Tesco vs Lidl

ST4 said:
Addtives in branded fuel play a great part in the engines longevity. Injector failure usually is a theme of cars ran on supermarket fuel. If you must used supermarket fuel, add in a decent addative yourself.
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Its the same stuff, or at least in Northern England, my neighbour just told me that there are separate fuel grade deliveries but if he is out delivering to an Esso station with fuel which has an addative in it and a Tecso store is next on his list then the Tesco store will also get exactly the same fuel with the addative, the logistics (part of my job) would make fuel too prohibitivly expensive unless suppliers shared the supply chain, this was also a topic on top gear a few years ago
 
I heard from a guy who worked in an oil refinery that different fuels were sent out on different trucks to different stations so shell stations got the good stuff with additives, tesco didn't

Plus my mechanic mate who runs Merparts in Port Glasgow changes loads of injectors in newer mercs and he said use the branded fuel as he rarely does injectors for cars ran on the good stuff but is forever doing them on cars with the crap supermarket fuel
 
I know what I know and I like what I know. No way would I run any of my old Mercedes on supermarket fuel. Certainly my next car won't go near a Tesco/Asda/Morrisons pump. Shell, Esso, BP for me and I've never had an fuel system failure.
 
ST4 said:
I heard from a guy who worked in an oil refinery that different fuels were sent out on different trucks to different stations so shell stations got the good stuff with additives, tesco didn't

Plus my mechanic mate who runs Merparts in Port Glasgow changes loads of injectors in newer mercs and he said use the branded fuel as he rarely does injectors for cars ran on the good stuff but is forever doing them on cars with the crap supermarket fuel
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Ha, ha, like your mate asks everyone if they fill up at Supermarkets before changing their injectors, youre so funny

If it helps my nephew is a "traditional" mechanic LOL
 
Gary Coyle said:
Ha, ha, like your mate asks everyone if they fill up at Supermarkets before changing their injectors, youre so funny

If it helps my nephew is a "traditional" mechanic LOL
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He would ask do you use supermarket fuel, he asked me as he was servicing the car.

Merparts is Mercedes independent specialist who advises the official Mercedes owners club. I would take what they say seriously myself, I have done and will do.
 
ST4 said:
He would ask do you use supermarket fuel, he asked me as he was servicing the car.

Merparts is Mercedes independent specialist who advises the official Mercedes owners club. I would take what they say seriously myself, I have done and will do.
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OK

My neighbour has just said that when he lived down south he worked out of Fawley near Southampton and he said that Tesco, Shell, BP, Esso, Asda, Morrisons, Stobarts tankers all filled up the exact same fuel from the exact same fuel bunker/store, the tankers then went onto a seperate addative point and topped up with different addatives for their chosen location, depending on the size of the underground tanks at his destination decided wether or not the next customer (possibly Tescos) got fuel with an addative in it

He currently drives a 27,000 litre 3 split tanker with a 2-1 petrol diesel split
 
Gary Coyle said:
Its the same stuff, or at least in Northern England, my neighbour just told me that there are separate fuel grade deliveries but if he is out delivering to an Esso station with fuel which has an addative in it and a Tecso store is next on his list then the Tesco store will also get exactly the same fuel with the addative, the logistics (part of my job) would make fuel too prohibitivly expensive unless suppliers shared the supply chain, this was also a topic on top gear a few years ago
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Tesco have their own delivery tankers around here as do Shell, BP, Esso and probably a few others. All fuel comes from the same refinery but the trucks fill with different mixes. As far as petrol is concerned some companies add their own stuff to keep the fuel system clean, some have higher octane fuel than the standard UK 95 Octane. However Diesel is another matter, up until a few years ago all diesel on sale in the UK was a 5% Biodiesel mix, however than percentage has grown to 7% which is what you will find on supermarkets fuel courts. The likes of BP, Shell and other top brands still sell the 5% biodiesel fuel which cars run better on. There has been evidence of diesel cars run on the 7% stuff having problems having a green mould like substance in their fuel tanks and getting into the fuel system. I no longer run a diesel but when I did it was only on BP Ultimate, and petrols have always been run on the higher octane better grades ever since it has been readily available.
 
