8pm, Monday 9 November, Channel 4
Aldi's Supermarket Secrets : Channel 4 Dispatches

While Tesco and the other big chains appear to be faltering, Aldi goes from strength to strength and has now overtaken Waitrose as Britain's sixth largest supermarket. As more and more shoppers switch, Morland Sanders goes undercover to investigate the supermarket's practices, examining if its promises to provide amazing value are delivered without compromising on quality and service.

^^^ That looks like it might be interesting so I'll be watching tomorrow.

Their cooking bacon makes a lovely stock for lentil soup and there is enough in the bag for two or even three pots so you can use some,freeze some.

The milk chocolate chewy bars are nice.


Also they've got some new big bottles of cider in the seasonal aisle and I've tried a couple of those and both were very tasty.

Specially Selected Red Pepper and Cheddar tortilla chips - not a fan. They have an unpleasant aftertaste.

I know it's not food but it IS Aldi.

Don't bother with the scented Candles for £1.49. Mine was supposed to be orange scented with sparkle. There is not the slightest scent of orange at all. Very disappointing.

What does sparkle smell like?

I just added the word sparkle as There are loads of different candles.

Aldis Apple, Pear and Fig Scottish Chutney is very good. Almost finished a jar. We've also bought the Festive and Fruity Christmas Chutney but not tried that yet.

Head Strong anti-dandruff shampoo. I took a punt as the price of Head & Shoulders is disgraceful. I've only used it twice but I'm mighty impressed - 69p too. What a bargain.

Sea salt and lime tortilla chips are delicious. Just the right amount of lime.

I tried Aldi, but they price loose bananas individually (12p each) rather than weigh them, which works out about 40% dearer than anywhere else. I think that bananas are the biggest selling fresh produce item in the UK, so you can see how they fund the 'offers'.

My husband and I use Aldi quite a bit. I've been going in more regularly myself (he used to go in more than me) and I'm incredibly impressed with their produce. I've tried a wide variety of food and non food items and all have been great.

If someone wants to go into a supermarket and queue up to buy one banana, I don't think 12p is an unreasonable price. I'd also suggest that most people buy bananas in bunches, which don't cost more than other supermarkets, so it's extremely unlikely that Aldi are 'funding' their other offers through the sales of single bananas.

In Aldi you can also buy four 2-litre bottles of fizzy water for £1.05, six 500ml bottles for £1.05 or a single 500ml bottle for 29p.

Can't stand the Aldi Christmas advert, last years one was stupid too, with the long table and the spaceman

The Tesco Express around here (500 metres away fro the Aldi) charges 20p per banana. I can only guess who sells more....

I'm afraid you've missed my point, probably because I used the word 'loose'. I didn't mean single bananas, I meant unwrapped bunches, which we call 'loose' where I come from. So when you take a bunch of bananas to the checkout, they count the bananas in the bunch and charge you 12p per banana. I saw the 12p price on the display, but I assumed, like you, that this was if I just wanted one banana. You say they don't cost more than other supermarkets, but they do at Aldi - about 40% more because of this pricing method. Have a look next time you go in. Aldi are just assuming that people don't notice, and they don't! To be fair, they do sell plastic bags of 1kg of bananas which are priced at 68p, which is the same price that other supermarkets charge per kilo of 'loose' bunches , but this is no good if you want a few more or fewer than the quantity in the bag. Surely it costs more for the supplier to weigh them and bag them, but I guess Aldi would say that there's more wastage with 'loose' bananas because people break one or two off and leave the odd ones, which might not sell, so there's effectively a 40% surcharge.

When the assistant started counting the bananas, I asked her why she didn't weigh the bunch like they do everywhere else and got the 'computer says no' answer: she said that the computer on the checkout doesn't have a key for weighed bananas. There were 8 bananas in the bunch I had and she said it would be 8 x 12p = 96p, so I declined. I needed something in Tesco across the road, so I picked up a bunch of 8 bananas (similar size) and they weighed out at 69p, which means that Aldi was near enough 40% more.

I bought loads of bananas yesterday at Aldi and they are 14p each according to my receipt. I'm quite happy with that ... Theyre big bananas and lovely quality. They also do bags of prepackaged bananas but they're what I'd call snack size.

Life's too short to worry about the price of a banana when you save about £20 on your shopping bill at Aldi.

Totally agree. I went last week and spent £56 and for that I had 9 bags full. Meat, fish, booze, veg, fruit. You really can't go wrong on the whole in Aldi. I used to get people looking at me with side eye when I said I shopped there and they're the ones that are now converted.
Don't get me wrong I love M&S food but I love saving money more. Aldi all the way for me.

I bought a box of two Mini lamb shoulder joints (green box) yesterday which you boil in a bag in their own gravy. they were really tender but I won't buy them again because There was loads of the gravy left over and I left it in a dish on the side and by morning it was congealed fat! I know lamb is very fatty so I wasn't that surprised but it reminded me of why we don't eat lamb very often.

My bill yesterday was £64.24 and I know for sure that would have been £80+ in Morrisons and probably Tesco. Like you I got meat .... Steak mince, pigs cheeks in red wine, sausages, bacon, loads of fruit and veg, couple bottles wine, bread and I got lots of extras for Xmas like prawn ring, salmon Wellington, various jars of chutney, biscuits,
Twiglets, big ceramic container of blue Stilton, other cheese etc etc

I happened to be in Lidl and I bought some of their 'Extra Mature Cheddar'. It tasted like plastic and is about ten leagues below Aldi's version. Tip of the day: buy Aldi's ordinary Extra Mature Cheddar and don't bother with their more expensive, so-called 'premium brands'. The bog standard version is the best you'll buy anywhere.

Their bacon is hands down the best supermarket bacon i've had.
Not quite as good as the stuff from my butcher, but very close and for the price is a steal.

Last Night we had Aldi Pigs cheeks in red wine gravy and they were delicious and melted in your mouth. I did creamed potato and Brussels with them. Not huge portion but so delicious. I did a few chipolatas with them too. absolute bargain at £2.99. (Serves 2)

They're on the fresh meat section in a box.

So, serves one really unless you add to it.

This is where it gets complicated!. It would serve 2 which is what it says on the box but there were 3 of us eating last night. The third eats like a bird!!