Aldi meat aisle horrors.

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I’ve been back in Ireland for the past week, spending some quality time with my parents, and my niece and nephew. I’ve just about gotten over the huge disappointment of Galway’s lose to Limerick on Sunday. I was motoring back out from Galway this morning after an early morning hike in the 12 Bens, when I got a call from my Mother asking me to call into the local ADLI to pick up some pots of Play-Doh for my nephew (strange request, but I was very happy to oblige – I’m good like that). Turned the 6-Series around and headed back into town. Mart day today, so there were some serious specimens of muck savage around – men with beetroot red faces, tufts of hair growing on their upper cheeks, pants held up with baling twine, not a full set of teeth between 5 of them.

But I bet they weren't full of sh**, now were they.

BTW I thought Mart day in your neck of the woods was Thursday not Friday ?

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

Now I live in Germany, but it’s safe to say I’m not a regular visitor to German discount supermarkets such as Aldi and Lidl. They have a great business model, and are very popular, but I’m not their target audience as I’ve the disposable income to shop in more artisan and high-end stores. I’ve heard some of their produce can be quite good, but I’m a passionate and talented cook so I’d rather have the choice of more than one type of mushroom for example. Think the food hall in Fallon and Byrne for those of you familiar with the Dublin foodie scene.

I had intended to get in and out there as quickly as possible, but decided I’d have a browse of the products they offer. I was genuinely disgusted to see that you can buy a large chicken for €4. Who buys such a thing? How is it possible to house, feed, medicate, slaughter, package, and distribute a chicken to a supermarket for that price? And one has to presume that there’s profit being taken by the various stakeholders along this most depressing of supply chains. I can’t help but notice that there’s a big problem with Irishmen and ‘moobs’ these days. Surely some of it must be linked to the amount of hormones and growth promoters these chickens are being stuffed with during their short and tragic life?

But surely it is better to just have moobs than be a complete T I T ?

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

The litany of food horrors continued – huge packs of sickly pink looking ham branded as ‘Family Value’, bags of chicken nuggets for €1.79, microwavable mashed potato (!!), blocks of heavily processed cheese for literally nothing, baked beans for 29 cent a can. Who eats this muck, and do they ever consider the impact it is having on their own bodies, and the bodies of their families? Probably the same people who then fill the rest of the trolley with bottles of cheap wine that you could use to strip paint from a trawler.

BTW when you were growing up in Galway did you always buy your food in the likes of McCambridge’s ?

Also you use that wine to run the trawler not take the paint off.
Jaysus have they taught you nothing over there in Germany.

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I picked up the Play-Doh from those middle rows they have and left. I was relieved to find that some fat tradesman in a van hadn’t scraped my Beamer despite parking dangerously close to it. I’ve been appalled since though at the idea of that flaccid looking ‘chicken’ wrapped in its clear plastic coffin.

Ah now be fair, he would only have done that if he actually knew it was your car.

Also for someone that was only there for as short a time as possible you do seem to remember a fair few itemised prices.

Ah but shure what am I sayin, it must be your superior trained financial brain at work.

jmayo wrote: »

But I bet they weren't full of sh**, now were they.

BTW I thought Mart day in your neck of the woods was Thursday not Friday ?



But surely it is better to just have moobs than be a complete T I T ?



BTW when you were growing up in Galway did you always buy your food in the likes of McCambridge’s ?

Also you use that wine to run the trawler not take the paint off.
Jaysus have they taught you nothing over there in Germany.



Ah now be fair, he would only have done that if he actually knew it was your car.

Also for someone that was only there for as short a time as possible you do seem to remember a fair few itemised prices.

Ah but shure what am I sayin, it must be your superior trained financial brain at work.

Relax dude. Maybe try some of that mindfulness stuff young Aongus does be on about?? Or go and choke the chicken?

The Bollocks wrote: »

Ask my bollocks. Go to a different shop or butchers if you dont like what you see in Aldi.

Username checks out

meeeeh wrote: »

Did they fall of the truck?

They fell out of the ewes!

'..... blocks of heavily processed cheese for literally nothing....'
See, this is the problem with pretending to know stuff Aonghas. People who actually know stuff will come along and call you out. Safer to say nothing and risk people thinking you are a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Unless of course Aldi were in fact giving away the cheese for nothing ?

So there are the El-cheapo food retailers like Aldi and Lidl, and the up-market ones that offer chickens and meat of a much higher quality. All of them seem to insist that their products are "genuine Irish" or even "Genuine organic." But from where do they source those products? To the best of my knowledge none of them operate farms across Ireland, and all of the meat and veg they offer is "organic" as are all chickens and Brussels sprouts. There is no such thing as an inorganic chicken other than that the "organic" one commands a higher price.


In fact they all buy their meat products from the few major slaughterhouses which, in turn, buy from a whole number of farmers. I struggle to believe that Aldi or Lidl or Tesco could have any idea from where a particular chicken carcass came when they probably order thousands of them a month. Then, when they put them on their shelves, they advertise them and price them at the level that their individual market will bear. If their perceived market is discerning people who are prepared to pay more then the "organic" chicken will cost €7 or more. In Aldi or Lidl, targeting a less discerning market but one where money is important and the shopper doesn't own a Mercedes, the chicken will be offered at €5.

But it's the same bloody chicken from the same processor!

Irish reared chicken and all farm animals are free from hormones and growth promotors - it’s a fact, it’s monitored closely, traceable and the implications for a farmer are huge if there’s any messing going on.

Now, I agree the chicken is too cheap, as are most meats but farmers are price takers, they have no option one s an animal is ready to go but take what you get. Holding back animals often results in penalties for age or fatness, plus it costs to hold them in a factory ready state.

You can buy decent free range chicken for a bit more and there’s more substance to them.

Overall Aldi meats are high quality and plenty of Irish reared options in the fresh meat, frozen stuff is more of a grey area.

KevinCavan wrote: »

It’s hardly your own Beamer if ur just visiting Ireland.

She rents high end cars when in Ireland.

Who remembers the 'horror' prices in the native supermarkets before Lidl and Aldi came on the scene ? Their arrival in Ireland was the best thing ever as it forced the other supermarkets to compete. Not everyone is in the BMW and free range league in Ireland - far from it in most cases.

For those that still don't get it, which is still an amazingly high number of people: these accounts from everyone's favourite ex-pat are tounge in cheek and not to be taken seriously. Yes, that's right, they are a joke.

Having said that, I don't know if I'd put this up with your finest work there Aongus. I felt like you actually wanted to make a semi-serious point for once, but were trapped into writing as the persona you've created and got caught in between two clashing writing styles: unexpected earnestness that grated in places with the familiar, some harsh critics would say overfamiliar, AvB tropes - the Mart, the beamer, the artisan food products. You weren't at your best for this one, best evidenced by the shocking grammatical error in the very first paragraph.

Work on a unity of tone and you'll soon be back on top.

Aldi meat is muck....The missus is always onto me to shop there but I refuse to buy meat I eat in there.
Their steaks are crap, their burgers are crap, their sausages are crap.
Crap crap crap crap.

Just back from the weekly shop and Aldi were out of €4 chickens.