another 'have you seen aldi/lidl **' post

Just been to Aldi at lunch time, They have rechargeable bead/hair trimmers for 6.99. Now this is related to diy , honest.. Anyway compared to my phillips one that cost =A330 they look quite good, ceramic blade and ruberised grip.. depends if you're into diy haircuts though I guess.

BTW they also have a rather interesting 'wall chaser' device for about

40 quid.. Like two angle grinders mounted together, to cut a channel, most useful!

Simon

Reply to
srp
Loading thread data ...

What is this bizarre obsession with buying crap from Lidl/Aldi/whatever? There seems to be large numbers of posts on the subject lately.

The quality of this stuff is rarely better than pound shop merchandise - yet you don't get repeated posts about crap tools you can buy from pound shops.

Reply to
Grunff

This is true :-) thats why the germans are shipping it over here, they cant flog it in they're own country.

Reply to
ben

Perhaps the OP's think a DeWalt is a french cartoonist.

Reply to
ben

I genuinely don't get it - there have always been crap tools around, usually sold on market stalls and in pound shops. Yet historically we haven't seen many posts about the latest pile of crap someone has seen/bought. It's only recently, with the advent of tools from Aldi, Lidl and the likes that people have been posting about them.

Reply to
Grunff

sorry the post was sort of in jest :) any way I've got two hair clippers.. amazing value, as good as the Phillips one no question at all.

S
Reply to
srp

Right my list of Lidl stuff I've bought,

Juicer, about £13 a couple of years ago, boy has that taken some abuse, was £10 a few weeks ago, recommended.

Health grill, well that was ok but just prefer real grilled food.

Battery charger and NiMh AA batteries, excellent used every dayalmost, slower but better and cheaper than the Uniross one that died after 13 months. Batteries not quite as good as Energiser but certainly not bad.

Waffle maker excellent for the half dozen times a year it gets used, well made for £8

Mobile car starter/powerstation/pump/light absolutely fantastic, very very recommended.

Set of Forstener bits, really a bit crap.

Work stands/tressel things, excellent very useful.

Ratchet screwdriver set, excellent value for money at £2.99 works perfectly.

Remote socket set, not reliable maybe prone to inteference, OK for christmas lights but nothing needing reliability.

Footspar, now that is pleasure, very very nice, well made.

Stainless steel fork/spade OK for £8.99 each but I broke the fork - incompetent user rather than quality issue.

On the whole Lidl stuff is very good value for money for occasional use, but and it's a big but you need to pick only the stuff that is good value. Some things are very poor quality/value.

Henry

Reply to
Henry

Couldn't agree more, seems that this cobblers is getting into all kinds of newsgroups and forums at the moment.

Hexus.net ( computer enthusiast website ) has a bargains forum and is always full of crud like "Aldi selling axle stands for £4.00".

Best thing would be for the poster to buy a set and get crushed by their Mk3 Escort when they collapse ;-)

ETV

Reply to
Eric The Viking

Could that be because much of the stuff from Aldi/Lidl isn't crap, just cheap. These people are hard discounters working on bulk buying, low margin & low overhead.

The world is becoming a cheaper place!

Dave

Reply to
david lang

Could be, but I don't think so. You get the occasional cheap but good item, but IME on the whole the ultra-discounted stuff is not worth the space it takes up.

Reply to
Grunff

Because many of the tools are both remarkably inexpensive, and very servicable. Add to that that they tend to have the same stuff repeated next year, making reviews of stuff tend to be useful. Not to mention that many people go food/... shopping there anyway.

Reply to
Ian Stirling

I haven't got one near me so don't keep up with what they have on offer, but bought an identical jump start pack/tyre compressor for half the Argos price. And it's been fine for my limited use.

I get the impression they do end of range sales - rather than sourcing cheap rubbish.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

At my local Aldi it seems that many people buy a power tool to do one job, and then take it back for a full refund saying it wasn't satisfactory. It's certainly cheaper than hiring!

Reply to
Mr Fuxit

No, it's crap.

SWMBO Just spent the evening looking for the receipt for the "Power station and air compressor" we bought last December, batteries dead as a dodo.

Thing was we bought that because the *two* previous ones had both failed with dead batteries just prior to that time but we needed a working one.

