Tuesday 1 December 2009

Shopping in the Underworld

A new supermarket has opened in Swindon, and as we had to go to B&Q anyway, Himself thought it might be fun* to do our weekly shop in Lidl after buying our paint.

Now 'fun' is not a word I would use to describe any supermarket shopping, it's like the ironing and getting waxed - it's something that has to be done, so lets just get on with it.

So get on with it we did. We put our bags in one of the trolleys that required a pound coin to free it from the rest of the pack and went inside.

It was eerily quiet..... And fairly empty for a Friday evening.....

Meh, I thought we had entered the underworld - not in an exciting 'Pans Labyrinth' kind of way. Oh nooo, much more of a Mordor or 'Shaun of the Dead', 'zombie' kind of way, but without any of the charisma. Or colour.

Grey, careworn families dragged sullen children around, picking over the unrecognised labels to find bargain tins of vegetables. Washed out young men shuffled around the store, clutching baskets whilst trying to find something of sustenance to brighten their weekends. Himself and I looked at each other, gulped, then hastily aimed our trolley down the first aisle. To be fair the vegetables were pretty fresh and very keenly priced (they are all fine). Himself said he didn't like the look of any of the cold meats or cheeses, so we gave those a miss. They didn't sell free range large eggs. The bread looked pretty uninspiring. We didn't see milk, although it must have been there. I did pick up some Greek yoghurt (it's delicious), butter (it tastes fine) and sweeties (yum, although 'Percy Pigs' still win). We decided we'd had enough and headed for the checkouts, where a checkout girl with soulless eyes informed me they "don't take credit cards", or "give cashback" with debit cards. Hrrrumph. We swiftly packed our two bags of shopping in the boot, claimed the pound coin back from the trolley pack and drove off to Sainsbury's.

We both have decided Lidl will not be part of our shopping experience again. Unless we are desperate. Very, very desperate.


* I know what you are thinking, he needs to get a life right?

3 comments:

  1. Hi, Kandy - your Lidl sounds really drab! Ours in Letchworth GC is much nicer although it is a bit of a warehouse. We've found that some of their food and drink is very good, so we keep going back. If you ever feel like trying them again, e-mail me (I'm on BQL) and I'll tell you what we buy there regularly.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh the shop itself it brightly lit and all sparkly clean and new - it just lacked the atmostphere that other supermarkets have. It was also frustrating after a day at work to have to go shopping and not find loads of the things we need, so had to go to another supermarket to finish our shopping - it makes for a long evening. We are probably spoilt brats!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lidl is for us one of those places you drop into on the way to go shopping at your usual supermarket to pick up any bargains (usually non food - although their fresh meat has always been beautiful when we've bought it and their german ice cream is absolutely first class at a fraction of the price you'd pay for that quality elsewhere - somewhat akin to home-made even) We've had all manner of things from pans and kitchen equipment to stationery to garden/diy implements and some lovely plants/shrubs for the garden - but it's one of those places where you need to buy something immediately you see it as it will definitely be gone the next time. I guess the general pricing structure probably brings in the clientele you encountered but hey look beyond the immediate impression you never know what you might find

    ReplyDelete