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Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,813 posts, read 34,654,152 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by selhars
May I ask what you find lacking about Shoprite? Just curious, because I'd pick Shoprite over Acme any day.
I don't know where you are in DelCo, but the SRs in Glenolden and Eddystone aren't bad. And the one in Brookhaven is great. And there's also Giant (in Aldan and Springfield). I'd say that's a one-stop grocer with lots of selection.
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As a shopper I utterly refuse -- to on even just a biweekly basis -- make 3,4, or more stops to grocery shop.
I'm blessed that food costs aren't an issue for me. I don't need to shop to get the cheapest prices.
IF I lived near a Wegmans, IT would be my main store. Same with Trader Joes. But I don't live near either one. Nor a Whole Foods, which I'll go to a few times a year.
So my shopping habits are Shoprite as the main store, bi-weekly or monthly supplemented by Walmart (for water, scrapple). I also go to Trader Joe's about once a month. And Whole Foods and Wegmans if I happen to be near one.
I never go to Aldi's or Lidl. Neither one has enough draw for me to add them to my routine. What am I going to do: drop Shoprite for Lidl? No. Drop Trader Joes? Certainly not. But I'm sure there are enough price-conscious shoppers that Lidl could be successful in the Philly area/Delaware Valley.
If you somehow got the impression that I was trying to hard sell you or anyone else on Lidl, I'm not. I'm just trying to tell a little about the place. I do have to watch my money. I ended up with a gigantic medical bill that I've been playing off. I appreciate that you gave a heads up on the opening.
Last edited by southbound_295; 11-27-2018 at 01:24 PM..
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,813 posts, read 34,654,152 times
Reputation: 10256
Quote:
Originally Posted by campion
The bolded part for me too, exactly. However, if you see an earlier comment above from me, you'll find my objections to the Eddystone ShopRite. On top of that, I just find it kind of a low-class, low-quality store. Always the cheap brands, etc.
I live in Ridley Park. Demographics-wise, I should probably live in Media or the Main Line or something like that, but RP is the best driving commute into Center City and is closer to my family in central Delaware. So every once in a while I feel the need to gripe about these things that probably suit the majority of my community, but annoy the hell out of me.
I'm actually thinking about starting to do more shopping via Walmart.com or Amazon Grocery/Pantry. Then my one trip a week to the grocery store will be only for fresh bread, fresh meat, frozen and fresh vegetables. Maybe then Lidl will work for me.
For what it's worth, I almost never shop more than once a week. Some weeks I don't do any grocery shopping. Aldi & Lidl have excellent imported cheeses. I shop at one of the 1st group of Lidls. We were the guinea pigs. The 1st manager of Lidl US was from Ireland & had some weird ideas about the US. You might have appreciated the organic, grass-fed beef imported from Ireland but it's no longer carried. Blame us.
They have good Indian sauces from the UK. On the other hand, while they have good tomato sauces from Italy, the tomato sauces from the UK are weird, in my opinion.
I started shopping at Aldi in 1993, not for financial reasons. When I try something new, I buy one. If I like it I buy more the next time.
Demographics-wise, I should probably live in Media or the Main Line or something like that,
Campion, same here. At least you're in the suburbs. Trying living in Philly. I'm just over the line from Folcroft and Sharon Hill, the arm pit of DelCo (no offense). God help me, why couldn't Sharon Hill be more like Media? Don't answer that. It's rhetorical. When I visit friends in Springfield, it just reminds me of how much I wish I lived in an area more like that. But I don't. I also love the Glen Mills/Concordville area. That stretch where Route 1, 322, and 202 meet has fantastic shopping.
Yes, I know the city has all the things the suburbs have. For example, the Amish Market at 202 and 926 compares to Reading Terminal. But I can park for free at the Amish Market. I just am a car centric, non-city kind of person who lives in the city -- AND in an area that doesn't have the greatest demographics.
I bet I'm not alone in that I'd say LOTS of people who live near a city limit do a lot of their shopping outside of the city. Friends in Mt Airy and Cedarbrook shop in MontCo. I'd bet people in the far northeast do a lot of shopping in Bucks and MontCo. It's just that the close in-part of MontCo and Bucks are better than the close-in parts of DelCo. I wish close-in DelCo was more like neighboring parts of MontCo...... Wynnewood, Merion, Ardmore, etc. I just feel like I have to go farther to get the products and selections I prefer. That's all.
