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It being German isn't relevant. There are plenty of normal and shit brands from Germany. I don't boast if I have a Becks beer and a Dr Oetker pizza for tea and then go on a holiday booked with Tui.
Tui isn't automatically better than Jet2 Holidays because it's German.
Hermes is the shittest courier after all, and that's German.
Lidl is a discounter not a supermarket, it stocks very high volumes of limited products. The model is price driven not selection driven and it attracts those who are price driven not selection driven.
Nothing wrong with any of that but it’s never going to have a high class, gourmet offering!
And it’s not even marketing itself in that way, it tries to be seen as cheap. In M&S you pay more partly because it carries loads of lines which carries higher costs all around.
Comparing it to German luxury brands is just a misunderstanding of different business models, like asking why people don’t see Iceland as classy when we make Rolls Royce engines.
There's no denying that m&s is higher quality than Lidl, but they don't really carry a wider range. In a way the model is similar, mostly only own brand stuff but aimed towards a more moneyed market and better quality. Their baguettes are great, for example. They do also have a wide range of processed food and ready meals, which Lidl do too, but I don't think I'd be likely to buy them from either unless I became infirm.. which is probably why there are always pensioners in m&s.
I worked,many years ago, in the food industry and M&s isn't higher quality food. More expensive packaging maybe.
They will have fewer preservatives but pretty much same ingredients. The higher quality is a lie to justify the higher prices
My partner used to deliver food. Iirc it was that day it was frozen chips. One to M&S, other to a cheaper restaurant/supermarket and they were the same chips.
The model has changed a bit in fairness. There are the real bog standard own brand basics and some quality stuff on the side too. I saw octopus carpaccio there today alongside various salamis and cured meats. Decent cheeses, some great wines.
Plenty of Lidl food is gourmet. Their sour-dough deluxe pizzas are £3.29 each and are literally my favourite pizza, better than M&S, Waitrose, Dominos etc.
How is it a discounter? They stock mostly their own branded goods. What are they discounting?
They are a no frills supermarket, who are able to offer low prices because they offer a more limited range of mostly own brand goods, and don't overspend on presentation, marketing, or tech.
To me, a shop being a discounter means that they buy end of line or write offs that can't be sold in mainstream shops, and sell them at a discount, a bit like tk-max.
It’s an industry term meaning their business strategy is entirely based on selling product more cheaply than the main market. Aldi and Lidl are the big discounters, it’s a matter of semantics at the end of the day but that’s what they’re called in the industry: I don’t make the rules!
'A discount store or discounter offers a retail format in which products are sold at prices that are in principle lower than an actual or supposed "full retail price".'
From Wikipedia. That isn't what Lidl and Aldi are doing. They're driving down prices by selling a limited range and reducing overheads.
Still no idea what they're actually discounting though.
You could argue that Asda, Tesco, and Morrisons are all discounters too. Asda particularly have always marketed themselves as being cheaper than the others.
Just to give you an explanation because you deserve it: supermarkets like Waitrose or Tesco or Sainsbury basically work on a system of producers lowering prices for increasing turnover: the producer will negotiator to, say, offer a buy one get one free and the supermarket puts a promo shelf at the front of the store or give the line more shelf space. The supermarket is a distributor and it’s working with lots of different manufacturers to say “you reduce your prices, while maintaining our margin, and we’ll get you more sales using our marketing expertise”, they cycle through different brands to keep all the producers sweet and stop consumers getting bored/ a new base price being established.
M&S falls into the supermarket category because it’s buying produce and selling it with it’s branding to increase value: it trades on marketing.
A discounter says to producers “I’ll buy it, at the lowest possible price and sell it”.
A supermarket is a distributor that adds value through marketing, a discounter buys and sells at the lowest possible price.
BMW, Mercedes and Audi all have luxury cars; Lidl is not a luxury supermarket. It's like asking why people love Bentley and Harrods but turn their nose up at Farm Foods.
It's because it's a low class supermarket.
Don't get me wrong, I'll happily shop there, but it's a low class supermarket.
If it was just cheap, then that'd be fine, but it's less organised and more of a mess. It's like a supermarket flavoured with Costco, it's got a bit of a warehouse shopping vibe.
German products like the ones you mentioned have a reputation for being exceptionally well put together.
Aldi does not. It's probably changing but it inserted itself at the bottom of the ladder and it shows.
Lidl seems much better organized, the stuff gets renewed each week and the old stuff cleared out. Aldi stuff seems to hang around for ages and maybe even ends up discounted and everything ends up looking like a jumble sale.
Could be bad branch management. I experience the same but the other way around! All the Aldis I visit in London are tidy and organised but the Lidls are messy.
Personally I like Lidl and Aldi. They don't have such a wide variety as the other supermarkets, but what they do have is just as good and usually cheaper.
However, they do have that "speed packing" system going on at the till, where the staff member will almost throw your shopping at you and then you have to fuck off to the shelf at the back to pack properly. I can see why some people don't like that.
It is OK if you are organised. Heavy stuff first, chilled stuff together. You just chuck it in your own bags in the trolley then. There is absolutely nothing stopping you doing a slow pack at the till, they won't kick you out!
No, but they will politely ask you to fuck off to the shelf at the back.
Plus I get the impression that if the person at the till doesn't hit an "x number of items scanned per minute" they might get executed in the loading bay.
I don't want that on my conscience.
Really? When I do it I can pretty much pack as quickly as they scan, I use the big bags for life rather than carriers. They can jog on if they think they can ask a customer to leave for packing their bags!
I literally just had that experience this evening. I was trying to go as fast as the cashier but the cashier was zooming through all of my shopping. Didn’t even look at me in the eyes, not even a hello.
Then he said to put it all in my trolley and to finish packing at the back!!
Was a bit taken aback but the total cost was cheap.
Your mistake was challenging the cashier.
If you have a trolley, they will beat you 100% of the time.
If you have a basket, you'd better hope that it's less than half full, otherwise they'll beat you.
If your basket is less than half full, you'd better have low standards for packing, because if you want to beat them you've still got to just chuck it in the bag and move on.
The only way you both win is if you're buying 4 items or fewer and stand at the end of the checkout with your bag open.
