Not a comfortable shopping experience (Lidl)

Member Name: huggy2009

Product:	Lidl
Date:	12/06/09 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some quality products, some great prices

Disadvantages: Badly organised, damaged stock, long queues

Lidls is a discount supermarket becoming more popular throughout the UK, it originated in Germany and ships its produce from Europe.

Store:

Lidl's is quite ramshackle I have been to a few and for some reason there is almost an air of intimidation about some of them, perhaps due to the cheap prices I'm not sure but I have seen some really bad fights in Lidl superstores in South London, I can't say if it was due to the queues, or the clientele but I have always felt somewhat uneasy shopping in the store.

Store Layout:

Lidl's themselves are not laid out brilliantly, you have to use a trolly as they do not have baskets and you have to buy carrier bags as they don't provide them, both make the shopping experience less comfortable. In terms of the shelves they are often stacked awfully, I've picked up jars of olives and ended up with olive oil all over my shirt due to shoddily laid stacks. There is little rhyme or reason to the way the store is laid out and it can feel really random looking at tyre pumps next to Florentines, or deck chairs next to frozen lamb.

Staff:

Not impressive, they do get through a lot of work but have no customer service skills at all, I'm not surprised in this intimidating atmosphere I wouldn't want to talk much either, but queues are ridiculous and most stores would put on extra staff to deal with this.

Products:

There are some decent value products to buy here, nice continental style breads, condiments and meats, you can get some great Greek and Polish products and the Italian dried meats and German Sausages are great too, I also like the Dutch cheeses which are delicious. There are a lot of rubbish items too, but it really is worth searching for what you want, for people on a budget you can buy cheaper versions of everyday brands, my only issue is that quite often things seem damaged or broken.

Value:

Overall if you were to do a weekly shop here and replace your usual brands for the Lidl ones on display you would save money, although Asda and Tesco are now creating value brands to combat this and as their shopping environment is so much more pleasant I only come here occasionally now for specialist European products if I can handle the queuing.

Summary: Not a comfortable shopping experience