Food for Thought: Combating Inflation the German Way

DOUG REYNICS

Ihave been a serious Lidl fan for some time. I like the quirky nature of some of their buys of the week. I love their fresh flower selection; we buy fresh flowers from Lidl weekly. They have excellent pricing, and, most of the time, their products are super fresh. The Lidl brand of frozen pizzas is restaurant-quality for less than $5. (Our favorite is the cherry tomato arugula.) The bakery at Lidl is in-house with up to fortyfive European-inspired breads, pastries, and desserts. They also have a bread slicer for on-demand slicing of the bread you're buying.

Aldi and Lidl both offer lower prices, unique items not found at typical stores, and the ability to save real money week-to-week. A knock on both that I read on social media pages is that they don’t carry everything you’d shop for in one trip. I thought I would break down the top ten food items for you to see how much you can save just for these items.

The savings on these ten items adds up to about $11.36. Every little bit helps in this tight food economy! A little back story on Aldi and Lidl. Both chains are based in Germany, and are known for their high-quality, private label items. Both have similar policies on shopping bags, asking customers to bring their own or purchase then at the store, and to bag their own groceries. Both have spread all over Europe and now the world.

These two supermarket chains have many similarities but also a lot of differences. Lidl stores are larger than Aldi stores, sometimes twice the square footage. Lidl’s extra space allows them to stock as much as twice the amount of products, compared to Aldi’s. Lidl also considers themselves an international grocery store, and offers many products popular in other countries, like cured meats from Spain and German chocolate. Lidl sells more name brands, too, which Aldi is notoriously averse to.

There are also only about 100 Lidl stores in the U.S., compared to 2,000 Aldi locations nationwide. Tucker is fortunate to have an Aldi in Northlake, and two Lidl locations, each about fifteen minutes away – one in Snellville on U.S. 78 and one in North Druid Hills. Take a trip to each of them to compare pricing but also to experience some international shopping!

Item Aldi/Lidl Big Box Difference

Butter (pound)

$2.40 Cream cheese (block ) $1.50 Eggs (dozen) Flour $2.59 $2.15 $4.00 $2.80 $4.15 $3.00 $1.60 $1.30 $1.56 $0.85

Half and half (carton) $1.99 Milk (gallon) $2.00 Orange juice (carton) $2.65 Pasta sauce (28 oz jar) $1.40 Sour cream (16 oz tub) $1.45 Sugar (5 lb) $2.40 $2.50 $4.00 $4.50 $1.79 $2.15 $3.00 $0.51 $2.00 $1.85 $0.39 $0.70 $0.60

DOUG REYNICS is a longtime Tucker resident and self-described “foodie.” Many know him as “Doug the Driver,” who provides rides to and from both the domestic and international airport terminals. (To date, his service has provided almost 2,300 airport rides!) If you have a food story or question you would like to see him write about (or if you need a ride!), email him at dougthedriver1@gmail.com or call him at 770.842.4261.

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