What is everyone’s opinion on Netto?

[-]

Jado3Dheads@reddit

People finding out you shopped there, you were being marked for ridicule. But it was really a mindset brought on by your public environment. Nowadays, you've got supermarkets like Aldi, Lidl, and Home bargins where the prices are similar, but nobody stigmatises them. I don't recall Kwik Save getting shamed in the early 00s when it was on its last legs. So it was down ignorance, stereotyping

Reply

[-]

Mundane_Ad_3277@reddit

Low priced specials, like butter, Sekt and Meerrettich advertised in their flyer are not available in the store. This borders on false advertising.

Reply

[-]

DameKumquat@reddit

Never lived near one. Before they became briefly popular we had Kwik Save. Food Giant was a huge version of Somerfield which also sold off ends of lines and sample ready meals that hadn't been popular. A meal for 99p was a nice luxury - and the booze also included cheap alcopops that hadn't sold well. Though the blackcurrant Hooch for 29p a can was not particularly good night - even after a few vodkas it was only just drinkable. In some places Spar was similar to Netto, in others it was quite an upmarket convenience store. KwikSave was where we went if the 7/11 next door was being robbed and Food Giant was shut. They did have 1p cans of baked beans, but it was worth paying 2p for Somerfield or even 4p for Sainsbury's! One reason my FIL is wonderful is that despite being a total wine obsessive, when I gave him a £1.99 bottle of wine from Kwiksave for Christmas, he faked being delighted and even pretended he'd drunk the whole thing over the next few months. MIL said it all went in stew.

Reply

[-]

Thesunismexico@reddit

I never experienced Netto growing up in Wales, but where I live now I have two near me. Netto City and Netto Dansk. I love them. Cheap, but great to pop in to now and again. The Schloss export (was 29c minus Pfand, now 59c) is pretty good for a cheap pils too. They have a surprisingly good cheese section.

Reply

[-]

No-Locksmith6662@reddit

The fact that they couldn't be bothered to even buy shelving and simply shoved the boxes from the warehouse onto the floor should tell you all you needed to know about Netto. Looked scruffy, staff clearly didn't want to be there and stock was the nasty side of cheap. Always avoided the one in our town unless it was an absolute emergency.

Reply

[-]

Due-Tonight-611@reddit

IT's not "bothred", it's cost saving. A huge amount of cost is in warehousing and logistics, taking in a palet of goods from a supplier, having a human split that pallet up and put some of it onto another, and then put it onto a lorry. All for another human on the other end to do that all in reverse to put on a shelf, is a huge cost to the company. Why do that when you can just have the consumer pick it off a pallet you just jack into place on the floor. Aldi/Lidl do a lot of this still today, they also have the suppliers do a lot of the mixing for them, hence why the pallets come in with different flavours together. There's also a lot of robots in warehouse logistics today

Reply

[-]

Martipar@reddit

I'm sure Lidl used to do this too, my local Lidl in about 2004 was far removed from what it is these days.

Reply

[-]

jillcrosslandpiano@reddit

Yeah- the shopping environment was the worst thing about it. IIRC- it did do more 'brands one has heard of' versus Aldi 'lots and lots of own brand with deceptive names' and Lidl 'lots of Euro brands one has never heard of as well as own brand' - but Netto's warehouse-y ambience meant it was too hard for it to expand into the mainstream supermarket space.

Reply

[-]

Due-Tonight-611@reddit

Netto was bought out in 2010 by ASda with 193 stores, that's not a failure by any sense of the term

Reply

[-]

JuggernautSaboteur@reddit

I've never shopped in one so have no idea on the quality of their products, but shopping at Netto when I was younger was a social death akin to wearing a t-shirt that said "I'm a paedo". Admittedly I grew up in a middle class area, but it was a very common insult at my secondary school to suggest that someone's parents shopped at Netto, for example. A combination of living in a middle class town and the 00's being a less understanding time, I suspect.

