Survival of the strong

I know it’s a serious subject but I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit seeng the Lidl shoppers fighting over fans and cooling units on the news last night. Women scrapping, men fighting and then looking smug once outside with their purchases. Why don’t they just go to a proper retailer in such stuff and pay a bit more for better stuff, or wait until now I will never understand that. To cap it all many branches never got the stock anyway and people had queued for hours for nothing, some even ripped the entrance door off its hinges acting like wild animals. Reminded me of those disaster films where everyone normal is fleeing the oncoming disaster but you still had those who went and looted big TV’s or jewellery etc.

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As far as I can see, there’s pretty much zero availability for cooling stuff right now so it might not be about price.

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No excuse for such behaviour in public though. It’s not as if they did not know from all the warnings that the heat was here for weeks to come.

But was the stock available then? Lidl etc only do short runs in the middle isles.

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Were products being stolen or just grabbed and rushed to the tills?

Looked like every Walmart Black Friday TV sale. I remember there being someone stabbed over a cheap bed when the Edmonton IKEA opened and didn’t the French lose the plot over the big Nutella jars being sold for €1 a while back.

There’s a quote about society only being 9 missed meals from collapse, but I feel that’s overly generous these days.

Many of the Paris stores did not receive any stock at all, some a few items and others had more than normal. Think it was pot luck where and when you went to buy. Places like Boulanger, Darty,Electrodepot etc always carry large stocks when hot weather is forecast and you can buy in brico sheds too, people don’t think of that. For something that is going to be used practically non-stop for hours on end, it makes sense to buy a.good product as you end up buying twice.

And the latest Swatch watches recently!

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It’s what the (start of the) collapse of society looks like.

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Oh, we’re way past the start of that and nearing the tipping point every day.

When armageddon is starting, I’m off for a new TV :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

This is a problem with Lidl. They legally have to display a notice on their website right now by order of a court. It says they committed the offence of advertising on TV implying availability in branches that they did not ensure to provide given the number of branches and the amount of stock they had secured so false advertising.

Unfortunately this practice continues by Lidl France and it looks as though the above case only got them for doing it on TV. I can’t tell you how many times I was promptly at Lidl branches for something advertised and staff said they never got it and continued to not get what had been advertised. And this in quite a few branches.

I’m very wary of Lidl’s practices generally, at least so far as France is concerned.

I used to have Lidl power tool purchasing syndrome. The evidence is in our cave, shelves of neatly arranged unused power tools that were just too good value to not buy. I have always bought DeWalt for stuff I really do use, drills, sanders, etc. but for those “I might need that one day” items Lidl was my supplier of choice.

I knew I had a problem when I started to buy items I already had because I had bought the original so long ago and never used it I’d forgotten I had it. I used to give those duplicates to my neighbour, who never used them either. I’ve a close friend who was a fellow sufferer. The second bandsaw which he bought by accident is on my workbench here. Never to be used because I’d probably take a finger off with it.

I’m much better now :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

The best Lidl item I ever bought was a EV charger. We’d an expensive 11/22 kW one already but Lidl advertised an inexpensive 11kW one a few years ago, so I bought it just in case. When we got the 5e I had installed in the front parking abri for it. We only run it at 7kW but it’s ideal for our runaround car.

Lidl don’t sell them anymore (they were only availably on their website anyway) and I suspect the reason is they have the charging cable attached and I read somewhere that’s not legal for home chargers in France. So rather than trying to recall them, they just quietly withdrew them instead.

Very vorsprung durch technik.

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Well they have royally p**sed me of. I bought an angle grinder, Parkside make, not that cheap and online a few months ago. Came delivered free to the door and had the battery and. charger included. It lasted around two months and the motor died so contacted Lidl who sent another two weeks later but no battery and no charger. Now, the problem with this tool is that it does not take the standard battery that you can always find in the stores for sale, those are not powerful enough and I have been everywhere checking to see. You can only order the battery online and currently it costs more than I paid for the tool. Even buying another tool is a no no as they don’t come with a battery or charger in the stores. Feel very mislead and would have gone to bricodepot instead where you can buy spare batteries off the shelf

Is that the little 12 volt angle grinder? I got one of those way back :face_with_hand_over_mouth: Generally their 12v stuff hasn’t much power and the batteries are small, 2Ah. They do have bigger ones though.

It’s never been the same since the great Intermarché Nutella riots of 2018 :joy:

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Since Parkside has been mentioned, I am curious as to how France treats country of origin on manufactured goods. It is plainly marked on food items, but I have a hard time believing Parkside is German, or EU made. It seems to be inferred that it is German but it is priced like Chinese. It isn’t just Lidl- I see the same in Action and Aldi.

Parkside is their monogram but they have had several suppliers over the years from einhell to their current ones. Yes tricky sometimes to find the correct battery but its normally downd to a few only or just open up the battery and change the damaged cell.

No, the battery is 20V and the B3 battery, whereas the small B1 batteries are always for sale on the shelves. Made by Grizzly tools it says

I’ve a bunch of those as well but they all seem to have the same connector :thinking: Some are even blutooth connected (what!s not to like :slightly_smiling_face:). I’ve a shelf dedicated to chargers. Here’s the Lidl section.

No thoughts of opening a charger museum?

Could be a first for le Midi…

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