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From: SIRPip on 28 Jul 2010 04:48 darsy wrote: > snobbishness aside, the main problem I have with Lidl is that their > stock is fairly random. I don't see what you mean by that - any essentials that I've popped in there to get have always been available (save eggs on one late afternoon, and a particular variety of bread - equally, once and late in the afternoon. I'm a definite convert to both of the German-owned stores: they're never as rammed as the big supermarkets, there's always car parking available without having to trawl through a maze and if you select reasonably carefully, you can eat well and for less than shopping with the big boys. > Plus they only ever seem to have one till (out > of 4) open. Their fresh produce is perfectly OK, mind - way better > than the likes of Morrisons or Asda. I'm with you on the till thing, but my local stores always seem to manage to open a second (or on occasion, third) till when the queue gets much beyond the end of the conveyor. As for the fresh produce, you're spot on: we've noticed that their veg actually tastes like they should - the first properly peppery radishes in years, for example - and it all lasts so much better. We got severely hacked off with Tesco, for example, when cucumbers would start to liquidise themselves two days after purchase. It seems that all the produce from the big supermarkets is intended for immediate consumption (except the green bloody bananas) and will start to self-compost as soon as you get it home. A product (hah!) of chilled storage, I guess. The smaller German shops probably benefit from lower customer throughput in that they can display significantly smaller quantities of produce without running out, yet it does seem to last for several days before going off, which is a stark contrast to the Tesc/Sain/Wait experience. I started going to Aldi and Lidl purely to grab their bi-weekly specials, seduced into crossing the threshold by lures of cheap compressors, cordless tools and sandpaper packs(1) and on a whim took some of their edibles home as well. They went down well, and they became preferred sources of stuff like bread and crumpets, snacks and German specialities ... and now the majority of the 'big shop' stuff is sourced there. I wouldn't say that they're the be-all and end-all, but I think the big boys would do well to keep an eye on their expansion over the next couple of years. 1. I bought a 'detail sander' for cheap in Lidl. It came with a single delta-shaped sheet of velcro-backed abrasive. I used it and it worked well, so I looked for more abrasive. Even buying multipacks of the things would have worked out at ~60p per sheet and I really thought I'd been bitten. Fortunately Aldi came to the rescue and as one of their specials, thrashed out 30-packs of the very things I was after, which came in at ~7p a sheet which makes use of the sander a viable proposition. -- SIRPip : B12
From: darsy on 28 Jul 2010 05:05 On Jul 28, 9:48 am, "SIRPip" <gingerbl...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > darsy wrote: > > snobbishness aside, the main problem I have with Lidl is that their > > stock is fairly random. > > I don't see what you mean by that - any essentials that I've popped in > there to get have always been available (save eggs on one late > afternoon, and a particular variety of bread - equally, once and late > in the afternoon. well, let's start by clarifying that I've never been in a Aldi. And only recently used the (recently-ish opened) Lidl in Enfield Town. What I was getting at is that there's never the same thing on the same shelf from one week 'til the next. > I'm a definite convert to both of the German-owned stores: they're > never as rammed as the big supermarkets, there's always car parking Our local Lidl doesn't have a carpark at all, but it's 5 minutes walk from my house, so not really a problem. > available without having to trawl through a maze and if you select > reasonably carefully, you can eat well and for less than shopping with > the big boys. sure - it's definitely cheap, and nothing I've ever bought from there has been of poor quality. You mention that the "big boys"' fresh produce self-composts quickly. This does, IME, depend on the given store. Our local Tesco, M&S and Waitrose are all fine in this regard, but yeah, generally they're more expensive than Lidl (though Tesco Enfield Town has a lot of good fresh produce offers on at the moment). -- d.
