Budget Supermarkets - Learn to Love Them
16 July 2008
Imagine you’ve attended your first meeting of SNA (that’s Supermarket Snob’s Anonymous). “My name is Philippa and I’m a supermarket snob.” I would talk about the happy days of low interest rates, before I had a child, when I would think nothing of spending £200 at Waitrose before popping off to my local deli for some Parma ham and gooey cheese (that cost the same as three season’s worth of outfits from Primark).
Those days, fellow snobs, are gone. Now, Waitrose, M&S and a hundred quid for the ingredients for two decent meals and two bottles of plonk are but distant memories. And, you know what? I’m proud. I’m liberated. I’ve moved on.
Why? Because I’ve found the future – and it’s called Aldi. It’s called Netto. And it’s called Lidl. In these days of thrift it’s time to shrug off snobbery and revel in the cheap-as-chips goodness of the budget supermarket chains.
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Forget the image problem. Yes, Aldi for some strange reason has a big pile of snorkels, DVD players made in countries I’ve never heard of and mauve carpets in the middle of the store. Yes, there is a large security guy guarding a rack of £1.99 a bottle red wine. And I’ve never heard of a single brand in there. Ever! Talk about “No Logo.”
Just don’t be fooled into believing their food is low quality. What’s good enough for the thrifty and no-nonsense German hausfrau should be good enough for you too. Trust me, I speak as a middle-class, money-is-a-bit-tight recent Aldi convert. Convert is the right word, too. I’m so thrilled I feel like marching around outside John Lewis and sharing the word with those who’ve yet to see the light.
And you won’t be alone. More affluent shoppers are flocking to Aldi, Lidl and Netto, so much so that Tesco is getting worried. In the past year the number of Aldi’s shoppers in the social AB category has surged (the car park of my local Aldi was packed with BMWs and Range Rovers – filling them up with diesel would buy you two months shopping!).
And I’ve noticed that on Tesco’s online price comparison index they only compare prices with Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s. Why’s that?
The biggest hurdle to overcome is shedding the years of marketing and advertising brainwashing you’ve undergone and realise recognisable brands don’t necessarily taste any better than ones you’ve never heard off.
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My first impression of my local Aldi was that it made Asda look like Waitrose. I thought I was in a Soviet Bloc department store circa 1980. So I sent my husband in to do a recce, as he’s a keen cook and actually likes food shopping. He spent an hour in there and bought £40.00 worth of stuff – mainly staples like cereal, olive oil, pasta, bread, pasta sauces, charcuterie, cheese, vegetables and some beer. As he was queuing (which took a while – they don’t have many staff) he thought he’d spent at least sixty quid.
His verdict? The salami and cheese was as good as anything you’ll buy in Tesco or Sainsbury’s, although the chorizo was “a bit average, but astonishingly cheap.” Even the German beer (£2.99 for four bottles) kept him happy. He was very impressed by some frozen thin-crust pizza at £2.99 a pop which he thought was better than other high street equivalent (“less oily than the cheap Tesco ones”). He also noted that a pepper at Aldi works out at 23p in a multi-buy pack. Tesco price? 68p for one (source: Tesco online price comparison site).
His only no-no was the wine (“awful, the wine equivalent of a trip to hell, I’ll be sticking with Tesco’s 25% off six bottles thanks”). The meat selection was mediocre, although the beef mince was perfectly OK.
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How do they keep these prices so low? It isn't low quality, it is that stores like Aldi and Lidl keep their overheads down to brutalist levels. They keep furnishings and staff to a minimum (managers will be expected to roll their sleeves up and stack shelves if necessary) and they charge for carrier bags (see they aren’t so different from M&S after all).
After my husband bravely explored Aldi, I went to see for myself. And since my conversion I can now add my own tips:
Breakfast Hoops (say goodbye to Cheerios), marmalade, Mamia baby wipes, parmesan and pasta sauces. If you still need further persuasion, there’s all the other stuff at discount prices under the same roof. I even bought a space-hopper for £3.99 (after all no garden is complete without a space hopper).
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The problem is the money I’ve saved is simply re-deployed towards other luxuries. Like the Premium cinema tickets for my friends to see Mamma Mia! (all of whom are unreconstructed supermarket snobs, but I’m working on it). My husband even bought me some new clothes the other week (in a great outlet centre!), citing the money he was saving on food shopping (did I complain?). And some of the savings goes towards buying a decent joint of meat from the butchers or one of the up-market supermarkets (which for me nowadays is Asda or Morrisons!).
Aldi’s even has its own-brand anti-wrinkle cream at £1.49 a jar, which has been judged by some fashion magazines as the most effective on the market.
£1.49... Hey, because I’m worth it!
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