[Food] New Normal - Where you buy your food

[Super Steve Earle]

Tesco weekly delivery. Piglets a couple of times for pies and cakes. Haven't ventured in to a large supermarket since March and no plans to do so. Been in the local mini supermarket just a couple of times for urgent supplies, but dressed as the invisible man - large hat, sunglasses and big scarf packed with kitchen towel. Anyone who ventured near was threatened with a scowl and a Paddington stare, neither of which was visible!

 

[Stat Brother]

I've been to Aldi and Lidl a fair few times, and yes - they are shit, for the reason you allude to - utter lack of customer service. They don't give a ****. Stock thrown n the shelves - or in boxes on the floor. Never enough check-outs open.

Aldi do this insane check-out version of musical chairs, where they constantly open and close random check-outs for no obvious reason.

Still - under-staffing and cheap premises and fittings, mean you can save a few pence on a pack of pretend Penguin bars. If people think on balance it is worth it, more power to them.

Why would you want to spend twice the money on a real penguin bar.

Chances are they are both made in the same factory from the same raw materials.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Missus RW banned me from the shops for calling someone out for hoarding toilet rolls when this all kicked off back in March. Since then she's done all the shopping. We've been busy in the garden too planting our own so that regardless of what happens we will have some of our own home grown which will be nice. Her parents have been doing this for years, we should have.

I would have grown veg but we couldn't buy seeds or seedlings early on, and ended up with the kid's trampoline in the way. I still have my beloved asparagus patch though. Over 200 spears already

As an aside, it is easy to see how we are the sick man of Europe. We have a minority of total dicks in the population, sufficient to spread a virus around without any awareness or care despite the rest of us Being Alert. I only see what goes on in the white middle class end of my community, and that's bad enough, with one or two among the 30 in Macknade getting in the faces of half the rest of the shop with their couldn't give a shit attitude. I gather from what I heard on the radio that in the nation's cess pits of ignorance there was literally no social distancing at all, with whole families (i.e., mum and the 5 kids) going to the supermarket every day just to buy crisps and fizzy drink.

 

[scooter1]

I've only been to an Aldi or Lidl once.

I'm not even sure which one of the two it was - it's in Shoreham on the seafront - which we popped into whilst the lad was on a cub visit to the lifeboat station.

My lasting memory of the visit is that very few checkouts were open - possibly just the one - and the farcical situation of the customer in front of us having so much in her trolley that it wouldn't fit on what seemed to be a small belt. So she was trying to pack her bags with the shopping and unload her trolley onto the belt simultaneously. And, because her trolley was still partially full with groceries, she had nowhere to put the bags she had filled up.

Anyway, we use Tesco as it's quite convenient for where we live but also because with the Clubcard points we collect, we're often able to fly Upper Class or Premium with Virgin. I doubt the savings we'd presumably make in whichever of Aldi or Lidl is in Worthing (which is it?) would run to the £000s required to pay cash for the same flights.

I work very close to the Lidl you're referring to and the checkout situation is a nightmare. I would go there for a weekly shop, but I just cannot face the checkouts. Even popping in for office pastries has become a no no.

I've stuck to Sainsburys West Hove, but try to pick my moments when to go. The local shop to us has just expanded and its great for quick bits, but as a family we ideally need a 'big shop' once a week

We're also growing loads of veg in the garden which is great, and often the salad/veg in our evening meals comes entirely from the garden

 

[dazzer6666]

Tesco weekly delivery. Piglets a couple of times for pies and cakes. Haven't ventured in to a large supermarket since March and no plans to do so. Been in the local mini supermarket just a couple of times for urgent supplies, but dressed as the invisible man - large hat, sunglasses and big scarf packed with kitchen towel. Anyone who ventured near was threatened with a scowl and a Paddington stare, neither of which was visible!

I forgot Piglets - had a few deliveries from them as well. Outstanding, and a much wider choice than in WSL

 

[BBassic]

We decided early on that we didn't want to spend our weekends (both still able to work) in queues at supermarkets so decided to get veg boxes delivered. £15 every couple of weeks and its more than enough to feed the two of us. I occasionally will pop to the local Co-Op on a lunchbreak to pick up a few things but that's about it.

The thing we like with the veg boxes is you don't know what you're going to get beyond a few staples likes potatoes, onions and carrots. It meant we've had some foods we don't normally buy (massive celeriac one week, for instance) and has led us to find some new recipes.

We've decided to keep buying the veg boxes regardless now as well, lockdown or no.

 

[Stat Brother]

Plus with Aldi you never know when you might want a welding mask, wheelbarrow wheel and wind chimes in the same shop.

The Corridor of Uncertainty is a sight to behold.

 

[Palacefinder General]

I've been to Aldi and Lidl a fair few times, and yes - they are shit, for the reason you allude to - utter lack of customer service. They don't give a ****. Stock thrown n the shelves - or in boxes on the floor. Never enough check-outs open.

Aldi do this insane check-out version of musical chairs, where they constantly open and close random check-outs for no obvious reason.

Still - under-staffing and cheap premises and fittings, mean you can save a few pence on a pack of pretend Penguin bars. If people think on balance it is worth it, more power to them.

Agree, I can’t understand why people put themselves through that experience. For me personally it isn’t worth it against the ‘not very amazing’ savings you make in there, especially when you consider that the other supermarkets always have discounted lines across their stores on many different products at different times, which evens out the relative costs over say a month period to a great extent between somewhere like Sainsbury’s against Lidl or Aldi.

 

[Bozza]

We decided early on that we didn't want to spend our weekends (both still able to work) in queues at supermarkets so decided to get veg boxes delivered. £15 every couple of weeks and its more than enough to feed the two of us. I occasionally will pop to the local Co-Op on a lunchbreak to pick up a few things but that's about it.

