[Food] Best supermarkets/places to buy groceries in the area

[Hovegull]

I’ve never shopped in Lidl or Aldi, but I hear a lot about them. Just wondering if many of you guys use them and what’s good/not good?
What else is good out there in the cities supermarkets/independents? Where do you like/find good offers?

I like home cooking, lots of lovely ingredients and try to avoid heavily processed food - I also love a good offer.
Would love to be able to do the greengrocer/bakery/butcher/fishmonger combo - but just don’t seem to have those options around me, sadly. Any worth travelling around for?

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Aldi does great prices and quality for the basics. Fish next to Hove Lagoon for, well, fish. Wickies in Hangleton for meat.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Open market and the various shops around. London Road is often ignored but has loads to offer. Pamir Grocery is well decent. Ravens for bread.

 

[South Stand Bonfire]

Lidl and Aldi for the big weekly shop and then a more local supermarket for fresh salad/veg etc during the week tends to work for us.

 

[Weststander]

Lidl or Aldi for the bulk of the shop. A top up elsewhere for one or two other items not stocked there.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Lidl on Mondays …Tescos Tuesdays scanning the offers …..maybe a treat upmarket on a Friday when I know how the working week has gone.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

I find the shelf life on fruit and veg is better from Lidl and Aldi than my local Tesco. Plus Lidl and Aldi tend to champion local meats.

 

[zefarelly]

It's all a bit of a lottery . . . We went to a garden centre a while back, nice FnV stall out front, bought some straberries, a few other bits, and spotted some big fat garlic bulbs, looked like nice sweet elephant garlic, so assumed from closer to the Med than the Isle of White . . . . . But no . . . . China

garlic from China FFS!

we're lucky to have an allotment. If could get my hands on a hambush or a sausage tree we'd be self sufficient.

 

[Hugo Rune]

Aldi for the bulk of the weekly shop. The odd trip to ASDA or Sainsbury’s to stock up on certain brands/products that Aldi does not stock including freshly baked bread.

 

[Albion my Albion]

Fish next to Hove Lagoon for, well, fish.

And in case you're thinking about it, don't use peas for fish bait, whether they are de-podded or not. Even if you think it means you will be doing a podcast.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Lidl on Mondays …Tescos Tuesdays scanning the offers …..maybe a treat upmarket on a Friday when I know how the working week has gone.

…….Chilled on Sunday

 

[A1X]

I find the shelf life on fruit and veg is better from Lidl and Aldi than my local Tesco. Plus Lidl and Aldi tend to champion local meats.

IMHO the quality and longevity of Tesco fruit and veg has nosedived in the last 18 months or so, even compared to Sainsbury’s

 

[tedebear]

IMHO the quality and longevity of Tesco fruit and veg has nosedived in the last 18 months or so, even compared to Sainsbury’s

But of course nothing to do with the fact that holding trucks of fruit and veg at the border whilst they have to go through vast paperwork and Brexit licence nonsense means it gets to us days and weeks older than it once did....or even that the EU fruit and veg growers don't even bother with us now...

Yet a hop and a skip across the channel or down to Spain, and fruit and Veg is in abundance, glorious in its quality...

Some of the fruit and veg grown here has suffered as a result of our odd weather recently (apples and carrots for example)...but predominatly its because we bit the hand that fed us...

 

[Blue3]

Lidl for most things them Morrison, M&S and Waitrose for anything else, I don’t use Tesco and Sainsbury’s anymore as I hate the way their club cards operate

 

[tedebear]

Lidl for most things them Morrison, M&S and Waitrose for anything else, I don’t use Tesco and Sainsbury’s anymore as I hate the way their club cards operate

I haven't been into a Tesco anything for years now. I infrequently go into our local One Stop as they accept parcels for a well know (shoddy) parcel service but never buy anything....Reason being, when they signed a contract with a place I used to work at, and when the first invoice was due, said they cannot pay it to the terms (that they agreed on the contract), as their outsourced Accounts Payable function in India could only pay at 90 days, at best 75. This was significant sums of money. I was made aware at the time this is what UK farmers are subject to by them as well.

I know my little dummy spit will mean nothing to Tesco and this was some time ago now so may have changed, but it satisfies my personal standards and principles.

I'm sure Tesco will be squirming around with the Procurement act/Prompt Payment Code...they'll flex their might at it and work around it, to try and give you the cheapest price possible at the detriment of anyone in the supply chain they can.

I know most of us don't have a lot of money to go around, but I hope that people sometimes have a think about who is being screwed to get you your cheap price, if you're ok with that go ahead. If you're not, then shop elsewhere.

 

[Chicken Run]

It’s no wonder the roads are congested these days with all these multiple trips to various food suppliers and by the looks of it two different supermarkets a week!!! What happened to the weekly shop

 

[Biscuit Barrel]

But of course nothing to do with the fact that holding trucks of fruit and veg at the border whilst they have to go through vast paperwork and Brexit licence nonsense means it gets to us days and weeks older than it once did....or even that the EU fruit and veg growers don't even bother with us now...

Yet a hop and a skip across the channel or down to Spain, and fruit and Veg is in abundance, glorious in its quality...

Some of the fruit and veg grown here has suffered as a result of our odd weather recently (apples and carrots for example)...but predominatly its because we bit the hand that fed us...

Been to Spain and France recently. I found the price of food there is far more expensive than the UK. The price of fruit and veg in Spain was very high.

It used to be much cheaper to shop in Europe than the UK. Not sure why it seems to be the other way around now.

 

[Weststander]

Been to Spain and France recently. I found the price of food there is far more expensive than the UK. The price of fruit and veg in Spain was very high.

It used to be much cheaper to shop in Europe than the UK. Not sure why it seems to be the other way around now.

Travel writers/chefs mention that about France too.

UK supermarkets bully farmers and food manufacturers into rock bottom prices.

 

[tedebear]

Been to Spain and France recently. I found the price of food there is far more expensive than the UK. The price of fruit and veg in Spain was very high.

It used to be much cheaper to shop in Europe than the UK. Not sure why it seems to be the other way around now.

The post I was responding to was talking about quality and longevity...agreed the price everywhere has gone up. But thats a whole nother story about global price rises...just google "why have prices around the world gone up" and you'll get a plethora of reasons (some logical and some not!)....

 

[Half Time Pies]

Been to Spain and France recently. I found the price of food there is far more expensive than the UK. The price of fruit and veg in Spain was very high.

It used to be much cheaper to shop in Europe than the UK. Not sure why it seems to be the other way around now.

Price of food has gone up everywhere but exchange rate always has a big effect on how cheap things like food appear for us Brits when we go abroad. We would have got 1.70 euro for each pound exchanged in the early 2000's, 1.45 euro in 2015, in more recent years it's been more like 1.10 - 1.20.