From: SIRPip on 28 Jul 2010 05:12 Jim wrote: > On 22/07/10 10:44, Krusty wrote: > > The blame for a lack of housing overall lies fairly& squarely at > > the doors of the planning departments& the ever more stringent > > buildings regs. They've massively pushed up the cost of building a > > house. The way things are going, the cost of the insulation alone > > for a new house will be more than the total build cost was 20 years > > ago. > > I actually disagree a lot with that - insulation is a worthwhile > thing to be putting in. It isn't just newbuild, though. My mate Big Nick bought a barn to be converted and the hoop-jumping was something to see. It isn't like the thing was out of place(1), or would be detrimental to anybody's visual amenity, nor would it increase the overlooking of adjacent properties, being halfway up a private lane (the middle of three such) which was already quite densely built up. He wasn't allowed windows in the rear elevation, for a start - and when the architect went to Velux roof windows the size was cut and the spec (to maintain u-value) went up equally drastically. But the insulation demands left me flabberghasted: thick polystyrene slabs in between layers of poured concrete floors, rockwool batts between stone outer and plasterboard inner walls. Roof insulation I expected, but not the batts between the joists as well as sheets over the joists and below the underdrawing. It added thousands to the build costs and complication and it is just as well its a big barn, as it effectively raised the floor level, dropped ceiling/inner roof levels and brought the walls in to boot. The place is still enormous, but probably 10% smaller as a direct result of all the insulation. Mind you, it is damned warm in the winter, although he's now found it is also damned warm in the summer, too. Until this project, I didn't realise that disabled access has to be provided to this sort of reconstruction: prohibition of floor level variations, that sort of thing. They even dictated the height of the step at the entrance door, and he still has to construct the required ramp to the back door. Surely a disabled person with half a million to spend would be capable of looking elsewhere if any particular property didn't meet their spec? I'm not unfamiliar with the quirks of regulatory fiddliness, but that seemed a bit extreme. 1. OK, across the lane is a magnificent 16th Century stone-under-thatch farmhouse (the owner of which Nick bought the barn from) but next door is a 100-year-old brick-built barn with a corrugated iron roof and opposite that a 1970's brick construction four-bed detached, with a very conventional attached double garage. A veritable melting pot of arcitectural styles, then, into which any sort of construction would disappear in short order. -- SIRPip : B12
From: SIRPip on 28 Jul 2010 05:35 darsy wrote: > On Jul 28, 9:48�am, "SIRPip" <gingerbl...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > darsy wrote: > > > snobbishness aside, the main problem I have with Lidl is that > > > their stock is fairly random. > > > > I don't see what you mean by that - any essentials that I've popped > > in there to get have always been available (save eggs on one late > > afternoon, and a particular variety of bread - equally, once and > > late in the afternoon. > > well, let's start by clarifying that I've never been in a Aldi. And > only recently used the (recently-ish opened) Lidl in Enfield Town. > What I was getting at is that there's never the same thing on the same > shelf from one week 'til the next. It could be that they're still settling final positions for the various products. There's so much psychology involved in product placement it's untrue. Apart from that, there's the weekly specials, the bi-weekly specials, the 'special purchse' stuff that all has to be given prominent positions, that perhaps in that case the regular gear gets shuffled backwards. Or they could be fucked in the head, of course - or just shite at running the place and keeping it stocked. > > > I'm a definite convert to both of the German-owned stores: they're > > never as rammed as the big supermarkets, there's always car parking > > Our local Lidl doesn't have a carpark at all, but it's 5 minutes walk > from my house, so not really a problem. Ah, the blessings of deep urban life. The upside of our rural mid-Beds idyll is the lower density of shops and housing. The downside is that there's fuckall in walking distance unless you want to pay top dollar at the farm shop up the road or the Post Office on the village green. Excluding that sort of outlet, the nearest supermarket is Tesco Flitwick, which is six miles or ten minutes drive away. Car parking in this context is as vital and heavily weighted in the overall assessment as the quality and comfort of the toilets in the preferred pub. > > > available without having to trawl through a maze and if you select > > reasonably carefully, you can eat well and for less than shopping > > with the big boys. > > sure - it's definitely cheap, and nothing I've ever bought from there > has been of poor quality. > > You mention that the "big boys"' fresh produce self-composts quickly. > This does, IME, depend on the given store. Our local Tesco, M&S and > Waitrose are all fine in this regard, but yeah, generally they're more > expensive than Lidl (though Tesco Enfield Town has a lot of good fresh > produce offers on at the moment). Again, as a result of your residence in the heartland, your stores might get it quicker. Although I understand from inside sources, that all Tesco stores operate on "just in time" for pretty much everything, but certainly "fresh" produce. Four deliveries a day, an artic load at a time, our Tesco has available to them. Having said that, the level of mis-management gets worse by the week there, with established product lines disappearing to be replaced by yet another variety of overpriced exotic mushrooms, or stuffed and marinated olives, or extra-extra-extra-virgin cooking oil ... while the shelves for neccessities remain bare and the gangways obstructed with roll cages abandoned by hard-pressed staff acting as personal shoppers. The very bottom line is that I(we) detest shopping of any sort, especially the bread and milk and bogroll type shopping. The faster and slicker we can get in, do it, and out - the better. At the moment Aldi and Lidl suit our criteria: not overpriced, decent gear, nice open store interiors and quick to get around and out. More power to their Aryan elbows. -- SIRPip : B12
From: Champ on 28 Jul 2010 05:52
On Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:35:27 +0000 (UTC), "SIRPip" <gingerbloke(a)gmail.com> wrote: >The very bottom line is that I(we) detest shopping of any sort, >especially the bread and milk and bogroll type shopping. I've always been of this view. Much too late, I discovered home delivery, and I'm a convert. I use Ocado, which is Waitrose, which I usually deride cos of higher prices and general poncy-ness. But, about once every ten days they send me a "15 quid off for delivery on Tues or Weds" offer, which I take advantage off, and it makes the prices acceptable. And they don't do any of that "we didn't have that, so we've given you this" nonsense, either. The Ocado web site is very good - your 'regular' items are there at each visit, so you can quickly re-order them, and it lets you know of any relevant offers as you go. -- Champ We declare that the splendour of the world has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. ZX10R | Hayabusa | GPz750turbo neal at champ dot org dot uk |