# Difference between Aldi's and Lidl's? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 13, 2021, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-aldis-and-lidls/932844 "2021-02-13T17:27:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-aldis-and-lidls/932844/1 "2021-02-13T17:27:15Z")
For anyone who has shopped at Aldi’s and Lidl’s, which do you like better? I’ve shopped at both and they seem equal to me. What aspects of Aldi’s do you like better/worse and which aspects of Lidl’s do you like better/worse? ---
**Author:** ![CardboardBoxx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardboardboxx/32/7079_2.png) [@CardboardBoxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CardboardBoxx)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-aldis-and-lidls/932844/2 "2021-02-13T17:27:53Z")
Aldi and Lidl. No possesive. ---
**Author:** ![CardboardBoxx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardboardboxx/32/7079_2.png) [@CardboardBoxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CardboardBoxx)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-aldis-and-lidls/932844/3 "2021-02-13T17:31:54Z")
Here in the UK there’s hardly much difference I can see. I shop at Aldi because it’s closer, and occasionally go to Lidl if they have a special offer on something I want. Virtually all the stuff I buy at Aldi has an equivalent in Lidl that is either exactly or very close to being identical in price, and pretty much the same quality, (may even be an actually identical product.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-aldis-and-lidls/932844/4 "2021-02-13T17:34:12Z")
Unless you’re in Chicago, where we put that possessive on practically everything! (Though “Target,” off the top of my head, gets exempted.) ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2021, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-aldis-and-lidls/932844/5 "2021-02-13T21:22:36Z")
I like Lidl better the store seems cleaner to me. We just got a new one close by this week. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-aldis-and-lidls/932844/6 "2021-02-14T14:02:14Z")
This thread disappoints me. Both stores suddenly moved to my area, and at least one built some kind of warehouse or distribution center, too. Local stories of their appearance confused the two and said that they were the same, or that one name was for their distribution system and the other name was for their consumer stores, or various other conflations. I hoped I was actually going to find out how to tell them apart… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-aldis-and-lidls/932844/7 "2021-02-14T14:06:14Z")
The usual American practice (not just in Chicago) is to use a possessive with any store named after a person (i.e., the grocery store founded and/or run by Mr. Smith is Smith’s grocery store). Target, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc. are not named in this way, so they don’t get the possessive. Aldi, however, is, or at least appears to be, so it confuses us. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-aldis-and-lidls/932844/8 "2021-02-14T14:22:31Z")
I suppose, but it’s a quirk enough that many people from out of the area call it a Chicago quirk. We say “Jewel’s” for “Jewel,” “Potbelly’s” for “Potbelly,” and said “Venture’s” for “Venture” when it was around. Many an outsider has asked me “why do you guys do that!?” Maybe “Aldi’s” and “Lidl’s” are not particularly exceptional usages – I myself use “Aldi” and “Lidl,” for some reason though I use “Jewel’s” and “Potbelly’s.” ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-aldis-and-lidls/932844/9 "2021-02-14T14:32:15Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Aldi, however, is, or at least appears to be, so it confuses us. Aldi=Al(brecht) Di(skont). Albrecht discount. Then there was a rift over whether to sell cigarettes— and it split in to North and South. In the US Aldi=South, but North acquired Trader Joe’s. > **[Aldi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldi)** > > Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 12,000 stores in 18 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when they took over their mother's store in Essen. The business was split into two separate groups in 1960, that later became Aldi Nord, headquartered in Essen, and Aldi Süd, headquartered in Mülheim. > In 1962, they introduced the name Aldi (a syllabic abbrevia... We love us some Aldi but haven’t yet been in a Lidl. [tangent]Did you know the Adidas was a family thing, had a similar split? One brother went off and started Puma. These Germans, I tell ya![/tangent] ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-aldis-and-lidls/932844/10 "2021-02-14T14:39:08Z")
I’ve heard both Aldi’s and Lidl’s often enough in the UK that it doesn’t even register any more. I think you’re fighting a lost battle there **Cardboardboxx** … Here the bakery is better in Lidl, the middle aisle of mystery is better in Aldi, and the rest is pretty much the same in both IMO. There’s the odd product that’s in one but not the other (like, until recently, Aldi didn’t routinely sell dried lentils, Lidl did), but that’s about it. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-aldis-and-lidls/932844/11 "2021-02-14T14:48:07Z")
Yeah, we don’t have Lidl out by where I’m at yet, though I am familiar with them from other locations. Is your Aldi relatively new? Around here (Chicago), they rehabbed a bunch of old Aldis and the new ones adopted the updated aesthetic. They turned the one by my house from a cramped, dark, warehouse-style shopping experience to something more bright, airy, roomy and typical of modern shopping. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-aldis-and-lidls/932844/13 "2021-02-14T21:33:51Z")
> [@CardboardBoxx](#): > > Aldi and Lidl. No possesive. Ha. Good luck with that. It’s a fight that Hannaford supermarket has been losing in New England for decades. ---
**Author:** ![Tarataratara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Tarataratara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarataratara)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2021, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-aldis-and-lidls/932844/14 "2021-02-14T23:34:48Z")
I prefer Aldi. My Lidl store is frequently out of sale items and plays loud music, which drives me nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-aldis-and-lidls/932844/15 "2021-02-15T00:30:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The usual American practice I think it’s a lot less common than it used to be. I think this practice is on the wane.