Quote:
If you somehow got the impression that I was trying to hard sell you or anyone else on Lidl, I'm not.
Not at all. Lidl is a great store. It just doesn't fit into my particular shopping routine. That's all.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,813 posts, read 34,654,152 times
Reputation: 10256
Quote:
Originally Posted by selhars
Campion, same here. At least you're in the suburbs. Trying living in Philly. I'm just over the line from Folcroft and Sharon Hill, the arm pit of DelCo (no offense). God help me, why couldn't Sharon Hill be more like Media? Don't answer that. It's rhetorical. When I visit friends in Springfield, it just reminds me of how much I wish I lived in an area more like that. But I don't. I also love the Glen Mills/Concordville area. That stretch where Route 1, 322, and 202 meet has fantastic shopping.
Yes, I know the city has all the things the suburbs have. For example, the Amish Market at 202 and 926 compares to Reading Terminal. But I can park for free at the Amish Market. I just am a car centric, non-city kind of person who lives in the city -- AND in an area that doesn't have the greatest demographics.
I bet I'm not alone in that I'd say LOTS of people who live near a city limit do a lot of their shopping outside of the city. Friends in Mt Airy and Cedarbrook shop in MontCo. I'd bet people in the far northeast do a lot of shopping in Bucks and MontCo. It's just that the close in-part of MontCo and Bucks are better than the close-in parts of DelCo. I wish close-in DelCo was more like neighboring parts of MontCo...... Wynnewood, Merion, Ardmore, etc. I just feel like I have to go farther to get the products and selections I prefer. That's all.
Not at all. Lidl is a great store. It just doesn't fit into my particular shopping routine. That's all.
OK, good. I'd feel guilty to not give people an idea of what's available, since I know. This month I did a very light shopping trip to Aldi & Lidl because of the Christmas stuff coming in. I'll make a 2nd trip later this week. I knew Aldi would be getting in tins of popcorn so figured I'd make 2 trips instead of one big trip. It's the best popcorn I've had in years. I got it last year. It sold out early, so I knew they'd bring it back.
As I told the other poster, those of us shopping at the original group of stores were the guinea pigs. They found out that $19.99 a pound is not a popular price for beef, even if it's organic, grass fed, and from Ireland.
As I told the other poster, those of us shopping at the original group of stores were the guinea pigs. They found out that $19.99 a pound is not a popular price for beef, even if it's organic, grass fed, and from Ireland.
LMAO - I'm not sure how much of that you could sell here in Rittenhouse Square where I work!
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,813 posts, read 34,654,152 times
Reputation: 10256
Quote:
Originally Posted by campion
LMAO - I'm not sure how much of that you could sell here in Rittenhouse Square where I work!
Well, the Irish guy who was brought over for the start up had things so fouled up that the German owner almost gave up. $19.99 a lb Irish beef is just so easy to give as an example.
It and Aldi are nice stores. I don't shop at Save a lot. Like I said, I gave up on one stop shopping years ago. I saw $20 a pound beef, chuckled, & kept walking. Some people almost lost their minds over it.
FYI, Lidl & Aldi have Spanish cheese, British cheese, Italian cheese, etc. Check them out before you order in. There might be nothing that you want, or you may end up ordering half of what you think you would now. There's a woman on the Raleigh board who posts on the food board who swears by Lidl's Norwegian salmon.
Also, Walmart stores drop certain prices when a Lidl opens in their proximity.
I will add that Aldi's and Lidl, for me, are good places to get -- what I call -- inexpensive go-to gifts to have on hand just in case you need to give a gift that you hadn't planned. Not that those things aren't anything you can't get some place else, but because the items are imported they sort of "look exotic" even though they might not be all that high end.
For example, I got flavored/seasoned olive oils and some specialty dried pastas, and a nice balsamic vinegar. There were three to four varieties of each so I got 3-4 gifts out of that trip. What can I say, I'm one of those gift closet people the home shopping networks are always telling to have a gift on hand "just in case."
Aldi's and Lidl are also a great place to get items when you what to put together your own gift basket to give, instead of paying utterly outrageous prices for "gourmet food baskets" from Wolferman's, Harry & David or Williams Sonoma.
