I have always shopped at Tesco/Sainsbury and shopping usually costs 90-100pounds sometimes up to 110. For the last 2 months have tried Aldi and what a difference. Shopping every week 50-60pounds. Now I thought after the first week that we probably hadn't bought things that we would need later but 8 weeks in still saving a bomb. OK the range isn't as big so your not tempted, but the quality is fine. The other benifit is time. Used to take an hour in Tesco, in Aldi half an hour tops. Only thing missed is butcher meat but local butcher now got our buisiness (sausages magic) and the money spent here still takes us nowhere near the tesco cost. What have other found?

PS I've lost my pound sign and got a # any idea how I get it back?

You shop at that place? You should burn in hell and are obviously inferior to the experts on this part of the forum. They cook fresh local produce dontcha know.

And now with tongue out of cheek.

I'd shop there for many things if there were one local.

I'm ok have veg plot in garden and pick wild berries and mushrooom. Cringe maybe I need to buy a wooly jumper

No Aldi near us so never shopped there and can't comment, but try pressing alt + 3 to get your pound sign back.

We get a basket full of things at Aldi, but you need to check what's on offer during the week at each supermarket. Aldi also have deals on Thursdays & Sundays.

Milk, Cheese and most veg is cheaper than Asda.

My only gripe about Aldi/Lidl is that I can't get everything I like and then spend double the time shopping as I need to go to Tesco/Asda and it turns out more

Quality is not an issue - the veg and stuff does tend to go off more quickly but being a family that isn't usually a problem

Aldi is just depressing to shop in, here anyway. It's a big empty space and full of, as someone else put it on here, zombies walking around. It's a depressing atmosphere and that is why I hardly ever go into it.

The only thing we buy in Aldi is Coffee and Toilet/Kitchen rolls. The Coffee taste more or less the same according to the coffee drinkers in the house and Aldi saves us pounds on Coffee. So we bulk buy such things from Aldi.

So it's Morrisons most of the time, it was always Asda before but lately Asda has gone downhill here and Morrisons has become cheaper for some reason compared to a lot of things in Asda and better quality, and Tesco for us, and sometimes we go to Waitrose but it's about an hour and a half from us to the nearest one, so not a common thing.

I like more choice in the same thing to be honest but I have the willpower to not buy things I don't need.

Just back from Aldi, I find them excellent for c heese, booze high end frozen food (lamb shanks, frozen deserts etc are delish imo)and cured meats. Much cheaper and better quality than Tesco for all these. No kids in our house so I wouldn't be buying the average shop-just for 2 adults The cat litter is crap though.

certainly agree with you there - it was a false economy in our house as my daughter refused to empty the litter tray

Their profiterole desserts are to die for......two for 80something P. The fruit and veg is really cheap and fresh too.

I stick to Thomas, its the best imo-little buggers won't use the wood chip ones

Personally I go there to buy stuff, pay then go. It's not a social occasion. I have friends for that.

Lidl is much cheaper and better quality for cheese, cut meats, fruit and veg, croissants, pasta etc!

So they're cheap for coffee and cheese then? As I buy cheese about once every three weeks and coffee about once every three months I think I'll stick with Tesco.

I used to find shopping at Lidl saved me money but lately when I've shopped there I seem to be spending more and never get enough dinners and the fruit and veg are never ripe enough or are rotten.
I have two boys that are fussy eaters and the dinners/meat products in Lidl/Aldi are not great so I tend to shop at Tescos more.
Also Tesco seem to have a lot of special offers on every week now with the credit crunch thing, it is a lot cheaper to shop there now, and I hate having to do two lots of shopping because you can't get everything in Lidl. Oh and in our Aldi they scan your food so fast and you can't pack at the checkout and you need to be superwoman to get your stuff in your trolley without them getting damaged as the cashier literally throws the food at you as they scan so fast..that is very annoying as I get flustered enough going shopping with my two little boys and a newborn baby!

Speaking as a pikey barsteward (my Great granny was a pure born Romany) Pikey-mart takes me right back to the 70's. and why not! Whilst NOT P!$$!ng cash up against the wall in ADSA or Morrison's I save enough to keep my friendly neighbourhood home cinema dealer in over-priced HDMI leads whilst being myself gaily attired in the most spiffing random cycling kit.....

'tis all good surely?

Never been in an Aldi. Tried Lidls in two towns in the south-west whilst on holiday and couldn't find anything I wanted. Went in the Netto in Acton once, it was dark, threatening and generally not a pleasant place to be.

What I'm not sure of is are these shops meant to be replacements for the Tescos and Sainsbury's or are they meant to supplement them? In other words, do people who shop at Aldi (or Lidl) only shop at Aldi or do they just buy a core range of products there and go to other supermarkets for a wider selection? Because the Lidls I've seen have been small (smaller than some Tesco Metros) with only a few checkouts and I doubt if they could cope with the pressure of "serious" shopping.

We use them to supplement the main supermarkets which for us is Asda & Morrisons. We have a massive Tesco, which is now expanding even more, but it is the other side of town.

Netto is good for Coca-Cola and Pepsi deals. It probably the only thing we buy from there unless they have a deal on Jack Daniels. They were selling it for £11 at one point.


At Aldi we usually get dairy & veg.

It all depends on the deals though.

The atmosphere is depressing in the one here, most shopping people in Aldi have a miserable face on them, including the checkout workers. It's one of the only places with such an atmosphere, unlike most of the other places I shop. I like to enjoy my time in a shop, not feel like I want to get out as quickly as possible because of the negative energy.

I shop at Aldi and Lidl at least once a week. The quality of their stuff is as good as, if not better than their competitors. I guess I have never had a problem shopping there, as being of German extraction, I am used to everyone in Germany shopping in these places. Also, I can stock up on some traditional German stuff.
I agree, the selection is limited, which is why I also go off to Sainsbury's and Asda's on a regular basis.
As for a depressing atmosphere - not really. There is a BIG Asda in a really piky bit of Leicester. I go there, because their fruit and veg aisles is amazing - it is, however, full of sunken eyed, lardy arsed individuals who's trolleys are full of processed, sugary, fatty food. NOW THAT I find depressing....

I shop at Lidl and have no issues, for items I can't get I shop at Tesco. I also use local butchers, green-grocers and Birmingham market.

That post made me laugh out loud

Morrisons for regular shop and Aldi once a month.

Aldi is a great store, many things that you just can't get elsewhere. Their Romanga pizza and Continental Plum Tart are superb.

A brand new ASDA has just opened up near us but its awful. By fitting in George they've decided to have a pathetic selection of fruit and veg and have crammed the rest of the foodstuff in

I imagine Russell Brand speaking while reading that

For a town of this size (a quarter of a million) It's amazing what little choice we have. There are 3 large Sainsbury's and a couple of "Local" ones. Two Asda (one nice, one NOT nice) A couple of Tesco metro (Nearest big one is miles away at Holmbush), no Morrisons A couple of Somerfield proper size and a couple of "local/metro" type ones. Aldi is miles away, there's an unsavoury Lidl on the edge of the worst Council Esate in the county and a Waitrose bang in the centre that you can only get to on the bus
Lastly, the co-op- there's one on virtually every street corner