Not much choice unless you go to out of town centers where I live.
Only thing that I like about my closest Lidl is that due to beef not being that popular and that some of the best steaks are on shelves that you would need to be 6'3" to see the label, you can get some brilliant bargains.
Unfortunately, when you get to the self service and the reduced food needs supervising, the wait is sometimes as long as 10 minutes!
I have no loyalty to any brand, only product and quality. I notice that some supermarkets veg lasts longer than other, and smaller shops tend to cram more into the space they have. The only differences between different supermarkets are aisle sizes price and range. Most own brand items appear to originate from the same factories, just with slightly different recipes and branded stuff prices vary wildly supermarket to supermarket. However, I was once tailed by a waitrose security guard for apparently not looking like their 'normal clientele'..
I stopped shopping in Waitrose over nine years ago since I discovered ALDI/LIDL. Reason - better quality and lower prices. Some of Aldi/Lidl products are now touted as world class. Their sausages have 90% pork meat, higher Freedom welfare food standard mark and won awards.Originally Posted by Saracen
Of course, you get what you pay for a lot of the time. However, one wonders what exactly are you getting better at Waitrose. For example, I bought a Duck breast which shrunk a lot during cooking while one from Borough market, much larger and slightly cheaper, kept its shape and tasted far better.
I'm afraid the likes of Marks and Spencer and Waitrose just can't compete with Borough market. Still, they can console themselves knowing their huge marketing budget will fool millions of people. These people haven't yet worked out that the reason food is so high is because of marketing costs not quality.
Perhaps, these shoppers are not very good at shopping as so delude themselves that they bought something special because it's from M&S/Waitrose and some how think they are better as person because they're part of a collective. Often advertisers capitalise on this thinking like the following slogans UK's favourites <insert brand/product>. It is no more different to the tech challenged iPhone users who bought into the Apple brand and think they're better than someone else when in fact there are often more superior and cheaper models on the market.
Last Christmas, I bought a whole Duck from Lidl costing £6 compared to Morrisons' costing £10. Is the Morrisons' Duck better than Lidl's? No, because the same farm supplies the same Duck to both shops as well as Marks and Spencer. Price isn't really an indicator of quality, it's a number set by the accountant.
I shop for quality and best prices rather than like some people paying high prices on the ASSUMPTION they are getting high quality. I refuse to subsidise marketing budgets.
Many of the Aldi/Lidl stores are grubby but they're in the middle of upgrading their stores. If you want to see the future take a peek at this youtube video below. I particularly love shopping in the newly open Lidl store, with its new format, in Bermondsey. They've managed to get the wow factor in terms of architecture. Makes Waitrose stores look a little grubby by comparison. Hopefully, the new Aldi store in Greenwich will have the new format as well.
https://youtu.be/bJQYgYSZ1fQ
While I agree with some of that, you are making assumptions about why people shop where they do.
For me, I buy different things in different places. For instance, I buy sausages from a local butcher, because :-
- I've known the bloke 30 years and he's very good,
- his pork comes from a farm about 3 miles down the road,
- we can watch the ssusages being made,
- we can even put in special orders, if buying in moderate quantity.
We normally buy several dozen at a time, and can specify changes to, for instance, the herb mix to suit our taste.
When it comes to most beef products, I have an Aberdeen Angus farm about 5 miles away. It started as one family farm, but then they specialised in A-Angus, and have since expanded to 6 farms, all A-Angus. Thing is, they're part of an informal network of specualists, and they supply beef to specialists in other things, who supply their speciality to them. For instance, some superb quality dry-cure bacon.
As for Waitrose, they have (for me) one massive advantage over Aldi/LIDL - I can walk to Waittose in 10 mins. Aldi is a small car ride, and LIDL is next town over, 15-20 minutes each way, and a 15 mile round trip, plus cost of petrol, wear and tear, etc.
Finally, Waitrose carry a large range of brand names, some of which I have no interest in switching from. If I could get those, AND Aldi/LIDL brands, maybe I'd go there more often, but I can't. So, shopping at Aldi/LIDL mean doing some there, then going somewhere else for the rest, adding hassle, time and costs. Thanks, but no thanks.
Oh, and while I will be careful how I put this and it doesn't relate to Aldi or Lidl, I've spent a lot of time in many stores, including behind the scenes, during IT upgrades and verifying scale accuracy on behalf of Trading Standards, and for fresh produce there are stores I will shop, and some I won't.
And some of their stuff is utter cack...
