Aldi

I do love Aldi. The quality and value of products just cannot be rivalled by any other supermarket, and now with the addition of some named brands it just gets better and better.
This branch in Didsbury is my ‘local’, and you’ll often see me here looking dead on my feet after work at least once a week.
The.staff are always really nice here, helpful, quick and efficient, which is exactly what I’m looking for when I want to get home after a long day.
Like previous reviewers have pointed out, it is particularly important to pick WHEN you visit. Never visit after 2pm on a Sunday because you won’t get a parking space, you won’t get a trolley and by God, don’t even think about even the idea of buying any blueberries because there’s not a chance!

Oh Aldi, I forget about you constantly, only to be as happy as a piggy in a a big ol’ puddle of mud when I get off the bus and see you hiding there all coy. If there is one thing this Unilocaler likes more than almost anything else on the planet, it is a bargain. Well, perhaps it’s more that I cannot abide being ripped off for something as essential as bloody food! So Aldi suits me down to the ground. Often I am in Didsbury for a boring errand of some kind (normally something bank-​related — sigh) and will think on the bus «Oh, I’ll just nip to Co-​op and buy my milk/​bread/​cheese/​sweets/​other essentials», but undoubtedly will end up tootling past Co-​op and hitting up Aldi.
They have a great selection of groceries, as you would expect from a supermarket, but I just love the prices and the deals; as Kirsten P. informed us, it is very possible to get lots and lots of food for very few pennies. Which suits me and my price-​conscious self down the ground. I have occasionally found myself struggling to find out how much something actually is pre-​checkout though, because the signs are often all mixed up. Nine times out of ten, it is easy to find the correct sign without too much of a mission around the shop, but I must admit that on my last visit, there was not ONE sign I looked for to be seen anywhere near said product. Very frustrating when on a deal-​hunt. But, with it being Aldi, you know you’re not going to be expected to pay over the odds for anything so it was far from the end of the world.
All in all, I really like this Aldi as there are many opportunities to visit the shop without it being mobbed if you have your weekdays free as I do, being a night dweller. I’ve never had a single problem with the staff or the products I have purchased in this lovely little supermarket, so I return as often as my memory allows me to remember it’s there, the little treasure. But I do always forget to bring my own bloody bags, which inevitably leads to be grumbling my way back home.

The trollies/​baskets conundrum has reached its climax, people. Are you ready for this? Sure???
They now have baskets.
Shockhorrormentalwhoawhendidthathappen, right? I know. It’s pretty awesome isn’t it? I was pleased. Taking my lunch break in the late afternoon today, what I was buying consisted of eggs, some kitchen roll, a bit of fruit and some custard. Not enough to warrant the use of even one of Aldi’s tiny trollies, pfft.
And then something weird happened.
I happily emptied my little blue basket onto the conveyor belt and peered over past the checkout guy. Hmm. Where was the pile of baskets awaiting your spoils so you could take them over to the benches in one trip via a basket to pack everything up? Hey? (Remember, at Aldi you bring your own bags, thus do your own packing. Anybody who forgets their bags here instantly wants to kill themselves, as they have to pay for plastic bags. No one wants that.) So I retrieved my little basket, merrily planning on repacking my goods once they were scanned, just like I’d do at Market Street. Not a moment after I had, checkout guy said, ‘Could you leave your basket there please?
Er,’ I said, bewildered. ‘I was just going to carry my stuff over to the bench in it.
Customers can’t take baskets through checkout.
No, it’s just so I can get my things over to the bench like people are doing with their trollies.
I know, but no one’s allowed to take them through.
Okay,’ I replied. ‘I’ll just… so… take my goods over one by one then.
It’s because people steal them if they take them through.‘
I couldn’t help it. ‘Why *would* they?!’ I asked so loudly that people around became interested in the conversation.
‘I know, right?
I mean, that seems a strange thing to want to steal.’ I looked at the plastic blue basket, incredulous. I then spotted a rogue cardboard box on the safe side of the checkout. ‘I shall use this then.
Good idea,’ checkout guy agreed.
So, not his fault. But, STUPID RULE! I’d have awarded Aldi Didsbury a mere two stars were it not for that cardboard box. Those, you *can* steal. No, they actively encourage it. And you know what? When I got off the bus at Superdrug Rusholme, I walked that little cardboard box all the way to City Road East. And I’m keeping it.
Aldi Didsbury. Be more like Aldi Market Street, only keep all the charming adorable Didsbury retirees too. I may then be tempted to like you slightly more.

