Lidl - Good and bad

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  • koantemplationkoantemplation Posts: 101,293
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    Bad: The amount of elderly people who go on a Thursday and who block the aisles with their scooters and trolleys. :)
  • unclekevounclekevo Posts: 20,749
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    alanwarwic wrote: »
    They are award winning so this seems to be quite a claim.

    According to the man who continually fixed our old dishwasher and then came out to fit our new dishwasher a few years back, the dishwasher tablets were NOT good, since then we've used Fairy Tabs or whatever they're called and haven't had a problem.
  • alanwarwicalanwarwic Posts: 28,396
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    unclekevo wrote: »
    since then we've used Fairy Tabs or whatever they're called and haven't had a problem.
    It is standard practice to blame something when cheap.
    Happens to us all.

    It can happen in reverse but the same doubts are almost never be there,
  • breppobreppo Posts: 2,433
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    alanwarwic wrote: »
    They are award winning so this seems to be quite a claim.

    Dutch consumer organisation Consumentenbond did a test a couple of months back. W5 of Lidl and the Aldi tabs (Una) came in joint first. Ahead of the big names Finish, Sun and Fairy (Dreft in the NL).
    My personal experience with the W5 tabs is that they're very good.They're as good as the big names. Perhaps even slightly better when it comes to those nasty stains on tea glasses.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,182
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    halfacrown wrote: »
    I agree with the Coleslaw, the potato salad is also very nice, its sliced rather than cubed and dressed in creme fraiche, we much prefer it to anything the other supermakets offer. The dishawasher tablets and salt are good value too and we like their Chorizo ring and the cherry jaffa cake type biccies.

    Their potato salad is very much German style rather than Envlishstyle. Very yummy (ilike English potato salad too,but that has to be homemade).
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 613
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    I used to love Lidl but after having a few dodgy tasting frozen meat products I have gone right off it.I think it was some sort of turkey steak but with really lumpy skin and possibly a feather or 2.Though the fresh fruit and veg is ok and some of the cold cooked meats not bad I dont think I,ll go back,even the new range of freshly cooked baps I have seen advertised wouldnt tempt me.Last time I went in I noticed they had started selling rather strange stuff,like frozen wood pidgeon,im all for trying new things but I wouldnt have thought there would be much call for it where I live,its not excactly a family size bird .
  • Miss C. DeVilleMiss C. DeVille Posts: 6,022
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    I recently bought a bottle of their Jeeves, which is like Pimms, I found it quite nice with lemonade. It was £5.99 for a litre bottle so I think good value.
    I also buy their £1.49 Cumberland sausages, baked beans, orange juice, steak pies, cornish pasties, cheese & onion quiche and toilet rolls amongst other things...all good prices.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,001
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    Good:
    The jam (the one with fruit pics on the lid) at about 89p it's as good as the expensive preserve brands.

    Moisturiser - the Aldi one has the edge. Their make-up isn't bad either.

    Aldi used to do lovely coconut shampoo and a ginger one, but they stopped selling it.

    Cold meat. Especially the Black Forest ham.
    German sausages
    Coleslaw
    Fruit and veg (use your eyes and common sense of course)
    Free range eggs - loads cheaper than the other supermarkets.
    Chocolate
    Cleaning stuff
    The mini peppers in the jars
    Some of the regional specials when they come around.

    As someone else said, stick with basics and the sorts of things that sell well in Germany and you're ok. Where they go a bit awry is when they move away from that.

    Not so good:
    Lidl's version of crunchy nut cornflakes. Thin and artificial tasting. Better with Tesco's own brand.
    One of their tea bags I didn't like. Might've been the Green tea with lemon
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2,070
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    Their Gelatelli brand of ice creams are really nice. At the moment they have pistachio Magnum type ice creams which are usually around £1.50 for 3.

    These wafer sadwiches are really nice too, especially the strawberry one.

    http://www.lidl.de/media/product/0/0/2/0/7/2/3/gelatelli-sandwich-eis-regular.jpg
  • SibeberSibeber Posts: 555
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    alanwarwic wrote: »
    Stick with it. Like a lot of harsh average coffees it grows on you. I drink a decent quantity of coffee but if you are an occasional drinker it will be harder to get acquired.

    I was really hoping their better quality expresso would be on offer again so I could stock up big.
    I have favourite coffees get bored with even the best so I chop and change.

    I think you only get what you pay for , i find fruit from Aldi Lidl goes off quickly , Ice cream has a powdery flavour, their equivelant of Mars , Milky Way and Twix are excellent .My local Lidl seems to have no staff so If I go in for a bottle of wine or a carton of milk I'm always in a massive queue
  • alanwarwicalanwarwic Posts: 28,396
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    Sibeber wrote: »
    My local Lidl seems to have no staff so If I go in for a bottle of wine or a carton of milk I'm always in a massive queue
    I find Aldi far worse with Lidl quick to open new tills.