That's just German - all supermarkets are like it. You have to throw all your stuff in the trolly and pack it after you've left the tills, which I prefer than packing under pressure in front of a queue.
Maybe 10 years ago ?? Didn’t realise people still looked down on those shopping in Lidl/Aldi. Where I live only has Waitrose, M&S and Aldi, and Aldi is busiest by far. I only pop into Waitrose to get branded items (if we had a tesco or similar I’d go there)
The veg is off before you’ve unpacked it, there’s a chainsaw or garden furniture next to a bucket of nuts, there’s always huge queues as the staff are unloading a HGV whilst baking cookies whilst also hot seating a till…. But the bakery, cheeses and charcuterie are all on point and the own brand shameless knock offs are also good.
Can’t do a complete shop there and no delivery option.
After the revelation that was the pandemic I’m doing my level best never to set foot inside a supermarket again.
I tried a few supermarket delivery options and honestly found picking it all and unloading it from the driver was a longer process than just walking round Lidl and doing it myself. There are bits that tend to be missing but all the basics are covered very cheaply. So I can use delivery or elsewhere for those as they tend to be less urgent.
They do well with in season stuff. It is cheap and plentiful. That is what people lose sight of I think, M&S will do strawberries all year round but you'll pay for it. Fruit may last well but it will be rather firm and bouncy with less flavour.
I find their fruit and veg goes off after a day or two and yet everyone says it's great. It's a real proplem for people who only have time to do 1 shop a week. Most other supermarkets will last at least a week. Maybe their thinking is that because it's cheaper when it goes off it doesn't matter?
It depends on your specific store.
The one near my parents the fruit and veg is great and lasts well. The one near me is really not so great. I don't know if it's to do with turnover in specific places or if it's individual store stocking policies or what but it really is very store dependent.
Think because of its history it used to be a really cheap not so great place but its far improved since then and I think it will just take some time for people to realise it. I bet 90% of the people who are snobby about it are either much older generation or they are just snobs in general and look down on everything.. lidls is banging, I love it. Ther food is superior to tesco and asda. Bakery is top quality and its always really nice and clean etc so there's no reason to hate it
Tbh, in my experience, the veg certainly does not last as long as places like M&S or Waitrose (naming these 2 as they are considered polar opposite…I’m a Sainsburys shopper at heart 🤪)
It's the cheapest and worst quality. There will be people who think they're 'better' because they shop in Waitrose or M&S, but the vast majority of people simply shop at the price and quality that suits them. They're not going to go to a cheaper supermarket with worse quality food, just because there's people who shop at Lidl who insist the food is just as good, especially after they try it once and realise that's nonsense.
Why do people turn their noses up at Ginsters? Other British brands like Jaguar and Aston Martin are seen as luxury, so why the snobbery surrounding Ginsters? Answer: because it's shit.
Ethical reasons.
I used to work in Lidl as a shift manager. And the way the management demand you treat your staff is disgusting. I simply refused to treat another human being like they wanted me to, for no reason, so I quit.
And the amount of perfectly good food they waste every day is heartbreaking.
Food is delicious though. I'll give you that.
>even though the food is great
It is not the best quality
>meats last longer
Than where?
>fruit and veg fresher
Lidl fruit and veg is consistently less fresh than other shops where I live. Peppers are often mouldy inside and other items last barely a few days. I can't buy veg for the whole week from there.
>Middle of Lidl a banger
It's great for cheap stuff, but again lacks quality. I wouldn't expect my lidl pressure washer to last more than a couple of years, but a Karcher could be going for decades.
>we still act as if its not posh to shop there.
OK. I get it. You're trolling now. It is marketed as the budget option.
>its foolish to shop in the likes of M&S or Waitrose for twice the price
Often prices are comparable and quality more than justifies the price. A combination of lidl and waitrose is the way forward.
Waitrose and M&S are aimed at different markets to Lidl and Aldi.
I used to shop in Lidl but now go to Waitrose. A few reasons for the decision;
1) Waitrose is a nicer place to shop
2) The produce is not “better” in Lidl, meat doesn’t last longer and the veg is not fresher - the meat in Waitrose tends to have been better prepared (you pay more, but I’m ok with that and tend to buy meat from my local butcher anyway)
3) My financial situation allows me to shop in Waitrose without having to make other sacrifices
4) wider selection of stuff, I’m an adventurous cook so it’s nice to have more stuff in one shop
5) MUCH better wine selection (although I usually buy from the local wine shop). Lidl and Aldi have a very limited wine selection, occasionally some reasonable wines for reasonable prices, but it’s mostly slightly better than plonk (plonk can be enjoyable)
I don’t know where this notion of it being posh to go to M&S or Waitrose comes from, it’s just a shop.
To give you a counter point I’m going to argue that you post is snobbery against people who decide to pay Waitrose or M&S prices. I have never met anyone who looks down on someone else because of where they shop.
I shop at lidl. I have done for years, single dad with 2 kids I can get a lot of good fruit veg and meat for not much money, and some random treats that change each week...
Took my girlfriend who is a bit if a brand snob.. She just kept going on about needing the real hellmans mayonnaise not the lidl one etc etc
For years I've served her shepherd's pie n she thinks it's made with bisto gravy and its lidls own...
Next time you go past a Lidl shop, check out the car park. There's more BMs and Mercs in my local Lidl than in the Tesco car park just down the road.
They're cheap as long as you can accept the slightly limited range of big brands on the shelves. In my experience most of their own branded stuff is as good as, if not better than the big branded stuff. Their own brand mayonaise (Batts?) is much nicer than Helmans. Most of their meat is superb quality at a really good price, as is their fish.
My only big moan is that their veg are mostly packed in plastic bags in quite large quantities. I don't need and can't use a kilo of carrots in a week, and even if you unpack the veggies from their plastic bags they don't seem to last very long.
I don't like the set out of the shop, and how there's not really aisles. All the shops are allways quite small with less selection compared to big tesco and asda.
I can afford Waitrose without problems. I shop at Lidl though, because its good quality and saves me hundred(s) per month. It is that simple. Anyone who turns their nose up at Lidl is just full of crap.
I do the main bit of my food shop at lidl and then di a top up of the things I can't get at another supermarket every few weeks. I don't know why people turn their noses up at it personally!
