A Lidl money goes a long way. (Lidl)

Member Name: thehonesttruth

Product:	Lidl
Date:	16/04/09 (183 review reads)
Rating:

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I have to confess, I used to think of LIDL with some amoutn of disdain. Although we never had one locally to me, visits to stores near friends houses always left me with a bad impression. However, when one opened up not five minutes from my house, in the interests of fairness, I had to give it a try .

Actually, to hell with fairness. There was one reason, and one reason only why i entered the store that day. Bratwurst! I feel a little backstory is in order here.

I grew up an army brat. Whenever my dad got posted, so did we. We moved between England and Germany pretty much constantly for the first ten years of my life, and I got used to the diet over there. As I grew older, most of the foods i'd eaten vanished from my memory, but one particular food was etched in my memory- Bratwurst, a large, slightly spiced german sausage.

Anyway, I could put a lot of filthy puns here, about my evil sausage hunting ways, but the long and the short of it is, a sausage altered my food shopping ways forever .

So, with a pretty negative opinion already in place, I entered the store, determined to buy my sausages, and leave. That plan rather fell by the wayside.

Immediately upon entering the store, I found myself in the juice aisle, and was impressed by the vast selection. All the usuals were of course present : Apple, orange, pineapple etc, but also a huge selection of other interesting items, such as Honey and Carrot juice, sour cherry, and huge ( By huge, I'm talking 2 litre cartons! ) of Iced Tea for 79p.

Further investigation of the products on offer in the store revealed a huge variety of foods, a lot of it with a continental feel to it, and all at a low price. Selections from my basket include :

A lasagne fully capable of feeding four, with chorizo, bacon, and mince filling, for £1.99.
A generously topped four cheese pizza for 99p
An apple strudel, approximately six portions, for £1.79
24 stubbies (short bottles) of lager for 6.99

Now, while the shop does well on cupboard essential, fridge yumminess, sweet treats and booze I do find that its a little bit of a let down in the fresh veg and bread department . The veg often looks a little worse for wear, I have in fact in the past seen mouldy horribleness several times in the 'fresh' veg section. Similarly, bread has tended to have very short dates on it. So, I tend not to buy these items from LIDL, which does rather result in me having to do an extra 'top-up' shop for these things.

One thing I also dislike about the store is the way things are stored can be a little insane on occasion - you'll find a random freezer full of pizzas with no price indication, a central aisle stocking some admittedly great bargains on shoes, pans, storage crates (it varies week to week) that looks a little like 5 minute before the end of a jumble sale, and they have random bargain baskets cluttering up the aisles.

While the staff on the shop floor have always been friendly and helpful , those on the checkout are less so, and it's not their fault, but rather the way the company operates . There is no banter here, no talking as you put your shopping into bags (which, incidentally, you have to pay for - a good thing in my opinion as it stops waste). Basically, they swipe all your products through as quickly as possible, and you sweep everything back into your trolley to bag up afterwards at the shelves at the front of the store . Theres no hard and fast rule saying you have to do this, but, if you should decide to bag your groceries as the till, be prepared for the more experience LIDL shopper to glare angrily at you as they clutch their single carton of milk.

LIDL in Carrington, Nottingham, has an ample sized carpark, and a freephone to order taxis . Its also on main bus routes in and out of the city, so getting there and getting back isn't too tricky .

Overall, I really do like LIDL . I LOVE being able to get hold of some continental foods that I would otherwise pay through the nose for at some fancy deli. I like getting dirt cheap cupboard basics. What I don't love is the manky veg and manky bread meaning I have to make another shopping trip - it's not a major hassle, as there is a co-op a few minutes away I can nip to first to get these, but I would prefer to get all my food in one shop .

As a result, I tend to go to Lidl about once a month, and cram my cupboards with tins and my freezer with bratwurst, pizza, lasagne and other bargains . But on a week by week basis, I shop elsewhere for veg and bread, just for convenience. So, I will take off one star for the manky veg.

In my point of view though, Lidl is a great place for sweet treats, beer, continental meats, and cupboard basic . If you can just once a month change shops and stock up, I would definately recommend doing so!

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