shanti0608 said:

We have these still. Pain in the arse TBH. Not that anyone in England would know, Scottish notes may as well be printed on toilet paper once you head south of the border.

shanti0608 said:

You could feed two people comfortably with £1.00.

ASDA Smart Price loaf of bread - 35p
ASDA Smart Price large tin of beans in tomato sauce - 30p
ASDA Smart Price margerine - 30p

Beans on toast for less than a quid!

And the trolleys only cost money if you don't take them back to the trolley park!

mcmeekle said:

Still got the hundreds too, right?

mcmeekle said:

Why is the paper money here so fat? Wide? Doesn't fit in my wallet either.

shanti0608 said:

There's room in my wallet....

shanti0608 said:

We have these still. Pain in the arse TBH. Not that anyone in England would know, Scottish notes may as well be printed on toilet paper once you head south of the border.

I don't know if any of you have those Aldi grocery stores in your area, but they recently built one that is about 15 minutes away from my house. There was something that I saw in their Sunday flier that I was interested in looking at, so yesterday, I drove out to Aldi's to check it out.

The first thing that struck me odd about this store is that the shopping carts are all locked together. You have to pay 25 cents to be able to use a grocery cart in their store. I didn't know this until I pulled on a cart so that I could take it into the store, and discovered that it was locked. Another gentlemen who was there told me, "You get your 25 cents back." I was like, "Uh uh, no thanks!" and went into the store without a cart. I can't believe that they actually charge people to use a shopping cart, like you're renting it from them. WTH kind of nonsense is that? I guess they're afraid that people will steal them or something.

I walked into the store, and immediately did not like it. It had a warehouse look about it, and I was not even able to find the item that I was thinking about buying. They had a limited selection of items, and the items that they did have were made by companies that I had never even heard of before!

After walking around for about 10 minutes, I decided that I had wasted enough time, and left the store, with the store flier in my hand. An older lady stopped me and asked me if she could borrow the flier. I told her she could have it to keep, since the item that I came looking for was not in the store. She told me, "You can always get a rain check." I looked at her, made a face, and said, "No thanks." That was another thing I noticed, almost everybody who was shopping in that store were older, in their 70s and 80s. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but usually a grocery store has a wide variation of different ages shopping there. I guess the older people don't mind buying never-heard-of-before brands, and with them living on limited income, they probably feel like they're getting more bang for their buck.

Overall, a very disappointing experience, but at least I know now not to go there anymore. I would rather stick to Trader Joe's, or another well-known grocery chain here in town, thank you very much. I wonder if all of the Aldi's are this bad? I imagine they probably are, and wonder how long they will even stay in business, with the economy being as bad as it is.

The quarter deposit is normal in most other countries. I wonder why that would make anyone upset. Different is not always wrong.

I love Aldi; not for veggies or meat, but the other stuff there is okay enough. I go there for basic stuff.

HamsterHuey said:

Me too. I wouldn't buy their bread either.

I get veggies and fruit at Aldi sometimes

I love it, cuz I get more stuff at Aldi than any other supermarket. Often for more than half the price I pay anywhere else. And that is just cuz they do not have big brands. You just have to find out which ones are good enough. I do not like their milk, for instance.

The quarter deposit is normal in most other countries. I wonder why that would make anyone upset. Different is not always wrong.

HamsterHuey said:

exactly, and how come it's only a quarter over there here it's $2!!!

KatSkrizzle said:

Same here. I don't buy much produce there. I go to a little Hispanic grocer for that. But the Aldi's here is great. I take my own bag or use a cardboard box out of the bin. The stores here have name-brand items too. And let me tell you, if you have ever seen the way people in Chicago walk home with shopping carts and leave them on the sidewalks and in the alleys, you will be glad they charge .25 and keep them locked.

Most of the grocery stores here have that "yellow strip" anyway that locks the cart wheels if you try to take it out of the lot. Beneath the yellow line is a thin wire that receives a low power FM frequency from a nearby transmitter. Each shopping cart is fitted with an electronic locking wheel, or "boot," which locks when it receives the electronic signal from the wire. The cart will not roll until the transmitter broadcasts the unlock frequency. Even the high-end grocers like Dominicks and Jewel-Osco have that here.
[Edited 2/19/09 1:58am]

noimageatall said:

that's high tech

ZombieKitten said:

I guess. All I know is that the first time I tried to walk to my car which I'd parked quite a ways from the entrance and the cart suddenly locked and bucked...I was like WTF???? I kept pushing and pushing and kicking the wheels. I called that cart all kinds of no-good mf names. Then I saw the sign.

I felt and looked like a damned idiot.

ZombieKitten said:

yep, sort of the equivalent to $1 in the states but in a coin, not paper version.

shanti0608 said:

same as our $2 I think

psychodelicide said:

It sounds like you expected too much, its supposed to be cheap a money saving place, so you are not going to find your posh food displays. It is what it is.

I love it, cuz I get more stuff at Aldi than any other supermarket. Often for more than half the price I pay anywhere else. And that is just cuz they do not have big brands. You just have to find out which ones are good enough.

I just discovered last week that Netto has started selling many products from the Co-Op brand that some of the UK orgers might be familiar with... they have also VERY low prices but also surprisingly good products and it seems like they have some real quality control over there... for instance there's no MSG in their snacks and their breakfast cereals seem to be very healthy... although it's not quite "healthy" their cola is actually very drinkable.

ZombieKitten said:

$2 seems high.

I get veggies and fruit at Aldi sometimes

ZombieKitten said:

$2 seems high.