    I'm now noting that Asda appears to be increasing queue size in order to force people to the self checkout.
  • Sem1Sem1 Posts: 4,578
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    Sibeber wrote: »
    I think you only get what you pay for , i find fruit from Aldi Lidl goes off quickly , Ice cream has a powdery flavour, their equivelant of Mars , Milky Way and Twix are excellent .My local Lidl seems to have no staff so If I go in for a bottle of wine or a carton of milk I'm always in a massive queue

    BIB, I don't but I do find that Sainsburys' Fruit goes off very quickly.
  • grassmarketgrassmarket Posts: 33,010
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    Agree about the sausages and cured meats. Also good: giant jar of gherkins, big blocks of parmesan cheese, french-style petits pains, croissants (probably bigger stores only), special Xmas chocolates.

    Bad: most of the other cheeses.
  • koantemplationkoantemplation Posts: 101,293
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    alanwarwic wrote: »
    I find Aldi far worse with Lidl quick to open new tills.

    I'm now noting that Asda appears to be increasing queue size in order to force people to the self checkout.

    The thing I don't get, is they have 5 or 6 long thin checkouts but never use all of them even at peak times.

    Why don't they have 2 or 3 wider checkouts and at least use 2 or them?

    Makes more sense to me.
  • Isambard BrunelIsambard Brunel Posts: 6,598
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    Just tried a bag of their own-brand Bounty Bars and they were nicer than the real thing.

    Bounties used to be nice and had the texture of desiccated coconut, but these days they're just a horrible sugary paste with no bite to them.

    Lidl's "Cocos & Choco Mini Bars" (shame about the name, what about "Paradise Bars"?) taste like 90s Bounties. Not quite as crumbly as the old Bounties with the cardboard insert, but clearly made from real flakes of coconut and not sweet to the point of being inedible. Shame they only do a milk chocolate version.

    Also tried their on-the-vine tomatoes on sale last week, which were lovely. As are their strawberries at the moment.

    Oh, and I'm not really fond of Pimms, but they're doing 1L bottles of 'Jeeves' for £6 and it tastes every bit as good as Pimms to me. You'd be a fool to buy real Pimms whilst Lidl are doing these large bottles of Jeeves on special offer.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 732
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    I think Aldi and Lidl are nice for a change, i keep an eye on their websites because their weekly bargains are snapped up very quickly.
  • mizfiestamizfiesta Posts: 163
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    Anyone tried any of there washing powders? I always use Ariel but I'm tightening the money belt across the board and need to try cheaper alternatives
  • mills705mills705 Posts: 556
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    mizfiesta wrote: »
    Anyone tried any of there washing powders? I always use Ariel but I'm tightening the money belt across the board and need to try cheaper alternatives

    im pritty sure my mum used some once and i couldnt tell the difference!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 7,856
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    doom&gloom wrote: »
    There were at least two other flavours, raspberry and cherry.

    The cherry were my favourite, it's a flavour that always goes well with dark chocolate.

    We were cherry 'jaffa' addicts - they were much better than real jaffa cakes, I wish they'd bring them back.

    As others have said, the things they do best are the things you'd expect to find in a German supermarket. I got 81% dark choc for 99p and a massive jar of morello cherries in syrup for under £2 - both superb quality.

    Their sandwiches are pure muck though!
  • Isambard BrunelIsambard Brunel Posts: 6,598
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    mizfiesta wrote: »
    Anyone tried any of there washing powders? I always use Ariel but I'm tightening the money belt across the board and need to try cheaper alternatives

    There's a couple of good mentions of it in this thread, no bad ones so far. I've only tried their washing up liquid, which is good. I have loads of Persil left that I got cheap a couple of years ago, but when it runs out I intend to try Lidl's own brand.
  • EspressoEspresso Posts: 18,047
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    mizfiesta wrote: »
    Anyone tried any of there washing powders? I always use Ariel but I'm tightening the money belt across the board and need to try cheaper alternatives

    I use the one from Lidl and it's excellent.

    Another idea if you want to reduce the amount of washing powder you use - whatever the brand - is to buy some washing dolly balls. They're great. Stick them in the wash and you only need half the usual amount of powder. And yes, that is true! I
  • norbitonitenorbitonite Posts: 8,653
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    I have used the one from Lidl in the past (M5?) And it was fine. I found that the fragrance reminded me of ild fashioned washing powders, but the cleaning performance was okay.
  • SaturnSaturn Posts: 18,971
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    They had big tubs of gluten free strawberry ice cream which were fairly inexpensive and totally gorgeous.
  • stud u likestud u like Posts: 42,100
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    mizfiesta wrote: »
    Anyone tried any of there washing powders? I always use Ariel but I'm tightening the money belt across the board and need to try cheaper alternatives

    Do you mean Liquidtabs? Try Savers. They do Ariel Liquidtabs very cheaply.
  • 4smiffy4smiffy Posts: 2,161
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    Most of their fresh fruit, salad and veg is ok, but like anywhere look at what you're buying.

    Some of their bread is lovely, they do a sliced seeded loaf which is yummy.

    Their mushy peas are 11p at the moment and they are fab.

    Their ginger biscuits are 29p and are just as good as any expensive brand.

    I buy their fresh cheese and tomato small pizzas for 49p and put my own toppings on.

    I like their soap in a dispenser.

    I like their chicken kievs, which are about on offer at the moment.
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