Lidl's quality is slipping, one product at a time

Lidl's quality is slipping, one product at a time

The sandwich bread goes straight in the bin. The nectarine chews like cork. The pesto "tastes weird, not like pesto". The chicken breast slices are more watery, and the natural tuna in a three-can pack contains less product, less compact, and — as described — a metallic aftertaste that puts you off. This is not an isolated case: it is a pattern repeating product by product in the Lidl basket, one that long-time shoppers pin down to the exact moment the stores stopped looking like warehouses and dressed themselves up as modern supermarkets.

Which products have dropped in quality at Lidl

The list is long and varied. Sandwich bread and hot dog buns draw complaints for a "chemical taste like no other". The nectarines and peaches taste of nothing: "it's like chewing cork", people say, and when they are not flavourless they arrive overripe inside while looking perfect outside. The granny apples have shrunk in size and the latest ones are described outright as inedible. The pitted black olives, once good, now come out "coarse, some hard, others mushy". The canned cockles have vanished from the shelf. The Christmas ring cake is sold super-dry. The organic rice cakes with dark chocolate changed manufacturer: they used to be a treat, now they are dry with barely any chocolate. The mild gazpacho is described as watery, with an unpleasant garlic aftertaste. The frozen chips are not recommended. And the green pesto sauce, which used to be fine, now tastes odd.

There is a common thread in almost every complaint: the product does not taste bad, it tastes of nothing. Fruit falls into that category. The green and yellow melons that arrive in April, before the rest of the supermarkets have them, get a pass. Not much else.

The pattern: less product, worse format, same price

Beyond taste, there is a recurring phenomenon: the product changes from one day to the next. The quality changes, the packaging format changes, the manufacturer changes. Interesting and different products disappear from the shelf for good, and the store increasingly resembles any other own-brand chain. The case of the organic rice cakes is the most cited, but not the only one. Dairy and sausages showed signs years ago. The seasonal "exotic" products, which a couple of years ago were "brilliant", now barely taste of anything.

The natural tuna in a three-can pack is the most concrete example: less tuna, less compact, and a taste described as metallic. The chicken breast slices, more watery. These are small, almost invisible changes that, added up over months, turn the weekly shop into a lottery.

Why orange juice and fruit get bought elsewhere

The conclusion that keeps coming up is that you cannot do all your shopping in one place if you want good value for money. The orange juice is bought at Mercadona, which squeezes it on the spot, or made at home with a stainless steel juicer that uses no electricity. According to a calculation doing the rounds in the thread, at 2.9 euros per litre, it works out cheaper to buy the oranges and squeeze them yourself. Fruit, from the greengrocer. Dishwasher tablets, when they are on offer at Carrefour. Gazpacho, from Aldi. Cheap German beer, from Lidl — that's what it's still good for.

Lidl's fruit has its defenders and detractors. The bananas at 1.29 euros, which sometimes arrive split, from Cameroon and Costa Rica, are still considered better than those at other supermarkets. But some find them bitter and overripe inside. The nectarine, quite simply, has no one to defend it.

The paradox of the pretty store with worse products

Here is the fact that throws people. A few years ago, when the stores looked shabby, the overall quality was far better. Now the premises have been dolled up with colourful tills and an ultra-modern feel, and quality has plummeted. It is not an isolated impression: it is the most repeated observation and the one that best sums up the discontent. Lots of ultra-modern air, but then rubbish.

The same pattern shows up in the BIO biscuits: you buy them thinking of healthy ingredients and it turns out, as pointed out, they contain 32% sugar. The organic label guarantees nothing. And so on with everything.

What's worth buying at Lidl and what to get elsewhere

It is not all complaints. The organic yoghurts have an unbeatable price. The frozen berries out of season, too. The 100% buckwheat soba noodles with no white wheat and the organic jasmine rice are considered gold. The German bread is brilliant. The soft dishwasher tablets and dishwasher liquid are top-notch. The electric toothbrush has nothing to envy the OralB. And the ultra-frozen southern hake they bring out at Christmas at a normal price fills two chest freezers.

The problem is that these good products coexist with a constant drip of quality drops that erode trust. Clearly you lot have never tried the entrecôte at Martínez Loriente, someone quips. The reply is that you would never buy plastic-wrapped meat anyway when you have a neighbourhood butcher who gives good advice and stocks meat from local farmers.

The rise in jarred lentils and the legume bubble

One concrete figure: jars of lentils have gone from 0.47 to 0.59 euros. Not just at Lidl, also at DIA and Mercadona. The other legumes have not gone up. Someone dubs it the lentil bubble. The suggested alternative is buying dried legumes in bulk from shops that buy by the sack and cooking them at home: lentils from the Armuña region, pedrosillano chickpeas, beans from El Barco de Ávila. Healthier, cheaper and with a national guarantee. The problem is that not everyone has a pressure cooker, and cooking them for ages is a chore.

The discontent that never reaches the brand

The complaint stays at home. The thing to do would be to write exactly this on Lidl's website or Facebook page, people say. Maybe the company thinks people are fools and don't notice the changes. But the shopper keeps coming back. The cheap German beer, the electric toothbrush, the organic yoghurts and the Christmas hake still justify the visit. The rest of the basket is split between Aldi, Mercadona, Carrefour, the greengrocer and the neighbourhood butcher.

How far does a product's quality have to fall before a customer stops buying it? The question has no definitive answer. What it does have is an ever-growing list of products.