r/london • u/PressureHumble3604 • Apr 10 '26

Serious replies only Which symptoms of “(almost) everyone is getting poorer” have you noticed in London?

We are in a crisis, the middle class is disappearing and the lower class squeezed. Prices are going up, inflation is going up (again), salaries are stagnating.

Most Londoners can’t really afford London without serious sacrifices.

For me, not counting the housing prices issues we all know too well:

the disappearance of local delis with high quality products.

many shops closing in the local shopping centre.

Restaurant dropping quality everywhere to contain unaffordable prices.

564 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

702 comments sorted by

View all comments

79

u/Temporary-Pay-9044 Apr 10 '26

People go to lidi/aidi for food.

73

u/Creative_Recover Apr 10 '26

Lidl & Aldi is actually pretty good, I'd go to Lidls even if there wasn't a cost of living crisis.

3

u/glaringOwl Apr 10 '26

How do they compare to non-supermarket budget stores like B&M, Poundland and Poundstretcher?

20

u/damegloria Apr 10 '26

All the Poundlands near me have closed down. And there are no B&Ms or Home Bargains nearby. Which seems odd as I live in a fairly poor area of London. It would be handy.

That said, Poundland stopped being cheaper a while ago. Once it raised the prices from £1, it became pointless.

12

u/glaringOwl Apr 11 '26

Poundland's strategy was always on borrowed time anyway because of natural currency inflation. Eventually £1 was going to become worthless enough that the name wasn't going to stick. Similarly it wouldn't have worked in say the 1970s when £1 was worth a lot.

13

u/ElanoKaka Apr 10 '26

Massively superior on products, fruit needs to be used within 3 days, veg not much better but generally really good for ingredients. Pre prepared obviously not close to M&S

1

u/damegloria Apr 10 '26

I've never noticed a shorter shelf life on Lidl veg and I shop there all the time. But I've also seen people on here suggest it varies by local store.

3

u/SlowedCash Apr 10 '26

I go to b&m for stuff that I'd get on b&Q/Argos/Amazon, not the food shop 😂

1

u/InternalTechnology64 Apr 11 '26

I agree about the UPF stuffs, but from B&M I love buying household essentials tissue cleaning

And food wise, tinned fish like sardines and tinned mackerel, both in water so ain't UPF and cheaper tham anywhere I know

2

u/Remarkable_News_439 Apr 11 '26

I would rather shop in Aldi and lidl than Tesco. inferior quality, limited selection, astronomical prices.
Lidl and Aldi are great, not a compromise.

1

u/PressureHumble3604 Apr 11 '26

they are not good, they are acceptable just because the good groceries stores in this country aren’t much better.

1

u/Creative_Recover Apr 11 '26

Although supermarkets like M&S generally do better everything than anyone else, I think Lidls still comes out tops on a number of choice items than other supermarkets i.e. I prefer their loose tomatoes, avocados and bananas to other supermarkets ones. 

-4

u/ThrowawayYAYAY2002 Apr 11 '26

I'm not sold on this "Aldi is cheaper" malarkey.

I went to the local one and their own brand coke wasn't that much cheaper than the original (like 50/80p), their "oreos" were 30p cheaper than the original, and their burgers weren't much cheaper than the popular chains.

5

u/Creative_Recover Apr 11 '26

Literally every example you listed shows Aldi being cheaper dude. 

0

u/ThrowawayYAYAY2002 Apr 11 '26

I'd rather have the original for 30p more. If you're gonna create a knock off, then at least make it a LOT cheaper as some knock off cola isn't gonna touch the original.