Supermarkets (grocery stores)

Our local Aldi is pants. It's tiny, dark and mostly frozen foods. The car park is horrid and the one time we went I refused to go back.

So it really depends on what your local store is like.

They redid our Lidl and it's nice enough inside but I've only been in once because my mom bought my nephews light up boots when she came to visit. It's enough out of the way and a big enough pain to get out of the car park that we don't go.

Our local Aldi is pants. It's tiny, dark and mostly frozen foods. The car park is horrid and the one time we went I refused to go back.

So it really depends on what your local store is like.

They redid our Lidl and it's nice enough inside but I've only been in once because my mom bought my nephews light up boots when she came to visit. It's enough out of the way and a big enough pain to get out of the car park that we don't go.

They just built a new one close to us, and it's so nice.  But yes, definitely depends on the store location.




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No Aldi near me.   One going in, but very controversial as they are taking away our town square green space to build it.   

Majority of shopping is Sainsburys. I totally appreciate rotten meat putting you off shopping there but I've never had a bad bit of meat from there before so might have been an unfortunate one-off. I like Sainsburys because things are reasonably priced, they almost always have the items I'm looking for, there's a Starbucks in our local one so I grab a coffee on my way out, and the fuel prices are some of the best so we get fuel while we're there when we need it as well. If we are looking for more posh food, we will shop at Waitrose (or order groceries to be delivered from Ocado) or M&S (I absolutely love M&S Food! Especially their BBQ stuff in the summer). There's a Lidl on the high street of our village and I usually get veg from there as it's super cheap in price (but is good quality - the smell of the tomatoes makes it seem like they've come directly out of the garden!). I also go there specifically for their bread...Their bread always smells PHENOMENAL (got some Chili and tomato focacias just this afternoon for lunch). Their prices are excellent, the only problem I find is they might not have everything I'm looking for so I tend not to do big shops there. The only other grocery shop directly in my village is Co-Op but I find their prices quite high but the quality not so much with their fruit and veg and selection, so I only really go there on the way home when I'm needing some last minute items. We will do Tescos fairly regularly as well - usually when it's not a weekend and I'm not looking for coffee (so not going to Sainsburys). We don't really stay loyal to one particular grocery shop. We honestly change it up quite often and it's all dependent on how far we want to go or what time of day it is (like if it's later at night, we'll go to Tesco as it's open 24/7. Sometimes it's literally just a matter of needing to do our shopping when I want a coffee so we pick Sainsburys.

We usually do an Ocado order every 10 days or so, and top up at Waitrose in the meantime. For meat its usually the local butcher.

When we lived in Lewisham I used to love the Lidl practically next door, it was great. But the one in Kilburn (or maybe that was an Aldi) was not as bright and was, essentially, a dump. Waitrose just happens to be the closest to us now but I really love the convenience of Ocado.

I'll be living in the north.  My husband's family is spread between Blackpool, St. Anne's, and Leyland.  We've chosen Garstang to make our home.  There is a Booth's and a Sainsbury.  I'll try Sainsbury again.  We are both retired, so time isn't really an object.  I buy very little processed food and my husband who is already there has sourced out eggs, cream, and milk from local farms where they sell at the farm gate.  I like buying locally, in season and loads of vegetables and fruits.  My processed needs are flour, yeast for bread baking, coffee, tea, sugar, rice,  and herbs and spices.  We try to eat clean and chemical free.  And of course, cleaning supplies.  I found Asda to be limited on plain food and more focused on processed food.  Believe it or not, there is an Aldi's in St. Augustine, Florida and I found the food I purchased there to be poor quality and mostly packaged, processed imports.  It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out for me.  And it's interesting to me to see where others shop.  Thanks everyone.

Have you googled to see if there's a local butchers nearby for meat? That might be your healthiest/cleanest meat option. We've got one on our high street but I don't tend to shop there only because husband and I will buy frozen chicken breasts and take one two out as we need them because it's cheaper but not poor quality (from the one we get at Sainsburys anyways). If money were no object, I would have no problem going to the butchers, but we go through chicken pretty quickly so I just can't afford it.

So Costco is only for people that work in certain jobs areas?  I was looking forward to getting a membership just in case I got homesick I could have giant shopping carts and hot dogs like back home

So Costco is only for people that work in certain jobs areas?  I was looking forward to getting a membership just in case I got homesick I could have giant shopping carts and hot dogs like back home

You'd be surprised...my work offers membership to it's employees. You might check at your/your partner's job to see if they offer membership. A lot of companies seem to do it.

I think Aldi is different in the US - I went to one in Kentucky and it was terrible, everything looked like it would probably give you food poisoning. But the ones I've been to here have been much better. Not posh by any means but decent enough if you don't mind sorting through a bunch of random crap to find what you're looking for.

Before I had a car I did almost all of my shopping at the Little Waitrose in my neighborhood, but it was soooo expensive. Now I do most of my big shops at Sainsbury's which is the closest big grocery store to me. I still go into Waitrose to top up, because it's a pleasure to shop there and the staff there are so wonderful.

So Costco is only for people that work in certain jobs areas?  I was looking forward to getting a membership just in case I got homesick I could have giant shopping carts and hot dogs like back home

Are you already in the UK? If not, get a membership before you come because they accept the US membership cards as well. Then you're already qualified to renew in a year because you're a member.

Are you already in the UK? If not, get a membership before you come because they accept the US membership cards as well. Then you're already qualified to renew in a year because you're a member.

Hot damn, I was wondering about that. I had a Mexican roommate years ago who would buy her membership in Mexico as it was cheaper but still accepted in the US. Will do this when we come home this summer.

Hot damn, I was wondering about that. I had a Mexican roommate years ago who would buy her membership in Mexico as it was cheaper but still accepted in the US. Will do this when we come home this summer.

You need a US address, but if you still have a US driver's license or something still, it's not like they really check.

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