Aldi expansion

Aldi and Lidl sell a great deal of British produce, employ huge amounts of staff ( and pay them better than most other supermarkets) and as far as I am aware, pay all their taxes, so the argument about being a 'foreign' supermarket is, I think, irrelevant, especially when one sees their car park full of German made cars!

Just to answer the remark about supporting 'foreign' companies instead of British.
When Aldi say they source locally they mean local. Soft fruits come from farms within a 10 mile radius. Fresh veg also local - far more so than those trucked the length of the country. As granny 23 pointed out meat (and fish) are mostly sourced nearby.
My GCs enjoy the variety of breakfast cereals which are not heavily advertised and are reasonably priced.
No complaints from me - no overcrowding, no parking issues.

The Aldi italian blend ground coffee is excellent, and at least £1 per pack cheaper than the big brands. They keep their prices down by having multi tasking staff who will stock shelves and then go to the check outs when needed, you will never see anyone sitting at an Aldi checkout twiddling their thumbs. They also do not have staff standing behind a deli, butchery, fish counter waiting for customers. This all cuts costs. DS likes high protein breakfast cereal, I buy one in Aldi for £1.69 and the nearest equivalent in Sainsburys was well in excess of £3.00. Their dishwasher tablets, washing tablets, bleach, washing up liquid are all good, and many have the Good Housekeeping stamp on them. They are not perfect, sometimes we need to pop to Sainsburys for some items, but the bulk of our shopping is done efficiently and quickly in Aldi........as long as we can avoid browsing the very interesting central aisle........

It may have been Papaya or some similar tropical fruit on sale in Aldi at 49p
The same day in Waitrose, the same type and size of fruit/ same stage of ripeness was on sale at between £2 and £3.
When asked why, the buyer explained that she liked to think the Waitrose quality was somewhat higher. I said 'Oh no it isn't' but consider that it is such discrepancies that have led to the fall in Waitrose profits

I travel nearly 4 miles to go to Aldi every week for my shopping. Very soon I will only have to travel 1.5 miles as a new Aldi is about to open in my own town. I can't wait. Feel very exited.

Actually, I don't know how they can sell papaya at 49p - someone, somewhere is losing out (the farmer?) or else the fruit has been subsidised by the government of the country producing it.

A friend went ' Glamping' on a farm and they were given a tour. The farmer said his beef went to Waitrose but any that wasn't as good a shape went to Aldi. Near my French holiday home we have the choice of 4 Lidls ,including a new one ,all very similar to UK Lidl branches.There is one Aldi Marche which isn't very good and is very different to the UK Version

I think that's how it works, Busset
Although I must say that some farmers 'seconds' are better than the 'firsts' of others.

I think in most of Europe, excluding Germany, there are more Lidl supermarkets than Aldi. Although there is a very good Aldi near the Eurotunnel at Calais. I have never seen a better vaiety of fruit and vegetables in any supermarket. When we come yo England we always go to Aldi for our gammon joints to take home with us. They are the best tasting and such a ressonable price. On our last trip I bought 4 swede in Sainsbury for 90 pence each. When we got to Aldi they were 37 pence each so my DH picked up 4 more. They are not available in Portugal unless you go to Iceland in the Algarve. Guess which ones went a bit wrinkly first? Yes the ones from Sainsbury.

Also though you may not recognise some on the brand names on the tinned goods in Aldi and Lidl a high proportion are actually from UK factories. Premier foods being one of them.

Some years ago DD watched a program about Aldi and it explained the company's brand policy of not having own brands with a recognisable name, but instead inventing a 'brand' name for every product they produced. Each name being appropriate to the product, for example tinned tomatoes had an Italian name, champagne a French name and frankfurters a German brand name.

This way it encouraged customers, who would never economise by being seen buying a Tesco own brand or Waitrose Essential, but were delighted to shop in Aldi, because all the products had brand names on them. Not brands they recognised, but they were brands, so they were happy thinking that they had shopped cheaply, but no-one who didn't shop in Aldi would know.

Jalima I made the point you made earlier and like you got no response, people prefer to shut their eyes and ignore thinking about any exploitation that might be happening, all that matters is that they pay less.

I believe there was a program about Aldi exploitation of their staff, expecting them to do unpaid overtime, by coming in 15 minutes before their shift started and staying on after it finished. Some were also not being paid the minimum wage.

But heigh ho, providing customers can buy their food cheap - and most of them are not poverty stricken single mothers or poor pensioners trying desperately to eat and pay their heating bills.

Both Lidl and Aldi have broken the law with employment and food.
For me, the worst was committed by Lidl when they poisoned food in their waste bins to stop homeless people raiding the bins.

