Aldi

monquixote

I might win most mundane topic of the week for this, but what are people's thoughts on Aldi?

The two nearest supermarkets to me are Waitrose and Asda. I tend to shop at Asda unless I want something poncey that they don't sell as the food seems to be of a largely equivalent quality and the main advantage of Waitrose seems to be the opportunity to have your groceries scanned by a ruddy cheeked public schoolboy. 

In a week however they are opening an Aldi even closer still (about 10 minutes walk). 

When I mentioned this at work a few of the more middle class people turned their nose up at the fact that I shop at Asda, but had only praise for Aldi. 

This surprised me a bit as I thought that Aldi was in a lower strata of cheepo poor people shops, however they stuck some propaganda through my door suggesting they are the Which? supermarket of the year. A bit of digging suggests they sell fairly high quality stuff with the savings obtained by pairing the overheads to the bone.

Seems like it might be worth a look as a potential way for me to save a few quid. 

Barney

my shopping was around £150 a week at tesco ...we go Aldi and get everything we need for around 50 quid less..i think its a great shop...good quality stuff as well...

Emp_Fab

I love Aldi, though they're not as cheap as Lidl.  They do some great wines, plus, like Lidl, they've always got a wide array of tools and gadgets you don't need but simply must have :-)  They have a greater range of big name brands than Lidl too.

I have their app on my phone so I can see what gadgets I don't need that they have in this week !

johnnyurq

We had a Lidl and then an Aldi to break the Tesco monopoly here, we were called Tesco town due to having 4 Tesco sites and a potential 5th. Then add land banking and it took years for Asda, Lidl and aldi to get a toe hold.

Lidl deserves the reputation it has and may colour peoples perception of Aldi but they are like night and day. Lidl we tried twice never to return but Aldi is pretty decent with quality stuff and branded stuff often cheaper than Tesco/Asda/Morrisons.

Some of the more exotic euro foods are an acquired taste and challenging to the taste buds, but some of it is lovely and at times better than our usual fare.

Not sure about down South but in Scotland they are growing well and improving all the time.

We have a phrase "gie it laldy" which is equivalent to giving it some, Aldi tapped into this and got even more traction.

http://laldy.com

Well worth a go though you may be pleasantly surprised.

 

monquixote

Interesting stuff thanks. 

I've just noticed the Aldi website has got a big splash about it's 500th store on the front page which is (fanfare) the one up the road from me. 

viz

I've been waiting for an Aldi thread since this place began. It's UNBELIEVABLE. 34p for a kilo of rice?

littlegreenman

I fuckin love Aldi, and Lidl. Saves me a mega-bundle for all kinds of stuff.

suspiciousminds

I was a deputy mgr with Lidl 4 years ago and like any workplace there were a few jumped up twunts working for them further up the ladder, that said, if you kept your head down and, i quote, "beasted stock out", you'de be ok.
There's no doubt, the credit crunch helped them massively because it forced customers to shop with them based on price alone rather than perception of the stores/company.
In terms of the products, they focus very high on quality - especially fruit n veg, and sometimes stock lines you probably would struggle to get in other places, which attracts quite mix of people.
Bloody long hours though, and as they dont generally have many staff - theres many times a 6am-4pm shift ended up being a 6am-9pm shift if people were off sick.
On average though, 50 quid for a full trolley of shopping is pretty good really.

stickyfiddle

Interestingly, I find Aldi to be shit and Lidl to be brilliant. Either way, doing a whole shop in one of them doesn't save money, but working out what is good there and bulk-buying that worked well for us. FOr me that means tinned chopped tomatos, cheese, pitta breads, honey & jam but not veg, loo roll and meat. 

chillidoggy

Aldi's OK, it's having to dress down to go in there that's a pain.

Myranda

Nearest ASDA - 7.9 miles

Nearest LIDL - 9.0 miles

Nearest ALDI - 17.5 miles

I think people want me to use the Sainsbury's Tesco Marks & Spencer and Waitrose all of which are within walking distance

not_the_dj

I love the way Aldi use 'tribute band' style names. The Jogger chocolate bar is their bootleg bootleg version of a Marathon/Snickers. Titan bar is a Mars bar. All with 'familiar' looking packaging.

viz

Love instead of Clover. Genius.

mike257

Like others have said above, if I go to Aldi I spend about 2/3rds of what I would at the Asda across the road.  Their own brand stuff is generally pretty good and they often have name brand stuff on cheap deals too.  Keep things cheap by being streamlined and only stocking (for example) one type of baked beans rather than a full aisle with 6 different types of essentially the same thing - so they need smaller stores and have lower running costs as a consequence.  

I'll usually go there for the majority of things and then run over the road to the Asda (literally opposite each other) for the few things that I can't get there (or that the kids absolutely have to have the 'real' brands).  When I lived alone I was quite happy to buy everything there.

Like not_the_dj says, they are a bit Tokai in their presentation of the own brand stuff, but it leaves you in little doubt as to what you're buying at least!

monquixote

Weirdly I've just seen an article about having a Wiatrose making an area posher. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24629300

We've had a Waitrose for years, but since I've moved to Bury St E they've opened an Asda and now an Aldi so I think I may have brought down the neighbourhood. 

So would it be fair to say the best thing with Aldi is to go and grab all the stuff that's on offer, or do peopel use it for their main shop?

EricTheWeary

We end up doing a Tesco main shop out of convenience for various reasons. Aldi is fine and we might pop in but they have such a limited range we couldn't do a weekly shop there. Somethings are cheap and bargaintastic, somethings are cheap and craptastic.
The shoppers seem to be roughly split between those bulk buying something they have worked out is a bargain ( stuffing the back of the Range Rover with special offer wines) and those buying cheap family food for a couple of days. From my odd trips there I would say it is rare to see someone obviously doing a big family shop ( although I would say the same about Waitrose).
As a shopping experience it is better than Asda though which just seems to be a day prison for the depressed.

not_the_dj

I work right next door to an Aldi so I just pop in for the last minute stuff (and chocolate bars).

Where I live we have a tired looking Sainsburys and a shinny new (well a few years old now) Waitrose. The Sainsburys is mainly there to keep the riff-raff away from Waitrose. 

octatonic

Never been to a Lidl in my life.

We have Sainsbury, Waitrose, Morrisons, Tesco and various express/metro shops around here.

We do have Poundland/Iceland (also never been to) etc in the Oaks shopping centre, which is being knocked down for a Waitrose and a bunch of new flats.

Gentrification rocks.

bertie

if you buy/eat supermarket  own brand type stuff   its pretty good. If you dont and/or like better choice,  and you dont mind waiting 30 mins at a checkout queue with little or no room to pack your bag(s)  then its great.

We mix between Tescos (our closest normal choice cos of the points and fuel)  Asda, and Waitrose (uber selection of Gin), the latter being a bit of a hike.  However there is a new Asda opening "nearer" us in December, we'll probably give that a go.....

The odd trip to Aldi/Lild 90% lyusual ends in us leaving the shopping basket "mid isle" cos of the stupidly long queues

Customer service at Waitrose, is second to none.  Uber polite and very efficient......most of the other places is usually a "dunno" then proceeds to check the very shelf you've just spent 5 minutes looking at to be told "no sorry"

Jetfire

We tried our local Aldi/Lidl and we really struggled with getting a full shop there. We also found that we couldnt get any where near as much stuff as compared tp tesco but maybe its just the size of our local shop?

EricTheWeary

@bertie our Aldi is easily quicker service than the main supermarkets.