Happily married with three children. Work part time as a course administrator at Portsmouth Univers...
Happily married with three children. Work part time as a course administrator at Portsmouth University. Into fitness in a big way. Work out at least 5 times a week. Haven't been around much lately. Trying to fit housework in mainly!!
Member since:01.04.2001
Reviews:26
Members who trust:16
I never thought in a million years that I would be writing an opinion on something as mundane as a supermarket. I have been shopping at Aldi for well over a year now and I must have taken a third off of my weekly shopping bill and had more food to show for it.
The Aldi where I shop is a brand new building with a very large car park with ample free parking. One important thing to remember is not to forget your £1 for the trolley because there are no baskets in this supermarket, I suppose this is to encourage you to buy more. Although the building is new, the inside is very bland and has the feel of a warehouse. The stock is all on the shop floor and is stored along the isle either on shelves or in pallets on the floor. I suppose some people would take one look and walk straight back out but if you do this you are really missing out on saving a lot of money.
Aldi have limited products. They usually only sell one brand of each product unlike most highstreet supermarkets which sell over 100 different brands of baked
beans. In most cases you probably haven't heard of the brand but they do sell some Sharwoods, Amoy and Cadburys products. You can't really do your whole weekly shopping here as there are products they do not sell and for this reason I tend to share my shopping between Safeway and Iceland.
Along with food supplies, Aldi also sell other household items. These are usually on a "now you see it, now you don't" basis. They have a wide variety of items such as gas barbeques, bikes, pushchairs, and kitchen utensils and at the moment there is an Internet Widescreen TV, a snip at £299. They also have a small selection of clothes.
All the products Aldi sell are very good quality. I have looked around and cannot buy cheaper. Even when other supermarkets have offers, it is very rare that these offers are cheaper than Aldi. At first I was very sceptical, afterall, you get what you pay for but I have found the quality of food to be exceptional.
Aldi also sell alcohol. This tends to be seasonal. The wines, beer and spirits are always the same but in the Summer they sell Sangria for a short while and in the Winter they sell Ginger Wine. Recently they have started selling Tamova Vodka Twist Ice. This is almost exactly the same as Smirnoff Ice but at only £2.49 for 4 goes down considerably better. The cider, which Aldi sells, was recommended by Oz on BBC's Food and Drink so that can't be bad. I don't really like cider that much so I can't say whether I agree. It is only about £1.59 for 2 litres so it's cheap enough.
Aldi have a good selection of fresh fruit and vegetables. A pack of 3 peppers costs only 79p which is almost half the price I would have to pay in Safeway. Breakfast cereals are another good buy. They stock most types of cereal, i.e. muesli, Cornflakes, fruit and fibre, etc, each costing only 99p. I could go on for ever listing the everyday low prices of every product but you really need to get down there and have a look for yourself. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.
This paragraph I will dedicate to the check out operators at Aldi. They must have the fastest fingers in the highstreet. Aldi have a clever system of having lots of different products at the same price, so the checkout operators memorise all of these prices. I have never seen such quick and efficient operators. Aldi do not accept credit cards but do accept debit cards. Once the items have been rung up, you pile it all back into the trolley and pack it into bags or boxes away from the till. Freeing the till to serve the next customer. There are some empty boxes available but if you require carrier bags you have to pay 2p. I tend to take some old carriers and leave them in the back of my car and then pack them when I return with my shopping to the car.
Whilst on holiday in Menorca there were several Aldi supermarkets in the vicinity of our apartment. I was really pleased because usually the supermarkets in holiday resorts always seem to charge extortionate prices but when we shopped in one it was really expensive. Not like this country at all.
I'm sure there are members out there reading this who have been in Aldi and feel the same way as me. There are probably also some that can't bring themselves to cross its threshold. If you've never ventured inside then why not give Aldi a try? Just think what you could do with all the money you save.
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Thanks for the op. I've never used Aldi as we don't have one in Lincoln. However, there is one in nearby Newark and you've tempted me to go and try it. Can I blame you if I don't like it?
justme 15.09.2002 23:13
Thanx.I think I will give it a go!.x
moose 19.08.2001 00:22
An extremely interesting opinion for me to read as I was actually one of those checkout operators with fast fingers!! I did my industrial placement whilst at University at Aldi and for 6 months I was placed in a few stores as the deputy manager (8 months was spent at head office having a rest!). We had one week to learn the prices and a further week to get up to speed on the tills (we got tested every week on the prices by a district manager which was really scary as 2 wrong prices in a row and you would be out!). I can still numerically touch type as a result. It sounds funny but when I was on the tills I didn't even have to think of the prices - my fingers would just automatically type them!! But boy! do Aldi work you hard - my shifts usually started at 6am and sometimes I wouldn't get home until 10pm (with no breaks!). It was the hardest 14 months of my life!!!
Advantages: excellent value for money, faster, more efficient Disadvantages: lack of recognisable brands, less customer service, some products it is wiser to avoid
funny_hats 05.10.2009 ·
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