A Lidl here and there, goes a long way! (Lidl)

Member Name: emmakate06

Product:	Lidl
Date:	25/07/09 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reasonably priced products

Disadvantages: Not many brand names

I recently visited Lidl for the first time following a recommendation from a friend regarding their fruit and vegetables. We go through a lot of vegetables each week and my children love fruit so as I had a spare morning, I decided to pop in and see what Lidl was all about.

The store nearest to me is in Queensferry, a short driving distance away. There is a reasonably large car park and on the same retail area is also Pizza Hut and B & Q so if the Lidl car park was ever full, it would be easy to find a parking space nearby. The trolleys are obtained using a pound coin, which I wasn't aware of before my arrival, but luckily I had some change on me so this didn't cause a problem.

On entry to the store, I noticed that a lot of the promotional offers on food and drink are located by the door and are clearly displayed with their price aswel as being easy to reach. They do stock some brand names such as Pepsi, 7Up, Heinz Baby Food, and Magnums to name a few, but I noticed that the majority were european brands which I had not heard of before. This didn't really bother me though as the food looked good quality and was priced reasonably.

To the back of the store was where the fruit and vegetables were located. These were all very well priced and all looked delicious and in very good condition as opposed to some which you see in other larger supermarkets. They had a selection of bags for you to place your fruit or vegetables in and the prices were clearly displayed to avoid any confusion over quantities or weights. I purchased some onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, cucumber, apples and bananas, and they were all just as tasty as my usual whilst also saving me a few pennies.

Lidl also stock a variety of non-food products and have a range of different offers which vary each week, so for example one week you could find home decorating equipment for sale and then the following week it could be motorcycle and car equipment. We usually get a leaflet through the door each week advising what the weekly offers are. In my opinion some of it appears to be complete rubbish, but occasionally their are some great bargains advertised. I have heard from a regular Lidl shopper though that the best stuff usually flies off the shelves within minutes of the store opening.

Plastic bags are available at checkout for approximately 3p or you can obviously bring your own to use. There are several checkouts in my nearest store and they all seem to work through the queues quite quickly. At my store they only accept debit cards or cash and no credit cards. I am not sure whether this is just my store or nationwide so may be worth checking on your arrival.

Overall, I will definitely venture back to this store again for my fruit and vegetables and may try some other products of theirs in the near future.

Summary: Some good deals to be had.