France is getting a bit pricey?

[mint]

Depends what you mean by slumming it.

I actually LOVE shopping at Lidl.  Lots of their products that I like:  their fizzy water, their champagne, their muesli, their cheese for making tartiflette, their Bref toilet cleaner that is fosse-friendly and my dog loves their dog biscuits. 

[velcorin]

This time last year I was sent, because I speak English, to visit a customer in the UK who supplies all the Europeam supermarket chains with a particular product, to chains' own recipes, to discuss some financial matters. After the meeting, I was chatting to the MD, he was moaning about how all the chains, particularly the French, stitched him up over prices and Terms. Then he got onto Lidl. Apparently they had the highest quality recipe (higher than Waitrose), and paid the highest price, and paid bang to Terms. After that unintended endorsement, I started shopping at Lidl.

I use Lidl in France, but I wouldn't in the UK, I try to shop as ethically as I can, and don't like the way French supermarkets and their producers operate. In the UK supermarkets I used to buy free range, bio, speciality breeds, RSPCA endorsed, etc, not in Auchan though[:@] So, I might as well get good quality at Lidl, though I doubt they're, ethically, any better.

[Clair]

I did some temping at a local cheese producer's factory last year. We were preparing these bundles of fresh goat's cheese wrapped in bacon.

The only difference between the Lidl ones and the supermarket ones was in the packaging (and in the price, of course!)

[Quillan]

[quote user="velcorin"]

I use Lidl in France, but I wouldn't in the UK, I try to shop as ethically as I can, and don't like the way French supermarkets and their producers operate. In the UK supermarkets I used to buy free range, bio, speciality breeds, RSPCA endorsed, etc, not in Auchan though[:@] So, I might as well get good quality at Lidl, though I doubt they're, ethically, any better.

[/quote]

So do we. Their range of cleaning products are very good including their washing machine bottled detergent. I do lazy very well so anything that works with a quick spray and wipe down does it for me, you can forget all that scrubbing as far as I am concerned. I also buy my beer there, those 500cl German bottles, 6 for just under 3 Euros. My mate who knows a thing or two about beer (he is a profesional as opposed to an amateur like me) says its very good stuff and brewed under some sort of 'purist' law. I see a lot of the locals buy their wine there as well. You can get wine from different countries alos. They do a 'Spicy Biscuit' which is most excellent for 'dunking' in tea and tastes a bit like a Ginger Nut. There are one or two things that are junk but then they look like junk so you can avoid them easily. We have a Neto opening near us soon. No experience of them but I am told they work along the same lines as Lidl.

[mint]

One other thought that always occur to me, too, is that whenever I think about what a "chore" supermarket shopping is, I stop myself in my tracks.

I say to myself: you selfish, un-thinking, spoilt female dog, why don't you just count yourself lucky that you have all these choices of foods and products at your disposal and you have the means to pay for anything you want in that shop (yes, I know, within reason) and you have the nerve to complain?  Think about all the people in the world who would give their eye teeth to be in your position!

Now then, go and get that shopping done and we'll have no more complaints, OK?

That bit of self-talk normally does wonders for my morale, I can tell you![:D] 

[Braco]

I was also amazed at the quality and low prices of Lidl aged fillet steak, and fresh rabbit.

[Frederick]

Lidl do a long blade hedge trimmer that you can turn the handle 90 degrees left or right . Its very powerful and less than 40 euros just one of my Lidl purchases this year I am very pleased with ...so I also am a fan .

[Scooby]

Maybe Lidl in France is different than the UK?  It's mainly families on benefits that shop at UK Lidl stores...or Asians stocking up on cheap stuff to sell at their corner shop!  It's certainly not somewhere you'd want to linger for any length of time!

[mint]

So, what does that tell you?  That "families on benefits" and "Asians stocking on cheap stuff" know where all the best bargains are!

QED [:P]

[Scooby]

Last time I saw the Lidl shoppers they were loading their trolleys with cheap junk food (I use the term 'food' very loosely here!).  Corner shop owners know that people only ever visit a corner shop when they don't have the luxury of going elsewhere - hence are happy to compromise on what they buy.

