Archived Topic
Topic ID 3563
27/04/2008 by Steve
Every Lidl Helps
Rather than a Sainsbury's for the town, wouldn't it be better if we had something like a Lidl? After all, we lost Iceland to M&S Food so there's arguably a need for a truly cheap supermarket.
I say that having read a revealing article in The Telegraph:
"A nationwide survey by the consumer magazine Which? last year revealed that British consumers already rated Lidl and Aldi more highly than Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury's, and only just below Waitrose. So rattled is Tesco that it has built a mock-up of an Aldi store near its Hertfordshire HQ for staff to study the upstart's tactics.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/27/nlidl127.xml
There was of course a plan for a Lidl in Mill Road back in the late 90s, but the location was unfavourable, although no more so than the current Sainsbury's proposal.
0 replies
Archived Replies
Reply ID 52005
27/04/2008 by Rachel
quote:
Originally posted by Steve
Rather than a Sainsbury's for the town, wouldn't it be better if we had something like a Lidl?
Yes, I think it would, Steve. It would be a good complement to Waitrose and would not push them out - I think hanging on to Waitrose is important for Hertford. There are a couple of those cheapo places in Hoddesdon (Aldi? Netto? not sure) and they are worth a visit for cut price cycling and running gear and cheap antipasti, bratwurst and continental chocolate. As the article says, you often find something surprising that's not there when you go back. I wouldn't like to do a proper shop with a list of must-haves in a Lidl but they are OK for browsing and spotting bargains. (I can't see the Lidl logo without thinking of Afrikan Boy's song, 'One day I went to Lidl' Don't click this link unless you also want it playing in your head every time you pass a Lidl [:)])
http://combandrazor.blogspot.com/2007/09/afrikan-boy-one-day-i-went-to-lidl.html Reply ID 52011
27/04/2008 by PAT-H
We've switch our main shop from Tesco and Sainsburys to Aldi in Hoddesdon. That's for a family of 5 3 of which are teenagers.
We buy our meat locally from the excellent Pickett's in Kingsway Ware.
We buy some fruit and veg locally as well and some deli stuff form small local stores.
For everything else Aldi works out great for us.
Not to everyone's taste as they often only have one of a products like tomato sauce etc. But we calculate that our shopping bill is 2/3 what it was. Mainly I suspect by not being tempted by things we really don't need.
It would be nice to have a more local store although currently we make the run worth while by doing our recycling at Sainsburys.
Reply ID 52039
28/04/2008 by carlos fandango
Love Aldi only store i've been to to buy Bratwurst and almost come home with a cement mixer.
Reply ID 52049
28/04/2008 by Arty
quote:
Originally posted by carlos fandango
Love Aldi only store i've been to to buy Bratwurst and almost come home with a cement mixer.
That's where the M & S Food Store fails in my opinion.
Reply ID 52051
28/04/2008 by Dude
quote:
Originally posted by Steve
The Telegraph article said:
"So rattled is Tesco that it has built a mock-up of an Aldi store near its Hertfordshire HQ for staff to study the upstart's tactics.
More in the "secret" world of supermarking! [:)]. Do you think the other supermarkets need secret mock ups to work out that Aldi spend very little on the stores and fill it with reduced volume of lines and lower quality ingredients. I think they know that. Afterall, Tesco introduced the Value range as a marketing effort aimed directly at Aldi/Lidl/Netto.
Aldi/Lidl/Netto are no cheaper than an Asda or Tesco, it simply depends what you are shopping for. Their tactic is to deeply price cut a few key offers a week to grap headlines, then charge their going rate for the rest.
They are cheaper than standard supermarket lines, but thats not a like for like comparison. They are not cheaper than the value/ecomony lines, which they often share the same ingredients with.
You will often see Aldi compare a shopping list. They'll state that Asda 20 fish fingers are say 96p. But Aldi's are 36p. What they fail to show you is that the Asda smartprice Value 20 fingers are 25p, and they come from the same factory as the Aldi ones.
If you pick the official 35 most commonly bought items entirely from Tesco value range and then picked the cheapest in Lidl, I bet Tesco are cheaper.
Its just standard marketing. They all claim to be the cheapest. It just depends what you are comparing.
On pure stats, Netto should deliver the cheapest shop. Less choice, untidy shops, bottom of the ladder ingredients and a lot of long life products sourced close to their sell by date. My Mother in law sometimes shops at the one in Hoddesdon, and comes back proclaiming huge savings.
She'll come round trying to offload several packs of bacon on me, because they were on offer at half the price of Sainsbury. But when you look at what she got it was either items she had no original intention of buying or own label stuff like beans.
I think Hertford would benefit more from Tesco's direct competition like Sainsbury or Asda, than an Aldi or Netto.
Reply ID 52054
28/04/2008 by newgirl
I went in a Lidl at Tottenham Hale once and I don't know what smelt worse - the shop or the customers. It has put me off for life although this particular branch could just be one of the worst. On the other hand, it could be the flagship store!
Yeeuch [xx(]
Reply ID 52063
28/04/2008 by PAT-H
Re quality:
Can only speak for Aldi as it's what we use now but we weren't ever too keen on the Tesco Value stuff. A lot of it was pretty crappy. Sainsbury values stuff seemed a bit better but we generally didn't by the value stuff.
However the "normal" stuff at Aldi seems to compare to the more expensive non value stuff at Tesco and Sainsbury's.
We may not be as fussy as others, who knows, but at least we spend less on our shopping now and that's great.
The staff are also very approachable we regularly chat with the checkout people. Something that just didn't happen at any of the bigger stores.
Reply ID 52080
29/04/2008 by Dude
quote:
Originally posted by PAT-H
Re quality:
Can only speak for Aldi as it's what we use now but we weren't ever too keen on the Tesco Value stuff. A lot of it was pretty crappy. Sainsbury values stuff seemed a bit better but we generally didn't by the value stuff.
However the "normal" stuff at Aldi seems to compare to the more expensive non value stuff at Tesco and Sainsbury's.
We may not be as fussy as others, who knows, but at least we spend less on our shopping now and that's great.
The staff are also very approachable we regularly chat with the checkout people. Something that just didn't happen at any of the bigger stores.
Aldi is without a doubt the better of the Aldi/Lidl Netto bunch. They are a little more "upmarket".
I think with regards to the "value" lines, it depends on personal taste. At Tesco I found the Beans (value beans are made by Heinz), orange juice, weetabix and creamed rice excellent. But the cornish pasties, ketchup and cornflakes were terrible.
Reply ID 52113
30/04/2008 by carlos fandango
Frau Fandango is used to shopping at Aldi/Lidl from her student days in Germany. There they are considered normal "mainstream" supermarkets there in a market that is, admittedly, less developed than here. For certain things they are irreplaceable. Particularly at Christmas.
10 replies