We all hate spending our hard earned cash on boring things like groceries so we are all trying to save money by buying bargains and trying budget stores. Leading the way in this revolution are the German owned chains such as Aldi, Netto and Lidl. I am used to this style of supermarket as my parents often shop at the Aldi in Dumfries and the food is just as good as branded stuff! When Lidl opened a store on Stockport Road in Longsight Manchester I felt I had to see if Lidl was as good as Aldi!

Lidl is a German owned store who first arrived in Britain in 1994 and now has over 330 branches in this country. Their philosophy is to sell their products in as near as possible a wholesale setting thus keeping overhead costs down to a minimum and giving us the customer cheap prices. This makes a lot of sense to me.

From the outside the supermarket looks good but a bit small compared to others such as Asda and Tesco. The one facility that Lid does have is a large car park. Before entering the shop you encounter the trolley park. The first thing you notice is that there is only one size of trolley and no baskets. The trolleys being new are still pretty good and easy to steer.

Layout and Navigation

The first thing you notice hen entering the store is the narrow entrance and exit. They were just wide enough for one trolley. The layout of the store is quite confusing and random. This certainly is not a store to go in to pick up a few items if you do not know it. Firstly the aisles are not marked so you can not head straight for the aisle you want. Secondly the ranges seem to merge into one. The first aisle has juice, pasta, rice, tins and fruit and veg. The refrigerated stuff is situated at the back and the freezers and alcohol at the very far side of the shop. The presentation of the store is not ideal either. There are some shelves but most of the items seem to be stored on pallets or in boxes. I found it often hard to navigate my trolley round the store due to staff constantly refilling and moving items. I know this is good but they did seem to get in the way a bit.

Range

The first thing I must warn you about the range of good that there are very few well known brands and the selection of goods is limited. You will not find multiple brands and format such as low fat, premium etc in Lidl. A lot of their food is either their own brand developed to suit British tastes or lesser known German or other European brands. I really do not mind this that much as my parents have shopped at Aldi which has a similar policy. I could only see it being a problem if a person had a certain allergy and the labeling was not that clear but I have noticed most things have multilingual packaging.

Fruit and vegetables

One of the reasons to go to Lidl is for the extra cheap fruit and vegetables. At full price they are priced very competitively but both times I have visited there has been a half price sale. Strawberries are 60 pence a punnet whilst you can get mangos for a very reasonable price. This is great, with prices like these people can not argue that fresh fruit and vegetables are too expensive. The quality of the fresh produce is not too bad although I did pick a bit of broccoli that was going slightly brown. I think as long as you choose your items wisely you will get a bargain.

Confectionary and Crisps

The second main reason to shop in Lidl is for those little luxuries in life that are not essential. I do like biscuits, cakes, chocolate, crisps and little naughty nibbly bits and this is where they excel. I have fallen in love with their individually wrapped filled croissants which are handy for when you are on the move. Their biscuits and cakes are great as they are more continental style. I took a big bag of little bite sized cakes filled with praline in the centre to work for my birthday and everyone commented on how great they were. The bag only cost me about sixty pence. You can get slabs of European chocolate too very cheaply as well as their own versions of familiar chocolate bars. This is an area where you do see the occasional familiar name such as Kit Kats Their muesli bars which are eight for eighty pence are every bit delicious as Kellog’s ones They have a decent enough selection of varieties (chocolate, banana, cranberry and chocolate) . I also tend to buy their little lunchbox size cartons of fresh fruit juice as they are five for eighty pence. Oh and did I mention the big boxes of cheap continental bicices. The butter cookies and the chocolate spread sandwich biscuits are very addictive. I think this will be one of the main reasons why I will shop in Lidl in the future.

Basics

All I can say is sixteen pence for noodles. That is great value for money. They also do bread, milk pasta etc very cheaply alongside pasta and other cooking sauces. This is a really good place to stock up on those essential store cupboard items.

Chilled Cabinets

I am still singing their praises as their chilled cabinets offer a pretty good range of delicacies. Their range of yoghurts and little pot desserts is really good as they are lovely and creamy. They also stock huge tubs of potato salad and coleslaw for under two pounds. I had a really nice tomato sauce based pasta salad for a bout a pound. Duskman was impressed by the variety of different hams you could get. Again I think this is the continental approach. I also would recommend their mince as you get a huge portion for next to nothing. Those who are looking for a wide range of chilled ready meals will be disappointed. These are scarce although they do really nice lasagne. For this type of thing I would try another supermarket

Frozen goods

Their frozen section is two sides of an aisle and is not bad. You can get most of your frozen basics such as onion rings, chips and garlic bread. I have not investigated their frozen desserts but my flatmate was impressed with the Vienetta style dessert she bought. Again I think where Lidl is lacking is in main meals. They have some but the range is not extensive. I also found that the chicken in the frozen paella I bought was not that nice and a bit tough.

The final consumable section is perhaps the most important to some is the alcohol section. The selection they have is not too bad at ll. They have a number of styles of wine, lager and their own version of spirits. I’ve had the peach schnapps and it is gorgeous. They al do a nice red vodka liqueur. Their prices for alcohol are not too bad but no cheaper than say Kwik Save.

They also sell all the boring household stuff like bleach and toilet roll but I have not yet bought any of that stuff so can not comment.

Finally in the middle of the store is where their special offers are located. The special offers include electrical goods, clothes,, things for the garden and toys. Their availability is very limited so it is very much first come first served. I found that often the prices were not as cheap as Aldi’s specials. A DVD player was about fifty pounds. My parents bought one for thirty pounds in Index. There are occasional real bargains to be had such as three pounds for women.s wooden mules!

Appearance of shop

One thing that did concern me was the cleanliness of the store. Although it had been open for a very short time (perhaps a couple of weeks) the store had a very worn and shabby feel to it with marks on the floor. I was a bit put off by this but the stock seemed to be well marinade if stacked a bit haphazard

Check outs

Be prepared for long queues at the checkouts. There are only four or five of them and no express ones. The checkout operators like most of the staff are efficient but not very friendly. There is no bag packing like in some other supermarkets. The other main advice I would give you is take your own bags as Lidl charge a few pence for their carrier bags. I actually support this as we get far too many plastic bags that ultimately ruin the environment

So what about the coffee shop, the petrol station and the dry cleaners? Well forget them. As said Lidl is a back to basics supermarket with no extras at all. What you see is what you get.

Would I go back to Lidl?

Yes I would. Our first shop there was a pretty full one and it cost us just over thirty pounds. A similar shop in Tescos would cost perhaps ten to fifteen pounds more It is not a place I could shop at every week as the range is a wee bit limited. I need Asda and Kwick Save to fill in the gaps. However for cheap fruit, vegetables, basics and nibbly stuff you really can not go wrong with Lidl. So swallow your pride and take a look in. You will be glad you did!!