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Downsizer Forum Index -> Seasonal and Frugal Shopping

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Green Man

Joined: 23 Jul 2006
Posts: 5272
Location: Rural Scotland.

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 07 12:44 pm Post subject:

Bernie66 wrote:

dougal wrote:

Lidl now have free range eggs... from abroad...

How can that be economically viable Please?

just the same as it was economically viable for BM to produce turkeys in Bulgaria. No minimum wage and lower standards that can be bought with a brown envelope.

hedgewitch

Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Posts: 5834
Location: Daft wench GHQ

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 07 12:50 pm Post subject:

What basics do people buy from Lidl? I've never been in one, but someone recommended the olive oil to me in another thread and I wondered if I might be able to do a shopping trip for a few things as there is one about 7 miles from me.

I don't buy much from a supermarket theses days - butter, olive oil, baked beans and tinned pilchards in tomato sauce (for my hound!) is about it.

Am I right in thinking that for basic stuff it's pretty much the same but cheaper?

Blue Sky

Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 07 12:54 pm Post subject:
Lidl sell high quality stuff here. Cheaper than the other supermarkets and better. The gardening stuff is on sale from 1st March in our local store. Of course, you will not beat the bargains on offer in CrazyPrices

Green Man

Joined: 23 Jul 2006
Posts: 5272
Location: Rural Scotland.

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 07 12:56 pm Post subject:

I have family members who shop there for everything claiming it saves up to 33% over Tesco for a weekly shop. Recognised brand labels and local produce creeping in nowadays. But the price crashing offers on non grocery lines makes me worry about the poor independants trying to raise money for their families to spend in the same town. Mr Lidil and his brother Aldi bag up our cash and take it overseas never to circulate here again.

Rosa

Joined: 10 Sep 2006
Posts: 387
Location: Hampshire

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 07 1:03 pm Post subject:
I think they pay their staff more than other supermarkets and if you want a carrier bag you have to pay for it. I'd love to have one near to me they are good value for money.

Penny Outskirts

Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 23385
Location: Planet, not on the....

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 07 1:15 pm Post subject:

hedgewitch wrote:

I don't buy much from a supermarket theses days - butter, olive oil, baked beans and tinned pilchards in tomato sauce (for my hound!) is about it.

Am I right in thinking that for basic stuff it's pretty much the same but cheaper?

All of those will be as cheap as any other supermarket, but I find that the quality is better for the money. Their beans are 19p, I think, and are just as good as any other brand. Good english butter 53p a pack...

Gai

Joined: 31 Dec 2004
Posts: 408
Location: Ireland

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 07 1:33 pm Post subject:
I don't have to buy much fruit or veg but theirs is the cheapest. Their chocolate has a quite high cocoa percentage so good for cooking/baking with. Most of the basics are cheaper and better quality than own brands.

2steps

Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Posts: 5349
Location: Surrey

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 07 2:19 pm Post subject:
never been in lidi but have used aldi. they have some nice flavour fruit juices. Grimsbys not that big but we have just about every supermarket you can imagine

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 07 3:20 pm Post subject:

hedgewitch wrote:

Try the *cloudy* apple juice for drinking (or making sorbet). The cheapo one in the 1.5 litre packs makes better cider though...
The "plantation" plain chocolates are pretty damn good. Though if you are after more 'normal' choccie try the two-tone coffee flavoured one.
Their balsamic vinegar is cheap and quite cheerful.
Jams. Their 'extra jams' are damn good, especially the blackcurrant and the bitter cherry. And the hexagonal jars the jams come in are super for your own produce - even the lids usually reseal perfectly.
You can find odd but utterly authentic german sausages. And other charcuterie (try the whole salamis). If you like dried ham, try the bargain-priced Black Forrest one first. (I don't think much of the british sausages, bacon, etc.)
There are numerous german quality marks used, but I admit to lack of knowledge as to their animal welfare implications.
Some of the soft cheeses are well worth a look.
The tinned sardines are quite good tinned sardines... at 25p a tin.
The cleaning products are well worth a browse.
The more distinctively 'european' the product, the more likely it is to be of unusually good quality. And often the 'premium' range product is way better than the super-cheap one - though not always!