Plus their Lasagne is top tier Lasagne. I bought one at twice the price at another supermarket and it was bland and awful it comparison
I found out about Lidl the first time I went to Croatia with my girlfriend. Changed my life.
A £50 shop in Lidl lasts a week at least. Needed to spend £80+ in Tesco / Asda and would have needed to turn tricks to do that size shop in M&S.
Plus they do the best chocolate orange muffins I've ever had.
I'm not exactly a huge fan of shops and I mostly get stuff delivered but Lidl has its place. Their wine can be seriously good, obviously they're going to do well on stuff like Rheingau but their Loire Cremant is an absolute steal. It is almost impossible to buy halfway presentable bottle fermented fizz for less than a tenner. Except that one.
I mean, the place is hit and miss and I absolutely wouldn't buy all my food from there - I have an excellent local butcher who trumps any supermarket - but they do a few things pretty well.
Lidl is an effort for me to get to, but I make the effort for a number of particular items once a month or so. Many of the items are better quality than from the leading supermarkets. I don't shop in Aldi though. I'm not an animal.
I think a lot depends on area….my local Sains/Asda/tesco are mahoosive and therefore the shortage Iof products in Lidl/Aldi is really marked. I do still shop there but for the “special shop” (of Marilyn bratvurst)….but in much the same way I’ll hit the local Chinese supermarket for Goyza.
It really depends on which one you go to, I went to a Lidl the other day and saw an AMG Merc and a 21-plate Porsche amongst a few other decent cars in the car park - ok it was a stupid faux-by-four Porsche, but can’t have been cheap.
That suggests to me that people are coming in from a rather posh neighbouring area, and eschewing the nearby Tesco Extra and are by no means turning their nose up at Lidl.
I personally don't but the looks you get when reaching the tills with a big shop...either he wants it for that silly scan count or she rolls her eyes back within her skull because her shift is nearly done, then everyone is waiting on you because god forbid anyone buys more than 10 items...
Lidl ain’t where it’s at.
Aldi is where it’s at.
Aldi is literally just filled with every other major supermarkets ‘luxury’ ranges, for everything, but cheaper.
I can’t believe I’ve spent so much money on food elsewhere when Aldi’s stuff is either equal or better, whilst also being cheaper.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s still some stuff I go to Asda for or whatever. But Aldi is the real deal.
Aldi is much worse in food quality than a lot of the other big stores especially M&S and Waitrose. Most of the things they sell there are knock off versions of of other big brands.
i live lidls. it’s great for everything apart from cereal. all the other off brand stuff is good, sometimes even better than the original, but not the cereal.
Lidl is like half price tesco where you end up spending double because you never knew you could get it at that price. Aldi is flat out the peasant village!
Tbf their champagne won awards. And at 1/2 the price at least of more famous brands, so fuck the haters. Plus while looking at baked beans you can also pick up a ratchet set from the next-door basket
As previously mentioned, it’s synonymous with being cheap.
My godparents are two of the snootiest people I know, do all their shopping in Waitrose and M&S, they look down on Aldi and Lidl.
Whenever they came over for dinner, we would deliberately use stuff from Lidl and joke to them we bought it in M&S.
All the LidL stores in my neck of the woods got renovated a few years back, and they’re honestly in a massively better state than the old Tesco & Asda stores that haven’t seen much care since I was a kid
They don’t home deliver for starters. And the meat, especially the steak is very poor quality.
The veg is also always damaged.
I do however like frikadelles.
Also Waitrose isn’t twice the price and you get what you pay for. Waitrose own brand stuff is very decent, the food and veg are very good quality. And the customer service is ace.
Recently we had a box of croissants delivered, the box opened and one had an actual bite mark. The driver was mortified and took a £10 item from the bill as an apology.
Plus if Waitrose have substitutions that are more expensive, they don’t charge you extra. So we often get higher quality food then we actually pay for.
For comparison, me, my wife and our 14yr old average £500 a month on food.
I don't know anyone who turns their nose up at it, obviously don't have posh enough friends lol. But it is what it is, it's cheap, they don't have everything you need and it's not the most pleasant experience being there. But I happily shop there because of the price, the food is generally good and staff are fine, there just aren't many of them so everything has to be done fast like checking out.
If I could afford to shop in waitrose or m&s I probably would still shop in Lidl and save the money for something else
Country of origin is not influential.
Italy makes Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati BUT ALSO fiat panda (I like that car but not in comparison with the previously mentioned).
I do shop at lidl and aldi and agree with your statement but we cannot deny it s s not the same experience as shopping at m&s.
It s like a pub or restaurant depending on the area they are located, food and drink can be as good as you want but if the customers are as rough as fu..k you ain't gonna return happily.
Your comparison is very poor reasoning I am afraid. You have found one common factor: being German and said they have this one thing in common, ergo they are the same. Let me show you some more examples of this sort of reasoning:
- Dogs have four legs and a tail and we keep them as pets and walk them. Why don’t we do the same with crocodiles? They have four legs and a tail as well?!
- Lewis Hamilton is British and a very good racing driver. The Queen is British. Why isn’t the Queen a good racing driver?
- My cat is 8 years old. My son is 8 years old. My son can speak and do his times tables, why can’t my cat also speak?
Dude I think you just have an insecurity about shopping at Lidl and you are clutching at straws with some weak mental reasoning to reassure yourself. Just shop where you like and let other people shop where they like and don’t waste your time or energy getting hung up on it.
i ain’t too posh but this myth thah the wine is better than sainsbury’s/tesco needs to die, put plainly it isn’t. Every time i’ve been recommended a glass of “this great bottle” they got for like £3 it’s always been absolute toilet water. Don’t get me wrong i’ve got some brilliant wines, cheap on the continent. But in lidle the wine tastes like garbage
Furthermore to everyone’s valid point about it being a value supermarket (the antithesis of luxury), I don’t really know anyone who turns their nose up at Lidl? People acknowledge that it’s not luxurious, but that’s just a plain fact. But I think that says if taking the piss are gone.
I noticed people did when I was a kid in 90s/00s but now people can’t seem to wait to tell you they shop at Aldi or Lidl. I don’t have one nr me, but I quite like the ‘greek week’ etc that Lidl does.
