Lidl

It’s probably my favourite retailer, since it offers at the same time cheap prices and a wide range of products, most of which come from all over the world and are very hard to find elsewhere. In my opinion fruits and vegetables cannot be beaten on quality, especially if compared to other supermarkets.
However, it’s not advisable to go to this shop on weekdays around 18 – 19, because it’s usually extremely busy: as a consequence, there could be everlasting queues for the cashier and most products might be over.

For a student on a budget this place is a godsend with its prime location just down Oxford Road from university and with its cheap prices.
The quality of the food can vary but I personally prefer to mass shop here compared to Tesco, and in tandem with Worldwide, I can buy pretty much all I need to survive and enjoy my food.
It is a very large store but whilst shopping you do tend to feel that choice is rather limited yet, as a student myself, I don’t really tend to look for quality but more at price; and for this LIDL excels.
If from its £1 2-​pint milk to its array of frozen meats, this is a popular place for students to shop.
The service at the tills can be slow and busy at times with at maximum, from personal experience, only 3 tills open, leading to large queues unfortunately. Also, do not expect to be helped with packing as its normally common place to pay for everything, including their plastic bags, pass through the checkouts onto the large windowsill and pack there to supposedly allow for quicker passing through the checkouts. However, this does not usually occur.
Recommended for budget shopping.

Cheap for the right things. I always stock up on the Mister Choc hazelnut spread because it’s just as addictive as Nutella at a fraction of the cost, and throw in a loaf of bread because, well, it’s cheap. They also have a good array of fruits and veggies you might not see in the other markets (seriously, I don’t even see lychee in some of the Chinese markets, and they have it here! Yum!), and they always have good avocados in stock (they’re not ripe, but that’s fine — buy them and plan on eating them after letting them sit on the counter for a good 7 – 8 days).
I never bother with the huge rows of chocolates and sweets they have, but they have some surprising food gems at good prices if you take the time to sift through it all. Don’t forget to bring your re-​useable bags or a backpack to toss your goodies in so you don’t have to pay for their plastic bags at check-​out. If you stop by right after work hours (seems to be between 5−8ish), you might get caught in some long checkout lines, too.

I don’t get the fuss with people complaining about the quality of lidl products. You get what you pay for. You want cheap food? You get it! It wouldn’t be like the fresh oven baked or something but it is still its not only edible, but taste good as well!
I normally go there for my weekly shopping. Being a student, I shop in Tesco, Asda, Worldwide and Lidl where I find my groceries cheapest. The vegetables and fruits are always a bargain. Sure you can’t keep them for more than a week and a half and so, but why would you but that much in the first place? Vegetables and fruits are suppose to be eaten fresh!
Quality wise, some cheap off label products taste as good as their branded counter parts. You just need to know which one is good and which one is not. Often not for me its a try and error. I’m trying this type of meat and if it taste well for the price, I’ll stick to it. If I don’t like it, I will go for another one.
Overall I find Lidl actually priced stuffs at what its worth. Everything from bad to semi to good quality is priced accordingly. Every penny is worth spending at Lidl and they are always doing offers. Its better than paying the premium at Waitrose or the likes where you get the same stuffs, but at a higher price.

I’m so glad to see my fellow Mancunians concur, and worship at the altar that is Lidl. As you may or may not know, I’m my father’s daughter and a budget supermarket girl who loves saving money. I’d been courting Aldi for donkey’s years, a Lidl virgin. Then one day my mother, a Fuerteventurian resident, excitedly exclaimed that Lidl were coming to her little island. My parents were attending the grand opening. I’d never visited Lidl before that, but over in Fuerte, Sirius muesli bars, Linessa juice and Yogosan yoghurt had me hooked… then on a recent trip to the Curry Mile, I saw there was a Lidl right at the start of it.
And somehow, I moved within walking distance of that Lidl. Last night I made my debut there, and I was stunned. I was on my way to the Sainsbury’s in Fallowfield but decided to see how much I could get there instead. The answer was EVERYTHING (apart from the halloumi). Everything and MORE. Big, proper, crunchy salted pretzels. The bread rolls I needed. Okay, I thought, but it can’t be as good as Aldi. Bet it doesn’t have the pesto. Oh it has the pesto alright, which do you want, Genovese or Rossa? Juice, I need juice. It’ll all be from concentrate… no, there it is, freshly squeezed and 99p. So if there’s no eggs I’ll pick those up at… nope, there they are, free range and six of them for, yes, 99p. Root vegetable crisps for less than a pound. Japanese rice snacks. Slowly but surely my shop went from an essential last minute grab to a browse. I grabbed some high quality chocolate in case I decided to bake… yep, less than a pound too.
And there were my beloved Sirius cereal bars. So they may not have had the elusive cherry variety, but they offered yoghurt-​coated goodness in the form of sugar or chocolate flakes, and banana and chocolate muesli. Yep, in my basket too. By the way, this all tastes fabulous, because remember — Europeans have high standards.
Right now I’m kicking myself for forgetting to grab the cat radiator bed in the middle Aisle of Randomness I saw. I must have neglected it in my excitement. Lidl, I salute you. I pronounce you ‘Liddle’ but the TV advert tells me it’s ‘Leedle’. Either way, I’m happy I found you.

