William Christ! Nice pear. (Lidl)

Member Name: john.sw

Product:	Lidl
Date:	23/02/01 (250 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, good quality goods

Disadvantages: Slow checkouts

When a branch of Lidl opened across the road from our office, we used ground coffee and Demerara sugar as our excuse for going to have a look around, and to test the store.

“Lidl?”, said one of my colleagues, in very disparaging terms “Lidl is full of peasants who smell of sour milk. They will only have instant coffee and granulated sugar”, she said, “and you can only pay with tokens from the DHSS”.

What did I have to lose except my dignity? Off I went – with a friend from work – and when we had looked around we were both struck by the low prices and the wide range of less usual products.

The majority of the goods are labelled “Specially made for Lidl” and some of them have wonderful foreign names. My favourite at the moment is “William Christ Pears”, worth buying, just for the tin.

Maybe I am the only person to do this, but Lidl and Ikea between them give me a good giggle, if only for the names they give their products. I got a “Stiffy” in Ikea a few years ago. When I came home my wife was totally bemused. “But we don’t need a bathroom shelf”, she remonstrated! I thought she would be pleased if I came home with one. Nonetheless, I am still the only person I know who admits to having got one in Ikea.

Lidl has quite a wide range of goods on the shelves, and over the last year I have popped in and bought all sorts.

· The dishwasher powder works just as well as our usual brand – but it is under half the price
· The fresh ground coffee is delicious and is £1.78 a pound against £2.45 in Tesco
· The ice cream is a dream in a tub! Real vanilla, real chocolate, really delicious and all for the price of a standard tub of also-ran ice cream from our other supermarkets
· The continental biscuits are excellent
· Wide range of personal grooming and hygiene products
· It has the best range
of sauerkraut in Huddersfield!


Lidl sells smoked salmon – only one brand, and very small packets, but it does not sell joints of beef or lamb.

There is a wide selection of freezer food – including ready-meals. These are ideal for the office, as we have a small freezer and microwave to use.

The wine is not outstanding, but for prices around £3.50 for their most expensive, we have had some enjoyable evenings, supping the grape for less!

Own brand spirits have been a great success – we even did a blind tasting with Lidl’s Own £6.50 gin and Bombay Sapphire at over twice the price. Nobody identified the Bombay Sapphire correctly and most people said they preferred the Lidl Own brand. When the identity of the two gins was revealed to them, they were dumbfounded.

To date there is nothing that we have bought from Lidl with which we have been dissatisfied. If, in the future, we are unhappy with a product we will use Lidl’s guarantee. They will replace or give a refund for any item if you are not entirely satisfied.

Each week there is new stock at Lidl, including hardware, kitchenware, clothing, artists’ materials, stationery, etc.

Stock changes from week to week, and the long-handled garden shears that we bought for £4.99 over a year ago are still going strong. The equivalent tool in B&Q was over £15.00.

This shop is not for snobs, but if you enjoy quality food and goods at low prices (and a giggle at some of the product names) then this really is a good place to go.

You will almost certainly still use your usual shops for many of your groceries, butchery, etc. but Lidl has become a regular store for me – I simply refuse to pay £2.45 for ground coffee at Tesco when I can buy it at Lidl for £1.78 – and Tesco is another 500 yards away!

Take a £1 coin for the trolley, and pay by cash or with Switch. Lidl does not take credit ca
rds.

Summary: