Aldi.

[Retired]

Hi,

A few years ago Aldi opened a new local store where I found I could buy fresh Soya for 59p litre compared to Morrison's at over £1 per litre so obviously I took advantage of this saving us something like £300 per year because we use a lot of this Soya.

As I became more familiar with Aldi I started to buy more from them and in general the savings were to be had; however over the last few months Aldi has started to become very expensive indeed; Bananas; potatoes; strawberries and carrots as examples; all looking OK with a quick check in the store but many are being found bad once brought home and opened; it's not worth the fuel and time to return the faulty items but it is a very expensive way to shop in fact just like giving the money away for nothing.

I'll carry on buying fresh Soya at Aldi but little else in future and I'll also check Morrison's to see if they do a price check on fresh Soya; if so I'll ignore Aldi in future; cheap usually means cheap.

Has anyone else noticed the quality difference between Aldi and the big supermarkets?

Kind regards, Col.

[steviejoiner74]

I would never buy veg pre packed,always loose and Aldi and Lidl are not any cheaper than the big supermarkets in this instance. I have an Aldi and a lidl within 600 yards of each other where I live and also a Tesco. I rarely shop at the lidl/Aldi for a number of reasons.
1-poorly staffed and usually only one till open and the shop is packed.
2-the lidl/Aldi own brand stuff isn't any cheaper or better than Tesco,Asda,Morrison own brand stuff so again I don't bother.
3- most of the fresh produce is within a day of being out of date,no good to me.
4-many of the branded items I buy weekly is either more expensive or not stocked.

I wasn't a fan of Tesco for years but they've dramatically slashed prices within the last year meaning I no longer shop at Asda who were always at least 10% cheaper and had my custom.

[big-all]

you need a lot off time on your hands to save money
i go to lidles once every 8 or 9 weeks but once i have enough coffee jars i will stop as my "freind" wants £11 for fuel and time for the 12-13 mile round trip
i dont buy low value but heavy or high value items as they are a better money saving
things that are cheaper or better that i go for are
bellarom gold coffee at 2.49 200g
basmati rice 10kg £10
various nuts shown per kg
-----------------------lidl----------asda
wallnuts-----------9.45---------11.11
cashew------------8.60---------8.75
pecan------------12.45 ------16.50
almonds---------8.95---------12.00
hazelnuts-------7.95-----------11.47
prem brazils----6.75----------8.50
pestachios 7.96---------11.30
24 couchelle toilet rolls
-----------------7.00----------9.00
5.3% dry cider 1.99--------2.25 for 4.7% [ratioed up at 2.54]
there roast beef is 5 or6 pounds
cold meats are good value
split lentils --95-------------1.15
lemon juice concentrait
------------32p 200ml

[fin]

theres a aldi and a couplea lidl's in south shields. though one of the lidl's they decided theyd knock it doon and rebuild it. so its currently a shell.

i dont often go to them unless they have work gear offers on. usually theres a geet massive queue that takes half of forever to move. or some scum bag skip rats getting in ya way.

at the nook where i live theres a sainsbury's a tesco, a super drug and a boots. and all manner of other shops so its alreet like. its kinda like a little mini town centre. infact.... theres probably a better selection of shops than there is in the town centre.

[kellys_eye]

We still use Aldi and Lidl up here in Oban where the savings (on a comparable basket of stuff from Tesco) can be as much as 25% or more overall.

This (possibly) has a lot to do with Tesco having a virtual monopoly on local customers as the only other supermarket prior to the appearance of Aldi/Lidl was a Co-Op, not renowned for their VFM..... we badly need another big outlet (Asda/Morrisons etc) to increase competition.

If Aldi/Lidl did local deliveries then Tesco would collapse overnight - we only continue to use them for their delivery service which saves us a 50 mile round trip, 2 gallons of fuel (£11) and four hours of our time.

[thescruff]

I went into Morrison's in Woking, my God what a dump, massive store with an A road between the isle and rubbish stock.

