Lidl Roulette

[Rosamunda]

Well.... one other reason that meat can be tough is if it is eaten too soon after slaughter. So in the case of the highly mechanised NZ sheep farmers, the animals are rounded up in their gazillions, slaughtered in their masses and then deep frozen within hours and piled into cargo planes. Then, months later, you thaw it out (possibly in the microwave ) and stick it under the grill.... No way can it taste good.

If you are up for it, I suggest you buy some more chops from Lidl but this time let it thaw out slowly in the fridge for at least 4 to 5 days BEFORE you cook it. Make sure it is at room temperature BEFORE you grill it. Do not sprinkle salt on the raw meat.

When we lived in Hungary we bought all our meat from Auchan (French supermarket) a friend of mine knew the head butcher (a Frenchman). He explained that Hungarian meat (though of excellent quality no intensive farming as in W.Europe and quite often organic cattle feed) was delivered to the supermarkets very quickly after slaughter. He suggested leaving the meat for several days in the fridge before cooking it.

We eat mostly game (my husband is a hunter) - the elk/deer can hang for a week before they are butchered and only get put in the freezer minimum 3-4 days after that.

[raamv]

Hmmm.. and you think that the frozen meats in other stores including Stockmann , CM, Kesko are all of better quality...
Trust is a matter of perception...
Wait till there is a controversy of Stockmann or Cm's food products...then the balance changes...
That said, We do avoid certain products that we dont like...
Doesnt mean that you have to hate what others like..
As for buying Lamb, I would go with penny's suggestion..
and yes, the childrens' socks, night dresses etc are way cheaper and of better quality than H&Ms..

[JohnWatson]

Pen is right re 'aging'

I just would never try Lidl again unless I had read that they had found Germans who knew that they were buying 'quality'

As am a manufacturer, importer and retailer myself, I will never believe the simplistic 'price = quality" formula as I know myriad+ ways that is not the truth. It always boils down to the caveat emptor dictate!

[Karhunkoski]

As am a manufacturer, importer and retailer myself, I will never believe the simplistic 'price = quality" formula as I know myriad+ ways that is not the truth.

Agreed, in many product areas price doesn't necessarily mean quality, however when buying food, paying a low price usually means poor quality.

On the subject of Lidl, someone who lives in the next village to it's founder once told that the guy is a recluse, isn't photographed, doesn't give interviews, etc. Apparently the guy is a multi millionaire but still lives in a modest house and drives an older car. He also donates a lot of money to charity and sponsors many students from less wealthy backgrounds, so that they can get an education that would otherwise be impossible.

[JohnWatson]

Agreed, in many product areas price doesn't necessarily mean quality, however when buying food, paying a low price usually means poor quality.

More true than not - but still there are SO MANY exceptions that one should not just assume.

If one KNOWS about the practices of certain merchants (eg TJ's in US) and/or really has knowledge of food, ingredients, etc, - combined with a sense of taste to appreciate what's going on - there is a tremendous variance in price for high quality food.

(couldn't have gotten any better Kiwis than I did at Lidl the other day for 1.29 a kilo - K-CM was about 5 - ridiculous!!

got some absolutely GREAT T-bones at Valintatalo for 14.90 - the taste of which rivalled Peter Lugar's Steak House in Brooklyn

etc etc))

[littlefrank]

'and sponsors many students from less wealthy backgrounds, so that they can get an education that would otherwise be impossible.'

So Lidl exploits it's workers, sells low quality goods to it's mainly working class base, then we should be grateful he sponsors a few working class kids in education?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/supermarkets/ ... 46,00.html

[Karhunkoski]

grateful

Who said anything about people being grateful.


I'm not condoning Lidl's treatment of its' staff, merely sharing a story I found of interest. But let's be honest Frank, anyone who works for a living is probably "exploited" in your eyes eh?

[Xochiquetzal]

You cannot possibly compare Trader Joe's to Lidl. The economies of scale are completely different between a huge country with relatively low tariffs like the US and high tariffs, low customer base of Finland.

