The day had finally arrived, hot air balloons were flying in the sky in seven locations around the island, but why was that causing me so much excitement? With no children to feed or cupboards to stock, it didn’t quite add up that I would be anticipating this moment but after all the hoo-hah, months of suspicion and endless rumours circulating, can you blame me for rushing to Lidl on the first day it opened? The million euro advertising worked well but was it all true?
You’ve read the articles, seen the adverts, maybe even visited a Lidl store in Europe, so you know it’s all about ‘better quality that’s not expensive anymore’. Apart from pure curiosity in some cases, the main reason this was such an anticipated event was precisely because we, the consumers, have an urgent need to see low prices, to actually let out a sigh of relief and utter the word ‘cheap’.
In Pallouriotissa, as in the other Lidl locations I was not alone, far from it. Trolleys ran out, there was no parking spaces left outside and in some cases doors had to close for a while to allow the crowd inside to thin out. As I waited my turn to enter it was clear many were here on serious business. A woman had a piece of A4 paper in her hand; full of things she was planning on buying, from bananas to milk. Others were clutching the adverts that had been distributed beforehand to nearby homes, making a beeline for the items they were interested in.
As I walked passed the cars that had managed to find a space in the car park, there was evidence of parking places near the store for those with small children, whether people will leave them empty for families is debatable. Once inside, the stores have many goods stacked in high piles – there’s no fancy shelves here. And while the fruit and veg section is quite small, fresh bread is pumped out of an oven all day long and while there is no butcher, prepackaged meat – both local and imported – is available.
Everyone was not as circumspect as the list holding buyers and customer after customer left the store with a groaning trolley, many of whom had paid for the carrier bags – another Lidl policy to keep prices down. But how accurate were all those billboards promising such cheap prices?
“It’s cheap but don’t expect anything amazing,” was one woman’s opinion, while another said she was “astounded” by the prices, showing me a whole frozen chicken she bought for €3.99!
After 15 minutes, the sliding doors opened and it was time to see for myself. The first product I spotted was a box of 36 pieces of Weetabix. Lidl: €3.99, Carrefour: €3.19; Orphanides: €3.19. So far, not so good but the point of Lidl is not to undercut other supermarkets on brands already available in Cyprus.
Things picked up when I came across a packet of 15 German fish fingers for €1.99, six big cheeseburgers for €5.59 and 50 nappies for €6.99; parents of babies and toddlers will know that 48 to 56 nappies can cost anything from €16 up.
This must have been what the gentleman I was speaking to earlier meant when he said: “Lidl is perfect if you have a family to feed. You know, kids. People with kids normally compare prices. I don’t and since it’s only me and my wife I don’t see the reason to come here often.” He was holding a packet of two German sausages for €1.99. “That’s one euro each. That’s cheap, isn’t it?” Not sure, sausages weren’t in my plan.
The other problem with these ‘stack them high, sell them cheap’ shops is you end up buying lots of things you didn’t plan on and spending more than you would have. And with 8,200 stores in 20 countries, Lidl can stack them very high indeed. In store it is their own brand products that are the best bargains and the weekly offers advertised through flyers, many offering buy one get one free deals, for instance this week you could get eight quarter pounders for €2.69.
If you don’t mind drinking Freeway Cola you’re in for a treat, it’s €0.55 for two litres compared to a 1.5 litre of Coca Cola for €1.80. There are also some surprises, a little old lady I saw wandering out the store couldn’t believe her luck when she came across pineapples at €0.99 each. “One euro,” she kept saying over and over again, holding nothing but a single plastic bag with a few bits and bobs. “They’re €2.50 at the local fruit market so I got one for my friend Maria too.”
Lidl opened seven stores across Cyprus on Thursday, located in Lakatamia, Pallouriotissa and Kokkinotrimithia in Nicosia in addition to those in Larnaca, Aradipou, Paralimni and Limassol.