M&S, I'd agree - It's overpriced Tesco tat.
Can't say I even remember the last time I saw a Waitrose ad, though...
Your argument that I was making assumptions doesn't cut it for me since most people live in urban areas and have access to multiple supermarkets. And besides, my observations were developed over several years. So yeah, there is no assumptions on my part.
Brand names is such a dated concept when it comes to food considering supermarkets' own premium level products are considered as a level above them. Even the brand names are actually manufacturing food for supermarkets' own labels. Brand names meant something to me fifteen years ago but I have now upped my level.
Part of the charm of Aldi/Lidl is buying products you can't buy in other supermarkets. If they started stocking branded products then they just become another generic supermarket. This adds nothing to the greater scheme with choice and diversity. And in any case, who needs branded stuff when a lot of Lidl/Aldi stuff is actually better and cheaper.
Not had any cack when shopping at Aldi/Lidl but then they do have a no quibble refund policy. Their food always seem to do well during blind test on tv food programmes and get favourable reviews from the media. The game plan of these discounters is to target the middle classes which is why they have upped the level of their food and opening new stores in affluent areas.
Probably because you spend too much time on Hexus!
What, like the difference between a BMW and a Rolls-Royce, a Smart car and a Merc, or a Bentley and a (snigger) Škoda?
The wife shops at both - She has yet to find me anything in either shop as good as genuine Nutella™.
Same for Kiwi shoe polish.
They have a lot of stuff that I don't like, but that's also all they have - They're very limited on choice, almost like South Africa used to be. AT one time, the main advertising slogan was "Number 1 in Africa!"... because it was also the only one in Africa, and this kinda feels the same.
Oh, well, I guess if the media tells me it's better then I suppose I must be wrong...!
The analogy of the car industry bears no relevance to the food industry. It's often the case that branded foods and supermarkets' own labels are made in the same factory. Shame you didn't understand big_hairy_rob's point earlier on otherwise you wouldn't have come up with such a poorly informed analogy.
I do the majority of my shopping in Lidl /Aldi then I use the big four supermarkets like corner shops for the odd items that I feel are better quality using the concept of cherry picking.
The media caught on rather late and it seems you haven't fully understood the nature of blind tests. Don't forget I was a former Waitrose shopper many years ago but my thinking has since moved on and so has my tastes. I'm afraid Waitrose offerings no longer matched my high standards and that was years ago. I won't argue over Nutella since it's hardly a health food.
Last edited by Top_gun; 04-09-2017 at 01:27 PM. Reason: added comment about blind test in the last paragraph
Actually I did understand and the point is that, just like cars, different food brands may well be owned by the same company, made in the same factory and even with some common components.... but an Audi is not the same as a Škoda, as they are made to different specs and different recipes in order to achieve different results.
Shame you didn't understand the analogy.
That's nice for you and I'm sure you feel superior in the knowledge that you are keeping the big supermarkets from taking any of your money to use on advertising.... Lidl and Aldi still don't sell the stuff I need and what they do have is not fit for my purposes.
Oh right, so because some other people prefer one thing, everyone else has to like it as well?
Shame you can't decide for yourself, anymore...
Ah, well, that changes everything - Had I known you used to shop at Waitrose I'd have agreed with your every remark wholeheartedly.... !!
What's that got to do with it? Some affluent middle-class snobbery thing, or just a health food and fitness nut?
When you are arguing with someone who considers Borough Market to be their Zenith and Waitrose their Nadiar, you are wasting your time.
throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)
Keep calm and go shopping guys ! No, seriously, keep calm, no mud slinging
Cheers, David
trolleys at dawn?
basket waving and queue rage?
we've got it ALL !!!
Just a quick note to the admins: I'm very calm on this discussion as much of my opinions stemmed back nine years ago and the discussions here hasn't got out of hand.
What I said is your analogy wasn't relevant not that I didn't understand it - big difference. For example Weetabix is rumoured to make own label brand Weetabix for ASDA and Tesco with hardly or no change in the recipe. Most of the milk sold in supermarkets comes from two dairies with no change in their recipes. So the milk sold in Lidl may actually be identical to one sold in M&S but with a lower price tag.
Actually I feel a little richer for it through saving money but then I always had a thing against marketing during the past 30 years.
As I said before, the media was late in the game with promoting Aldi/Lidl and by then I was shopping with the discounters for several years. I didn't need anyone to tell me what's good/bad - I've always decided that for over thirty years and I'm not going to change my ways any time now.
