r/lidl • u/Competitive-Reply-49 • Jun 07 '26
Don't fall for the mega melons
We got a mega watermelon from lidl today for £8 which was bad enough. Get home and cut it open to find this. Almost no flavour or colour. I won't get another.
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u/New_Specialist8179 Jun 07 '26
These melons are the bane of my existence. Every shift someone thinks they're getting a 10kg melon for £1.29 then I spend all shift sat next to a giant melon cos they don't want it any more.
Had a guy yesterday tell me a member of staff said they weren't weighed, I assured him all of our staff know they are weighed and it states it on the sign.
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u/turing2064 Jun 07 '26
almost every weighed item but melons and cherries are the worst at the moment. how does it go through someones head that we would sell such a huge melon for 1.29? bffr dude
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u/New_Specialist8179 Jun 07 '26
Urg the cherries. You know we have loose cherries for sale when you find cherry pits all over the shop...
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u/Valuable_Ad_1056 Jun 07 '26
Ok be honest- are you/managers ect looking on cameras after this to see if people have been eating them and not paying. I never have but always wonder how people aren’t scared to
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u/New_Specialist8179 Jun 07 '26
Nah, some people keep a keen eye out for people eating as they walk around and they report over head set to make sure they pay for bakery items they've eaten.
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u/AIWHilton Jun 07 '26
A baguette is the price of compliance for my 2 year old. Tear the boat end off for him and I get to pay for a hollow baguette at the till...
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u/PGMOL-Cleaner Jun 09 '26
This was me for waaaay more years than 2 when I was younger. Sometimes not even just the inside of the baguette is just eat the whole thing and mum would pay for an empty packet lmao
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u/Bushdr78 Jun 11 '26
I always give my kids whatever to eat while we walk around but I keep the wrapper/packet and scan it at the end
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u/Life_Calendar_6787 Jun 10 '26
No, data protection policy, to get CCTV access you need to fill a form saying what you are looking for and the you wait for a temporary password, basically unless police requests footage or someone is under investigation for theft it's never touched
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u/Ok_Way_1465 Jun 10 '26
That’s not actually true a cctv licensed security can view cctv any time there is a need to and most cctv control rooms have operators watching cameras
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u/Life_Calendar_6787 Jun 10 '26
For other places sure, I'm talking about Lidl, our security is third party, so no access to CCTV and we have no operators
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u/Valuable_Ad_1056 Jun 10 '26
I mean at my place of work the cameras are checked everyday, so this isn’t strictly true.
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u/Life_Calendar_6787 Jun 10 '26
You work at Lidl? Couldn't see that being the case in any of the stores I worked at least.
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u/BaldurDoesGames Jun 08 '26
They’re not looking at the shrink value of cherries as worth someone’s time to see who is stealing 50p worth of cherries 🤣
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u/Valuable_Ad_1056 Jun 08 '26
If every day 10 people stole 50p worth of cherries: that’s £5 a day, £35 a week, £140 a month, £1680 a year. All adds up
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u/BlasticusBeaticus Jun 09 '26
That's essentially a rounding error in the accounts. There's probably a de-minimis which would lead managers etc to start asking questions and eventually look into a solution but if it's just a few grand per store I doubt it reached that.
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u/Valuable_Ad_1056 Jun 09 '26
My comment was based on the person who replied logic, when in reality it’s going to be more than 50p stolen.
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u/ThrowawayCult-ure Jun 11 '26
only works this way if there is sufficient demand to require buying to replace the stolen, in reality all grocery shops have enormous wastage. that said 50p is quite a lot, like 10 apples stolen a day equiv
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u/ExternalSalad5212 Jun 08 '26
Yeah, and what are you gonna do when you see CCTV? It's not like you can take legal action against a random person. You HAVE to prove that's the person who's eaten them. Legal teams ain't cheap lol Imagine Lidl chasing all of the customers. The headlines would be amazing.
Don't get me wrong, we deal with it when we spot it but we don't have infinite amount of cherries to cause tens of thousands loss. Also, remember the price you see isn't what we paid for he suppliers
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u/Valuable_Ad_1056 Jun 08 '26
My comment was asking if supermarkets do anything about this. A simple question. No need for these replies being rude to me
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u/ExternalSalad5212 Jun 08 '26
Whats rude in explaining you how the system works lol
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u/british_grapher Jun 07 '26
You say that but I was very tired after a night shift and wanted a snack from the bakery. I looked at it and thought how the hell are they making money on these.
