Giving Aldi a go later on UPDATED

I popped to Aldi last night to show MrKB how great it is. He wasn't impressed.

I think it's good for coffee, biscuits, chocolate, bread, cakes, European meats, juice / squash, yoghurts, desserts, beer and the most important thing, the anti wrinkle day & night cream.

The washing powder & fabric softner are meant to be good but I haven't tried them yet.

How do prices compare on staples like rice, pasta, tinned tomatoes, tuna etc? I do one big monthly shop for all my store cupboard stuff so don't really care where I get it.

I went yesterday! ?

The biscuits there are just fab - great european style ones - and the alcohol was good. I bought some veg that seemed fine, and some minced beef which seemed okay too.

Wasn't a huge amount of choice there so it was a very different shopping experience to my normals Sainsbury shop. They'd run out of Weetabix (or equivalent) which was a pain and it seems they don't sell cocoa. But they had plenty of stuff, I just had to be a bit more imaginitive than usual.

That said, when I took it home H couldn't believe how cheap it was.

Watch out for the fact they don't take credit cards (or at least ours doesn't) so you'll need a debit card or cash.

I really can't recommend the coffee - it looked a bit grey to be honest, but the cheese isn't so bad. I always buy lots of their fruit and veg when I go as it's so cheap.

I've got their night cream that's been in all the papers and that is fab - really love it, their firming body lotion feels nice (am 9 months pregnant so can't comment on the firming - nothing's firm at the moment!) and some of their make up isn't too bad either.

Take carrier bags or be prepared to buy some of their resuables and you'll need a pound for the trolley.

Jas
x

These are all really helpful - like I said today is more of a reccy than anything else but may pick up a few bits. I think if it proves good I will use Aldi for some parts of the shop then the local market for fruit and veg.

Thanks for the tip about credit cards OZ

we have a lidl so similar

i find that for staples it is generally cheaper - but they may have a very cheap option and one only a bit less than tesco - but that one will be a lot nicer - eg i think the fruit juice is not that much cheaper but stacks nicer

Further to my post last week, my recs are:

- antipasti in jars (sundried tomatos, marinated artichokes, roasted red/yellow peppers - £1.19 a jar each)

- fruit & veg is fab and much of it is British

- lovely yummy Belgian waffle biscuits?

- the Siana day/night cream @ £1.89 a pot

- my peonies bought last week are still going strong!

- sesame seed breadsticks / flavoured 'posh' crisps etc.

I wouldn't buy eggs or meat from there as I'd rather be 100% sure of its happy origins and get it from farmers market or Waitrose

I was also horrified to see some mosquito bite spray that had mink oil in it - that's very wrong isn't it?☹️

I find it's great for storecupboard ingredients, beer, wine. Their baron red wine is quite nice.

I still have to go to tesco or sainsbury's or somewhere though as h2b is vegatarian and i can't get quorn from there.

Oh yes, I bought 56 tampons for £1.99 - bargain?

Ah thanks for the tip about the nappies - we just bought some on special offer in Sainsbury's but no harm in stocking up!

I've heard the powder is good and there is a couple of ound difference in price. When my current box runs out I'm going to give it a whirl. The fabric softner was something like 59p instead of almost £2 in other shops.

We've started doing our weekly shop in Aldi, we're saving between £10 and £20 a week. I suspect most of this is due to the fact that it's a smaller shop and you don't pick up so many impulse buys, but that suits me! We still get everything we need. Their baby wipes are 75p a pack (compared with £2.49 in Boots!) and their popcorn is yummy too. Bread is much cheaper than Asda (59p a loaf instead of 95p). Tinned tomatos are 19p. No tiching or rashes yet from the wahing powder either! Definately give it a try, just don't get distracted by trampolines or circular saws!

I had a horrible experience at my local Aldi yesterday, my first trip. But, I was very hormonal with an awkward toddler - and rude cashier so could be just an exception.

Just beware for the cashiers shooting the shopping through at lightening speed, I came out with squashed grapes, squashed apple pies and one broken egg as a result, as I couldn't pack my trolley quick enough to keep up with her!

The easiest thing to do iwth the packing is to just put everything back in the trolley, then bag it up as you put it in the car. I used some of the smaller blue bags from ikea as these are strong and easy to pack. They don't allow much time at the cashier desk because then they can get away with fewer cashiers and therefore reduced costs. It makes sense, but I can see how it would be a pain if you had kids.

They have got quicker since they can scan it all. I just throw it all in the trolley and pack it into bags when I get to the car. Grace 'helps' load it onto the conveyor belt and I make sure I put the grapes/raisins through first-she then works her way through those whilst I chuck it in the trolley and bag it up in the car ?

Can't you ask the cashier to slow down a bit?