This is an average sized Aldi — but choose your times of shopping — on Thursday when the weekly deals come out it is often crammed as soon as it opens.
To obtain the «aldi Super 6» that Kirsten mentions, you simply have to get there before the «twirlies» (I call pensioners this because of the amount of times when I lived in London the same people on a daily basis tried to get on the bus before the 9am start time and then said — «am I too early» !)
The middle aisles are always a tad haphazard with prices and good rarely matching but heh, it can while away the time.
Best bargains are the small bag of noodles at 19p each — 2 of these are over 50% of your calorie intake — just dont look at salt content. The Nasi goreng used to be a bargain too but both the frozen and «fresh» ones seem to have disappeared from view.
With Ddisbury and Burnage being overwhelmed by Tesco (the Co-​op shop is handy for a catch up shop) Aldi makes a nice alternative.

I often visit this Aldi to help my boyfriend carry home his fortnightly shop, which rarely comes to more than £20 despite the fact it takes two of us to lug home.
This Aldi is of an average size — a bit smaller than the one on Market Street and a bit larger than the one at Trafford Bar. Stock levels are usually pretty good, except for the ‘Aldi super 6′. For anyone that is not familiar with shopping at Aldi these are fruit and veg offers which change every month, e.g. this month there are plums for 49p and onions for 39p. Stocks of these items are often depleted. The past two times I’ve been here I’ve been unable to find any courgettes either, but at least there’s Freshsave just down the road.
Like any other Aldi, the baked beans taste a bit funny, the service is super-​efficient and you can buy ski jackets and memory sticks. We picked up a big crossword book as a present for Granny for just £1.49 yesterday. Brill.

You’ve got to love Aldi really haven’t you? There’s no denying that the products are just a lot cheaper than your other supermarkets but without skimping too much on quality. I’m not a massive fan of the fruit and veg available, but it’s a great place to stock up on cheap cereal, pasta sauces etc, and of course the wondrous range of European biscuits and cakes. The staff are pretty friendly here and the shop is neat and tidy, especially compared to other branches I’ve been to.
Parking is available and its free if you’re wanting to use it to shop in Didsbury village, which is surely the biggest bonus. The gentleman who stands there directing cars is a God-​send.

disappointing. On my few shopping trips it’s always appeared poorly stocked, messy and badly arranged compared to the city centre store and the one in neighbouring Burnage.

It’s been a while since I’ve visited Aldi (ALbrecht DIscount named after the Albrecht brothers in Germany so I’m told)…a couple of years in fact, shame really as it’s a cracking supermarket. Whilst it hasn’t the range (branded items) as the bigger stores you can still get a large proportion of your weekly hit list for an extremely reasonable price.
As with the other supermarkets, Aldi has branched out into other items not previously available.
Aldi now stock some budget clothes (although some of the jumpers looked like they’d spent the 90’s in hibernation). I found a pair of running tights/​pants for wholesome £6I’d not actually intended to buy these but jogging seems to be a practical and efficient hobby to take up.
Right next to the go faster pants lies the auto mobile parts and paraphernalia section (indeed!).
Where as in the larger stores these would get their own dedicated aisle, the much smaller Aldi sees this section contemplating the same space as the fondant fancies and Batternbergs (this is a German store after all). That’s a little odd. I also saw a tray of ‘sporting trainers’ caged over the turkey freezer. A mere hop and a skip from the winter coats collection and you’ll find electronics, general electrical items (wide faced telly screens, MP1, 2, 3 and 4 players, HDMI cables) and huge motorised/​compression machines that I have no idea what they do (this must be the nod to Halfords). Vacuum cleaners and stationary are all represented in this post tardis slice of German shopping.
They do sell brand items (especially in the Alcohol section for some reason) but overall they sell own brand items stacked beautifully on pallets rather than fancy shelves!
Still the fastest check out tills in the west (they do now use bar codes rather than the cashier memorising the prices as they used to in the past).
I enjoyed my trip here (there’s one in the City Centre which I’m sure is handy if you’re a resident there), the goods I purchased and I’ll be back on a much more regular basis now.