Lidl

[BeeZee]

I visited a fairly new Lidl near my office for the first time today, it blows Aldi out of the water, IMHO. More pleasant store ambiance, produce doesn't look on the verge of rotting, better layout.  Fairly wide variety of baked goods/breads. Bought a jar of tehina (Greek) $2.99 and German Forest Honey $3.29 since I was out of both. They had a sale on half pints of raspberries (from Mexico) for under $2.00. It was just a "once over" visit in the center aisles, I didn't get to the outer refrigerator and freezer cases to check them out. The dry goods that they put out are kind of interesting, clothing, tools (kitchen or not), couple of varieties of cutting boards, small electrics...I just hate that you have to sign up with email/password to view your local store's weekly ad, I am skipping that. I picked up "the dish", which is a "tasting guide" promo magazine they display by the exit, and they have some fun Advent calendars coming soon, "assorted chocolates", "fruit spread & honey", "cheese", and "premium chocolates".

[cdh]

I like Lidl quite a bit.  I'm a regular buyer of their frozen scallops and chocolate bars. 

[Maison Rustique]

I wish we had one!

[BeeZee]

14 hours ago, cdh said:

I like Lidl quite a bit.  I'm a regular buyer of their frozen scallops and chocolate bars. 

I did peruse the chocolates, but I'm trying to watch sugar consumption for the next month, so I had to resist, they looked tempting. Good to know that they (and the frozen seafood) are good quality. Do you happen to know where the frozen scallops come from?

[cdh]

2 hours ago, BeeZee said:

I did peruse the chocolates, but I'm trying to watch sugar consumption for the next month, so I had to resist, they looked tempting. Good to know that they (and the frozen seafood) are good quality. Do you happen to know where the frozen scallops come from?

Scallop origin is unknown... Packaging says "wild caught in the North Atlantic", which presents many potential sources.  The freeze job is quite impressive... each scallop is individual and not agglomerated into a brick of scallops, so buying a pound of scallops does not require plans to use a whole pound at once... Buying a pound of "dry" unfrozen Peruvian 10/20 scallops from Samuels would cost about the same as Lidl, quality is about the same, but I'd need to splash out on a liquid nitrogen fill up in order to freeze them as well as the Lidl ones come. 

 

As to chocolate, I'm a fan of the 70% sea salt and caramel bars, as well as the 56% sea salt bars.  They have a heap of single origin chocolate as well, but I've not gotten around to exploring it,  though at ~$2/bar it's on my agenda sometime.  

 

 

[Kim Shook]

I like both Lidl and Aldi (I think that the quality various Aldi's can be widely different).  I like the Lidl bakery very much and agree with you that the produce is much more dependable than the produce at Aldi.  I use the chocolate for cooking (I like the bars chopped for cookies better than "chips").  The cheese/deli section (pre-sliced and wrapped meats) is excellent, I think. The closer you get to the holidays, the more you'll see wonderful seasonal items.  

[BeeZee]

I had purchased Lidl's house brand version of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia and finally tried it today. Pretty good (sweet, of course), particularly at half the cost of the name brand.

[BeeZee]

I was near a store after an appointment, so I popped in. There was a fair amount of refrig/frozen stuff I would have bought if it wasn't going to be sitting in the car for a while, so I wound up mostly buying dry goods and a package of fresh snow peas. Picked up a bag of Favorina chocolate covered marzipan Easter eggs (individually wrapped), there aren't too many places to get marzipan candy and I like it 1-2x a year. In the "bakery" area I bought a pizza roll, which wasn't that good when I tasted a bite cold, but when reheated at home in the toaster oven it was better (but not an item I'll buy again). Prices seemed like they weren't as low as in the past for a lot of items, many items were comparable to prices I had seen at the Supermarket recently.

[Kim Shook]

@BeeZee - I've noticed the prices going up, too.  I'm not good about remembering prices at different places, but my feeling is that the price difference between Lidl and "regular" grocery stores isn't as wide as it once was.  Though, I did recently shop at Lidl and then Kroger right afterwards and compared the Kroger prices against my Lidl receipt.  All but one thing was cheaper at Lidl.  Not by a huge amount, but enough to make a difference.  

[AlaMoi]

"as much difference as once was . . ."

quite normal.  big chains have  a buffer of 'contract' prices/discounts, smaller chains have less power . . .

 

we have a local Lidl - like 40 minutes away, not expecially anyplace we go to or pass

 

big sign on very local street  with empty acreage  , , ,   Welcome Lidl to . . . "

given that all these kinds of 'organizations' lie to the sky  . . .  waiting to see what actually comes true.

especially as DW/Kinder have 'attachment' to Edeka and Lidl. . .

