whole customer base lilypollen?

I am not going into shops anymore. I would like to shop at Lidl really and have treats and "specials"ftom Waitrose or Ocado. I do realise I am lucky to have been able to make this kind of choice pre-covid.

Unfortunately, Lidl isn't even doing "click and collect" so I've used Tesco, Morrisons, Asda and Sainsbury's for deliveries. Sainsbury's repeatedly sends limp short-dated veg, Tesco always has loads of substitutions, Asda is a mix of some shoddy veg and substitutes and Morrisons (although the best of this bunch) doesn't carry some of my "staples. Ocado and Waitrose are both way, way better but way more expensive.

If Aldi or Lidl were doing home delivery I'd be very pleased. I won't be tempted back to Sainsbury's by lower prices. They need to up their delivery game as far as I'm concerned.

I don't particularly like sainsbury's food, but it's the most convenient for me to get to and from.

I've always found their food pretty average. (And expensive, for what it is)

If I had to judge a supermarket by its delivery slots, I’d wouldn't be able to rate any of them. You can’t rate what you couldn’t get.
I like Lidl and Aldi but I have to be there to choose the food, especially the fruit and veg because I find it often doesn’t last long. Mind you that’s the same as most supermarkets.

In our previous town Sainsbury’s was the only real option, but here we have Aldi and Lidl which are much cheaper and just as good.
My son works in food production. He tells me about the deals he has negotiated with the big supermarkets and how tightly they squeeze the growers and packagers. Their profits are huge.

I'm sure either Aldi or Lidl have some sort of delivery process now.