Lidl

This is my favorite place in Glasgow to grocery shop!
The products:
Name brands are limited, but they offer a wiiiide variety of items. I am able to go there for almost everything you’d need for a household — from fresh produce, to frozen foods, fresh bread, milk, canned goods, kitchen & bathroom cleaners, paper products, personal hygeine items, flowers, the newspaper, and their fantastic weekly specials. I live extremely close and see the large trucks come in each day with new stock, so you know that it is the best quality. It also helps that they are so busy — you know they go through their items at a rapid rate. The produce is always fresh, and the proteins are comparable to Sainsbury or Tesco.
The experience:
This is a very popular store so expect it to be somewhat grouded, lots of children being children, and long lines. Thankfully the staff are helpful and almost all the cashiers are great at their jobs. Sometimes you’ll get the random one that doesn’t know the produce codes for bulk items, and that can be annoying but it’s not that common.
The prices:
Amazing. It’s the main reason I shop there. They simply cannot be beat. Don’t believe me? Go there and see!

Lidl: A second-​rate Aldi or the dark horse of the grocery race? I once read an article in a newspaper that equated shopping in Lidl with life in the Old East Germany. I see where some of the comparisons ring true, own-​brand items that are suspiciously reminiscent of branded goods, slightly dim strip lighting, but to date I’ve never seen anyone being spirited away by plain clothes clothed security for uttering negative comments about the tinned peas.
I do like Lidl, there’s something fun about browsing the random special buys & odd selection of novelty foodlines. Sometimes they seem like they’ve been gathered by an over-​eager madman; random, excessive and potentially dangerous to unsupervised children. Do you find yourself food shopping & decide it’s time to stock up on budget hardware? Well, at Lidl they’ve got you covered! In fact looking at Lidl’s product lines, sometimes it feels like they’ve set themselves up for shopping on a dare. Why go for the real Irn Bru when you can buy something made to be vaguely like it? It’s not like Irn Bru is mysterious enough as it is.
I rarely ever find myself doing a whole ‘shop’ here, I’m far too random & prone to fits of buying nothing but cable ties for that. In some ways it makes Lidl the perfect shop for me!
I’m happy to say that this particular branch is nowhere as basic or chaotic as the city centre branch. In fact this particular branch feels somewhat spacious, like Lidl with 50% extra free.
I do sometimes look at the prices & wonder how things are so cheap, but then I spot 29p carrots & all concerns are thrown aside for cheap vegetables. Where they all come from I don’t know; in years to come there’ll probably be some exposé on Lidl forcing children to work in carrot mines in darkest Transylvania, but for now we’ll pretend it’s all fiiiiine… I’ve seen Pomelos, young coconuts and all sorts of other exotic fruit & Veg for sale, it’s not all apples & oranges anymore. Their bakery is so cheap that you won’t feel guilty about those empty calories, you’ll feel worse about your full wallet.
I honestly don’t know what kinds of black magic & underhand trickery they engage in to price some of their products, but then again supermarkets have never really been completely transparent with their methods anyway. So Lidl are to Aldi what Rammstein are to Die Toten Hosen. Frankly, I’m all for Lidl’s more crazy presence in the grocery sector.

Literally every time I go here I wonder why I shop anywhere else! They have an amazing selection of cheeses, meats, dried/​cupboardy stuff and so much more, for literally a fraction of what you pay in tesco etc. they don’t have the same selection as other shops but all good quality and there’s nothing you’d really miss that isn’t here. I got an enormous full cart of stuff for 100 quid, and I bet that same amount would have come to well over 200 in another shop.
Aaand when I got to the checkout they gave me £5 off for some offer they were doing! Can’t get better. Love you lidl!

You know how sometimes life throw’s you a wee bone. Nothing major, not a lottery win or anything of that level of ridiculous (well, not for me anyway), or super powers (despite me practicing my Jedi skills each and every single day), but just something that brings you a wee smile and makes you think ‘yeah, this is cool and I shall appreciate it!). Well, this is what happened to me the other day when I popped in for some sundries at the local Lidl (yeah I know, I don’t get out much!).
So let’s just add a bit more flavour and mystique to this one afore I plunge in and just blurt out the news. What are the smells that drive us wild? What do you whiff that just makes you go ‘ooft, having that!’ Well for me it’s the holy trinity of coffee, bacon and bread, fresh bread, bread just out of, or still in the oven, well, what do I find this crazy wee store on Maryhill Road selling? fricken fresh bread right oot ra oven!
Read these words and tell me you’re now not imagining the smells and tastes: pretzels, french loaf, croissants, danishes, rolls, loafs, other bready products. BREAD!
I’ve now found a thing to do on a Saturday. This is now part of my life. Grab small child. Walk to Lidl. Buy bread. Go home. Make fresh coffee. Make scrambled eggs. Eat with fresh bread. With butter. Smile.

Fruit and veg is the fortay of Lidl our foreign friend. The stuff is so cheap, try bananas by the kilo, carrots, lettuce. NOt blueberries though, these are still expensive. Here you can also get coconut trees, well you could anyway I am not sure there are any left as the stock turnover is very quick for Lidl, so when you get that leaflet in the door, get over to lidl.
I like this one especially as it is right next door to another whopper of a cheap shop: Farmfoods! Where everything seems to be a pound and most stuff is frozen.
So in Lidl you can actually get anything, but you have to pay for bags, so bring your own and look out for the deals.

The first Lidl I ever visited and still, by a country mile, the best supermarket serving the Maryhill area.
This is an incredibly popular shop with students, particularly those at nearby halls of residence who thrive on the ultra cheap grub and booze.
It also stocks a range of household items and you can even find yourself a full suit for 20 quid!