I think they are better treated as a speciality deli than a supermarket for basic basics. But that may just be me!

Green Man

Joined: 23 Jul 2006
Posts: 5272
Location: Rural Scotland.

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 07 3:24 pm Post subject:

We get the picture, mostly everything is good and cheap. But you are selling your own economy down the river by letting foreign companies profit from your grocery shopping. Once the money has gone from your town to Germany it ain't coming back.

When I went to a private school the class was made up from all the prominent local retailers kids, these family businesses have all gone now. Louse Whyte's father�s greengrocer has gone, Douglas McGill's uncle's department store has gone, Andrew Guild's father's dairy has gone, etc etc. These real people spent their money employing tradesmen and shopping in the town. The last Lidl to be built in my town was imported and constructed by German tradesmen. Not one penny goes back into the local economy apart from the wages of the shelf stackers.
Our economy is built on the rocky foundation of the 'money multiplying effect' If the same money does not come round again to prop things up, the whole thing collapses.

hedgewitch

Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Posts: 5834
Location: Daft wench GHQ

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 07 4:00 pm Post subject:

CKR, I agree in principle with what you are saying, but am struggling to source certain things outside a supermarket on a budget. I shop locally where I can, but there is no grocer of any kind within a reasonable distance where I can buy butter, oil etc. I'm left with a 'choice' of Tesco or Morrisons or the Co-op. So I don't see much difference other than giving someone less of my money. If I do this, I have a little more over to add into buying other, more ethical shopping choices where I can make them.

I'd love to support a local grocers. We used to have an excellent local deli/grocers, but when the owner retired it became yet another takeaway.

Green Man

Joined: 23 Jul 2006
Posts: 5272
Location: Rural Scotland.

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 07 4:13 pm Post subject:
I don't know what the answer is, but our money going abroad for every day commodities like food is unsustainable.

hedgewitch

Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Posts: 5834
Location: Daft wench GHQ

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 07 5:28 pm Post subject:

Cho-ku-ri wrote:

I don't know what the answer is, but our money going abroad for every day commodities like food is unsustainable.

It bothers me a lot. But sometimes I just feel so fedup of trying to sort it out even on a micro level for my own household

Without having enough land to fully support ourselves I feel I have little room for manoeuvre in buying things.

Meat, ironically, is fine where I live. It's groceries and veg that are a big problem. Veg is a headache because right now we have no garden and are on a waiting list for an allotment

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 07 5:45 pm Post subject:

Cho-ku-ri wrote:

If you shop at Asda that money goes to the USA doesn't it? If you're buying olive oil then our money is most likely going to those pesky Southern Europeans.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 07 6:29 pm Post subject:

Cho-ku-ri wrote:

However, this isn't true.

Large sums of the money go to staff and workers who are local, rent to the site owners, who are local, producers of the food who are worldwide, suppliers of services and goods to the store, which tend to be local, and then to Germany. but, it doesn't really go to Germany. It goes to the shareholders. Those fat cat city boys we love to hate. Except that the shares aren't owner by private people, usually, well, not the stereotypical rich individuals. I'm a shareholder in dozens, probably hundreds of companies. And so, probably, are you. Got a pension? The money is invested in stocks and shares, which is where all this money is perceived to be draining away to. Lidl is part of the Schwarz group of companies, and will form part of many pension plans all over the world.

And in the UK we also export plenty of stuff. I have no idea, actually, what our balance of payments is, but we offer plenty of things for sale outside the UK that are as important to society as food. It's not all one way traffic, and certainly, the vision of the money you spend in Lidl ending up in German pockets and resting there is a fiction.

I'm with you, for sure, that we should concentrate on local food, but let's not mislead and misrepresent.

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