A few things I've found in Sainsburys and Asda that are cheaper than at Lidl and Aldi.
Alot of the fruit and veg is not such good quality at both my local Lidl and Aldi and Lidl doesn't have dates on packets only week numbers which can be confusing.
I don't stay loyal to any supermarket generally shop around

How boring to shop at just one retailer. Having retired, variety being the spice of life and with four major supermarkets in my area, I can take my pick .

My very first experience of Aldi was very poor. I bought maybe half a dozen items. I was charged twice for one item and when I opened a tin of plum tomatoes, there were precisely one-and-a-half tomatoes inside, along with a lot of watery juice. It's over 20 miles to my neast Aldi so it wasn't feasible to go back to complain.

I gave it a second chance, though, when I heard they sometimes sell craft yarns in the Aisle of Weirdness, and I have been more successful since then.

I bought two avocadoes recently which were at that elusive point of ripeness between being hard and going black. Perfect! Great bananas, too, and not wrapped in plastic.

I don't do much of my shopping there, though, as it's too far away.

We are to have an Aldi soon, within walking distance! We already have a Lidl about 2 miles away, and it's one of their larger stores, about twice the size of their other stores in the vicinity.
DH is pleased about the new Aldi, because he loves their wine, well one in particular, and currently the nearest branch is about 5 miles away.
Although I do shop in both Aldi and Lidl from time to time, I don't honestly like doing the bulk of my shopping there, because there always seem to be several things I can't get there, which doesn't happen at Tesco or Sainsbury. So then I have to go to another store anyway, to get the missing items ?

Apart from all the above mentioned advantages at Lidl and Aldi there is the fact that they don't constantly change stuff around like all the other supermarkets do in order to make you discover products you might not have seen/bought otherwise.
The next enormous advantage is that their layout here not only stays mostly the same but is almost replicated abroad, so shopping when on holiday is easy.
For me this cuts down on the stress factor as I hate shopping!
All this coupled with their superb vegetable, dairy and meat products and not to forget the great booze section makes me a fan. I've been shopping lidl and aldi since the 70s when I had to nip across the border to germany as there weren't any in holland yet and all their products were in large cardboard boxes rather haphazardly scattered around but even then they were terrific value and have only improved since.

Monica. I believe the so called extra unpaid time by staff was due to a rule that staff have to be ready to start work at the beginning of their shift ie if you are scheduled to be on the floor or till at 9am you need to arrive at 8.50 to get changed into uniform, put personal effects in locker etc. Not unreasonable and common practice

the Aisle of Weirdness

the aisle that DH loves! Only it's the one in Lidl as we have no Aldi here.

M0nica Yes, someone, somewhere, has to be funding such low prices.
I did hear, though, that when there is a 'two for one' or 'three for two' offer in such supermarkets as Tesco, that it is the farmer or producer who is forced to fund this, not the supermarket itself. Aldi and Lidl do not have offers such as 'BOGOF', just generally lower prices.

I'd like to know what plans they have for post-Brexit re the supply chains.

I shop mainly in Aldi and Lidl and also use Morrisons for butcher meat although I'm sure that both the former are of good enough quality but can buy the exact amount from the butcher as opposed to pre-packed. Living in Spain we have used Lidl's for years and was absolutely delighted when they opened in the town here. Another reason I like Lidl's is their wine selection and quality. Reading wine reviews I often find Lidl's recommended for both price and quality and although I am in Aldi's more often I always buy wine in Lidl's. The only problem I find with both stores are the shoppers who pack at the checkout rather than use the shelf built for this purpose. Can 't understand why they don't notice the size of the counter at the check out and realise the difficulty of trying to pack shopping into bags there rather than put it back quickly into their trolley and then pack at their leisure once through the checkout!

Gardenoma, your post has dragged up a long-forgotten memory for me! I recall now that when staying with friends in Germany in 1975 we went to a Lidl. As you say, it was piled high with teetering cardboard boxes!

I've also remembered that we bought strawberry wine there and enjoyed it so much that the next year, we had a bash at making our own strawberry wine. Let's just say it was somewhat more potent than the commercial variety.

Lily O'Brien's chocolate is disturbingly awful. Tried a box of them once, never again and who on earth wants to eat an 'acceptable' cheesecake?
Food should be moreish and lift your spirits, both visually and taste-wise, whether beans on toast (Tom Kerridge's recipe is wonderful) or a complicated Michelin starred presentation.

merlotgran
Not where I live, you don't. Any 'foreign languages' or accents heard in my small town are spoken by tourists or cleaners, not residents.

Where do the cleaners live? Are they not residents?