[littlefrank]

'I'm not condoning Lidl's treatment of its' staff, merely sharing a story I found of interest.'

No offence intended, just steam starts to rise from my head when I hear stories about 'philanthropists', so I was just putting my point of view, not having a go at your post.


'But let's be honest Frank, anyone who works for a living is probably "exploited" in your eyes eh?'

Well obviously that's how capitalism works, when Lidl sell things cheap other stores are bound to follow, the only way other stores can compete is to lower costs themselves, so the quality standard of food goes down and so do the working conditions of employees, nothing to do with my politics, just market forces.

[sinikala]

Meant to mention that have visited Lidl in Italy, Slovenia and Croatia - and found the shops there to seem to be much more attentive to having some semblance of quality - and more sophisticated variety - as well as MUCH cheaper prices on EXACTLY the same products sold in Finland.

Which is partially explained by the fact that salaries are also much lower in these countries than in Finland (for distribution and shop workers in this case). Business taxes lower, construction costs lower, not to mention VAT......

I agree, it partially explains it but comparison of similar products on the respective websites

http://www.lidl.co.uk/
http://www.lidl.de/
http://www.lidl.fi/

shows that Lidl in Finland pitches their pricing so they slightly undercut the domestic chains. I made a lengthy post on here a couple of years ago comparing several products, some of the products, IIRC museli was one were 2-3x more expensive in Finnish Lidl than the German or UK lidl.

The main reason they are relatively expensive for the crap they sell is that there is no Netto / Aldi / Iceland to compete with them here. Lidl have a monopoly on the budget end of the Finnish food market.

Have to say we visit maybe 2-3x per year, usually to stock up on multipacks of paper hankies and to see if they are selling Smarties!

[JohnWatson]

It's a pity that Lidl Finland has just melted into the Finnish 'landscape' rather than being a real competitor (Bauhaus has done the same thing)

I was amazed walking around Lidl in Italy, Slovenia and Croatia seeing how Lidl was really trying to 'compete' - and really have interesting variety etc. In Finland it is as boring as S-Market or KCM - and they figure that's all they have to do as they are just dealing with 'maajussis'

I did note that Italian Lidl prices were below Slovenian - so that pulls the rug out from under any idea of pricing according to cost.

The bottom line is that Lidl has not chosen to be a real entity in Finland - just a copycat 'surviving' - and if you check out their balance sheets - which are on the web - they are losing money hand over fist - and IMHO deservedly so!

[JohnWatson]

btw - Interesting that you mention Netto (Aldi) - I am not familiar with their operation - but Aldo owns Trader Joe's in the US - which to me is a really good operation - so it will be great if Aldi finds a way into Finland.

[Rosamunda]

... and if you check out their balance sheets - which are on the web - they are losing money hand over fist - and IMHO deservedly so!

Impossible to tell if a company is losing money or not from its balance sheet. Besides, lots of companies that show decent profits (btw you have to look on their income statement aka P&L) have poor balance sheets and vice versa. You might be a retailer but apparently you are not an accountant

Besides they are still a start up operation (opening new stores every month) so no one would expect them to make lots of money until they ramp up a bit. I guess they have one metric only at the moment... growth in market share. Nothing else really matters.

And, by the way, multinational companies chose where they make their profits through their transfer pricing policies. My guess is that Lidl Finland is buying ALL its imported goods from a Dutch holding company called Lidl Holding BV (or something like that) so all the profits sit in Holland.

I doubt very much if any international companies are making big profits in Finland, they don't need to.

[JohnWatson]

Yes - am that much an accountant that have been in constant touch with Kilpailuvirasto - and these balance sheets are in constant circumspection to be sure that blanace sheets are not 'cooked' - they may 'try' it but risk being caught because it is not allowed under EU legislation.

[JohnWatson]

And overall I would hope that people who are 'aware' would get involved with proper feedback so that a company like Lidl which has the POSSIBILITIES would be encouraged to be a real 'competitor'