I used to really love the Lidl bakery but recently decided to stop shopping at it. (Image: Katherine McPhillips)
Summer is my favourite season because I love heading to the supermarket after work for a few picnic snacks, then sitting outside by the beach to enjoy dinner. I live just five minutes away from a Lidl, and I used to love shopping there thanks to all the bargains, but it also meant I could treat myself to something sweet at the bakery.
Lidl’s bakery has become iconic as the smell of fresh bread hits you as soon as you enter the shop, and you can buy a cake or traybake for under £1. I like trying to be as frugal as possible on my weekday shop, which is why I always used to shop at Lidl, but recently decided the bakery might not be worth the money. I recently went on a picnic with some friends and decided to buy a few cookies from Lidl for the outing, but they tasted absolutely awful.
In my opinion the cookies were tough and not as nice as they used to be. (Image: Katherine McPhillips)
I was surprised to find that the cookies were tough and difficult to bite into, so I ended up taking them home instead of eating them at the picnic.
At 55p each, they seemed fairly cheap, but by the following day, they had become completely hard and had to be thrown away.
It is possible that they had been sitting out for some time, but I would expect any product sold in a bakery to be fresh and enjoyable to eat on the day of purchase.
One of the main reasons I enjoyed shopping at Lidl was the bakery’s reputation for freshly baked goods, but in my opinion, the quality has declined significantly.
I bought five cookies, so I ended up losing £2.75, which might not be a big expense, but it made me realise that most things at the Lidl bakery were going stale quite quickly after I bought them, and I did not feel like I was getting value for my money.
I ended up going to the M&S bakery after a friend wanted to try out their new flavour. (Image: Katherine McPhillips)
However, a week ago a friend sent me a video about Marks and Spencer’s cookies, which have been gaining attention on social media following the launch of a new flavour.
Although I live near a Marks and Spencer Foodhall, I rarely shop there because I try to be careful with my spending and the store is often considered more expensive than other supermarkets.
I was curious to see what all the fuss was about, so I visited the bakery and bought a pack of five cookies for £3.10, which was only 35p more than the cookies I had bought from Lidl.
The cookies lived up to all the internet hype as they were rich, buttery and impressively large, with each one being roughly the size of my hand.
They were easily the best cookies I have ever tasted and immediately changed my perception on shopping at M&S.
The M&S cookes were massive, tasty and stayed fresh days after buying them (Image: Katherine McPhillips)
I actually ended up having one cookie leftover after my picnic and stashed it in my kitchen cupboard.
I completely forgot about it until I was cleaning up at the weekend, and realised the cookie was still fine to eat after five days.
To my surprise, it was still enjoyable to eat, which made me realise the difference in quality compared with my recent bakery purchases at Lidl.
Not only did the M&S cookies taste far better, but they also felt like better value for money because they seemed to be made with fresher ingredients.
I never used to consider myself a M&S fan, but this experience has completely changed my opinion of the supermarket and will be buying all my baked goods there this summer.