 

Edited March 9, 2023 by AlaMoi (log)

[farcego]

Never check the actual numbers, but I always go for LIDL to get cheese/dairy and few/no other stuff.

[Elkyfr]

I like Lidl/Aldi, cousins, here in Europe they have a "deluxe" range, quality products at a good price. They've been promoting the central island for weeks, with a French, Spanish, American, Asian week... where I try food from other countries...

 

Now I live in London and all the supermarkets have shelves of foreign food, tesco, sainsburys, m&s... and stores only with products from other countries.

 

I also like the range of toys they bring, drills, screwdrivers, for the bike, for the kitchen, beaters, utensils, ovens...

 

The price difference is less with other supermarkets... and there's a reason.

 

I think that if I move to another country, I would look to live where there is a Lidl nearby.

[BeeZee]

Lidl has their seasonal items in stores from Favorina, I get to stock up on marzipan and gingerbread cookies. I tried their Honey Gingerbread cookies with Almonds and Chocolate, which I don't remember seeing last year. They are star-shaped, the cookie is coated first in dark chocolate, then in milk chocolate, and chopped almonds are embedded in the coating. They have a subtle orange flavor, which is nice, these really grew on me as I ate them.

[Kim Shook]

I did some shopping at Lidl yesterday and made a good holiday treats haul:

Most of this will get tucked away until closer to Christmas (the milk chocolate butter cookies will almost certainly get eaten in the next couple of weeks!).  There was also a nice assortment of what I consider "stocking chocolate" - little foil wrapped Santas, angels, balls, ornaments, and a large Santa that will look perfect peeking out of Jessica's stocking.  

[BeeZee]

@Kim Shook, I bought the Dominos last year, I liked them. I meant to get the Almond Spiced Cookies (I think they will be perfect with a cup of hot tea) so those will be on the next trip, along with some mini stollen bites. Love me some marzipan!

[AlaMoi]

I got a stollen there . . . have to go back - we already ate it . . .

the Favorina brand stollen was exceptionally moist and tender

[liuzhou]

Talking of stollen, LIDL UK is set to equip staff with body cameras to help fight shoplifting and violence to staff. The rise of these ofences is thought to be linked to the cost of living crisis.

 

Quote

Data released by the Office for National Statistics in October showed 365,164 shoplifting offences were recorded by police in the year to June - up 25% on the previous 12 months.

 

More here.

 

 

[chromedome]

10 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Talking of stollen, LIDL UK is set to equip staff with body cameras to help fight shoplifting and violence to staff. The rise of these ofences is thought to be linked to the cost of living crisis.

 

 

More here.

 

 

“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal loaves of bread.”

[Amy D.]

On 11/9/2023 at 8:29 PM, Kim Shook said:

I did some shopping at Lidl yesterday and made a good holiday treats haul:

Most of this will get tucked away until closer to Christmas (the milk chocolate butter cookies will almost certainly get eaten in the next couple of weeks!).  There was also a nice assortment of what I consider "stocking chocolate" - little foil wrapped Santas, angels, balls, ornaments, and a large Santa that will look perfect peeking out of Jessica's stocking.  

I love lidls Xmas range, have been in ours yet this year but quickly ate through several packets of those dowinos(?) last year. And the chocolate speclous and the mini stolen bites

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, Amy D. said:

I love lidls Xmas range, have been in ours yet this year but quickly ate through several packets of those dowinos(?) last year. And the chocolate speclous and the mini stolen bites

 

It's Dominos.

 

 

 

[IndyRob]

For anyone wondering like I was, in the U.S., it looks like they're blanketing the east coast from New Jersey down to just above Savannah, GA.  The western-most stores seem to be in and around Atlanta.

Edited November 16, 2023 by IndyRob (log)

[Amy D.]

6 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

It's Dominos.

 

 

 

Thanks - lazy late night writing I should have googled. They ended up just being refused to as the chocolate square thingies in our house, either way they are very moreish

[Kim Shook]

16 hours ago, IndyRob said:

For anyone wondering like I was, in the U.S., it looks like they're blanketing the east coast from New Jersey down to just above Savannah, GA.  The western-most stores seem to be in and around Atlanta.

I think in some places they've overbuilt.  I belong to a Lidl FB group and lots of people are talking about closing locations.   We had one close that is in an area that I would think would be perfect - upscale, residential, retail and business.  There is an Aldi that is doing fine and I think Lidl is a much superior store to Aldi.  Odd.