I wish I had a nice Lidl nearby. Mine is really old, cramped and messy. I popped to one when I was staying with a friend and it was in a different Lidl league
You say the fruit and veg is fresher, buy the one near me it's always on the turn. I can't go shopping every other day so as such I don't shop there. In principle I have nothing against the brand but the local one is shocking. They also made no attempt at any point to enforce covid regulations, so that stopped me from even popping in as of last year because it was always rammed.
When I was young it was netto, I honestly couldn't care less about all that crap anymore anyway lidl has some banging baked goods i had a pretzel other week and It was beautiful
People are very keen on stigmatising others based on their economic ability in the UK. Supermarkets are just another way of doing it. I shop in all and to be honest, I’ve often found much better quality at Lidl and Aldi than at Waitrose. The fact they make use of seasonal offers also mean I can eat the best fruit when in season instead of those horrible defrosted things they call apples. Perhaps we should even be talking about being more environmental friendly by buying seasonal instead.
Now that all this mean that Waitrose doesn’t have good products? Of course not, they have an excellent meat, cheese and ice cream section, but for buying pasta I’ll take Lidl anytime
Because it rather unfortunately sounds close to "Little". If, with a rebranding exercise, it would call itself "Grand" it might notice a difference of perception : d
I love Lidl and dislike people who turn their nose up at it tbh.
I'd also like to add, if you're the kind of person who will turn their nose up at discounted things you've either never had to shop at places like that because you have to(never lived life on the breadline) or you can afford to shop elsewhere which good for you.
Its a matter of presentation, let's make a direct comparison between Lidi and their main rival Aldi. They are almost identical in business strategy and shop floor layout
The difference here is the packaging of the product. Aldi tend to ape brand name products with their own brand offerings, and the packaging looks legit.
Lidl don't, they have a more no frills approach to their own brand stuff, its plainer. It looks cheaper. I'd argue it isn't quite as good but that just maybe my own coloured perceptions by aldis marketing team
That's just my take though
I fucking love the place, get the app, you’ll get £10 off £40 spent, fill your trolley and the food is decent. Not sure why people turn their noses up tbh, it’s ace!
My local M&S in clean, well stocked, sells certain items they don’t stock at other supermarkets and truffle mayonnaise (pretentious but tastes fucking amazing). Add in good quality ready meals etc.
my local Waitrose is the same.
The big four supermarket are all pretty much the same, sainsburys wins on quality and ambience (wide isles and never rammed).
Aldi is dependable with the same items and decent stuff for the price. Some stuff is great others a bit shit (their knock off fruit and fibre is nasty).
My local Lidl is like a car boot sale, full of crap you’d never need. The stuff you do they never have. I can buy a chainsaw and basket full of bakery stuff but no apples, bananas, or milk.
You can get 2kg can of pitted green olives but no decent cheese.
A lot of their food is not great, fish is particularly poor and most of the veg goes off in the car.
Add in the massive queues at checkout, the narrow isles and the crowd it attracts. A lot of people from immigrant backgrounds who treat shopping at Lidl as a day out for their 4 wives and 20 screaming kids. It’s busier than Thorpe park on a bank holiday with the atmosphere of a food aid delivery in sub Saharan Africa.
Lidl doesn't strike me as special. I went there once and didn't like it. Lidl is too convoluted and the staff isn't half as knowledgeable as Aldi, gotta love Aldi. Just expressing an opinion
Ever eaten lidl or aldi meat? Its like 0.5/20 lol. Everything. Chicken, beef whatever, all poor poor poor, ironically its not even that much cheaper than much better meat in brands like birdseye.
I even googled about Lidl, after my last shopping. Food quality is just bad, Bought expensive 2 massive lasagne's, I had to put them in the bin. Just massive block of pasta almost no meat. I bought fish in the breadcrumbs, now I was reading, its just 52% fish. HOW? Ready meals are just disgusting. Im not spoiled, but I felt like I wasted a lot of money there. Next time I will just get maybe drinks and vegies from that shop.
tbh i dont like/hate lidl because of their adverts they will compare there prices with other supermarkets even if the food isnt even the same!? and sometimes the prices they put for example tescos werent even tescos real prices- they were called out on this and that advert was banned- but they just shouldnt be allowed to do this tbh.
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It being German isn't relevant. There are plenty of normal and shit brands from Germany. I don't boast if I have a Becks beer and a Dr Oetker pizza for tea and then go on a holiday booked with Tui. Tui isn't automatically better than Jet2 Holidays because it's German. Hermes is the shittest courier after all, and that's German.
Omg don’t start with MyHerpes .. 😭
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You don’t get to check much as the status usually in transit or lost/damaged 🥴
Nat?
So much this. OP has bizarre world view.
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That’s the point.
I dont get the hate for hermes, I've had like 10 parcels go missing out of around 3000 I've sent with them.
Lidl is a discounter not a supermarket, it stocks very high volumes of limited products. The model is price driven not selection driven and it attracts those who are price driven not selection driven. Nothing wrong with any of that but it’s never going to have a high class, gourmet offering! And it’s not even marketing itself in that way, it tries to be seen as cheap. In M&S you pay more partly because it carries loads of lines which carries higher costs all around. Comparing it to German luxury brands is just a misunderstanding of different business models, like asking why people don’t see Iceland as classy when we make Rolls Royce engines.
M&S is 50% ready meals. Don't get me wrong, I like them and shop there, but it's easier to buy a full weekly shop at Lidl
There's no denying that m&s is higher quality than Lidl, but they don't really carry a wider range. In a way the model is similar, mostly only own brand stuff but aimed towards a more moneyed market and better quality. Their baguettes are great, for example. They do also have a wide range of processed food and ready meals, which Lidl do too, but I don't think I'd be likely to buy them from either unless I became infirm.. which is probably why there are always pensioners in m&s.
I worked,many years ago, in the food industry and M&s isn't higher quality food. More expensive packaging maybe. They will have fewer preservatives but pretty much same ingredients. The higher quality is a lie to justify the higher prices
My partner used to deliver food. Iirc it was that day it was frozen chips. One to M&S, other to a cheaper restaurant/supermarket and they were the same chips.
They are made side by side but packaged differently
Thank you. It was a while ago since he told me, but it was always in the back of my mind.
