Re:Love Song to Costco
by LargoLasskhyfv on Wednesday July 13, 2022 @01:26AM
(#32079291)
Hm. For me it is about choice. The sortiment is just limited. In Germany there is also the "Luxus-Lidl" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaufland but they are just so-so. Nothing special, in comparison to what else is available.
The US stigma is interesting, because Lidl stocks more high quality goods than many other stores. E.g. the jelly is from Germany, the chocolate is inexpensive yet fair trade.
I don’t know if I eat cheaper at Lidl but I eat better. The cheese and meat sections alone - I have probably twice as many charcuterie boards now that a Lidl moved in.
Re:Love Song to Costco
by lowercased on Tuesday July 12, 2022 @06:52PM
(#32076811)
I suspect it's precisely because most of those 'better' items aren't 'name brand' items. "fair trade chocolate bars" - regardless of quality - may not sell to a population raised (for generations) on hershey bars.
We love Lidl mostly because of the price. Almost everything was/is around 20-30% less than the stores around it. Much of this is from 'store brand' items, but the price diff is lower even against other 'store brand' pricing.
When they opened, they had a wider variety of items, including a wide variety of daily baked breads. That got scaled back a lot, as apparently there's not enough support/demand in this area for fresh breads outside of 'white'.
There's a weird circle of grocery stores that have sprung up in my area. Within a 3 mile radius, there's Target, Walmart, Lidl, Aldi, Wegmans, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Publix and Lowe's (2?). It seems excessive to me, but the area is growing, and they likely wouldn't have invested in this area without a strong expectation of not losing money.
There's still a Lidl stigma around here. Many folks I talk to think of it as some 'poor person' shop.