OT Aldi Update

[Mr Pounder]

Here is the promised update.

The chicken cost a fiver, has fed 3 people and the ferking dog. Nobody could tell the difference between the Aldi chicken and the Marks & Sparks chicken. The dog was not questioned.

The chocolate ice lolly things are the same as Cadburys; or so Mrs Pounder has informed me. The biscuits are indistinguishable from any other brand of biscuits. The fruit juice is as good as any I have ever drank. I was not too keen on the 4.5% lager. 4 cans for less than 3 quid. It was too sweet for me.

More updates to follow as and when.

[tim.....]

Supermarket chicken is the same wherever you buy it. All the taste is taken out because it has been injected with water to bulk it out. To get anything better you have to buy if from a source that doesn't do that (and good luck!).

I bet they are not. I've never bought Aldi ones, but the ones that they sell in Iceland (which seems to source some of its own brands from the same supplier) are definitely inferior - though still acceptable

I buy "value" biccies in Tesco. 25p a pack against 1-1.50 for the bands. And you can't tell the difference.

tim

[The Natural Philosopher]

we got 3 waitrose chickens for a tenner. Each one fed to of us two meals on the meat and a further one on the soup.

[Nthkentman]

Well you'd lose your bet. In any case how can you decide what's best or worse if you never buy it?

I regularly use Lidl. Their food mostly unknowns and packaged specially for them beats Aldi mostly. each to their own I say.

[tim.....]

Well you'd lose your bet. In any case how can you decide what's best or worse if you never buy it?

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I didn't say it was worse.

I said I doubted that it was the same (and I don't buy it because I don't have an local Aldi ATM)

tim

[MM]

Aldi are usually cheaper than Tesco, sometimes by a lot.

MM

[MM]

I think the quality is the same for Aldi and Lidl (good, value-for-money quality, I reckon). But Lidl's prices ~are~ somewhat higher than Aldi's. I don't think you can find a better, cheaper range of cold meats than at Aldi. Yesterday the shelves were full of many different varieties, one was really spolit for choice. I bought a packet of Black Forest ham, the kind that looks like smoked backon, very thinly sliced. 99 pence! Same sort of thing will be double that at Tesco or triple at Waitrose. And it's absolutely delicious, too.

MM

[ss]

Re own brand, In many instances it will be the same product as branded, things may have changed now but many years back I worked for a major crisp manufacturer and they made several own brands for supermarkets, all they did was change the packaging. As explained to me if they altered the `recipe` by the time they shut the line down cleaned it and restarted it then got the oils heated up again for cooking then it would actually cost more to produce and as the idea was the supermarket sold own brand cheaper then margins were tight all round so no way are you going to make it more expensive to produce, same goes for a biscuit manufacturer I worked for although some supermarkets did want their own recipes. I suspect that Aldi/Lidl are not in fact own brand but possibly major brands from other countries and we just dont recognise the brand names.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Do any supermarkets make anything? I'd guess not. They simply have their own brand put on things from a supplier. Who very likely makes similar for others.

[tim.....]

Re own brand, In many instances it will be the same product as branded, things may have changed now but many years back I worked for a major crisp manufacturer and they made several own brands for supermarkets, all they did was change the packaging. As explained to me if they altered the `recipe` by the time they shut the line down cleaned it and restarted it then got the oils heated up again for cooking then it would actually cost more to produce and as the idea was the supermarket sold own brand cheaper then margins were tight all round so no way are you going to make it more expensive to produce, same goes for a biscuit manufacturer I worked for although some supermarkets did want their own recipes. I suspect that Aldi/Lidl are not in fact own brand but possibly major brands from other countries and we just dont recognise the brand names.

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In Germany, where these discounting stores started most of the different "no name" brands sold by each store is the same, but it's different from the main brands.

It seems that a manufacturer started up somehow making own brand whatever and packages it into each of 7 or 8 different stores brands that it supplies.

And whilst this may not be the way that Aldi sources all of its products, it certainly the way that it sources most of them

tim

[Man at B&Q]

One example was the own brand baked beans made on exactly the same production line as a major brand. Difference were such things as the use of tomato puree rather than fresh tomatoes, and so on.

MBQ

[Tim W]

FWIW I am an ALDI fan, but I never buy cheap meats. The unfeasibly long shelf life, the strange unnatural colours, the odd small selection of identical cuts, and cheap meat has to mean compromised animal welfare.

The Aldi wine is excellent value - quaffable at £3.60, good at a fiver. All the pasta, flour, juice, detergents, bog roll - excellent.

Tim w

[Nightjar]

They did a chicken taste test on TV a while back, using professional tasters. The carefully reared corn-fed chicken was rated worst and one of the supermarket chickens did best.

Colin Bignell

[charles]

we don't have an Aldi nearby - sounds a mistake

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Nor do I. Despite living in central London. Only ever go there for a special offer I can't get elsewhere. But have a Lidl within walking distance. Given Lidl seem to be entering the 'High Street' market, I'd guess their value won't be as good as Aldi with their low cost locations.

[Simon Cee]

Things worth getting from aldi;

Garlic bread (frozen not the fresh which is horrible). 35p a stick, a third of the price of Sainsbury's, and nicer too.

Free range chicken breasts, decent price much better taste.

Small luxury ice cream, pack of four square pots, £2, delicious.

Cashew nuts, nicer than Sainsbury's, half the price.

Curry sauce. Sauce in the jar and spices in the lid. Quick and easy, and like a really decent takeaway. £1.30. Highly recommended.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I've yet to find anything nicer than Costco's cashews.

How do you think the local takeaway makes them? ;-)

[Mr Pounder]

Yes. I know that nearly all meat is from the same place. It is the same with bread.

[Mr Pounder]

The chicken was fine. I could not taste any difference between that and a M&S chicken. Animal welfare means little these days. I have seen many things happen to animals. I'm not proud of being a meat eater.

[fred]

A high percentage of the chicken and chicken bits available are sourced fro= m the far east, Vietnam etc. I'm very picky about where what we eat comes f= rom.