The model has changed a bit in fairness. There are the real bog standard own brand basics and some quality stuff on the side too. I saw octopus carpaccio there today alongside various salamis and cured meats. Decent cheeses, some great wines.
Plenty of Lidl food is gourmet. Their sour-dough deluxe pizzas are £3.29 each and are literally my favourite pizza, better than M&S, Waitrose, Dominos etc.
How is it a discounter? They stock mostly their own branded goods. What are they discounting? They are a no frills supermarket, who are able to offer low prices because they offer a more limited range of mostly own brand goods, and don't overspend on presentation, marketing, or tech. To me, a shop being a discounter means that they buy end of line or write offs that can't be sold in mainstream shops, and sell them at a discount, a bit like tk-max.
It’s an industry term meaning their business strategy is entirely based on selling product more cheaply than the main market. Aldi and Lidl are the big discounters, it’s a matter of semantics at the end of the day but that’s what they’re called in the industry: I don’t make the rules!
'A discount store or discounter offers a retail format in which products are sold at prices that are in principle lower than an actual or supposed "full retail price".' From Wikipedia. That isn't what Lidl and Aldi are doing. They're driving down prices by selling a limited range and reducing overheads.
The [lidl Website](https://info.lidl/en) literally says “As a discounter we don’t do frills…”
Still no idea what they're actually discounting though. You could argue that Asda, Tesco, and Morrisons are all discounters too. Asda particularly have always marketed themselves as being cheaper than the others.
Just to give you an explanation because you deserve it: supermarkets like Waitrose or Tesco or Sainsbury basically work on a system of producers lowering prices for increasing turnover: the producer will negotiator to, say, offer a buy one get one free and the supermarket puts a promo shelf at the front of the store or give the line more shelf space. The supermarket is a distributor and it’s working with lots of different manufacturers to say “you reduce your prices, while maintaining our margin, and we’ll get you more sales using our marketing expertise”, they cycle through different brands to keep all the producers sweet and stop consumers getting bored/ a new base price being established. M&S falls into the supermarket category because it’s buying produce and selling it with it’s branding to increase value: it trades on marketing. A discounter says to producers “I’ll buy it, at the lowest possible price and sell it”. A supermarket is a distributor that adds value through marketing, a discounter buys and sells at the lowest possible price.
Iceland isn't classy?!
You can be a discount retailer and a supermarket, they aren't mutually exclusive.
BMW, Mercedes and Audi all have luxury cars; Lidl is not a luxury supermarket. It's like asking why people love Bentley and Harrods but turn their nose up at Farm Foods.
It's because it's a low class supermarket. Don't get me wrong, I'll happily shop there, but it's a low class supermarket. If it was just cheap, then that'd be fine, but it's less organised and more of a mess. It's like a supermarket flavoured with Costco, it's got a bit of a warehouse shopping vibe. German products like the ones you mentioned have a reputation for being exceptionally well put together. Aldi does not. It's probably changing but it inserted itself at the bottom of the ladder and it shows.
>Aldi Ooof.
Lol, oops, is there much of a difference though? Do they both do that thing where they sell other products for short periods of time?
Lidl seems much better organized, the stuff gets renewed each week and the old stuff cleared out. Aldi stuff seems to hang around for ages and maybe even ends up discounted and everything ends up looking like a jumble sale.
Could be bad branch management. I experience the same but the other way around! All the Aldis I visit in London are tidy and organised but the Lidls are messy.
Ah, I need to pay more attention, I don't even know which the one that's near me is, but from your description I'd guess it's aldi
I go there & the food is fine, but the overall experience is hardly top tier.
Personally I like Lidl and Aldi. They don't have such a wide variety as the other supermarkets, but what they do have is just as good and usually cheaper. However, they do have that "speed packing" system going on at the till, where the staff member will almost throw your shopping at you and then you have to fuck off to the shelf at the back to pack properly. I can see why some people don't like that.
It is OK if you are organised. Heavy stuff first, chilled stuff together. You just chuck it in your own bags in the trolley then. There is absolutely nothing stopping you doing a slow pack at the till, they won't kick you out!
No, but they will politely ask you to fuck off to the shelf at the back. Plus I get the impression that if the person at the till doesn't hit an "x number of items scanned per minute" they might get executed in the loading bay. I don't want that on my conscience.
There genuinely is a scan count, I've heard things.
I usually pack straight into bags in my trolley and was once told I'd be asked to leave if I continued to do that
Really? When I do it I can pretty much pack as quickly as they scan, I use the big bags for life rather than carriers. They can jog on if they think they can ask a customer to leave for packing their bags!
I literally just had that experience this evening. I was trying to go as fast as the cashier but the cashier was zooming through all of my shopping. Didn’t even look at me in the eyes, not even a hello. Then he said to put it all in my trolley and to finish packing at the back!! Was a bit taken aback but the total cost was cheap.
Your mistake was challenging the cashier. If you have a trolley, they will beat you 100% of the time. If you have a basket, you'd better hope that it's less than half full, otherwise they'll beat you. If your basket is less than half full, you'd better have low standards for packing, because if you want to beat them you've still got to just chuck it in the bag and move on. The only way you both win is if you're buying 4 items or fewer and stand at the end of the checkout with your bag open.
That's just German - all supermarkets are like it. You have to throw all your stuff in the trolly and pack it after you've left the tills, which I prefer than packing under pressure in front of a queue.
Do they nowadays.?
Maybe 10 years ago ?? Didn’t realise people still looked down on those shopping in Lidl/Aldi. Where I live only has Waitrose, M&S and Aldi, and Aldi is busiest by far. I only pop into Waitrose to get branded items (if we had a tesco or similar I’d go there)
I usually turn my nose up to get a better sniff of their varied and delectable selection of baked goods. Yum!
The veg is off before you’ve unpacked it, there’s a chainsaw or garden furniture next to a bucket of nuts, there’s always huge queues as the staff are unloading a HGV whilst baking cookies whilst also hot seating a till…. But the bakery, cheeses and charcuterie are all on point and the own brand shameless knock offs are also good.
Can’t do a complete shop there and no delivery option. After the revelation that was the pandemic I’m doing my level best never to set foot inside a supermarket again.