[velcorin]

Alternatively as Lidl seem to have just about taken over, in, and around Paris

1 If we consider Lidl good. What does that say about the French supermarkets?[:P]

2 French consumers have the same purchasing power as people on benefits in the UK. [:D]

3 See wot Sweet17 wrote

4 UK consumers don't know what they are missing[:D]

[Frederick]

"Maybe Lidl in France is different than the UK? It's mainly families on benefits that shop at UK Lidl stores...or Asians stocking up on cheap stuff to sell at their corner shop! It's certainly not somewhere you'd want to linger for any length of time! " to quote Scooby .

The Ferndown Dorset branch is near Golf Links Drive and you need the odd million or two to buy a house there ..Which explains why the local Lidl car park is full of Jags Range Rovers and the like and the owners grey haired they may be are identified in the store by their jewelry .

[Scooby]

As I said - where we live the Lidl stores (like their Danish equivalent, Netto) are located in the poorest areas of the city.

[plod]

Well, one won't be going there then.

[buelligan]

Could I drop in for a mo' and just try a teeny logic test here?[:D]  Why would one bemoan the loss of cheaper menus in restaurants but avoid shopping in cheaper supermarkets?[8-)]

 

[Cendrillon]

Double standards maybe[Www]

[Quillan]

One thing about Lidl is that they sell so much stuff it does not sit on the shelves for so long and is normally in date. This is a big problem in French supermarkets, things being out of date on the shelves. I saw a report in the French papers a few weeks back. It was a league table of fines for supermarkets (1M Euros here another there, we are not talking small amounts). Champion came out the worse and some of the stuff they sell thats out of date can be very dangerous. Take for instance the lady who bought baby milk and when her child became so ill they discovered the tin was 6 months out of date (you can read about it HERE). When they went back to the shop to check a week later all the tins were a minimum of 6 months out of date. When they got the manager down he shrugged his shoulders and did nothing. The supermarket didn't give a toss.

Watch what goes on at checkouts, why does it take so long. Normally its because food in France is so expensive people save the discount tickets from newspapers and buy the majority of products that have offers. They also do multiple shops going from one supermarket to the other for the best deals. The quality is also cr@p, we have to use two supermarkets because whilst one is cheaper for drinks, meat and tinned food the veg is so bad we have to go to another to by it (we don't have a greengrocer in the village anymore). On the way home we then visit the bread shop cause all the supermarkets produce bread thats like sawdust and looks like its been kicked round the shop for half the day. In the UK we had an option of four supermarkets all within 5 minutes drive and we could always do all our shopping in the one supermarket. Having said that shopping is about the only thing I don't like in France so I guess I have to put up with it.

I have always maintained that having a holiday home in France and actually living here full time are two different things and one of the areas where you notice the difference is in peoples shopping habits.

[Scooby]

[quote user="buelligan"]

Could I drop in for a mo' and just try a teeny logic test here?[:D]  Why would one bemoan the loss of cheaper menus in restaurants but avoid shopping in cheaper supermarkets?[8-)]

 

[/quote]

The point I was making is that NickP could only get his lamb at a half reasonable price by shopping at Lidl - i.e. he was not comparing like (Sainsburys, Waitrose etc) with like (Lidl)

[Quillan]

Sainsbury's frozen leg of lamb £9.99 (11 Euros) per leg. Lidl, Champion and LeClerc around 14 Euros a leg. Its when you get to the fresh meat that it starts to get really silly.

[buelligan]

[quote user="Scooby"][quote user="buelligan"]

Could I drop in for a mo' and just try a teeny logic test here?[:D]  Why would one bemoan the loss of cheaper menus in restaurants but avoid shopping in cheaper supermarkets?[8-)]

 

[/quote]

The point I was making is that NickP could only get his lamb at a half reasonable price by shopping at Lidl - i.e. he was not comparing like (Sainsburys, Waitrose etc) with like (Lidl)
[/quote]

Silly me, I should have read it properly!  I thought you just didn't like the idea of shopping with us untermenschen![:D]

[Scooby]

And why perchance, my dearest Buelligan, would I know that you would read it that way....

[buelligan]

Are you a psychic?!  Higher up the evolutionary tree?  Or is it because I can read?[:D]

[Scooby]

I'm guessing the second [:)]

[buelligan]

Nah!  (although that does give credence to my suspicion regarding untermenschen).  Let's try psychic for starters, 's only fair....What well known phrase am I thinking of now..?[:D]

[Scooby]

Sorry Buelligan - as far as you are concerned non of them are repeatable / permissible.   As already intimated, I find you arrogant and obnoxious and have no interest in exchanging views with you - either on the forum or by pm.  (From the pm's I have received - I am not alone in my views.)