Simply stated, Lidl has everything you need foodwise without paying it in the rear. I go to ASDA for soaps and other toiletries, however.

Similar to its slightly upmarket cousin, Aldi, Lidl stocks regional produce from across Europe as well as budget brands and some cheaper branded items (you can get four cans for Heinz soup for a quid, for example.) The fruit and veg can be a bit hit and miss but it is always really cheap and great value (8p kiwis anyone?). They sell some odd but delicious items such as the German baked beans which have a hint of cinnamon, Antipasti in jars and some really great European breads and cakes.
Bar far the best bit of any trip to Lidl is seeing what is in the centre aisle. This part of the store stocks a rolling range of bizarre items, from computer keyboards to glass blowing kits and everything in between.

I had never stepped foot in a LIDL supermarket before I started University, partly out of suppressed snobbery and partly due to the fact I though it stocked rancid food in the manner of Iceland or Farmfoods. What a shock I got to discover I had a continental hypermarché on my doorstep!
The interior is light and spacious and the colourful goods with foreign labels literally make me squeal with excitement over their insanely good value. The fresh fruit and vegetable aisle is heaving with bargains: a punnet of ripen-​at-​home kiwis for 49p, a mixed back of red, green and yellow peppers for, when on offer, 79p and the list goes on!!!
You know those amazing round caramel wafer biscuits that you get at the German Christmas market for £1.50 each? Well here you can buy a packet of ten for that very same price! Such good value is unparalleled and my secret tip is to lay one over a steaming hot drink to melt the caramel. Delicious. Oh and check out the Biffsmak noodles at 19p a bag!

Me like it. Very much. I used to go in there sometimes when I was living in Rusholme. You can find cheap stuff, as in really cheap, and really good quality. Actually this place will get lots of points from me, because is the only one that sells a type of caviar that I really like. Red caviar is called. Love it!!! And cheap blue cheese and nice prawns. Don’t be scared, this is my favorite food, and no, I’m not French if you’re wondering. Anyway, you can find lots of good deals. Even if you fancy buying the food for the whole week, or you’re skint and you want few bits and bobs, you will find pretty much all you need. I recon that around 20 quid will be enough as well. They have a variety of stuff from all over Europe, which obviously I like, because sometimes I fancy a change, no more Sunday dinners. Anyway, everytime when I have the chance to go in there, you will see me buying lots of stuff, because is cheap, and they have really good food. Enjoy it!

Lidl has never been disappointing! Lidl is superman in a supermarket’s form!
It saves students when they have nothing but change left with them and lets you eat more with less! How much ever Tesco or Sainsbury’s advertise their deals, it can never match Lidl! I used to think, cheap food means unhealthy and as good as no food, but how wrong was I! Lidl has these cheese pizzas for just 55p each, then they have biscuits and croissants for just £1 for probably a big huuuge box! Their frozen food collection is not only cheap but also immensely tasty! Alcohol too has it’s reduced prices here. £7 for a 750 ml Vodka bottle!
Cheap is of course their main attraction, but on second thoughts, the things available are no less attractive!

