The Joy of Aldi

So - I've finally done it. Swallowed my pride, buried my snobbery and ventured into Aldi to do some shopping.

So what's it really like? Read on...

I am sure there must be many people like me out there who brought up on a supermarket landscape dominated by the likes of Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda etc find it very hard to imagine shopping at a discount store. The big chains have ingrained into us a way of life and a general dependence that's hard to break - the mindset being perhaps "Yes, but if I go to Aldi I won't get my clubcard points".

Yes - your clubcard points, face value of 1p in every £1 you spend in Tesco, is it really that big a deal? I do often laugh when I think of people getting their £10 of vouchers for the £1000 they've spent in store over the previous quarter and thinking how clever they are doubling them up for some vouchers or other. Yet this paltry saving pales into comparison against the amount the big supermarkets have made in profit from them over the quarter through excessive pricing and manipulative offers - I've no need to go into the offers thing again it's been covered before in great detail.

There is a certain inherent trust we have in Tesco and Sainsbury that mirrors the trust we have in certain brands e.g. Heinz Baked Beans which makes us very reluctant to try a cheaper brand, but in many cases it is psychological - I am as guilty of it as anyone. It must be down to our life experiences. Odd how we will compromise on some items but not on others.

Here are a couple of examples.

I am quite willing to compromise on chocolate digestive biscuits and I am perfectly happy to try a cheap brand as opposed to the McVities. Yet when it comes to tea - there is only one brand I am willing to drink and that is PG Tips. I wonder why?

No compromises

But back to Aldi - what is it really like? Well my only previous visit to an Aldi was some 20 years ago when they first came to Britain and opened a store in Banbury. It was dark, dingy and the layout and everything on offer I found deeply unattractive. Completely put me off going in one again.

And now - it's nothing like that. It's clean, well lit and modern. It is remarkably similar to the Lidl just down the road, it's not a huge store, probably about the same size as the Iceland in town. On offer is a mix of well known brands and other lesser known brands. Aldi specialises in lookalike brands, such as in the example below.

Spot the difference

Some of the names of the lookalike brands are quite imaginative. So instead of Penguin biscuits we have Seal biscuits. Others are almost blatant copies of the originals. I'm surprised they don't get sued by the manufacturers.

But what are the products like? Well I didn't buy much of the grocery products but from what I could see the savings were substantial. It's all very well Tesco giving us 1p in the £1 back on the Clubcard, but I have seen the prices of certain items soar in recent years. For example, I am quite a big consumer of biscuits. Yes, don't sound so surprised. I particularly like Cheese biscuits, Tuc being one of my favoruites. Now the price of Tuc, Ritz, Cheddars etc seem to have been particularly hit by inflation in recent years and the price of these products has risen from about 60p to about £1.10 in recent years. What's the profit margin, well I reckon a good 20p or more, is it worth it for the 1p back on the clubcard?

I picked these up for 49p

Imitation Tuc Biscuits

Just had one - and perfectly nice - not identical to Tuc biscuits, slightly drier, but with more flavour, so I am happy with that.

Now where Aldi really excels is in its fresh meat offering - both cooked and uncooked. Now I am a big fan of Pastrami and have been buying it from Tesco. However - I have found some of the packets I have bought absolutely awful recently - and at £2 a go that's not funny. On more than one occasion I have found a big gristly vein running right down the middle (easy girls) of the meat, rendering it quite inedible. However this pastrami - and Lidl also sell similar is delicious, tender, tasty, you get more in a pack and it's only £1.49. I will never pay £2 for Tesco's again.

Not a nasty veiny bit in sight!

This was one of a number of Pre-Packaged Sliced Meat purchases I made all of which came up trumps in terms of both price and quality. And that leads me on to the bacon. All I can say about this stuff is "wow!" It's how we imagine bacon probably used to be - thick, tasty, not pumped full of water or that white stuff. Six thick rashers for £1.49 - this is the Treacle Cured variety - it's some of the best bacon I've ever had, preferable even to anything I've had from the butchers. If you buy one product from Aldi - try this.

Possibly the best bacon in Bicester

 And then - on to the best discovery of all. Now for some time I have been becoming increasingly disappointed with the quality of Wotsits. It seems to me over the years that despite improvements in fresheness due to packaging advances, the overall flavour has lessened. I also suspect they have got smaller. Now the going rate for Wotsits in the big supermarkets is 12 packs for £2.50 or 6 for £1.49. Now in Aldi, I found these lookalikes at under 10p a bag, as you can see from the picture.

You little beauties!!!!

And what a discovery - they remind me of what Wotsits used to be like! They are absolutely plastered in flavouring - at least twice as much as you get in Wotsits and the flavour hit is - wow! I wouldn't go so far as to say it was like having your first ever orgasm but about as damn near! And there's various mis-shaped ones in the pack too, to add to the fun, including some long thin ones that have even more flavouring per inch. Amazing stuff.

Of course it all depends what floats your boat and I realise my cheese snack obesssion is not for everyone, but whatever your bag is, check out Aldi and see what they've got. Shoppers of the world, spread your wings, you have nothing to lose but your Clubcard points.

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Jason xx