Gary Coyle said:
OK

My neighbour has just said that when he lived down south he worked out of Fawley near Southampton and he said that Tesco, Shell, BP, Esso, Asda, Morrisons, Stobarts tankers all filled up the exact same fuel from the exact same fuel bunker/store, the tankers then went onto a seperate addative point and topped up with different addatives for their chosen location, depending on the size of the underground tanks at his destination decided wether or not the next customer (possibly Tescos) got fuel with an addative in it

He currently drives a 27,000 litre 3 split tanker with a 2-1 petrol diesel split
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So all the branded places got the good stuff all the time and from time to time if there were some left overs the horse meat retailing consortiums did too?

Think I will stick to Shell, BP, Esso given I tend to drive high end complex cars.
 
nilagin said:
Tesco have their own delivery tankers around here as do Shell, BP, Esso and probably a few others. All fuel comes from the same refinery but the trucks fill with different mixes. As far as petrol is concerned some companies add their own stuff to keep the fuel system clean, some have higher octane fuel than the standard UK 95 Octane. However Diesel is another matter, up until a few years ago all diesel on sale in the UK was a 5% Biodiesel mix, however than percentage has grown to 7% which is what you will find on supermarkets fuel courts. The likes of BP, Shell and other top brands still sell the 5% biodiesel fuel which cars run better on. There has been evidence of diesel cars run on the 7% stuff having problems having a green mould like substance in their fuel tanks and getting into the fuel system. I no longer run a diesel but when I did it was only on BP Ultimate, and petrols have always been run on the higher octane better grades ever since it has been readily available.
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That would explain a lot. My car manual says in big bold letters Do NOT use biodiesel. Morrisons station has plenty of notices of 10% (If my memory is right) biodiesel, but none of the others.
 
ST4 said:
So all the branded places got the good stuff all the time and from time to time if there were some left overs the horse meat retailing consortiums did too?

Think I will stick to Shell, BP, Esso given I tend to drive high end complex cars.
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I would put Shell regular in line with supermarkets. The same day they started Nitro+ campaign they reduced the grade of regular. All the others still seem to be 'good'
 
ST4 said:
So all the branded places got the good stuff all the time and from time to time if there were some left overs the horse meat retailing consortiums did too?

Think I will stick to Shell, BP, Esso given I tend to drive high end complex cars.
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LOL

He did say it happened when down south and not up north

Dont forget, youre in Scotland, you only get the scraps of our table anyway
 
In my area Petrol only from Tesco got contaminated a few years back and they ended up paying compo for those affected.
 
What a load of nonsense, you go to Lidl and buy unbranded cheap food for your consumption, but you will only put branded expensive diesel in your car? I can honestly say I've never before heard such claptrap.
 
I seek out the best and least adulterated foods, & my palate and digestive system appreciate that. I run my van on past-sell-by-date beef dripping from Tesco and it's injectors have never complained. It's only a motor vehicle.
 
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connersz said:
What a load of nonsense, you go to Lidl and buy unbranded cheap food for your consumption, but you will only put branded expensive diesel in your car? I can honestly say I've never before heard such claptrap.
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And what is the FACTUAL difference between the food at Lidl and Tesco - apart from the price?

I no longer have a car so shop in our town centre using Farmfoods, Iceland (for milk) and occasionally Lidl.

And Poundland who also stock eggs (15 for £1.00) and cakes and sweets etc.

And frankly there doesn't seem to be a great deal of difference between any of them in the taste etc.

I no longer buy chickens because over the last 15 years the protein content has gone from around 25% to around 15% - but we do get a lot of extra water (frozen) !