Ahhhhhhh, Lidl. Lidl is the saviour of skinted starved students. In first year of Uni, when loan had run out and we were destitute, myself and a housemate pooled together (I am not kidding) our coppers and 5p pieces, came up with around £4 and went to Lidl. Being as this was a few years ago, I forget the exact contents, but it was enough for us to eat for the weekend (we were in OP, so were ‘fed’ during the week). As I recall, we also had a bottle of orange squash and a huuuuuuuge packet of digestives too, for snacktimes. From that day forth, Lidl has been one of my favourite places for picking up cheap food.
The meats here are divided into two sections; fresh and cured. Or NO and YES, respectively. You see, the fresh meat here is prettty bad (apart from the bacon, but that’s almost in the cured section anyway) and the sausages are rank. The cured meats, the pepperonis and salamis, are great, better than the majority of simmilar items in ‘proper’ supermarkets.
The cheese section is simply fabulous. Especially the enormous chunks of edam, and the pre-​sliced emmenthal. Again, it’s all much cheaper than in other shops, and top notch.
The fruit and veg section is well stocked, if occasionally a little random, but it goes off quickly, and badly. More than once have I forgotten about a bag of Lidl potatoes, or a red pepper, only to discover that after less than a week it has literally turned into liquid. But anyway, m minor flaw; just buy enough to eat, and you’ll avoid the liquid putrefaction.
MMy fave thing about Lidl is the weirdness of what the boyf calls the «Random Aisle». It’s that little section of baskets situated between bread and veg, that will contain at all times a compendium of shower shelves, hiking boots, gym balls and coffee tables. It’s mad, but always worth a look as Curly Friend once found an inflatable chair here. She bought it and now her room feels just that little bit more 90s.
Curly Friend also found a whole baby octopus in a jar once. Pickled, I imagine. She bought it, and every time I’m bad she threatens to sneak it into my handbag. Cruel, I know.
Lidl is just one of those places that you can’t help but love. Oh, but stay away from the Nougat Pillow breakfast cereal. It’s minging.

Yeah, Lidl is practically the saviour of the modern student. Dealing in all sorts of wonderfully cheap foodstuffs, as well as bizarre miscellaneous goods, it allows those of us with virtually nothing to our name to somehow survive on pizzas and many foreign types of ham.
My favourite has to be the sweet selection, as it contains brands you won’t find anywhere else, and which all taste slightly odd, but exotic. And all for down and dirty pricing.
See, that’s the great thing about Lidls; it has a reputation for being shit, yet if you actually try it out it delivers. Exactly like Waterworld, possibly Kevin Costner’s greatest film. And there’s no denying that’s a universal truth.

When I first started university this building was an empty shell. My student life involved long walks to Asda which seemed especially long on the way back after I decided it was a good idea to buy 12 cans of beer, 3 litres of orange squash, 4 cans of beans etc. Thank God for those Germans and their wonderful supermarkets. Lidl arrived. It seems to have inadvertently brought along its own accordionist who is always outside come rain or shine — she’s actually pretty good.
I disagree with Alfie about Lidl not being the best place for a weekly shop. I often did my weekly shop here, even if it was sometimes necessary to supplement it with items from Worldwide and Tesco.
The best things to buy: fruit and veg (really good deals like 29p for an aubergine, 19p for a cucumber), pesto (half the price of Tesco pesto), gin, cloudy lemonade, German beer, frozen pizzas (often half price), mozzarella, frozen Indian snacks, tortellini, antipasti, ice cream… I challenge you to carry more than £15’s worth of Lidl’s goods home with you.

It’s a LIDL bit good, but not that good.
Basically, it serves the purpose of undermining the ridiculous prices charged by most major supermarkets. From your first visit to LIDL onward, you will know you’re being ripped off by Sainsbury’s, but continue to relentlessly shop there to avoid going to LIDL again.
It should not be treated as a place for your weekly shop. But it has got a few absolute gems. So pop in, grab them, and do one as fast as you can before the places turns you into an angry old grump.
Energy drinks, diet or normal, for 27p, that taste exactly like Red Bull, though it can’t compete with the Spar option, Blue Bear, which is the best energy drink on the planet. Filled pasta, for 55p, actually from Italy. Sainsbury’s charge more than twice this for the basics version of filled pasta, which is called ‘meat pasta’, mmmmm miscellaneous meat. Also pesto, to go on it, at 70p or so.
And cheap strange beers that taste fine. Great value and if you’re going for a curry on Rusholme, where some places let your bring your own alcohol.

People from the UK don’t get lidl, they don’t understand how on continental Europe or in Australia people struggle to find justification for spending £3 on a say a bag of frozen peas in other stores. It’s because of this stigmata that when you were a kid you’d avoid lidl at all costs, «your mum shops in lidl they use to say» and «I saw her come out of lidl and load her car with shopping», and it is only now when I’m 20 years old, can I turn around and say yes fine my mum bought jams and orange juice from there because it was cheaper than anywhere else and it is. That’s why it survives. If you’re a real person and not pretentious then you’ll see it too but lidl rocks. Now as a self proclaimed tramp/​student I head to lidl to get lots of stuff whether it is fair trade bananas (yes proper fair trade) or mozzarella. Few people appreciate that Lidl actually does continental European food better than most other places, the oven pizzas are good and they sell things for what their worth, not what it’s packaging dictates. Honestly give it a go. But on another note never buy any of the seasonal gear that lidl stocks for some reason, such as ski gloves or power tools as that really is just crap.