Despite their cringe-inducing, "Give it Aldi!" adverts, I really quite like Aldi. The German…read morediscount supermarket has improved considerably and has just been named supermarket of the year by consumer group, Which?.
Aldi, like arch-rval, Lidl, stock a fairly limited range of mostly own-brand food, and weekly non-food special offers, such as DIY, motoring, outdoors, etc. By limited range, I mean that they tend to focus on a narrower spread of varieties of each product, I quite like this - because I tend to procrastinate... now which variety of houmous to choose? Regular, Peri-peri, red pepper, chilli-infused, etc. Keeping it simple speeds up my shopping no end! They now have a "deluxe" range too, like Tesco Extra Special or Sainsbury's Taste the Difference.
For a city-centre supermarket, this is probably the best in Glasgow. Prices way cheaper than Asda, and a far wider range than the Tesco/Sainsbury's convenience stores. And with a proper fresh fruit and veg selection. This store is popular with students at the nearby halls, as well as Merchant City residents.
Currently, twin pack red pointed sweet peppers are 79p - compared with around £1.80 in Tesco. 500ml Williams Bros beers are £1.60 or so, tinned tomatoes 30p, 6 large free-range eggs, 99p, cherry plum tomatoes 59p. The weekly super-six fruit and veg deals is epic, last week a bag of six oranges for 59p... amazing!
A special mention has to be made for Aldi's Ribera del Duero red wine - this is absolutely one of the best budget (sub-£15) reds you can buy. Trust me on this, you'll impress the snobbiest of dinner guests with this one, it's awesome, and under £6.
In summary, really good quality stuff, large range of fresh fruit and veg, good meat and chilled section, great booze, and who knows, you might pick up a bargain riding crop or air compressor!