I enjoyed my time shopping at Waitrose long before it became popular and used to visit stores like John Barnes, Canary Wharf and John Lewis food hall. I just enjoy being ahead of the game just that more. I wouldn't class myself as a middle class snob but I've always eat healthily from a young age and enjoyed playing competitive sports.Ah, well, that changes everything - Had I known you used to shop at Waitrose I'd have agreed with your every remark wholeheartedly.... !!
What's that got to do with it? Some affluent middle-class snobbery thing, or just a health food and fitness nut?
Perhaps instead of assumptions, i should have said "presumptions" ...
"Perhaps" some people define "good at shopping" differently to you. "Perhaps" people shopping at Aldi/LIDL "delude themselves" into thinking their shopping geniuses for buying inferior products at low prices and making themselves feel good about it. Or perhaps not. Perhaps assuming/suggesting/postulating that people shopping at Waitrose are deluded is itself delusional.
I shop at Waitrose for reasons that work for me, as I'm sure most of their customers do without being in the slughtest delusional, and if you don't like shopping there, then don't.
No .... brand names serve one useful function. They imply a degree of consistency in product because many people buy based on brand names, because they always have.
This cuts both ways. Brand names give manufacturers a degree of customer loyalty based on brands but manufacturers are then taking a VERY big chance with that loyalty is they mess too much with formulations, or fail to maintain product quality.
Regardless of what branding means to you, it can be a very valuable asset to a company, and is often a fundamentally important factor in company takeovers, with a very high cash value.
I have regularly tried alternative brwnds, including on occasion, Aldi/LIDL, or Waitrose own brand compared to a brsnd name. Sometimes, I stick with that alternative, sometimes I revert to my long-term brand. But much of the time, I buy a brand I have long bought because it gives me a degree of assurance of consistency.
An dxample would be marmalade. The best I've ever had is the home-brew stuff my dear ol' Mum used to make 50+ years ago. But Wilkins & Sons "Tiptree" comes an acceptable second. Over the years, I've tried probsbly 30 or 40 alternatives, many of them before I found that one, and none come anywhere close.
I've now given up looking, because "Tiptree" is close enough, and life's too short to worry about whether shopping at Aldi might save me 50p or even £1 a jar, because for the 6 to 8 jars a year we use it isn't worth the effort. The Wilkins branding tells me I can exoect a certain taste and quality from the next jar as I got from the last jar and THAT is valuable go me.
Another example is tinned tomatoes. Believe me, not all tinned tomatoes are created equal, and if by sticking to certain brsnds, I KNOW I am getting a certain quality of Italian plum tomato then sticking to that (or a couple of other brands) is very much worthwhile to me. But then, I'm pretty fussy about the taste of my pasta sauces .... except Bolognaise for whkch I use a good concentrate and never, ever tinned.
So, if branding is irrelevant to you, fine, buy any old version of whatever, But for me, on many products, it's about an assurance of quality and perhaps even more importantly, consistency.
Are some unbranded, or unknown brands, as good as "branx" names? Oh, for sure, but unbranded or unkniwn brands can also be cheap rubbish. Do I want to risk ruining a meal with an unknown brand? Not for any savings to be made by shopping af Aldi rather than Waitrose, where I can get brands I want, no.
Most own brand goods are made in the same factories as the brands, it wouldn't be very economical for Tesco to open a Weetabix factory when there is capacity at the existing one. What does change is either the recipe or the quality of the ingredients. Milk is a bad example as it's a single ingredient product.
All shops do marketing, all of them. Whether it's window displays or a TV ad campaign or announcing their new store layout on German TV, it's just part of doing business.
I'd also say eating healthily has nothing to do with where you shop. I could easily put together a healthy basket from Lidl & a sugary, fatty unhealthy one from waitrose or the other way around.
Waitrose Canary Wharf opened in 2002 (I know as I was involved,) while Waitrose itself was founded in the 19th century. Sure you were going there before it was popular?
Milk isn't a bad example at all since some people may think Waitrose milk is better than Lidl milk based on supermarket snobber but may be identical in quality since it comes from the same source.
Basically there are a couple of supermarkets with manufacturing capacity. They're Waitrose under the Duchess label and Morrisons.
Of course, but M&S marketing budget is around £200m.
There wasn't a discussion on where you shop related to healthy eating. All what I said is that I was into healthy eating from a young age.
The Waitrose Canary Wharf is probably the best Waitrose store around. I'll be interested to find out if there's a better one for.
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