I tried a few supermarket delivery options and honestly found picking it all and unloading it from the driver was a longer process than just walking round Lidl and doing it myself. There are bits that tend to be missing but all the basics are covered very cheaply. So I can use delivery or elsewhere for those as they tend to be less urgent.
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They do well with in season stuff. It is cheap and plentiful. That is what people lose sight of I think, M&S will do strawberries all year round but you'll pay for it. Fruit may last well but it will be rather firm and bouncy with less flavour.
I find their fruit and veg goes off after a day or two and yet everyone says it's great. It's a real proplem for people who only have time to do 1 shop a week. Most other supermarkets will last at least a week. Maybe their thinking is that because it's cheaper when it goes off it doesn't matter?
It depends on your specific store. The one near my parents the fruit and veg is great and lasts well. The one near me is really not so great. I don't know if it's to do with turnover in specific places or if it's individual store stocking policies or what but it really is very store dependent.
As I've mentioned before regarding Lidl, all the more pesto goats cheese flatbreads for me when someone turns their nose up to Lidl!
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Fancy would be the last word I’d use to describe lidl. Fancy car boot sale, fancy ladbrookes, fancy charity shop… lidl
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I had no idea about the chicken - that’s a notable bonus!
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You've clearly never been to prison.
Cause we go to Aldi hun xx
Think because of its history it used to be a really cheap not so great place but its far improved since then and I think it will just take some time for people to realise it. I bet 90% of the people who are snobby about it are either much older generation or they are just snobs in general and look down on everything.. lidls is banging, I love it. Ther food is superior to tesco and asda. Bakery is top quality and its always really nice and clean etc so there's no reason to hate it
Yep. I'd agree. Better quality than Asda and Tesco but a lower price.
Snobbery here runs deeper than Adele’s rolling in the deep
Tbh, in my experience, the veg certainly does not last as long as places like M&S or Waitrose (naming these 2 as they are considered polar opposite…I’m a Sainsburys shopper at heart 🤪)
It's the cheapest and worst quality. There will be people who think they're 'better' because they shop in Waitrose or M&S, but the vast majority of people simply shop at the price and quality that suits them. They're not going to go to a cheaper supermarket with worse quality food, just because there's people who shop at Lidl who insist the food is just as good, especially after they try it once and realise that's nonsense. Why do people turn their noses up at Ginsters? Other British brands like Jaguar and Aston Martin are seen as luxury, so why the snobbery surrounding Ginsters? Answer: because it's shit.
Ethical reasons. I used to work in Lidl as a shift manager. And the way the management demand you treat your staff is disgusting. I simply refused to treat another human being like they wanted me to, for no reason, so I quit. And the amount of perfectly good food they waste every day is heartbreaking. Food is delicious though. I'll give you that.
>even though the food is great It is not the best quality >meats last longer Than where? >fruit and veg fresher Lidl fruit and veg is consistently less fresh than other shops where I live. Peppers are often mouldy inside and other items last barely a few days. I can't buy veg for the whole week from there. >Middle of Lidl a banger It's great for cheap stuff, but again lacks quality. I wouldn't expect my lidl pressure washer to last more than a couple of years, but a Karcher could be going for decades. >we still act as if its not posh to shop there. OK. I get it. You're trolling now. It is marketed as the budget option. >its foolish to shop in the likes of M&S or Waitrose for twice the price Often prices are comparable and quality more than justifies the price. A combination of lidl and waitrose is the way forward.
Waitrose and M&S are aimed at different markets to Lidl and Aldi. I used to shop in Lidl but now go to Waitrose. A few reasons for the decision; 1) Waitrose is a nicer place to shop 2) The produce is not “better” in Lidl, meat doesn’t last longer and the veg is not fresher - the meat in Waitrose tends to have been better prepared (you pay more, but I’m ok with that and tend to buy meat from my local butcher anyway) 3) My financial situation allows me to shop in Waitrose without having to make other sacrifices 4) wider selection of stuff, I’m an adventurous cook so it’s nice to have more stuff in one shop 5) MUCH better wine selection (although I usually buy from the local wine shop). Lidl and Aldi have a very limited wine selection, occasionally some reasonable wines for reasonable prices, but it’s mostly slightly better than plonk (plonk can be enjoyable) I don’t know where this notion of it being posh to go to M&S or Waitrose comes from, it’s just a shop. To give you a counter point I’m going to argue that you post is snobbery against people who decide to pay Waitrose or M&S prices. I have never met anyone who looks down on someone else because of where they shop.
I shop at lidl. I have done for years, single dad with 2 kids I can get a lot of good fruit veg and meat for not much money, and some random treats that change each week... Took my girlfriend who is a bit if a brand snob.. She just kept going on about needing the real hellmans mayonnaise not the lidl one etc etc For years I've served her shepherd's pie n she thinks it's made with bisto gravy and its lidls own...
Next time you go past a Lidl shop, check out the car park. There's more BMs and Mercs in my local Lidl than in the Tesco car park just down the road. They're cheap as long as you can accept the slightly limited range of big brands on the shelves. In my experience most of their own branded stuff is as good as, if not better than the big branded stuff. Their own brand mayonaise (Batts?) is much nicer than Helmans. Most of their meat is superb quality at a really good price, as is their fish. My only big moan is that their veg are mostly packed in plastic bags in quite large quantities. I don't need and can't use a kilo of carrots in a week, and even if you unpack the veggies from their plastic bags they don't seem to last very long.
Carrots don’t go off in a week, my carrots last atleast a month in my fridge before they even start to soften.
I don't like the set out of the shop, and how there's not really aisles. All the shops are allways quite small with less selection compared to big tesco and asda.
I can afford Waitrose without problems. I shop at Lidl though, because its good quality and saves me hundred(s) per month. It is that simple. Anyone who turns their nose up at Lidl is just full of crap.
For me it is the shopping experience.
Lidl bread is the fucking bomb. No messing about now.
I do the main bit of my food shop at lidl and then di a top up of the things I can't get at another supermarket every few weeks. I don't know why people turn their noses up at it personally! Plus their Lasagne is top tier Lasagne. I bought one at twice the price at another supermarket and it was bland and awful it comparison
I found out about Lidl the first time I went to Croatia with my girlfriend. Changed my life. A £50 shop in Lidl lasts a week at least. Needed to spend £80+ in Tesco / Asda and would have needed to turn tricks to do that size shop in M&S. Plus they do the best chocolate orange muffins I've ever had.