The thing we like with the veg boxes is you don't know what you're going to get beyond a few staples likes potatoes, onions and carrots. It meant we've had some foods we don't normally buy (massive celeriac one week, for instance) and has led us to find some new recipes.

We've decided to keep buying the veg boxes regardless now as well, lockdown or no.

From our experience with veg boxes, it was celeriac. Every. Bloody. Week.

 

[Lower West Stander]

I haven't set foot in a large supermarket since all this started.

Buy meat from the butcher, essentials from the local corner shop and the Co-op. Milkman delivers all my dairy products. Fish kiosk now reopened on Littlehampton seafront as well.

I went to fill up the car at Tescos in Littlehampton last Saturday morning on the way back from the fishmongers and simply couldn't comprehend the massive queue of people waiting to get in to the main supermarket.

Its all out there. Why waste a morning standing outside a supermarket when you can support local business buying higher quality product at good prices?

 

[LamieRobertson]

I haven't set foot in a large supermarket since all this started.

Buy meat from the butcher, essentials from the local corner shop and the Co-op. Milkman delivers all my dairy products. Fish kiosk now reopened on Littlehampton seafront as well.

I went to fill up the car at Tescos in Littlehampton last Saturday morning on the way back from the fishmongers and simply couldn't comprehend the massive queue of people waiting to get in to the main supermarket.

Its all out there. Why waste a morning standing outside a supermarket when you can support local business buying higher quality product at good prices?

I’ve Never queued once to get into my local Tescos once during ‘lockdown’...but then I don’t and wouldn’t shop on a Saturday morning

 

[Springal]

Generally for fruit / veg I've been going to Spring Garden Nursery at Washington. I hope once the Pantry @ Squires at Washington opens again for walk up shopping I can also cover meat / diary / cheese.

Then generally Waitrose for everything else - I find their limiting of the numbers is better, people generally better at social distancing. Only problem is they are expensive for cleaning / household type products.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Local food wholesaler who normally supply to 400 pubs, restaurants and schools. They deliver, the food is fresher, of better quality and cheaper than supermarkets. Guaranteed delivery to our village every Friday.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

The new taco place in the Open Market sells packs of blue corn tacos

RESULT



Thank you

 

[Normal Rob]

meat delivered by the butcher
vegbox delivered by local supplier
Ales delivered from 2 different local breweries
wine delivered by Majestic
Milk/bread/dairy by the milkman
All Sundry items (from loo roll to basic foods etc) from Ocado.

All paid for presently by not having commuting costs. The difference in the quality of meat from the butcher, as has been mentioned, is huge. When things return back to being more 'normal' I will need to revise these costs, but i'll never go back to buying meat from the supermarket again.

 

[Albion Dan]

Aldi as always.

I still have no idea why people prefer Tesco Sainsbury's and Morrisons.

I love Aldi for certain things (Cheese, veg, and wine) but the meat is rank compared to our butcher or even Sainsburies.

We're using local shops much more and enjoying supporting the local economy, something we'll def continue.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Generally for fruit / veg I've been going to Spring Garden Nursery at Washington. I hope once the Pantry @ Squires at Washington opens again for walk up shopping I can also cover meat / diary / cheese.

Then generally Waitrose for everything else - I find their limiting of the numbers is better, people generally better at social distancing. Only problem is they are expensive for cleaning / household type products.

For us, it has been Waitrose for the weekly shop, plus a small top-up for fresh bread and milk. Then once a month, a run into Poundland for all the soap, cleaning products, and thta.

 

[ManOfSussex]

For us, it has been Waitrose for the weekly shop, plus a small top-up for fresh bread and milk. Then once a month, a run into Poundland for all the soap, cleaning products, and thta.

Had you ever been into a Poundland before all this? I hadn't. They were absolute superstars early on in lockdown when anti-bacterial cleaning wipes, soap and bleach/bleach sprays were like gold dust elsewhere.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Had you ever been into a Poundland before all this? I hadn't. They were absolute superstars early on in lockdown when anti-bacterial cleaning wipes, soap and bleach/bleach sprays were like gold dust elsewhere.

Yeah - we've always bought that stuff in there

 

[Stat Brother]

I love Aldi for certain things (Cheese, veg, and wine) but the meat is rank compared to our butcher or even Sainsburies.

We're using local shops much more and enjoying supporting the local economy, something we'll def continue.

Oh deffo, as said it's quite a balancing act with Aldi.

I certainly don't get any of the 'mess and empty shelves' from my local branch, which is fairly new and I'd imagine quite a money earner.

Also, again as acknowledged, one resident of Stat Towers is a 15 year old boy.
There's no way I could afford to feed him from the local butchers, let alone the fact it would be pretty wasteful.


But for what is just the 'stuff we buy week in week out', I've become quite preachy about Aldi (dunno if you can tell).

Sure I've bought a few 'too good to be true' duffers, but as said I have access to a walking waste disposal unit, so that's not exactly a tough lesson to learn.

I've saved so much money just by spending 45p on seal bars instead of £1 on penguin.
£1.50 on 6 Brooklea Light yogurts instead however much Muller lights go for - and I defy anyone to blind taste test the difference, because they are made by the same people.
Don't even get me started on Weetabix or salt and vinegar crisps.


When I first swapped and got comfy with what's what, Aldi easily took £20 off a £60 trolley.
Over the past year I've noticed a rise in the overall price of the 'stuff we buy week in week out' shop, but judging by when I do get bits from one of the big 4, I think I can comfortably say that £20 divide has considerably widened.