Does anyone shop at Lidl?

[disneysteve]

Lidl is opening a store near us later this month. It will be the first one in this area and I'm not at all familiar with them, though I understand they have about 13,000 locations in Europe and 300 in the US so far. I'm sensing that they're on par with Aldi as far as being a discount grocery chain. Do any of you have experience with them? Anything we should check out there?

[bjl584]

I've never heard of them.
I guess they haven't made their way to western PA yet.

[Thrif-t]

Never heard of them either, I thought you had a typo trying to spell Aldi

[disneysteve]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidl

[moneybags]

I've not been to one, but they are suppose to be similar to Aldi. I heard that Aldi & Lidl were run (separately) by brothers, but I don't have confirmation on that.

[mumof2]

Ive never heard of them so guessing not big in aust

[QuarterMillionMan]

Who, what? Aldi yes. Lidi nope.

[bjl584]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidl

Looks very similar to Aldi with a bit more branded products.
If one is opening near you, then it's probably worth a walk through at least.
Let us know what you think if you stop in.

[disneysteve]

Our Lidl store opens next Wednesday. It was supposed to open this past Wednesday but got pushed back a week for some reason.

Anyway, we felt like taking a ride today and headed south. When I was looking on the map to see what was around, I saw there was a Lidl store already opened right near where we were going so we stopped in. It wasn't anything exciting. The bakery department looked pretty nice though we rarely buy that sort of stuff. A surprisingly large amount of the back half of the store was assorted general merchandise that one wouldn't typically buy in a supermarket: toys, hardware, clothing, sporting goods, etc. Aldi has one half aisle with that kind of stuff but this was probably 1/3 or more of the total floor space. As for the groceries, they had a decent selection it seemed. Prices seemed in line with everywhere else.

I don't see us shopping there once it opens in our town. It isn't conveniently located near our home and I didn't see anything that would make it worth a special trip.

[Mjenn]

We have a local Lidl. The middle aisles can be really great for some finds. Lots of good craft stuff for cheap. They also have an America week where they sell a brand called McKennedy and things like ice cream pizza. I doubt they do it in the States but we find it entertaining. I like their sports shirts for running.

ETA: The baked goods are really good. The German pretzels are great and that is what I often buy there--- but really stuff is pretty good. For us the produce is much much cheaper as well.