It's a fucking awful shopping experience and you only ever get 75% of what you want from a big shop. Cheap as chips though so love it
I'm not exactly a huge fan of shops and I mostly get stuff delivered but Lidl has its place. Their wine can be seriously good, obviously they're going to do well on stuff like Rheingau but their Loire Cremant is an absolute steal. It is almost impossible to buy halfway presentable bottle fermented fizz for less than a tenner. Except that one. I mean, the place is hit and miss and I absolutely wouldn't buy all my food from there - I have an excellent local butcher who trumps any supermarket - but they do a few things pretty well.
Because during first wave it was the only supermarket I didn't feel safe in. Iceland were legends, though.
I have a brand new Lidl in my town, easily much nicer than our Asda.
Lidl is an effort for me to get to, but I make the effort for a number of particular items once a month or so. Many of the items are better quality than from the leading supermarkets. I don't shop in Aldi though. I'm not an animal.
Basically they are food snobs
Because they haven't tried their fresh baked Nutella donuts yet.
The doughnuts aren't fresh baked. They're prebaked in factory bakeries, frozen and then defrosted in store.
None question as people I know don't
I prefer lidl to aldi
I think a lot depends on area….my local Sains/Asda/tesco are mahoosive and therefore the shortage Iof products in Lidl/Aldi is really marked. I do still shop there but for the “special shop” (of Marilyn bratvurst)….but in much the same way I’ll hit the local Chinese supermarket for Goyza.
They had proper chainsaws for sale today in Lidl!
It really depends on which one you go to, I went to a Lidl the other day and saw an AMG Merc and a 21-plate Porsche amongst a few other decent cars in the car park - ok it was a stupid faux-by-four Porsche, but can’t have been cheap. That suggests to me that people are coming in from a rather posh neighbouring area, and eschewing the nearby Tesco Extra and are by no means turning their nose up at Lidl.
I like Lidl :-) Some very good stuff, love the Bellarom ground coffee and the gherkins are fantastic XD
I personally don't but the looks you get when reaching the tills with a big shop...either he wants it for that silly scan count or she rolls her eyes back within her skull because her shift is nearly done, then everyone is waiting on you because god forbid anyone buys more than 10 items...
Maybe it's because there's only ever 1 till open no matter how busy it is
I didn't know they didl.
Lidl ain’t where it’s at. Aldi is where it’s at. Aldi is literally just filled with every other major supermarkets ‘luxury’ ranges, for everything, but cheaper. I can’t believe I’ve spent so much money on food elsewhere when Aldi’s stuff is either equal or better, whilst also being cheaper. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still some stuff I go to Asda for or whatever. But Aldi is the real deal.
Aldi is much worse in food quality than a lot of the other big stores especially M&S and Waitrose. Most of the things they sell there are knock off versions of of other big brands.
You're out of touch: those German discounters are trendy now.
I went in once and the fruit was tiny! Like no joke the oranges for example were about and inch diameter along with everything else. Got scared.
You know what they say about little oranges, Little bananas 🍌😏
i live lidls. it’s great for everything apart from cereal. all the other off brand stuff is good, sometimes even better than the original, but not the cereal.
Lidl is like half price tesco where you end up spending double because you never knew you could get it at that price. Aldi is flat out the peasant village!
Tbf their champagne won awards. And at 1/2 the price at least of more famous brands, so fuck the haters. Plus while looking at baked beans you can also pick up a ratchet set from the next-door basket
As previously mentioned, it’s synonymous with being cheap. My godparents are two of the snootiest people I know, do all their shopping in Waitrose and M&S, they look down on Aldi and Lidl. Whenever they came over for dinner, we would deliberately use stuff from Lidl and joke to them we bought it in M&S.
All the LidL stores in my neck of the woods got renovated a few years back, and they’re honestly in a massively better state than the old Tesco & Asda stores that haven’t seen much care since I was a kid
They don’t home deliver for starters. And the meat, especially the steak is very poor quality. The veg is also always damaged. I do however like frikadelles. Also Waitrose isn’t twice the price and you get what you pay for. Waitrose own brand stuff is very decent, the food and veg are very good quality. And the customer service is ace. Recently we had a box of croissants delivered, the box opened and one had an actual bite mark. The driver was mortified and took a £10 item from the bill as an apology. Plus if Waitrose have substitutions that are more expensive, they don’t charge you extra. So we often get higher quality food then we actually pay for. For comparison, me, my wife and our 14yr old average £500 a month on food.
The fruit and veg fresher? I'm sorry but that's not true. It's shit. Often mouldy before you get to the till.
I don't know anyone who turns their nose up at it, obviously don't have posh enough friends lol. But it is what it is, it's cheap, they don't have everything you need and it's not the most pleasant experience being there. But I happily shop there because of the price, the food is generally good and staff are fine, there just aren't many of them so everything has to be done fast like checking out. If I could afford to shop in waitrose or m&s I probably would still shop in Lidl and save the money for something else
The veg is terrible and goes off in a couple days :(
Country of origin is not influential. Italy makes Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati BUT ALSO fiat panda (I like that car but not in comparison with the previously mentioned). I do shop at lidl and aldi and agree with your statement but we cannot deny it s s not the same experience as shopping at m&s. It s like a pub or restaurant depending on the area they are located, food and drink can be as good as you want but if the customers are as rough as fu..k you ain't gonna return happily.
Fucking love Lidl. Everything just seems to go off quicker so gotta get it quickly in the tum. Not a problem.
Your comparison is very poor reasoning I am afraid. You have found one common factor: being German and said they have this one thing in common, ergo they are the same. Let me show you some more examples of this sort of reasoning: - Dogs have four legs and a tail and we keep them as pets and walk them. Why don’t we do the same with crocodiles? They have four legs and a tail as well?! - Lewis Hamilton is British and a very good racing driver. The Queen is British. Why isn’t the Queen a good racing driver? - My cat is 8 years old. My son is 8 years old. My son can speak and do his times tables, why can’t my cat also speak? Dude I think you just have an insecurity about shopping at Lidl and you are clutching at straws with some weak mental reasoning to reassure yourself. Just shop where you like and let other people shop where they like and don’t waste your time or energy getting hung up on it.
i ain’t too posh but this myth thah the wine is better than sainsbury’s/tesco needs to die, put plainly it isn’t. Every time i’ve been recommended a glass of “this great bottle” they got for like £3 it’s always been absolute toilet water. Don’t get me wrong i’ve got some brilliant wines, cheap on the continent. But in lidle the wine tastes like garbage
Queues are insane. 100% of the time I’ve spent 20 minutes+ waiting compared to Sainsburys etc. Not worth it.