I used to buy turkeys as well because I love the taste (or did!) but a few years ago I bought a Bernard Matthews turkey only to find the company had invented a new kind of animal - a totally tasteless turkey!

When I googled them I found their turkeys reach selling size in about 6 weeks as opposed to the usual 12-15 weeks for a turkey which had not been fed vast quantities of growth hormone - so I've never bought one since.

So would you say that one of those bought in Tesco is superior to one bought in Lidl or Farmfoods - because I wouldn't even if the price was higher.

And it seems that more and more companies are also producing pure crap and selling it as nutritious food - a few days ago I bought some Brain's Pork Faggots from Iceland mainly because I hadn't had them for years and remembered the deeply succulent taste they used to have.

These tasted (and smelled so bad I took one mouthful and threw them down the toilet - then I checked the ingredients - which I should have done at first.

The "pork" constituted only 20% of the product and the rest was a mixture of chemicals and filler (wheat etc I think) and RECONSTITUTED BACON RIND! - frankly I would rather eat the S*** out of my own Ar** than that muck in the absolute belief that it would not only be tastier but definitely more nutritious!

So as far as I'm concerned no matter what the price is or in what shop it is sold in CRAP IS STILL CRAP!
.
 
connersz said:
What a load of nonsense, you go to Lidl and buy unbranded cheap food for your consumption, but you will only put branded expensive diesel in your car? I can honestly say I've never before heard such claptrap.
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I think the unbranded "cheap" food from Lidl is far superior to many Tesco offerings. That is the deal - the product inside, not the label. Fixing injectors would cost me far more than 50p extra I pay at esso for a full tank. The Lidl food (vegetables and milk products mostly - I don't buy ready made crap) is actually right there. I can't quite afford all "organic" range from Waitrose so there we are. Btw what a stupid name "organic". Of course all the food is all organic, unless it is water, salt and concrete or cardboard like you get in the US.
 
daugirdas said:
I think the unbranded "cheap" food from Lidl is far superior to many Tesco offerings. That is the deal - the product inside, not the label. Fixing injectors would cost me far more than 50p extra I pay at esso for a full tank. The Lidl food (vegetables and milk products mostly - I don't buy ready made crap) is actually right there. I can't quite afford all "organic" range from Waitrose so there we are. Btw what a stupid name "organic". Of course all the food is all organic, unless it is water, salt and concrete or cardboard like you get in the US.
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Pet hate of mine. Organic food shouldn't have to be called as such - as you say, all natural food is organic. I'd rather see anything unnatural required to be labelled ("inorganic"?). Never going to happen, but how else are people supposed to know?

Generally people seem to judge by price and taste - the market therefore adapts to that. Eliminate the expensive components of the product or the supply chain, see what that does to the taste, then find ways to put that back in (usually involving adding sugar or some chemicals). Ice cream is an example - can't have it made using cream, way too expensive, so we end up with ice cream made from corn oil, rapeseed oil, bulking agents, etc. Same with cheese. Remove cost / fake the flavour back in, rinse and repeat. End up with "low cost and tastes okay", but....
 
Moadib said:
Pet hate of mine. Organic food shouldn't have to be called as such - as you say, all natural food is organic. I'd rather see anything unnatural required to be labelled ("inorganic"?). Never going to happen, but how else are people supposed to know?

Generally people seem to judge by price and taste - the market therefore adapts to that. Eliminate the expensive components of the product or the supply chain, see what that does to the taste, then find ways to put that back in (usually involving adding sugar or some chemicals). Ice cream is an example - can't have it made using cream, way too expensive, so we end up with ice cream made from corn oil, rapeseed oil, bulking agents, etc. Same with cheese. Remove cost / fake the flavour back in, rinse and repeat. End up with "low cost and tastes okay", but....
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The proper term is "ecological" food. "inorganic" is even more of a nonsense - that pretty much means salts, rocks, etc
 