Whatever the occasion I just know both those stores are great for finding something different, something unexpected, and something the person getting the gift may not have seen before. My gifts from there have always been a hit.
I bet I'm not alone in that I'd say LOTS of people who live near a city limit do a lot of their shopping outside of the city. Friends in Mt Airy and Cedarbrook shop in MontCo. I'd bet people in the far northeast do a lot of shopping in Bucks and MontCo. It's just that the close in-part of MontCo and Bucks are better than the close-in parts of DelCo. I wish close-in DelCo was more like neighboring parts of MontCo...... Wynnewood, Merion, Ardmore, etc. I just feel like I have to go farther to get the products and selections I prefer. That's all.
Not at all. Lidl is a great store. It just doesn't fit into my particular shopping routine. That's all.
Don't let the folks in Cedarbrook hear you making that distinction.
They'll tell you they live in Mt. Airy.
After all, that's where the developers who built the rowhouses and twins that took over the Cedarbrook Country Club site after it moved across the county line as World War II was drawing to a close said their homes were located.
There's a big "Welcome to Mt. Airy" sign on Wadsworth Avenue, the neighborhood's main shopping street, just past Cheltenham Avenue.
I also suspect that many of those friends of yours don't travel that far into Montco to shop, unless they prefer to shop for food at a Giant. Both Cedarbrook Plaza and Cheltenham Square (no longer) Mall lie just across the city line on the north side of Cheltenham Avenue, and the two are about one mile apart. One has a Burlington Coat Factory, a Home Depot and a ShopRite, with an Aldi across Route 309 from it; the other, a Walmart and a Fresh Grocer along with a K&G and a Ross.
The neighborhood is very middle-middle-class. The shops in the two shopping centers appeal to this very stratum of society.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,813 posts, read 34,654,152 times
Reputation: 10256
Quote:
Originally Posted by selhars
I will add that Aldi's and Lidl, for me, are good places to get -- what I call -- inexpensive go-to gifts to have on hand just in case you need to give a gift that you hadn't planned. Not that those things aren't anything you can't get some place else, but because the items are imported they sort of "look exotic" even though they might not be all that high end.
For example, I got flavored/seasoned olive oils and some specialty dried pastas, and a nice balsamic vinegar. There were three to four varieties of each so I got 3-4 gifts out of that trip. What can I say, I'm one of those gift closet people the home shopping networks are always telling to have a gift on hand "just in case."
Aldi's and Lidl are also a great place to get items when you what to put together your own gift basket to give, instead of paying utterly outrageous prices for "gourmet food baskets" from Wolferman's, Harry & David or Williams Sonoma.
Whatever the occasion I just know both those stores are great for finding something different, something unexpected, and something the person getting the gift may not have seen before. My gifts from there have always been a hit.
You couldn't be more right. It's one reason that I gave the description of Lidl's imported items. I think I forgot to mention French week. I picked up an item from one of the Greek weeks & I'm hoping to get more on a subsequent Greek week. I've seen tahini for less than half the price of regular supermarkets, if you can find it there. In the regular aisles, I like an Italian spaghetti sauce that has eggplant in it. It's unusual, but I like eggplant. It's a smallish jar, perfect for one or two people & would be perfect in an Italian themed gift basket. (& it's $1.69, if I remember correctly)
Don't let the folks in Cedarbrook hear you making that distinction.
I only made that distinction because Google Maps had the neighborhood of Cedarbrook shown on the map.
I live in the far SW, so it's all Mount Airy to me
Heck, I can't tell you how perturbed my friends or people I met from "up there" would be when I'd say dismissively: "Mt. Airy, Oak Lane, Germantown, whatever. It's all up there together." Honest to G-d, I was well into my 30s before I finally remembered which was where. A friend who lives in Mount Airy finally broke it down, and I cared enough to try to remember....basically she said, "Think east and west of Germantown Ave., and east and west of Broad. Mt Airy straddles Germantown. Oak Lane straddles Broad" Oh, OK I got it. I am however still working on differentiating Port Richmond, Bridesburg, and Frankford.
But I gather that folks in the far NE, don't know much about SW either. This from the person who is quick to ask people lumping all of SW together, "where do you mean in SW?, and point out that, "no, Eastwick IS NOT Kingsessing!!
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). I also go to Trader Joe's about once a month. And Whole Foods and Wegmans if I happen to be near one.