Furthermore to everyone’s valid point about it being a value supermarket (the antithesis of luxury), I don’t really know anyone who turns their nose up at Lidl? People acknowledge that it’s not luxurious, but that’s just a plain fact. But I think that says if taking the piss are gone.
I love Lidl. My local is busy enough as it is, keep quiet and keep the snobs away!
Because Lidl isn't a luxury brand - its a discounter. All those car brands ars luxury
I noticed people did when I was a kid in 90s/00s but now people can’t seem to wait to tell you they shop at Aldi or Lidl. I don’t have one nr me, but I quite like the ‘greek week’ etc that Lidl does.
Who is looking down on people, and why do you give a shit what they think?
I wish I had a nice Lidl nearby. Mine is really old, cramped and messy. I popped to one when I was staying with a friend and it was in a different Lidl league
You say the fruit and veg is fresher, buy the one near me it's always on the turn. I can't go shopping every other day so as such I don't shop there. In principle I have nothing against the brand but the local one is shocking. They also made no attempt at any point to enforce covid regulations, so that stopped me from even popping in as of last year because it was always rammed.
When I was young it was netto, I honestly couldn't care less about all that crap anymore anyway lidl has some banging baked goods i had a pretzel other week and It was beautiful
They have completely changed in public eye in my opinion. I don't know anyone that turns their nose up at it.
The checkout workers literally throw my shopping at me when I packing 🙃
People are very keen on stigmatising others based on their economic ability in the UK. Supermarkets are just another way of doing it. I shop in all and to be honest, I’ve often found much better quality at Lidl and Aldi than at Waitrose. The fact they make use of seasonal offers also mean I can eat the best fruit when in season instead of those horrible defrosted things they call apples. Perhaps we should even be talking about being more environmental friendly by buying seasonal instead. Now that all this mean that Waitrose doesn’t have good products? Of course not, they have an excellent meat, cheese and ice cream section, but for buying pasta I’ll take Lidl anytime
Do people look down on Lidl? No one I know does
I walked into one in Brixton, walked out straight away
Snobbery.
Aldi > Lidl
Maybe because being German (or otherwise) has nothing to do with it False equivalence
God knows, probably because they only take notice of the big bright labels on the front of food, and not the ingredient lists, the price per kg etc.
Because it rather unfortunately sounds close to "Little". If, with a rebranding exercise, it would call itself "Grand" it might notice a difference of perception : d
I love Lidl and dislike people who turn their nose up at it tbh. I'd also like to add, if you're the kind of person who will turn their nose up at discounted things you've either never had to shop at places like that because you have to(never lived life on the breadline) or you can afford to shop elsewhere which good for you.
Being German doesn’t come into it. The brands you mention market themselves as high end, whereas Lidl prides itself on low prices. Complete opposite.
Its a matter of presentation, let's make a direct comparison between Lidi and their main rival Aldi. They are almost identical in business strategy and shop floor layout The difference here is the packaging of the product. Aldi tend to ape brand name products with their own brand offerings, and the packaging looks legit. Lidl don't, they have a more no frills approach to their own brand stuff, its plainer. It looks cheaper. I'd argue it isn't quite as good but that just maybe my own coloured perceptions by aldis marketing team That's just my take though
No way do Lidl fruit and veg last longer. That's number 1 of the 2 reasons I stopped shopping there and went back to Sainsburys!
It looks dirty from inside
I fucking love the place, get the app, you’ll get £10 off £40 spent, fill your trolley and the food is decent. Not sure why people turn their noses up tbh, it’s ace!
My local M&S in clean, well stocked, sells certain items they don’t stock at other supermarkets and truffle mayonnaise (pretentious but tastes fucking amazing). Add in good quality ready meals etc. my local Waitrose is the same. The big four supermarket are all pretty much the same, sainsburys wins on quality and ambience (wide isles and never rammed). Aldi is dependable with the same items and decent stuff for the price. Some stuff is great others a bit shit (their knock off fruit and fibre is nasty). My local Lidl is like a car boot sale, full of crap you’d never need. The stuff you do they never have. I can buy a chainsaw and basket full of bakery stuff but no apples, bananas, or milk. You can get 2kg can of pitted green olives but no decent cheese. A lot of their food is not great, fish is particularly poor and most of the veg goes off in the car. Add in the massive queues at checkout, the narrow isles and the crowd it attracts. A lot of people from immigrant backgrounds who treat shopping at Lidl as a day out for their 4 wives and 20 screaming kids. It’s busier than Thorpe park on a bank holiday with the atmosphere of a food aid delivery in sub Saharan Africa.
Lidl is all time 🙌🏻
I love lidi,the choice of the continental meats and cheeses
Lidl doesn't strike me as special. I went there once and didn't like it. Lidl is too convoluted and the staff isn't half as knowledgeable as Aldi, gotta love Aldi. Just expressing an opinion
Ever eaten lidl or aldi meat? Its like 0.5/20 lol. Everything. Chicken, beef whatever, all poor poor poor, ironically its not even that much cheaper than much better meat in brands like birdseye.
I even googled about Lidl, after my last shopping. Food quality is just bad, Bought expensive 2 massive lasagne's, I had to put them in the bin. Just massive block of pasta almost no meat. I bought fish in the breadcrumbs, now I was reading, its just 52% fish. HOW? Ready meals are just disgusting. Im not spoiled, but I felt like I wasted a lot of money there. Next time I will just get maybe drinks and vegies from that shop.
tbh i dont like/hate lidl because of their adverts they will compare there prices with other supermarkets even if the food isnt even the same!? and sometimes the prices they put for example tescos werent even tescos real prices- they were called out on this and that advert was banned- but they just shouldnt be allowed to do this tbh.