It's been a fortnight since Aldi (and Peacock's) opened in Dinbych. Things have settled down at Aldi. No longer is the store busy. The car park is now half empty or worse, much of the time.
At lunchtime yesterday, this is what I saw in terms of patrons:
Aldi—28
Lidl—31
Homebargains—46
Lidl's appeared to be a little down (and the day before, was about a quarter lower than Aldi) but, yesterday, a fortnight after Aldi, Lidl was actually doing slightly better at the point when I counted.
Morrison's has returned to near normal, so far as I can judge. So, what's happening? Are more people buying more food? Or is it that people now split their grocery shopping over more than one supermarket?
We can only spend our money once. If there are as many in Aldi as once in Lidl and if Morrison's is down only a little, perhaps people are preferring to shop at more than one store. Although, a matriarch of a well known and longstanding Rhuthun/Ruthin family once said that she had swapped from Tesco to Lidl (in Dinbych) and that her weekly bill had reduced by between £30 and £60. Two years later and at some point she's swapped back to Tesco: she was fed up with having to go to two stores: she couldn't get all she needed at Lidl's. Is she the norm? And, she reckoned her bill hadn't suffered.
Meanwhile, this week, Lidl has distributed its two £5 off vouchers designed for Dinbych also in Rhuthun. They clearly see Rhuthun as part of the Lidl catchment. And I wonder why Lidl's has decided to do this now... could it be something to do with Aldi's?
Aldi—28
Lidl—31
Homebargains—46
Lidl's appeared to be a little down (and the day before, was about a quarter lower than Aldi) but, yesterday, a fortnight after Aldi, Lidl was actually doing slightly better at the point when I counted.
Morrison's has returned to near normal, so far as I can judge. So, what's happening? Are more people buying more food? Or is it that people now split their grocery shopping over more than one supermarket?
We can only spend our money once. If there are as many in Aldi as once in Lidl and if Morrison's is down only a little, perhaps people are preferring to shop at more than one store. Although, a matriarch of a well known and longstanding Rhuthun/Ruthin family once said that she had swapped from Tesco to Lidl (in Dinbych) and that her weekly bill had reduced by between £30 and £60. Two years later and at some point she's swapped back to Tesco: she was fed up with having to go to two stores: she couldn't get all she needed at Lidl's. Is she the norm? And, she reckoned her bill hadn't suffered.
