Mrs

[craftyhunnypie]

I think Aldi & Lidl are selling their great food at prices it should ALL be. It's the supermarkets sticking their hefty profits on the prices! Grrrr. Nothing wrong with Aldi or Lidl. If you have any issues with them - just don't shop there! But I think they are both great!

 

Emma.x

[Lewis]

I don't think there's a massive difference between them.

 

There was something on the other day about their fresh fruit/veg compared with others and it said they have something like a third of the lower shelf life but if you can do twice a week and eat what you buy quite quickly that its a much better option as they don't store their food in nitrogen(?) etc like some of the other supermarkets do.

[docsquid]

I think Aldi & Lidl are selling their great food at prices it should ALL be. It's the supermarkets sticking their hefty profits on the prices!

 

Emma.x

 

I agree - somebody is making money and it isn't the farmers. We talk to a lot of farmers. Supermarkets often sell food for less than it costs to produce. The cheapest places are selling it for less than half the cost of production - in some cases less than the cost of the seed, let alone paying for it to be planted, tended, harvested, collected and distributed. Aldi and Lidl make profits just as other supermarkets do, so it must be the producers who are losing out and the supermarkets and distributors who are making the money. It breaks my heart when we go to farm auctions to buy equipment or spares to see kind and caring farmers who do a good job being driven out of business due to this downward pressure on food prices. Production is being forced overseas where animal welfare and environmental standards, not to mention the working conditions of the farm labourers, are much lower than in the UK and with the added environmental costs of shipping.

 

I appreciate that all supermarkets need to make a profit and cheap outlets do provide a good service, but that ought not to be at the expense of the producers - some work better with their suppliers than others. Our food is much cheaper than it was 20 or 30 years ago (as a proportion of income), and that downward price pressure cannot continue. Eventually food will have to return to its true value but by then much of the expertise needed to produce it will have been lost, at least in the UK.

 

We are lucky here in that we can buy from farm shops, and have plenty of them locally to choose from. Their food is cheap, local and good quality. We are also lucky that we can afford to go to Waitrose or Marks and Spencer (although they aren't actually as expensive as popular myth suggests). Would that everybody had that opportunity

[meezers]

I do my main shop at Aldi, topping up at Tesco or Sainsburys ( as Aldi don't sell everything - esp vegetarian stuff ).

Our favourites are the ice cream in the square black tub , the smoothies in the chill section, their dark chocolate and fudge is gorgeous.Shortbread and rich tea biscs, their crumbed/flavoured salmon and other fish and their chilled pies.

There are a couple of things I've stopped buying from there- the washing up liquid doesn't bubble up like it used to and they must have had an accident at the brown sauce factory - I think our last bottle had several tablespoons of all spice in it ( wondered what son was on about when he said the sauce tasted like mince pies, but he was right ) so that's off the list now.

[craftyhunnypie]

Poppy likes her cat treat sticks from Lidl!

Hubby loves the white chocolate.

 

Emma.x

[BeckyBoo]

Well I went to Aldi - didn't have time to go to both. Whoever designed the layout obviously wasn't a woman with kids in tow very bizarre! But I took my time and got quite a bit at a lot less than Sainsburys which is my nearest. I'm going to try Lidl for next weeks shop, I certainly couldn't do ALL my shopping there as the range was quite limited but the fruit and veg seemed as extensive as Sainsburys and what I don't get at the veg market I'll get from there. It's a bit of a trek for me so I've no doubt Sainsburys will still get some custom, expecially as some of their "basics" range is cheaper than Aldi. But I'm glad I found it - only lived here for nearly 20 years

 

BeckyBoo

[WarrensWorld]

We're fortunate we have a brand new Lidl and a new Aldi. Lidl for their power tools, and tools. I still don't know how they can sell them at that price.

That Yamaha, electric guitar combo a few weeks back was an absolute steal, and no I didn't buy one.

Eileen, says both, but she leans towards Lidl as SWMBO I have to agree with here.... .

[chick wiggle]

Our normal saturday routine is to go to Aldis then across the road to sainsburys to get anything that Aldis dont sell.

I have found just about everthing aldis sell is as good as all the brand name stuff. ie ketchup, salad cream, chopped toms etc etc.