Aldi

[leenewham]

Aldi and Lidl don't do attractive 'clean' freehold custom builds. Especially Lidl.

Aldi and Lidi exist on price. That is their loyalty. They don't have much else going for them, especially Lidl. Some of their products appear to be amazing value, others are cheap but awful. I expect Aldi to adapt and have a more diverse offer in the future with higher priced items for better quality products at a cheap price. Eventually I'd expect Lidl to disappear, possibly by being bought by Aldi or one of the other supermarkets.

In the meantime, there won't be any issues with any supermarket taking over the old Co-operative site. Their crews turn around buildings at incredible speed. Nothing is an issue, old supermarkets, old pubs etc.

[stuart]

Aldi and Lidl don't do attractive 'clean' freehold custom builds. Especially Lidl.

I had the opposite belief in that Sydenham & Penge Lidls were the only non-custom builds I can recall. All the others I have used are usually purpose built to a plan - exactly as portrayed on their App. And it takes an expert to distinguish it from Aldi - except the latter do tend to be a bit bigger.

Oh and overseas the design is so often repeated. There they have no shame in putting them right next to each other. Tweedle-dum & tweedle-dee.

A worrying feature is that both are only interested in expansion atm. Successfully forgoing profit to buy market share. And succeeding in spades. What do you do when you have vanquished the competition? The big '4' can tell you - you turn up the margin. Its a bit sad when you begin hoping that Amazon may be the only force to stop that.

Stuart

[alywin]

I had the opposite belief in that Sydenham & Penge Lidls were the only non-custom builds I can recall. All the others I have used are usually purpose built to a plan - exactly as portrayed on their App.

Beckenham? Croydon?

[leenewham]

They do custom builds Stuart. But like most supermarkets, they aren't what you could describe as 'attractive'. The Aldi near Penge is custom.

[KPR]

Would be interested to know if the administrators have managed to hand the keys back yet - until that happens no-one else will be moving in.

I think the conclusion of the previous thread on this was that there was no real chance of anyone making money on that site as a supermarket, given the proximity of Lidl and two Sainsbury’s. Best outcome - knock it down and build something more useful. Would like a cinema too, but most likely given the housing shortage is surely a block like the new one up the street - flats on top and behind, and smaller retail units at the front on the ground floor (though how many more shops the High St needs is surely a question given the number of empty ones).

[conti16]

Aldi and Lidl, are cheap and not what the high street needs.
Why strive for bottom of the barrel, when we can aim for much higher.

I agree with you, the area need to aim for higher. I personally love lidl many good quality items but I think we have enough variety of food places on the high street. Tesco, Sainsbury, Lidl, PLC if anything would be great to see a MS or Waitrorose but I doubt it they would ever consider. Coop was terrible and expensive no wonder closed down. It's such a big commercial that would make a great Pizza Express, a place where family can go and have simple meals like pasta and Pizza. I love Raffa but a competitor would be great to have as Raffa is a traditional trattoria.
The idea of Nandos scares me so I would rather have a nice Picture House Sydenham. We need more places to hang out for professional and young families. For mummies to hang around while pregnants, a nice relaxing caffea place where to work from or have meetings or lunch. Something like Bills for examples.

[syd]

The idea of Nandos scares me

Wow that's interesting! I went to Nando's in Vauxhall and it's was great. Good mid priced food and a lovely atmosphere. What's not to love

[robbieduncan]

Aldi and Lidl, are cheap and not what the high street needs.
Why strive for bottom of the barrel, when we can aim for much higher.

I agree with you, the area need to aim for higher. I personally love lidl many good quality items but I think we have enough variety of food places on the high street. Tesco, Sainsbury, Lidl, PLC if anything would be great to see a MS or Waitrorose but I doubt it they would ever consider. Coop was terrible and expensive no wonder closed down. It's such a big commercial that would make a great Pizza Express, a place where family can go and have simple meals like pasta and Pizza. I love Raffa but a competitor would be great to have as Raffa is a traditional trattoria.
The idea of Nandos scares me so I would rather have a nice Picture House Sydenham. We need more places to hang out for professional and young families. For mummies to hang around while pregnants, a nice relaxing caffea place where to work from or have meetings or lunch. Something like Bills for examples.

Bills is lower quality at higher cost than Nando’s! Really uninspiring and over expensive

[Pally]

Aldi and Lidl, are cheap and not what the high street needs.
Why strive for bottom of the barrel, when we can aim for much higher.

I agree with you, the area need to aim for higher. I personally love lidl many good quality items but I think we have enough variety of food places on the high street. Tesco, Sainsbury, Lidl, PLC if anything would be great to see a MS or Waitrorose but I doubt it they would ever consider. Coop was terrible and expensive no wonder closed down. It's such a big commercial that would make a great Pizza Express, a place where family can go and have simple meals like pasta and Pizza. I love Raffa but a competitor would be great to have as Raffa is a traditional trattoria.
The idea of Nandos scares me so I would rather have a nice Picture House Sydenham. We need more places to hang out for professional and young families. For mummies to hang around while pregnants, a nice relaxing caffea place where to work from or have meetings or lunch. Something like Bills for examples.

Bills is lower quality at higher cost than Nando’s! Really uninspiring and over expensive

Well that goes to show that one person's heaven is another person's hell - a very good argument for variety on the High St to include chains, independents and whatever else anyone fancies taking a punt on!

[parker]

It's fascinating how so many threads on this forum end up mentioning or having a full-on discussion about Nando's Surely an indication of its stance and popularity whether people like or loathe it, and yet again Sydenham still finds itself at the sticking end of limbo 8 months after submission of planning permission for one.

God help it if a Pizza Express ends up having the cheek to obtain the go-ahead with delivery bikes/takeaway at 303 Kirkdale if Nando's doesn't.