Discount grocery stores

teetime I like trying out brands I don't know. If they don't find favour, I use them up in one way or another. But often it means we discover a new favourite.

The Sainsbury's nearest to me is quite ... grotty, whereas the Lidl is great. A large new Aldi opened near us, and there's much to like, but unfortunately after only a few weeks it looks like a cheap car boot sale especially on weekends.

I tend to buy mostly from Waitrose (because there's one across the road from where I live) but will go to Lidl for: a change, the Turkish yoghurt (£1.59 for a litre), loose pistachio nuts (superfresh), fruit and veg.

Don't they just vary from district to district though? I used to like the friendly till ladies at Morrisons in Leeds when the DDs lived there, but ours while laid out in the same way is just not as nice. Asda at the end of DD1's road has great stuff, but our is so huge I get agoraphobia just looking at it so of course I never go there.
I think Lidl and Aldi can be like that, there are some great bargains if you can find them and if they are what you wanted anyway,(industrial quantities of Prosecco when we had an anniversary party) but otherwise I agree, I can't see what all the fuss is about either.

30% saving on my weekly shop is enough to make a fuss about chez merlot

I'm definitely a Sainsbury's girl .. we have a small new Aldi opening just up the road next week..I will pop in just for a look-see...but I don't really see the attraction of either A or L......are things definitely much cheaper ? to my mind you gets what you pays for ! I do appreciate that for people who have to work to a budget then maybe they are a good thing.....but for me I couldn't be bothered to drive miles...using petrol and wear and tear etc on the car just to save a few quid ! (But 30% saving isn't to be sniffed at is it Merlotgran

We lived in Devon quite a few years back, and there was a supermarket called "Brian Mills" was run on just the same lines as the A and L stores...didn't like it one bit with all the boxes of stuff piled up .

I do like Waitrose, but it is quite expensive and wouldn't want to do a whole weeks' shop there.

Grannyknot it's a shame that your local S'burys is grotty....you must come down to our Epsom one.....Fab !!

I've never done a weekly shop in our Aldi (nearest Lidl is 20 miles) but there are a few things we make a point of going there for.
DH loves the 'home n ware' bargains especially the tools. It doesn't bother me that these are not in a separate area. Our store isn't large enough for that anyway despite being extended last year.
I'm always pleased with how small my bill is.

I like to mix and match my grocery shopping and use all the supermarkets with no real loyalty any more.
Aldi has excellent cheaper brands of biscuits and we love their steak. I am always surprised at the low price at the checkout.

I use Aldi all the time. The only thing I can't get there is the cat's food as she only likes Whiskas and Purina biscuits! Certainly don't like the thought of unwrapped bread on a low-level shelf anywhere, though!
I got quite a large trolley-load of shopping the other day from Aldi and this cost just under £50. Amongst the purchases was a large amount of fruit, veg and fresh meat. Happy with that.

I did my first and last proper Aldi shop recently and wasn't impressed either. The fresh food wasn't any cheaper or fresher and as Teetime says, it was very muddled, with a jumble sale area in the middle full of hardware and clothes that weren't even good value. I see myself as a canny shopper and save a lot by being flexible, buying what's on offer, bogoffs and 3 for 2s and freezing the extra where appropriate. With the discount stores you can't do this. Also, talk about service without a smile - no please or thank you and I was barked at at check-out to put the trolley the right way round, obviously the opposite way round to the one I'd used . I saved nothing and left in a bad mood.

But I do love Aldi chocolate, and go there especially for all my Easter eggs and bunnies. Great quality and I don't know how they do it for the price.

I do think the produce varies from store to store in all supermarkets. We have 3 major ones along an A road near us. The ' cheaper' one has fantastic fresh fruit and veg. Reflecting the multicultural aspect of the area.
The 'middle' priced one has good choices in each type of product. The more 'expensive' store has really interesting food, which is of a very high quality.

But all these store in other parts of the country would not necessarily be in the same categories or have the same products.

x

Sheena I'll have to ! I think what puts me off Sainsbury's too, is their "own brand" packaging. It's awful! Whilst when I buy a Waitrose Essential product, it doesn't seem "down market". (I caaan't believe I just wrote that!) .

I realise that I don't think of L and Aldi as 'discount supermarkets' but just an an alternative place to shop.

The funny thing is, on our high street, everyone knows that Co-op has the best croissants in the bakery, so we all cross the street after shopping in Waitrose and avoid eye contact in the queue at Co-op, clutching our bags of croissants.

Depends what you're looking for, though you may find something you never knew you wanted. For example, last year Lidl had three teeshirts for £5. Not haute couture, but perfect for popping on over a swimsuit to protect my Celtic skin from the UV rays. Great value were the fabric pens I bought for my GD who happily decorated a couple of white teeshirts I got from Ebay. A serendipitous find was a very good step ladder which enables me to change light bulbs without risking my neck on a chair. In Aldi last winter I got a very cheap pair of warm leather gloves, hardly top quality but good enough for driving. And yes, I do buy dairy products, fish and eggs in Lidl and Aldi much more cheaply than in the big supermarkets. And their chocolate is terrific value though I do try to walk quickly past it.

