OT: oops not a good advert

[gazz]

Theres a book i picked up in germany a few years ago, Stasi land, by anna funder, (it's origional is in english, no need to get the german version)

it is about the old east german seceret police state, where every fart or burp a person does is noted and reported on by an informer, not only is it describing just what england is turning into (friends and family recruited by the state to spy on you and report back any wrong doings, covert survelance, a record for every person in the country etc)

but a bit in the book sums up this aldi/sommerfield thing just right,

when the wall had just came down, a western couple took an eastern friend round a west german supermarket, the easterner was totaly bewildered by the range on offer, but not in a good way, they said 'do you really need a whole isle with nothing but different brands of tomato ketchup?'

i think also half the people going into aldi have never been out of this country, (except on a package holiday to a hotel that serves exclusively english food) so dont know the brands aldi sell, they seem strange to us, but go to germany and they are the every day brands you get in every supermarket,

the tomato sauce is the stuff you get on your brattie from the giant nipple thing hanging from the roof of the schnellie van, the mustard is the same,

the fresh fruit and veg is the same as you'd get in an upmarket supermarket, just half the price,

but i suppose i'm weird, i'd rather spend my money on something that still be around in a few days, not a pile of crap in the toilet pan, im sure this is madness to these foodies tho :) but if i could i'd rather take a pill once a day that takes care of my nutritional requirments than have to prepare and eat 3 meals,

[Andrew Gabriel]

In article , Corporal Jones writes:

Yes indeed. I lived and worked there for ~20 years, and still frequently visit the area. When I first lived there in the early

1980's, it was quite an up-market shopping town. There were a good number of specialist and general stores, enough to attract shoppers from many outlaying villages with Dunstable's ample free parking. Sometime in the late 1980's IIRC, Dunstable Town Council decided to start charging for its car parks, and that was the start of the downturn. There were still other towns around with free parking, and Dunstable stopped attracting shoppers from much of the outlaying areas. (I had an article in Beds on Sunday newspaper at the time, predicting this when the council decided to start charging for car parking.) It was amazing how quickly the decline happened. The town itself is not large enough to sustain higher class retail outlets, and the council dissuaded the class of people who did support these from driving in from outside, so the result was blindingly obvious. The stores steadily downgraded (as with the supermarket above), individual specialist stores vanished (Cooks Kitchen, Buttons, Moores, etc) to be replaced by charity shops and everything-for- a-pound shops, and grotty sandwitch/greasy spoon outlets, many of which are now empty (although the original Golden Egg is still there under some other name I can't recall). Basically, the council killed the town centre. The shopping areas which have thrived are the out-of-town-centre ones, such as the one which Sainsburys moved to with the retail park behind it, but those only house the standard multiples, Staples, Halfords, etc. They thrive because the Council have no control over them, and the retail parks know that charging for parking (however little) is a big blocker for footfall, so they're free.

Dunstable has lost a lot of skilled industries over 25 years; Bedford Trucks, Renault Trucks, Cross paper, Waterlows, London Rubber, AC Delco, GEC, Sellotape, Air Call, etc. However, the area still has the same number of skilled jobs through newer smaller industries, although the skill sectors change, so the state of the town centre can't be blamed on the loss of skilled industries.

[Alan]

In message , Steve Firth wrote

And sticking a Tesco/Sainsburys/Waitrose/Asda etc. label on similar crap improves the quality? Putting 'finest quality', or some such branding, on items containing massive amounts of E numbers, fat, salt or sugar doesn't mean that the supermarket is actually selling quality goods. It's just a marketing illusion.

All supermarkets have their share of poor quality goods as well as the better quality and Adldi/Lidl are no different from their competitors.

[Unbeliever]

Or *all* of the other Supermarkets and local shops - they are just as guilty of that practice, they just charge an exorbitant price for it.

Unbeliver.

[Steve Firth]

[snip]

Yes I thought I'd get that response. You are however wrong. Both Aldi and Lidl have a track record of cynically passing off cheap adulterated food as something that it is not. See for example their passing off heat treated cheap industrial grade olive oil as "Extra virgin Tuscan" olive oil or their continuing to sell chopped, reconsituted meat as "Aosta Ham".

I'm not surprised. The average British consumer doesn't know what good food is, treats food as cheap fuel, and would eat a dog turd sprinkled with icing sugar if it was packaged the right way.

[Cerberus .]

Many moons ago I worked for a fairly well known chocolate & boiled sweet manufacturer. Sweets were packed as NAAFI, Waitrose, M&S, Sainsburys, Waveyline, Tesco and even Fortnum & Masons products.

To be honest, it was all crap, I certainly wouldn't eat them. Especially after I came across rat s**te in their 'Fiesta Fruits' on the packing lines!

