Don't be a snob - try it! (Updated) (Lidl)

Member Name: SusanLesley

Product:	Lidl
Date:	05/01/01 (384 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap and cheerful

Disadvantages: Few brand names available

I must admit that I do like to see brand names on my goods, or at least an ‘own brand’ name of a supermarket chain that I recognise and trust, so I'm afraid I'm still not really quite comfortable shopping at Lidl.

Right that's got my misplaced snobbery out of the way. The plain fact is that Lidl is a cheap store in which to shop. They stock food (including fresh and frozen), toiletries, household and fancy goods.

The range stocked is a bit limited – in our local branch anyway – and you won’t necessarily find the same items there every time you shop.

There is a selection of breakfast cereals, tinned goods, sauces, tea, coffee, pop, biscuits, crisps, cakes and sweets.

The fresh food is usually limited to potatoes, carrots, parsnips, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, apples, bananas, oranges and pears, and the occasional slightly more unusual offering.

The chilled food consists of a decent range of cheese, butter, margarine, cold meat, cream and milk.

The frozen section has a stock of ready-made meals, ice creams, and the usual convenience foods such as burgers and fish fingers.

There are also household items such as bleach, toilet rolls, kitchen rolls, shampoo, air freshener, polish, sanitary goods, and tissues.

There is usually a selection of gift items as well. These are different every time I visit, but in the past have included such things as toys, purses, vases, mugs, ornaments and clothes.

They also have a selection of batteries, blank videos, blank cassettes and camera films by the checkouts.

There are a few brand named goods and a lot of the goods are packaged in a very similar way to familiar brand named goods. The prices are low enough for you to be able to try a product to see if you do like it without breaking the bank.

This is probably a good time to mention that Lidl also displays a money back guarantee that states
'If you don't like any of our products we'll give you your money back!' Now you can't say fairer than that, can you?

The stores are clean, but not fancy. The tinned and boxed items tend to be stacked in their delivery boxes, but the displays are usually neat and tidy. The aisles are wide so there’s plenty of room to walk and to stop and browse. Shopping trolleys are supplied at a deposit of £1, but baskets are not available. They only have basic trolleys too - no baby carriers or trolleys for disabled customers.

There is a limited number of staff working there so the queues at the checkouts are sometimes long, and there's not a ‘10 items or less’ queue! The staff at the checkouts are quick and efficient, but there is still sometimes a bit of a wait to get served.

I would advise you to take you're own carrier bags as you have to pay 3p for Lidl’s own carriers. Still, this is a good way of recycling the carrier bags you've collected from other supermarkets!

A word of warning about paying at the checkouts. Lidl accept cash or debit card but do not accept credit cards, so don't get a trolley full of shopping expecting to be able to pay using your Visa card!

We have tried quite a few things from here and haven't yet found anything so bad that we had to return it. The fresh food is generally good quality and usually a bit cheaper than the other supermarkets.

The alcohol is cheap here too, so I'll share our experiences to date with you. The gin was drinkable but it had a bit of an aftertaste, so I won’t be trying that again. The brandy is really nice for around £6 a bottle and the wines for around £1.50 a bottle are well worth a try. I haven’t tried the beers or lagers so I can’t comment, but the prices certainly look good to me!

The other advantage is that there is a nice big free car park so it’s easy to load your s
hopping from the trolley to the car.

So give Lidl a try you have nothing to loose and money to gain!

Summary: