Been reading on the news (UK) that the big supermarkets are finding it more difficult to trade against the budget brands such as Lidl and Aldi and are looking to reduce their pricing to compete against them for market share. I'm still doing my main food shopping with Asda and Morrisions and was wondering what peoples thoughts are like with these cheaper supermarkets. Are you really saving that much more?
Here in the US, I'm generally a big fan of Save-A-Lot, Marc's and Aldi. They don't have anywhere near the selection of bigger grocery stores, but they save me a lot of money on my necessities and staples. Save-A-Lot for example, has a section of fresh meats where you can buy 5 family-size packs of meat for $19.95 - pick and choose whatever you want from steaks to pork chops to chicken to sausages and more. For 20 bucks I can have more than enough meat to get me through a month. That is much cheaper than hitting up the big grocery stores for individual packs of meat which are often much more expensive. I'm paying $4 a pack at Save-A-Lot vs. like $7 a pack at the big chain stores. I can buy their store brand crushed tomatoes, which are fantastic by the way for only $1 for a 28oz can, or I can blow like $4-$5 a can for "San Marzano" tomatoes at the chain stores. It all adds up quick. The one thing in particular though I will avoid from the discount grocery stores is frozen seafood. I noticed most of it comes from China, which is not good at all - their farmers are known to feed the cow and chicken crap to the fish, instead of giving them real food, which is disgusting. But everything else I have been pleased with so far.