We tend to mix n match between Aldi and Morrisons and I do find I can save by doing that. Our Aldi store has lovely, very courteous staff. Morrisons staff are scary! We pop into Lidl on the way to gransdon's school, but only to see what their offers are. I bought an electric toothbrush there a few weeks ago which DS has tried and says it's every bit as good as the one he bought from Boots - his cost sixty pounds; mine cost thirteen, and it has a three year guarantee. What's not to like? I do love Sainsburys but I don't go in there very often. They have lots of lovely stuff other supermarkets tend not to stock and therein lies my downfall!

Sainsbury's knickers are good (for me anyway) and I bought a really pretty scarf there for a fiver. I haven't seen it on anyone else. I have a couple of big linen shirts from there too which are good for covering up in the sun.

Sainsbury's teeshirts are brilliant, they don't lose their shape and are really good value I buy all mine there and DH loves the men's ones.

In fact I think their clothing range for children is very good value too, much better than M&s and cheaper too

I do most of my shopping in our local Aldi and yes it is cheaper. I have been particularly pleased with Polo shirts for DH which stupidly cheap and very good quality. Their cook in the bag chickens are great and DH prefers their yoghurts to the branded ones. I go to Lidl to stock up when they are having an Italian week as they do a much better selection of Italian food and wine and it's a fraction of the price of going to a Deli. Their Amaretto is very nearly as good as Di Sarronno.

greyduster you've reminded me - I bought a fab cordless iron from Lidl ages ago, for all of 14.99, and it's still going strong.

The staff at 'our' Aldi are really pleasant, too! When I called in at Morrison's for the cat food the other day, the only conversation I got was a bored, "Got a mix and match card?" from rather grim-looking checkout girl !

I think that Lidl's used to be quite a lot cheaper in our town than the nearest other 2 supermarkets.
But they realised that they were losing out, so the price difference is now not so large.

But yes, Lidl does mean trying out unfamiliar brands.

I am on a very tight budget but at the same time I'm concerned about animal welfare, the environment and sustainable food production. This makes shopping anywhere a bit of a challenge.

I bought three things on my trip to Lidl - some fruit and nuts mix, a bottle of Prosecco and a small mixed grain loaf. The fruit and nut mix which we opened after dinner - the nuts were soft and probably stale - we have thrown that to the birds, the bread was ok no different to any other store probably cheaper at 69 pence and we will have the Prosecco today. As we have a party to do in August if this is Ok I probably will buy some more - will let you know.

We tend to use Sainsbury's for the things we can't get in Lidl's. And Lidl's fruit and veg no cheaper than Sainsbury? That's not my experience, many fresh items beating Sainsbury by quite a large margin - this week cucumbers are 29p each, avocados 69p. Also fresh fish - 2 salmon steaks for £2.59 - usually £4 or £5 in Sainsbury. As for the unfamiliar brands, they are generally so much cheaper that it's worth trying and you could be pleasantly surprised by some of them - we have been.
And now they have an in store bakery - I bought a couple of Vanilla Crowns last week (you know, the Danish pastries with custard in the centre). They were 29p each. I popped into our local Co-op a few days later and they were selling exactly the same pastries, same size, for 89p . In Sainsbury they come in packs of 2 for £1.20.
Another thing I like about Lidl's is that they don't throw hundreds of free carriers at you, but make a small charge (3p I think). BUT, unlike the ridiculously flimsy things that the main supermarkets use, that generally fall apart after one use and are not even usable as bin liners, Lidl's ones are big, strong bags, definitely re-usable (I'm not talking about their stronger Bag for Life types, these are just the standard ones).
I admit these stores are very different from the mainstream supermarkets, and need getting used to, but we are converts now!

Lidl opened 16 shops here in Southern Cyprus a couple of years ago and it has changed the whole supermarket shopping scene. One big chain went to the wall as shoppers realised they had been putting up with lousy service and over priced goods. The one up market chain has expanded and opened new shops and is a joy to shop in, it even has a contract with Tesco to stock over 1200 items inducing some of there Finest range. So thank you Lidl, and by the way, love your own brand cheese and bread!!

I am a fan of Asda, partly as I live near but I like the staffs attitude and the prices.

However we have and aldi and Lidl and I have used both of them, I find the fruit and veg at both stores are good quality and the freshness in unbeatable, I also like the chocolate. I don't like the fresh bread section in Lidl being open for anyone to handle the products, I only ever buy the wrapped items. However I find the prices are not cheaper than asda apart from the tinned food. You can get a small tin of beans for a few pence etc.

The jumble sale effect is true but I cant complain as the last time I went to Aldi I got a denim skirt for £3, nice tough denim will wash and wear well. ive also had tshirts which weren't good quality, tools and garden items.
If you have plenty of time to root around you can get bargains but on a weeks shop I think Asda is best value and as I am on sick pay at the minute I am definitely on a budget.

I noticed today that Aldi had sets of ceramic pans for around £24, in case anyone's interested. They also had little pans which they labelled as 'tapas pans'. I'd already bought a ceramic frying pan in Home Bargains this morning, for around £4.