Reply

[-]

Annual-Ad-7780@reddit

By which time, they'd pulled out of the UK, I worked for them (on placement from College) from October 1996 to July 1997, last I heard they pulled out of the UK about 2 years after I left (so I probably dodged a rather large bullet not being kept on after my placement ended)

Reply

[-]

Scary-Try3023@reddit

I was going to the local Netto before high school which would have been around 2007/2008 so it was definitely still around.

Reply

[-]

Due-Tonight-611@reddit

It's one of the few supermarkets that actually survived, it was bought out by Asda in 2010

Reply

[-]

Due-Tonight-611@reddit

Netto was bought out by Asda in 2010

Reply

[-]

PKblaze@reddit

https://preview.redd.it/f3c57l1octae1.png?width=1113&format=png&auto=webp&s=fa0292f00e935d3c93916fa8b3a10034175c9f9a F to doubt.

Reply

[-]

GraceEvelynMay@reddit

I thought X was doubt and F was pay respects? I'm gonna button mash both and hope it comes out alright.

Reply

[-]

PKblaze@reddit

Just slap your arm across the keyboard and hope something happens

Reply

[-]

DaveBeBad@reddit

Netto is the Danish equivalent of Aldi and Lidl and is still popular in other countries but here “every ghetto has a Netto” seemed to be the most appropriate catchphrase. Work had 2 at either ends of the road. It was probably wrong thing at the wrong time

Reply

[-]

hsw77@reddit

It was a while ago, but anyone turning up to school with anything in a Netto carrier bag was absolutely guaranteed to have the piss ripped out of them.

Reply

[-]

Due-Tonight-611@reddit

Teachers used to have a store of them they would threaten us with if we didn't bring the "correct" bag

Reply

[-]

hsw77@reddit

Evil genius!

Reply

[-]

yolo_snail@reddit

We still have some Netto bags. Don't know what they were made of, but I'm pretty sure they'll outlast cockroaches.

Reply

[-]

Due-Tonight-611@reddit

Asda bought it out, it didn't collapse

Reply

[-]

The_Real_Macnabbs@reddit

Kwik Save was great, Friday night 'big shop' was something of a ritual.

Reply

[-]

ooh_bit_of_bush@reddit

When I was a student, those little bottles of French beer from Kwik Save were so cheap but really decent quality. This was around 2006-07 and we were paying about 20p per bottle. But their shelves were always empty, then didn't sell any fresh food and the shops were filthy. Not surprising they went under shortly after this.

Reply

[-]

robrt382@reddit

I remember the KwikSave we went to when I was a kid, (early 80s,) had separate green grocer and butcher concessions after the tills. So you'd pay for your Kwikky shop and then get your fresh stuff in the same shop but from different merchants.

Reply

[-]

Due-Tonight-611@reddit

Only place I'd ever seen Dinaclass curry powder was in a Kwik Save, that stuff was the bomb, and somehow was a luminous colour. You can still get it online in bulk bags but it's a bit offensively expensive.

Reply

[-]

Due-Tonight-611@reddit

Aldi still does stubbies https://groceries.aldi.co.uk/en-GB/p-brasserie-biere-superieure-imported-premium-lager-10x250ml/4088600241302 37p each

Reply

[-]

Annual-Ad-7780@reddit

Yep, and now for some annoying reason Tesco doesn't sell the cheap French Beers so Mum has to go to Aldi, which is basically Netto by another name (same "stack 'em high/price 'em low" ethos)

Reply

[-]

Due-Tonight-611@reddit

Kwik Save is my trigger word. That places was hell on earth for me as a child. My auntie would pick me up from primary school and sometimes do a shop on the way home. It's a very close-knit area, and she's lived there all her life and charts to everyone. I'd spent easily 4 hours in Kwik Save with her before now. Turns out that wasn't a good enough excuse for not doing homework either.

Reply

[-]

Rude-Possibility4682@reddit

https://preview.redd.it/7sx8a4e0qtae1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86d4b85435f63f2c779d7b51b0a2b5e6e1cb734d Saw an old empty one, the other week as we were passing through South Wales.