Customer help desk, You got any cherries , they will be with the fruit if we have

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks guys for your interesting replies. Unlike you k_e being so far from civilization Bron and I have a big choice of both large and mini supermarkets; our local BP petrol station is also a mini supermarket. Our neighbour Carole has her shopping delivered from Morrison's as she likes to shop online I think it only costs £1 for delivery so how the heck do these supermarkets make home delivery pay because someone instore must gather all the items and pack them?

Our local Morrisons which actually is a nice store has just had a major makeover inside so now I have trouble finding items but I think once it's completed customers will be handed a SatNav as they enter the store; I always take along a wish list visiting three supermarkets on Monday and Friday morning arriving firstly at Aldi for when the store opens at 8 am; next I drive a few yards to nearby Home Bargains then about quarter of a mile round to Morrison's my best record to date is arriving home at 8:35am having visited all three supermarkets; I write my list in store order and don't impulse buy; Morrison's has now slowed me down but I'm slowly getting back up to speed with the shopping. Morrison's latest gimmick is to introduce a loyalty card so those with the card pay less for some items which are price matched; they don't pay less than the price match but other shoppers like me have to pay full price; the catch is that the card isn't valid until a minimum £15 spend; I tell the Morrison checkout girls I've already received my discounts in cash without playing around with plastic cards.

One checkout assistant called Beverley in Morrison's is a right pain and I can understand why I believe she's divorced; a couple of days ago it had turned rather chilly so I remarked winter's here again to be correct by Beverley saying no it's autumn; of course she is correct but she disagrees about most things; I try to avoid her as much as possible but am pleased I'm not married to her she really is a misery and has been all the time I've known her. The rest of Morrison's staff are fine and we can have a laugh together.

Kind regards, Col.

[big-all]

they loose a fortune on home delivery
but they cant afford not to as thats the way things are going a bit like the internet 12 or 15 years ago

[thescruff]

They lose a tiny bit of their inflated profit with home delivery BA, rest assured they still make a profit or the service is added on the the in store prices.

As for getting cheaper not around here they ain't and Sainsbury prices are way above anyone else

[fin]

i didnt realise iceland did delivery till i was in the iceland at the nook the other day. the woman infront of me got her shoping delivered. it was 2 bags.. haha and it cant have been heavy. she was heading straight home too. carried the basket around the store. then didnt wanna walk round the corner with the bags.

theres another shop at the nook but i dont ever go there. farm foods. dont really know what they sell. but I often see shoplifters walking about with their latest pinchings. either that or they go to try and sell them in the cranny pub. bet theyre gutted now though. the cranny is closed for a major refurb half their trade will have dried up.

I really dont like shopping in south shields asda. i used to know all the staff when it was in the old shop. but they moved to a new purpose built asda store a few years back. the old asda becoming a morrisons. the new asda store shakes. like all the time. its weird. if you look at the bottles of juice or wine or vodka or whatever you can see the liquid moving inside the bottles. like if you have a glass of water on a table and bang it. the rings that appear in the surface. horrible building it seems to be worse by the escalators at the other end of the store. by the self service checkouts that all shake

[fin]

col, i know a few women like that. no matter what ya do its not enough. ya either too well endowed... or not well endowed enough.... or something like that anyway... stupid anti men women haha if it was the other way around theyd all be running around waving their arms about saying how sexist we all are

[steviejoiner74]

Dunno about the last couple of years but Tesco claim they made 127million pound profit from the groceries home delivery service in 2014 according to the independent.

[Retired]

Hi,

Catching up due to being rained off again.

Thanks again guys for all your interesting replies.

Great reply fin regarding the miserable Beverley in our local Morrison's. I've never had the displeasure of discussing such things with Beverley in fact I'm always happy to try to avoid her; we are all different but people can do the strangest things; I've stated before we have a neighbour called Val who will speak and be reasonably cheerful when face to face but if I'm bent down cleaning the car with my back to her as she very quietly walks past two feet away she won't say a word just carrying on walking looking straight down at the ground; I wonder if she has found the half penny she lost years ago and it always amuses me how she manages to avoid walking straight into something like a lamp post; I just accept her as she is without being judgmental in any way but what a strange way to exist?