Whilst she was at it she hauled out the receipt for the *Bush* DAB radio we bought for my daughter to go to Uni with, seems that warranty ran out on 05/08/05. Thing is No 2 son has already had *two* fail and be replaced in warranty.

The MICO dvd recorder we bought from Sainsers just displays "Please Wait". But it's 11 months and 24 days now and we're still waiting, :( so back it goes this weekend, only 1 satis. recording in this period.

Our top of the line SONY dvd player (Cheap with expensive Sony telly) (Recognised each other via the Scart lead - fancy, Eh?) quit at the 18 months stage.

Oh, and to put the tin hat on it, this week, our £4.95 "Bodum" milk frother from Sainsbury's was DOA.

It's not. Walgreens (Could be Walmart) in the states gets 70% of it's manufactured goods from China. Whilst there's no shortage of Chinese peasants prepared to work for USD 3.00 per day (I've seen estimates of another 20 years worth before there's a labour shortage in China). The Chinese currency is appreciating against the western currencies. As fast as our own industry goes down the toilet.

So buy your £4.95 electric drills while you can.

Personally I don't have enough time to manage all the failures and returns whilst keeping track of the receipts, if I am to have any life left at all beyond schlepping crap stuff back to Sainsbury's/ Makro/ Costco/ Allder's. Ooops, Allder's ceased trading, I wonder what about the extended warranty on the Maytag Fridge and the Sony telly then??

It's all just crap !

Makro a couple of weeks ago was selling an 800 VA generator for £34.00. I just had to turn away from that, some of them had started to drop to bits on display without ever being run !

Makro this week was offering a 2,100 VA generator for £99.00. They were different they didn't even get as far as making it on sale, I presume they all shook to bits in transport, just a collection of spare parts in the bottom of the shipping container, the lot of them.

If we keep buying it this is what we'll get. Ergo, we deserve it.

Now anybody for proper, fixed, twin unit Hinari air conditioning for £199.00 ??? (Makro Mail 17/08/05) ?-/

DG

Reply to
Derek ^

Derek ^ wrote: [snip]

Wanna buy a pair of boxing gloves?

Reply to
ben

No we gotta stop being captivated by buying crap things just because they are phenomenally cheaper than in our parents generation. If the quality makes them unuseable what is the point?

Which brings me neatly to my next point which is the big deception of ISO 9,000 quality assurance.

The big deception is that ISO 9,000 doesn't measure product quality it measures compliance with paperwork proceadures. Orders checked against delivery notes etc. Customer compalaints logged. You don't have to sort out their complaint just make sure it's logged.

So Chinese tat will still continue to drop to bits. ISO,9000 quality assurance won't help you. :( ...

DG

Reply to
Derek ^

I think the answer is their clever marketing strategy of limited supply. The result is that the popular hardware 'bargains' are only available on the shelves for a day or so. So they don't miss out on a 'bargain', consumers keep an eye on groups such as alt.consumers.uk-discounts.and.bargains and others, such as this, where these items are often mentioned.

As an example, around once a year Lidl do a satellite receiver system. This very popular item is usually sold out within the first half hour of trading on the announced day. Unless you are there at opening time it's a case of going without.

FWIW I have mixed feelings about Lidl. A tray of nuts and bolts that turned out to be only strength 4.8 not the 8.8 required or automotive work. Possibly a maxium for their stuff: half price but half quality.

Against that IMO their satellite system is a bargain, and I'm waiting for it to come round again...due shortly.

Roger

Reply to
Roger R

Without getting into whether buying such tools is a good idea, the reason people post about this stuff is that firstly, Aldi and Lidl stoires are all over the country with the identical stock, and secondly, because when they do 'specials' (ie most of the diy stuff) they are only available for a short period (often being sold out within hours of going on sale) - hence people feel it's worth tipping off others in this group about items going on sale.

Wouldn't be a lot of point in someone posting 'hey, get down to Skegness market this morning, there a bloke selling cheap SDS drills!"

David

Reply to
Lobster

I think you are living in the past. Chinese stuff these days is of high quality, thats why they have become one of the biggest industrial nations, and the Yen revalued. Almost every European manufacturer will be sourcing some parts, if not all, from China.

Roger

Reply to
Roger R

All of it?

Reply to
Rob Morley

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.