It’s become very fashionable to shop at Aldi or Lidl. Years ago they were seen as bargain-bin shops, snubbed by the hummus eating brown rice brigade or the Waitrose organic upper middles with their Duchy biscuits and artisan bread.
I used to shop at Sainsburys, with occasional fraught dashes in Asda (or Asdul as its known in Bristol). Then I realised that Lidl and Aldi weren’t just cheaper, they were great quality too. No faffing about with Nectar cards, no negotiating endless aisles of constantly re-arranged goods in soulless stores like airport hangers.
Aldi and Lidl stock the basics at cheaper prices than the other major players in the supermarket game. By basics I mean everyday items like pasta tubes, porridge oats, canned chickpeas or tomatoes. Their cat food and cleaning products are good value, Lidl’s Fin Carte chocolate is fabulous (great taste, 35pence a bar. Bliss!)
Both discount stores regularly stock good quality, fresh fruit and vegetables at reasonable prices and the non-food items (the Aisles of Wonder) are either great value or totally irrelevant but funny, depending on what’s in stock. Maybe this week it’ll be riding equipment, maybe next week there’ll be a bread-maker and some bongo drums!
The stores are clean and well-stocked. The layout practical rather than fancy-pants. Staff are polite and amazing fast at scanning your items through their beep-beep machine at the till. You’ve barely put the stuff on the conveyor belt before it’s ready to be bagged up.
This weekend at Lidl it’s half price on their fruit infusion tea bags, down to 49p for 40 bags. I used to drink Twinings, but their boxes of fruit tea are well over £1.00 for just 20 bags, and there’s no point paying more than you need to. Lidl’s improbably named Knightsbridge range offer a very drinkable ‘Very Berry’ or Lemon & Ginger, Camomile or Peppermint, so why not pop a few boxes in your basket?
The only things I wouldn’t recommend from these two discounters are the cheap shampoo and conditioners. They left my hair feeling out very raggedy and limp. I’d rather pay a teeny bit more and buy something decent from Superdrug’s own range. But maybe you’d disagree? What’s been your best discount supermarket buy? Or maybe the most surprising thing you’ve found in the non-food aisles at the supermarket?
CORRECTION: I realised the day after this post that I'd got my timings wrong - the tea's on offer for 1/2 price on the weekend of 1st/2nd Nov. I was too hasty!!
I used to shop at Sainsburys, with occasional fraught dashes in Asda (or Asdul as its known in Bristol). Then I realised that Lidl and Aldi weren’t just cheaper, they were great quality too. No faffing about with Nectar cards, no negotiating endless aisles of constantly re-arranged goods in soulless stores like airport hangers.
Aldi and Lidl stock the basics at cheaper prices than the other major players in the supermarket game. By basics I mean everyday items like pasta tubes, porridge oats, canned chickpeas or tomatoes. Their cat food and cleaning products are good value, Lidl’s Fin Carte chocolate is fabulous (great taste, 35pence a bar. Bliss!)
Both discount stores regularly stock good quality, fresh fruit and vegetables at reasonable prices and the non-food items (the Aisles of Wonder) are either great value or totally irrelevant but funny, depending on what’s in stock. Maybe this week it’ll be riding equipment, maybe next week there’ll be a bread-maker and some bongo drums!
The stores are clean and well-stocked. The layout practical rather than fancy-pants. Staff are polite and amazing fast at scanning your items through their beep-beep machine at the till. You’ve barely put the stuff on the conveyor belt before it’s ready to be bagged up.
This weekend at Lidl it’s half price on their fruit infusion tea bags, down to 49p for 40 bags. I used to drink Twinings, but their boxes of fruit tea are well over £1.00 for just 20 bags, and there’s no point paying more than you need to. Lidl’s improbably named Knightsbridge range offer a very drinkable ‘Very Berry’ or Lemon & Ginger, Camomile or Peppermint, so why not pop a few boxes in your basket?
The only things I wouldn’t recommend from these two discounters are the cheap shampoo and conditioners. They left my hair feeling out very raggedy and limp. I’d rather pay a teeny bit more and buy something decent from Superdrug’s own range. But maybe you’d disagree? What’s been your best discount supermarket buy? Or maybe the most surprising thing you’ve found in the non-food aisles at the supermarket?
CORRECTION: I realised the day after this post that I'd got my timings wrong - the tea's on offer for 1/2 price on the weekend of 1st/2nd Nov. I was too hasty!!