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The reason that the likes of Aldi and lidl are cheaper is to do with margins, The likes of tesco, asda, sainsburys morrisons etc,,, will not list a product unless they make a 40% margin on it,,, the Aldi's and Lidls of this world are happy at around the 20% mark, which means they pass the difference on to us the consumer, so we get the same or better quality for less, i have sat in a number of supermarket conferences lately and the big 4 are running scared, as the discounters have increased their market share by 15% in the last year.
 
lizzy23 said:
The reason that the likes of Aldi and lidl are cheaper is to do with margins, The likes of tesco, asda, sainsburys morrisons etc,,, will not list a product unless they make a 40% margin on it,,, the Aldi's and Lidls of this world are happy at around the 20% mark, which means they pass the difference on to us the consumer, so we get the same or better quality for less, i have sat in a number of supermarket conferences lately and the big 4 are running scared, as the discounters have increased their market share by 15% in the last year.
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They also make a saving on staffing costs. I used to work in Aldi, and in a decent sized store there would regularly be only 2 or 3 of us working - each person has to juggle their time between re-stocking, cleaning, working the checkout etc etc. They paid very well but having the minimum staff possible really kept the overhead costs down.
That is also one of biggets complaints you hear against Aldi/Lidl too, that there are always queues and then they rush you through the checkout and make you pack your bags elsewhere! And they don't take credit cards! :nailbiting:
 
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TopBanana said:
That is also one of biggets complaints you hear against Aldi/Lidl too, that there are always queues and then they rush you through the checkout and make you pack your bags elsewhere!
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Yeah that bugs me too, especially if you have just gone in for a basket full of stuff. For some reason, at my Aldi at least, they take the basket off you at the checkout then fire your stuff through a give you no space to put it into a bag or two...and there is too much to carry over to the "packing area".
 
TopBanana said:
They also make a saving on staffing costs. I used to work in Aldi, and in a decent sized store there would regularly be only 2 or 3 of us working - each person has to juggle their time between re-stocking, cleaning, working the checkout etc etc. They paid very well but having the minimum staff possible really kept the overhead costs down.
That is also one of biggets complaints you hear against Aldi/Lidl too, that there are always queues and then they rush you through the checkout and make you pack your bags elsewhere! And they don't take credit cards! :nailbiting:
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Don't go in at midday and its no more than a minute or two wait. On the other hand Tesco now has massive queues and few open checkouts. Even self checkouts are super busy.

I never had any issues packing - anything that comes out from the till goes straight in a bag. Works every time.
 
I have to drive past a Lidl to get to our nearest other supermarket, which is a big Tesco Extra. Happy to use either as both are cheaper than the other alternative: a small local co-op which is way overpriced for poorer quality (IMO) and limited choice.

What I love about Tesco is their delivery service, especially for heavy and bulky items. Very convenient just to get it dropped off at the house. For anything you want to choose yourself (fruit, veg, meat etc.), I'd rather choose myself.

The snobbery thing is quite funny - a neighbour from across the road once looked down her nose when I asked if they went to Lidl. Next time I'm there I see both of her next door neighbours there and had parked their Audi R8s side-by-side. Maybe she'd be able to upgrade her Merc to something nicer if she saved a few quid on shopping ;)
 
daugirdas said:
The proper term is "ecological" food. "inorganic" is even more of a nonsense - that pretty much means salts, rocks, etc
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I've no strong feelings about exactly what to call something, that would be the least of my concerns! :-) It's just a nonsense to me that today's "organic" food is actually historical / natural food, yet it is the one that needs to be specially labelled.
 
I hate all supermarkets. Not content with forcing small high street shops out of business, they are now opening smaller stores in towns such as Tesco Local.

In the town my mother lives in there is a hotel which closed a couple of years ago. Just down the road is a small Spar shop. The owner heard a rumour that Tesco were interested in the hotel which would obviously be competition for him - so he bought the hotel. He now intends to re-open it as a hotel and bar.


Steve.
 
Lidl have cornered the market in horse meat - its going to be called "my Lidl pony" :coat:
 
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