Good point about the woman shopper in Iceland fin having Iceland deliver a bit of shopping for her. Bron and I know similar people who insist on having medication delivered to their home actually waiting in half a day for the delivery whilst when they are out they actually pass the pharmacy either on foot or in their cars; we all pay for this idleness in increased costs of goods and in many instances obesity. Our local council used to collect garden waste as long as there were over twelve bags this being a free service; idle neighbours would fill the bags then leave the bags at the bottom of a flight of 15 steps where the council workers had to carry them from; both these neighbours have a car each; then the council imposed a small charge and suddenly these neighbours find they can use their cars; I'm discussing able bodied people not anyone disabled who actually do need help. Selfishness and greed rules in most cases these days with people encouraged to be bone idle.

Back to Aldi; I'm aware Aldi sell lots of cheap items and I even receive email notification of special offers arriving but I don't get any pleasure of looking at the rows of items displayed like a jumble sale in the store; on many occasions I've seen customers returning items which are faulty; I was in our local Aldi a couple of days ago; this Aldi has a new PA system saying things like till #2 is opening; one message said customers please note the store is now closing; this message at 8:05 am five minutes after the store opened; it cheered everyone up no end. The number of times I reach the checkout only to stand around like a dummy until an assistant arrived. Aldi is losing its appeal to me; cheap usually means cheap and in this respect Aldi are no exception. By contrast our local Morrison's is and has always been a nice store; our local Morrison's has just undergone a huge interior makeover with new layouts;

https://my.morrisons.com/storefinder/#!/79

Compare this to the much newer but more scruffy Aldi in Waterloo. I'll enquire if Morrison's do a matched price with Aldi on fresh Soya and if so I think I'll stop shopping at Aldi.

I think I'd prefer to shop at Morrison's whose headquarters are in Bradford therefore are a local company than a foreign company like Aldi; time I supported our own whenever possible?

Kind regards, Col.

[fin]

i used to live in a street called st michaels ave, i lived there til i was 30. parents owned the house from 1979. it was a funny old street. everyone knew everyone. really friendly. as kids we all loved it. we could play out morning till night. when we were kids there was a hospital called the ingham infirmary over the road. we all ended up there at some point.

next door to my house was a old couple called pat and arthur. pat checked into departures about 6 or 8 years back now. poor old arthur did earlier this year too. they had a son called paul who will now be about mid 50's i should think. they lived in that house and now indeed paul still does for many years. it actually may have been the house paul has lived in all his life. he also played in the street as a child as did another lad michael. i still see michael out and about.

This Paul fella though... he wont say a word to anyone. prefers to cross the road and avoid any form of social contact with anyone.

there was another couple up the street, freda and hedley. freda always would stop to chat. she unfortunately also died this year. she was 92 i think. at her funeral we found out that they bought the house in 1954 as freda had a win in a crossword competition and it provided them with enough money to put a good deposit down on the house.

fredas husband hedley is still alove and living in st michaels. however he has alzheimers now and will only get worse.

it was class growing up in my street. im still friends on facebook with the kids we all played together with. i still see them on occasions. though one of them moved to london and got into a bit of acting type work and is often an extra on eastenders though i dont beleive shes had a speaking role.

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks fin; unfortunately the old days are long gone where neighbours all knew each other; Bron and I are fortunate with neighbours looking out for each other but even on our cul de sac we have neighbours we have never spoken to and we've lived here for 30 years; people have their own transport these days so no longer walk past their neighbours house which makes a big difference.

I've just visited our local Aldi; I was waiting at the checkout; a young lady at the checkout had bent down to select some plastic shopping bags and as she did so she didn't notice a few of the bags had fallen to the floor; the rough looking female behind her and directly in front of me saw the bags on the floor but walked straight onto them too idle to bend down to pick them up; I picked the bags up and put them back onto the hanger; I couldn't believe what I had just seen.

Kind regards, Col.