Don.

[Andy Dingley]

It is? I thought I was in alt.fan.aldi ?

[Graham.]

I was merely making an observation about snob culture. FWIW we do a weekly shop at Tesco 1 1/2 miles away and any extra required is usually sourced from the Lid just up the road.

[Alan]

They are passing it on as olive oil, bottled for Aldi. Go into any of the supermarkets and if the bottling date isn't within the past two weeks ago and the 'use by' date isn't within a further two weeks then it is a poor quality oil, even if it is pressed by virgins.

There isn't necessarily anything wrong with heat treated cheap industrial grade olive oil as it of the quality that makes up 99% of world-wide sales.

And some consumers having paid a fortune for 'lifestyle' food would never admit to it being of inferior quality. Do coffee beans vomited up by a weasel actually taste better? I'll bet that those who buy weasel vomit on a regular basis would always claim that their critics had untrained palates

Somewhere in the middle is the real world where budgets are limited and people need to get the best value for money.

[Graham.]

Well there's an interesting thread about bicycle wheel lights in free.uk poundland. Touché.

[stuart noble]

Lidl was mighty busy this week. Car park full of 4x4s.

[Steve Firth]

No they aren't. They are labelling industrial grade olive oil as "extra virgin". In order to get it to pass peroxide tests they are are heat treating it. i.e. they know damn well it isn't extra virgin olive oil and are deliberately processing the oil to fake test results.

Complete cobblers. How many time a year is olive oil harvested? Do you seriously think there's a fresh crop every two weeks?

What utter bullshit. I farm olives for olive oil, and I don't think I've seen such uneducated crap talked about the subject before. Industrial olive oil is obtained by chemical extraction from the waste thrown on the floor of the frantoio. It is intended for lubrication of food machinery, not for human consumption.

You are perhaps a fucknuts who thinks that industrial olive oil which has been heat-treated to fake a test result is the same thing as refined olive oil which has been extracted from pomace using steam.

Where does one get "weasel vomit" coffee? Or are you making a reference to "civet coffee" which is coffee that has passed right through a civet, which is not a weasel? Hence wrong on both counts, neither weasel nor vomit.

And it's completely and utterly irrelevant in this context. Whether there's any added value from eating shat-out coffee I neither know, nor care. I don't like coffee from that part of the world anyway. I prefer my coffee to come from Colombia or Brasil. I'll pay a premium for that, and I can tell when companies adulterate their coffee. Whittard for example add Java to their Brasilian coffee and that's damned obvious to anyone who knows the taste of either.

The point, that seems to go over your pointy head is that Aldi and the like are deliberately and fraudulently misrepresenting "food" as being something that it isn't in order to make a fat profit from the people they dupe.

Is eating adulterated food "value for money"?

[Mungo "Two Sheds" Toadfoot]

Exactly. That's why I didn't get it.

Si

[nightjar]

There is certainly stuff there I wouldn't touch with a barge pole, but the same is true of any other supermarket, e.g. Tesco Value range goods. However, my partner is German and knows which brands are reputable.

Colin Bignell

[The Medway Handyman]

I think you will find Aldi 'once' sold olive oil not as described, as a one off. Its not proof that they 'cynically pass off cheap adulterated food as something that it is not'

One swallow doesn't make a summer.

This wouldn't be a biased view from someone involved in th eolive oil business would it?

[Derek Geldard]

Steve.

Be fair !

It only needs to be coated in breadcrumbs, deep fried and served with baked beans.

Of course HP do a tinned version with a sell-by date Ca 2015.

Derek

[Derek Geldard]

Strange that isn't it ?

Lidls aren't usually built in 4x4 territory. They would have had to drive there at a time when fuel is still hyper expensive, apparently with the object of saving money.

The whole "car park full" of them.

How come it was only 4x4's, and no other up market motors ?

Urban myth, or what?

Derek

[Derek Geldard]

Even if it was a one off it would be proof as such.

in the olive oil business? A funeral director? If you think Steve's opinion is biased then if it's important to you, you should seek out a second informed opinion. IIRC Steve has posted a whole series of links to articles with both opinions and test results in the past.

Do you go to a petrol station to buy your food? Oh erm -wait a minute.

Derek

[Owain]

nightjar There is certainly stuff there I wouldn't touch with a barge pole, but the

Nothing wrong with a lot of Tesco Value stuff; things like tinned pineapple chunks are slightly smaller chunks than the premium brands, and watch the 'drained weight' carefully.

Tesco Value jeans are also pretty good for £3.

Tesco Value Quiche is vile though. Made with powdered milk, not real milk - and tastes like it.

Owain

[Owain]

Does UK Poundland need to be freed? Should someone tell NATO?

Owain