Reply

[-]

PaulJMacD@reddit

Takes me back to helping my Mum with the food shopping in the 80s... Stocking up on Findus Crispy pancakes and Vienetta

Reply

[-]

The_Real_Macnabbs@reddit

For me it was a small bottle of pop, usually American cream soda, as a Friday treat, and Grillsteaks. I have yet to recapture a culinary experience so pure in taste and excitement as cutting into a Grillsteak and having a jet of hot fat/juice spurt out at you. Nothing whets the appetite like danger. Yum!

Reply

[-]

robrt382@reddit

They start out the size of your foot and cook down to the size of your little toe - all the while the fat was spitting and gathering in the grill pan threatening to set the house alight.

Reply

[-]

365BlobbyGirl@reddit

Fish and chip shop burgers come close

Reply

[-]

PaulJMacD@reddit

I'd completely forgotten about those 😂

Reply

[-]

Thestolenone@reddit

I went on one once, it was full of feral kids with prison mullets. There was very little on the shelves. Lots of Netto brand bread that looked barely edible and I remember a huge amount of Nescafe with Brazilian labels. I don't think I stuck around long enough to look round properly.

Reply

[-]

Due-Tonight-611@reddit

Aldi/Lidl wasn't all that great back then either, most of the products was random shit that nobody had heard of, many in German. It took them a long time to "work out" the UK market. Pre-2008 there was a lot of snobbery around shopping though, even more than the jobbing people give for shopping at Wiatrose.

Reply

[-]

SeaweedClean5087@reddit

My Friday treat when I was in my early 20s and skint was a 2L box of vanilla ice cream from Netto and two tins of mandarin segments. It was bliss. I can’t remember the cost exactly but probably less than £1.50.

Reply

[-]

No-Rent-9361@reddit

I loved & miss netto!

Reply

[-]

Traditional_Leader41@reddit

When I first got my own place it was the only shop I could afford to use. Beans at 4p a tin? Bottle of wine £1.99? Yep, that'll do me! Ours even had a free phone direct call to the local taxi rank (pre mobile phone era). I loved Netto!

Reply

[-]

Left_Doubt4267@reddit

What's yellow and black and full of shit?... A network carrier bag.

Reply

[-]

asuka_rice@reddit

Tesco’s introduced a store called ‘Jacks’ to compete against the German cheap no frills Aldi and Lidl. Sadly ‘Jacks’ failed as a store but exist as a Tesco cheap own brand product range.

Reply

[-]

DrunkRok@reddit

I lived up the road from a Netto circa 2008, I shopped there a few times. Generally the processed food was awful, the only thing I ever bought that was half decent was onion bhajis. Fruit and vegetables were average at best. Beer selection was good and cheap however. The middle aisles were disorganised chaos and full of crap you'd never need, a long way from the organised chaos of Lidl and Aldi nowadays

Reply

[-]

BA55FCE@reddit

My parents used to shop at Netto in the mid late 90’s. I don’t really remember anything about the quality of the food although I so remember my parents taking carrier bags from other stores with them to swop the shopping into for our walk home to spare me and my sister the embarrassment of anyone seeing the Netto branded bags and subjecting us to the good old N. E. T. T. O your mum shops at Netto chant.

Reply

[-]

Puzzleheaded-Key2212@reddit (OP)

At our school it was N.E.T.T.O thats where all the scrubbers go

Reply

[-]

AMightyDwarf@reddit

As a child I used to sing this… whilst being dragged around the local Netto by my mother. I will argue that their knock off cola was banging, not the diet stuff, that was fizzy water and the one my mother used to pick because it was 19p for 2L.

Reply

[-]

BA55FCE@reddit

Ace. I wonder how many regional variants of the good old netto chant existed.

Reply

[-]

robrt382@reddit

Common abuse at my school was "Yer mam shops at Nettos"

Reply

[-]

Martipar@reddit

I remember the adverts, I think I saw one, possibly in Kent, but i have never been to one.

Reply

[-]

CountNo7955@reddit

My old house had a Netto at the end of the street. Wasn't great, but saved a walk to the Big Tesco which was at the bottom of a steep hill. I think, back in the day, Aldi used to have a similar 'warehouse' feel. They've adapted their stores to feel slightly less cheap now, I wonder if Netto would have gone the same way if they'd not pulled out of the UK? Does anyone remember their brief attempt to re-enter the UK market in partnership with Sainsburys? Actually, shopping in Morrisons recently felt like a reminder of the old Netto stores.

