they were the same bananas yes kenny. 59p for the bananas and 41p for the packing and supposed convenience.

LOL re the boxing joke btw

Thanks Sultan. Told in reverse.

Kenny - just the veggie options ?

ahh i see ,sorry mate -hardly ever go there as  my nearest Morrissons is 5 miles across town -  Aldi ,Sains and Waitrose are the nearest with a mini Sainsburys walking distance

i make from scratch Canny and add some Scotch Bonnets for heat with the curry spices  ,although when i go to the sains supermarket i get the Deli curries and samosas /bahjis   - they're lovely and spicy


you love your curries

I think Sainsbury's basic range, offers the best option on the cheap range when compared, with Morrison's or Tesco's products.  Farmfoods are the cheapest I've found for branded produce.

All Aldi meat and chicken is reared in the UK so it should have had a reasonable life hopefully.

That's 16 months old. This is a week.

In the past 10 years, the range of fresh fruit and vegetables has gone from just 10 items to 100. A focus on British sourcing has seen sales of fresh meat rise 60% a year in the last three years despite Aldi being one of the big names involved in the horse meat scandal in 2013, with two of its readymeals found to have been severely tainted. All the beef and chicken in Aldi’s British ready meals now comes from the UK.

The big four tend to have three 'classes' of own brand product. The posh one, the standard one, and the cheapo one. The cheapo one is generally cheaper than Aldi, Lidl produce, and often every bit as good, but people are put off by the social stigma. Incidentally, an awful lot of own brand products are actually the same thing in different supermarkets, just with a different label. People tend to assume that own brand means the supermarket themselves make it.

Ethically, I don't think Sainsers can be beaten in terms of animal welfare, fair trade and (conversely) buying British.

Aldi and Lidl carry a lot of branded goods now though and almost always they are cheaper than the big 4. Things like Pringles, Doritos, Kingsmill, Heinz sauces, beans, soups, branded Tuna and Salmon, fizzy drinks are almost always cheaper when they do have them in stock and the price is generally consistent unless they have a slight reduction or increase. They don't seem to partake in the increase the price by 40% one week just so they can have a half price promotion next week.

I use to shop in Morrisons and that use to happen all the time. Princes or John West pack of Tuna would vary in price from 3.50 to 7 pounds sometimes based on when you went all so they could stick it up one week and having no one buy it only so they could advertise it as half price or 2 pound off the next week.

That's probably true based on everything they sell in store although I'm not sure how much supermarkets do for comparison. I.e fruit and veg, meat, bakery goods, milk, cheese, fish, cooked meats, wine must make up up well over half their products and I have never seen them have any branded goods for those but I'd imagine most supermarkets are similar for some or most of these lines. If you were looking for a specific branded product then their stock changes depending on what prices they can get it for I suspect. However every time I've been in they have generally had branded products for the lines I've mentioned.

I shouldn't say I endorse all the cheapo products, but if it's food it's worth checking the ingredients. Baked beans, for example, are pretty the same thing. In fact with fruit and veg generally it is..because obviously it needs to be edible regardless of cost. You can't really make a crap banana.  When you get down to non-food items there is a difference, razors for example, just don't work.

Yeah the promotions of stuff that are half price should always be treated with suspicion. Again, this might surprise you, but that isn't the supermarket doing it, it's the brand. They even PAY to have their half price, BOGOF deals on aisle ends. That's the amount of margin they make. If you want a real bargain look for the stuff that is being discontinued. Little red tickets on not particularly busy shelves. There was a promotion malibu ran recently, where you got a free coconut cup with a bottle purchased, the cups had a price of five quid if bought alone. They were reduced to 1p. Now I don't for one second think I saved 4.99 for each one I bought, but it was still a great bargain.

Fresh bread rolls are the best , sandwich baguettes 19p

Love all that Dulano ham too , and they do rip the big brands of perfectly ,like the bags of fresh grated 'valley spire cheese '

Lovely stuffs with some fresh lettuce , cucumber & tomatoes

It's not indicative of a big margin if suppliers pay for a promotion. They pay for it because the supermarket tell them to and if they dont pay they wont stock their products. The suppliers' margins have been squeezed. It's the supermarkets which make the profits. All those BOGOF offers are paid for by the suppliers. Even donations to charities have to be made by the suppliers in the name of the supermarkets. Fortunately the public are at last getting wise to the supermarkets' marketing tricks and blatant greed and fighting back.

s not indicative of a big margin if suppliers pay for a promotion. They pay for it because the supermarket tell them to and if they dont pay they wont stock their products. The suppliers' margins have been squeezed. It's the supermarkets which make the profits. All those BOGOF offers are paid for by the suppliers. Even donations to charities have to be made by the suppliers in the name of the supermarkets. Fortunately the public are at last getting wise to the supermarkets' marketing tricks and blatant greed and fighting back.

very true - I was speaking to someone once at a major supplier to the big supermarkets and every year one of the "big" supermarkets would ask for £5k as a contribution to the staff xmas party. This supplier would normally quibble of an incorrect invoice of £1 but the directors had no hesitation in writing out a cheque for £5k

If you are shopping at Lidl and Aldi, you are giving your dough to the Germans.

Buy British - Tesco, Morrisons, Marks & sparks & Sainsbury's.

Stow Judge - do you drive a British car...? Just for a laugh...which British football team do you support...?

do Lidl and Aldi sell halal meat?

Aldi is a straight forward set up and no b+s+t

unusual in todays market of gimmicks

You have to admire the families that set up these stores - cheap dexine shelves - pile it high, sell it cheap, like the Americans do...smaller profit margins but profits made on sheer volume and turnover.