UK 13:38 Sunday, 27 September 2026
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I shopped in Aldi today and it was packed! Arrived just after 8am and there were already plenty of people already shopping there. Probably there was a queue of people, waiting in the cold at the door before it opened. Arrived in Morrisons (MRW) a bit earlier, as it had extended its opening hours due to ‘Christmas’ which I’m convinced more and more is just a way to get people to spend more money, and there were relatively few people.
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Comments
David
I was only saying to my wife yesterday about the confusion of latter day shopping.
My remark was based on the number of different types of honey that were on the shelves in our local sainsburys.
This cannot be good for profits as you say, and also has the knock on effect of taking business from speciality shops, destroying the high street in the process.
I am pleased to see that the big fours greed is now catching up with them,
Spoilt Git
Tom, I hope you are following up on the USOP debacle. Apparently half the cast of Dawn of the Dead (aka the USOP Inveztorz Forum) are planning on turning up here to shout ‘proven liar’ at you over the supposed ’120 million dollar loan note’ Saint Brian mentioned in his latest RNS (a suspension being, ironically, the first time anyone’s been able to nail him down for eons). Then again if I was daft enough to invest £270k in USOP, as one of them has admitted to, I’d be sweating profusely and spitting chips at the world too!
My question is, why do these people automatically believe what Brian McDonnell puts out in an RNS any more than they believe 2 cans of oil found in a wheelbarrow onsite at the time constitutes a stonking payday (followed by decades of silence)? Who is behind this loan note offer and how is it proveable? How can people know it is not just words cobbled together by a smooth talker? I keep an open mind on the guy but several of those folks think the sun shines out of his hiney without question.
alcira16247
Mark
I fully endorse the observations in your article.
Fresh Oysters, dressed crab, quail, grouse, 28 day matured Scottish Steaks etc etc all available at my local Lidl’s and Aldi’s, real upmarket premium stuff! They both have raised the bar with this years Christmas offerings, putting to shame the likes of Tesco’s.
And, now the ‘stigma’ of shopping at the German discounters has well and truly been put to rest, growing numbers of new customers from all social strata’s are experiencing not only significant savings but also superb quality. Its not going to be easy for the big four to win these customers back!
I fully expect the biggest looser this Xmas will be Tesco’s, continuing its downward spiral further and consequently pass its final dividend and a discounted placing or rights issue in the New Year, to strengthen the balance sheet……. how the mighty have fallen!
Mark Howitt
I know what you mean. Hopefully in other articles I will go into more detail about ‘product availability’. Having said that, I want Sainsbury’s to do better as I’m a shareholder- hopefully they read these articles and realise there are different shopping habbits!
Spoilt Git
This is slightly OT but the article got me thinking… don’t you just hate is how the British media is using its leery influence in fronting the campaign to get terms like ‘Black Friday’ (from the US), ‘Cyber Monday’ and ‘Panic whatever Day’ front and centre as actual believable concepts to spur people to rush to the shops or the internet and fight double hard over the last remaining naff Chinese tellies or fake watches. These terms and Days don’t exist. It’s a collusion between the PTB and the press. It would be interesting to see the Treasury balance sheet before and after this year-end melee.
Warun Boofit
Dont make the mistake thinking that Lidl and Aldi are cheaper than the big four, for most things they are not , I have less money than you to spend on grocerys and I price check every single item I need and walk between the supermarkets to save a penny. Lidl ‘sonday’ jaffa cakes are worth buying but breakfast cerial, jam, bread , milk , butter, beans etc are all no better value than the big four. If you are a miser like me then you buy stale bread and vegetables from Tesco or ASDA for 1p which is much better than LIDLs stale bread which they have the cheek to sell for less 30%. I picked up a price reduced pizza in Lidl once thinking it had generous amounts of pesto, on putting my glasses on I realised it was mould, LIDL/ALDI are helping drive down prices but I predict their growth will soon grind to a halt as people realise that they are not cheaper. I wait until Weetabix is on offer at Tesco/Morrisons then buy loads of it, its cheaper than the LIDL/ALDI crap which the kids will not eat.
Robert
You are simply repeating two great myths about aldi and lidl. Firstly that they can sell the same quality products at lower prices than the big 4. This is utter nonsense, food selling is so competetive that no one could do this. Their products are cheaper because they are lower quality. Thats why they use rip off brand names to imply to the gullible that spire cheddar is the same as cathedral city for example
The second myth is that consumers would rather not have choice. The reverse has always been true and still is.
The times recently ran an article attacking the discounters price quality claims. IeTheir business is basically a con.
myth is that people don’t like choice.
abcdefgh
Actually….Warun Boofit is right…some things aren’t cheaper at Aldi/Lidl e.g. a lot of their fresh meat produce is only comparable in price to the supermarkets (and, worse still, significantly more expensive whenever supermarket meat is on offer).
I’ve found the best way to shop at Aldi/Lidl is to have a permanent ‘hit list’ of items known to always be significantly cheaper than the big four. Buy that list and then get the hell outta there. This makes for a very quick and cost-effective shop.
Everything else I buy from the main supermarkets, which I have to visit anyway for speciality items (e.g. sesame oil) and items where we are brand-sensitive (e.g. my other half will only eat a certain brand of oat-cake)…and I can still avail myself of any interesting special offers that happen to be on.
I compiled my ‘hit list’ by performing an initial (particularly large) weekly shop at Aldi first and then comparing the till receipt with the price available at all of the big four supermarkets, taking into account any recurring special offers that I usually wait for on some items (e.g. I would only compare the cost of Aldi/Lidl’s version of Muller Light with a half-price offer at the big four, as that’s an offer that keeps coming around). The items that came up 10% or more cheaper than the best available special offer price at a supermarket are then 99% guaranteed to be cheaper at Aldi/Lidl every week of the year.
Doing it this way has resulted in my shop being split approximately 50-50 between Aldi/Lidl and the big four.
Mark Howitt
Interesting last comment even if it was a joke :)
I’ve found that Morrisons currently are slightly cheaper than Aldi on a few items such as milk, and the same on others- I know they watch each others prices carefully. But on the vast majority of things I buy Aldi is cheaper- you can get more or less anything at a good price.
J P Spaghetti
“A key factor behind Aldi and Lidl’s cheapness is that they don’t have many ‘brands’.” That and they don’t appear to have many staff – bit annoying when you’re stood in a queue when those ahead of you seem to be stocking up up for the nuclear winter. Don’t get me wrong, though – they are still damned fine institutions. In keeping with the festive theme, their sherry is apparently awesome too – Caversham Cream (it’s won an award or something)..
David Russell
I think we will see some store closures next year between most of the big supermarket chains and that is based on the fact we have to many large stores in one area plus the internet home delivery vans and click and collect and the cost to run some of these stores must be stupid. The discounters stores am smaller and am run a lot better based on the fact that they work as a team and a manager can work a till and use a broom and also drive a fork lift. Unlike a large supermarket store manager that would delegate the work to a well paid under manager who will get someone else to do the job. Some supermarket chains had a manager on every department on good pay and bonus but that’s changed and that is based on they now the days of the large stores have gone. I remember going into some discounters and the food was cheap and they got a bad name. They changed all that and went for better quality suppliers and kept the running cost of the stores low but paid higher wages than some bigger supermarkets. The discounters invested the money in the products and staff and give real value for money. Well done:)