Reply

[-]

StereotypicallBarbie@reddit

This brought back memories of being a kid and you’d die on the spot if your mate saw you walking down the street carrying netto bags home with your mum..

Reply

[-]

Erikair69@reddit

My parents were always savvy shoppers and cautious with money. They didn’t really need to be, but they were. As a teenager in the mid-late 90s, going shopping with them to Aldi and Netto was the most embarrassing thing in my life at that point in time. Especially as my mum was a teacher and seemed to know everyone in every place that we went. It just prolonged the experience. The Netto that we shopped at always seemed alright. The Kwik Save was something else though…..

Reply

[-]

PKblaze@reddit

The quality of Netto really matched the price.

Reply

[-]

-chocolate-teapot-@reddit

We had a teacher at school who used to carry all his stuff in a Netto bag because they were apparently the strongest bags going at the time. Everyone used to be ashamed of going but I'd be the first in line now for some good old Netto prices!

Reply

[-]

Annual-Ad-7780@reddit

I did my second placement from Sheffield College at the one on South Road (which is now an ASDA), one of the best jobs I ever did, until the idiot manager turned round and said he was happy for me to work for free but didn't want to give me a job! What the hell?! Thanks for making me work like a Dog 2 full days a week for 9 months! The only good thing was that in those days we lived in lower Walkley so I could WALK to work.

Reply

[-]

Valuable-Wallaby-167@reddit

Yer mam shops at Netto! I only remember going in a couple of times & it feeling pretty chaotic & shit tbh, but there was such a stigma against it and I was a teen so I was too busy hoping I didn't see anyone I knew there. Which is such bollocks considering that most people in my school weren't well off and everyone kinda knew that. We mainly shopped at Kwik Save, which was marginally more acceptable. The weird things you worry about as a kid, can't imagine being embarrassed about shopping at Lidl now.

Reply

[-]

Character-Bar-8650@reddit

I was in secondary school when netto was around and if anyone was seen with a netto bag or eating netto products they were called a netto basher. I knew people who begged there parents to shop at Asda or Tesco just because of this

Reply

[-]

Radiants_Table@reddit

Personally, I thought it was Scandinavian for value.

Reply

[-]

Breaking-Dad-@reddit

What's black and yellow and full of shite? A Netto bag. There was one in a near-ish town to me and I really wanted to try it (this was quite a long time ago). It was miserable; dirty, stacked haphazardly with crap and just super low-quality. I think the big thing with Lidl and Aldi when they arrived in our area is that they were so much nicer than Netto.

Reply

[-]

CaersethVarax@reddit

I remember when the Netto in town burned down. The building was gone, but the pallets of product were still there, amongst the ashes, despite the heat. It was concerning.

Reply

[-]

Objective-Resident-7@reddit

We didn't have Netto in Scotland

Reply

[-]

Cool_Delivery5349@reddit

Ah I was wondering if it was an age thing but you’ve saved me a Google search, I’m now wondering why we didn’t have Netto mind you.

Reply

[-]

Ulfgeirr88@reddit

I don't remember it too well, I did immediately recall that the floors were sticky, and my mum detested it every time my father went shopping there

Reply

[-]

Remarkable-Ad155@reddit

Back in my 20s, one of my first post uni jobs was right next to a Netto in an area of town that had several halfway houses and the local probation office. Suffice to say, it was a frequently entertaining, if occasionally hair raising, place to shop. If I remember rightly (and tbf this might be swayed by the circumstances of the particular one I used) it was basically a glorified discount off licence. Most of the actual produce was shite and it was mainly just a place to get absurdly cheap booze, which inevitably didn't help with the family friendly image, plus it was at a point in time where cost of living hadn't made using hard discounters socially acceptable for middle class folks so you would be judged *hard* for going in there.

Reply

[-]

AutoModerator@reddit

**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Reply

Reply to Post

66 Comments