Even before they had the scanners and had to type in all the codes, they were often still faster than regular supermarkets with scanners. I was always amazed at how fast they were!

No, it's part of their cost saving strategy. They do not let people pack at the counter because this takes up the cashier's time. They ask you to pop it straight into your trolley and pack it later. They even have a cut out section for your trolley to go to make it easier to put the stuff straight into the trolley as it comes through.

There's a bench at the back to pack or most people take it to their cars and put it into bags as they load the cars.

You would get death stares from all the people in the queue behind you then! The thing about the checkouts in Aldi (and Lidl) is that the bit past the checkout, where they normally pass your stuff through for you to pack, basically doesn't exist! So you have to take it off straight away into your trolley, and sort it out after. Unless you get a big box from their recycling pile and put it in there.

No, I understand that, but if the cashier is crushing my food whilst throwing it faster than I can get it in the trolley, then surely you'd say something?

you could try - but would likely be met with blank incomprehension

most of them are ok but some take it very very seriously even when there is nobody else in the shop

one particular lady clearly uses it as her daily workout and gets quite out of breath wielding the tinned tomatoes

True, but my interpretation of that post was that the hitcher had squashed the food by trying to pack it at the cashier desk (I think it said something like 'I couldn't pack it fast enough to keep up with the cashier). The solution for that is not to pack it until later.

Of course, if it was the cashier crushing it, I would certainly have something to say ?

Hm, given the choice between slowing down a little or me walking out the shop in irritation, leaving them to clear up my half-finished shopping, I wonder which the cashier would choose...?

They go fast because they get timed on the till. They get a bonus the quicker they can do it. It's to give them the incentive to scan quickly so the queues go down faster.

Unless I've been lucky, it really isn't that bad. It's not like they are throwing it at you. It would be too fast if you were trying to pack it away but I found it a fine speed to put it safely back into the trolley. I had enough time to work out where to put things so they didn't get crushed, for example.

Let's face it... it is a different shopping experience. The main selling point (other than some of the great european products to be found there) is the price. The cost differential has to be found somewhere, and personally I'd prefer for it to be found in having to pack my trolley away from the cashier than, say, in the quality of the food.

Tip 1: take a little more time to load the conveyor belt to make your life easier the other side of the till. They can't start scanning THAT much without your trolley being at the other end to catch it. Put all the heavy stuff at the front of the conveyor belt and the bread and crushable items at the back. Buy 2 of the big huge black 'bags for life' - two will fill the trolley. Then as they scan stuff you put it into the bags that are ready and waiting in your trolley. Ok, the bags will be heavy, but I find them manageable.

Tip 2: washing powder & fabric softener are both great. I wasn;t as impressed with the washing liquid - the super concentrated stuff, so reverted back to the tablets.

Tip 3: cheese and cooked meats are all excellent, but I avoid the milk unless I am going to use it in the next 24-48 hours as I find that it doesn;t seem to keep as long.

Tip 4: Mr Frosty ice cream in the square black tub is delicious. And even better is the discovery of Advocat and Walnut ice cream (round black paper tub) which is DIVINE!

Go with an open mind and imagine that you are shopping on a foreign holiday. Don't expect to see brand names and think about buying frozen meat and fish rather than fresh. The 4 frozen sea bass for £6.99 is brilliant value.

I did Lidl last week as an experiment, and went back to Tesco this week. There were quite a few things I couldn't get at Lidl, which meant an extra trip to our local shop to get. They weren't unusual things either - skimmed milk, green apples, unsmoked ham, and the broccoli I bought last Tuesday had got mould growing on it by Sunday. I also ended up throwing out the raspberries and strawberries I bought as they had gone off by the weekend.

It's also easier for me to get to Tesco, so I'm sticking with Tesco for the foreseeable.

Aldi is great for some things, especially alcohol. Their Olive Oil is so cheap, that's one of the main reasons I use the place, oh and their biscuits, too! Ham is a bargain. I don't think we've encountered many bad products. My Mum does most of her shopping in there now, as it saves her a bundle.

How do they rate on organic/fair trade/ethical stuff?

I'm a Guardian-reading, sandal wearing, lentil-knitting hippy at heart. ?

Wow - thank you so much for all the tips everyone.

May well take H with us if we need to do a big shop.

Disco biscuits, fudge & titan bars are a must. The serrano ham is lovely and I always find the fruit & veg good. I do most of my shopping there and nip to Tesco (next door to Aldi) for the bits they don't have. I like Lidl lots too.

Just foloowing up on a couple of points:

re the scanning fast to get the bonus AFAIK all supermarkets do this. Certainly when I worked in Asda they did and had a league table sheet in the staff area.

Most of the own brand stuff is made by big brand people. Certainly the choc digestives are made to the same recipe as the normal ones (mind blank can't think who makes them) but they have thicker chocolate.