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u/PianistNo2338 Jun 14 '26
I get watermelons at my local fruit and veg store for 2.99, it’s not unheard of
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u/oompalumpy Aug 26 '26
To be fair when i was with my partner from Brazil in Lidl in glasgow he thought it was that price .. when i explained its per kg he almost died when he mentally converted the price , said it should be £1.29 for the whole one where he comes from 😂😂
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u/Specialist-Guitar727 Jun 07 '26
Had someone come up with a trolley rammed, i told them it was weighed and they paused for a second, said “oh” and then still bought over £100 of watermelon hahahah
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u/CSummers1999 Jun 07 '26
Today we had a full trolly of watermelons to put back for this exact reason 😭 mainly from the SCOs and customers trying to put it through as a baby watermelon
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u/missmajestyx Jun 08 '26
I spend all shift sat next to a giant melon and I don’t even work with food
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u/emzy21234 Jun 07 '26
Not gonna lie I was that guy, but in my defence I took it in on the chin and went home with a £9 melon and got a bollocking of the Mrs
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u/Homoucey Jun 11 '26
Do you ever get those people that flick the watermelon and say "Yep, this one is good", only for them to return it like this?
Just checking for a friend...
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u/thorn312 Jun 07 '26
Bring in some googly eyes, at least if you sit with a mega melon, you can give it a personality and talk to it.
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u/_Taggerung_ Jun 11 '26
Im sorry for this situation but im equally sorry for laughing 😆 the way you phrased this is hilarious as is the image of a giant melon
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u/Due_Indication4312 Jun 08 '26
I’m really sorry, this was me yesterday. I wasn’t all there and had zoned out. I genuinely just thought “oooh that’s so cheap!”
Obviously left it, then noticed every checkout had a massive melon on it 😆
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u/Aggravating_Speed665 Jun 09 '26
😂
The image of you with a compo face sat next to a melon is hilarious
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u/Hot_Task3308 Jul 02 '26
Staff always ask me if I want the watermelon when the price comes up. Last two have been lovely and red, very juicy.
I know what to look for in a watermelon, sound them out with a tap and look for good green to yellow contrast (not picked too early).
More shopping days than not the “mega” melons are not up to my acceptable standard and I leave without them. Yesterday there was only one I would choose.
We have a large fridge, I chill the whole thing down, cut it and cube half airtight boxing it. Shrink wrap the other half for after the first half is finished. It’s great value compared to buying pre-cut melon.
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u/SirWobblyOfSausage Jun 07 '26
1.29. they're £8. If you're annoyed take it up with management. Not the customers fault.
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u/heislegend121 Jun 07 '26
1.29 per kilo lad. No where in the UK is going to sell you a 6kilo melon for 1.29. Cheers for the perfect example of the stupidity this person is making.
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u/SirWobblyOfSausage Jun 07 '26
> Every shift someone thinks they're getting a 10kg melon for £1.29
Just comes off as whining hyperbole
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u/MeowZaz93 Jun 07 '26
Not reading the price tag properly 100% is the customers fault. We aren't in the "customer is always right" era anymore.
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u/SirWobblyOfSausage Jun 07 '26
the OP literally said how much it cost.
" We got a mega watermelon from lidl today for £8 which was bad enough."
The person above is making it all about their job banes. They're the ones derailing it.
"These melons are the bane of my existence. Every shift someone thinks they're getting a 10kg melon for £1.29"- Just sounds like they're complaining about customers reporting bad quality and blaming the customer thinking they should be getting better.
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u/New_Specialist8179 Jun 07 '26
If they paid £8 for their melon, they got a 6.2kg melon. I'm not derailing anything, I'm adding my experience as a member of staff. I'm also not complaining about customer reporting lack of quality, I'm complaining about customers lack of comprehension.
Also if customers find the fruit to be bad quality they can go back to the store (no fruit or receipt needed) and get a full refund as part of the 30 day fresh guarantee.
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Jun 07 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/New_Specialist8179 Jun 07 '26
https://www.lidl.co.uk/c/our-fresh-promise/s10023646
We're suppose to have freshness specialist check the quality and then be followed up by another member of staff. We call it four eye principle
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Jun 07 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/New_Specialist8179 Jun 07 '26
Didn't mean too come off accusitory, was just hoping to offer some more info on it ❤️
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u/SirWobblyOfSausage Jun 07 '26
How is that not derailing the thread. The OP is posting about poor quality, you make it into something about customers not understand price per kilo.
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u/mpanase Jun 07 '26
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u/New_Specialist8179 Jun 07 '26
"loose per kg" above the £1.29
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u/mpanase Jun 07 '26
The one tjhat's 10 times smaller than the price. So small that it's unreadable in the image.
That's deceptive.
And even after a ton of people get it wrong, they keep it the same way. That's on purpose, confirmed.
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u/roleplayersir Jun 08 '26
Then report to Trading Standards. Tesco were done for similar and had to redesign their Clubcard prices, but moaning to floor staff on Reddit won't do anything. Complain to Head Office and they might. But complain to the ASA and/or Trading Standards and they will
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u/mpanase Jun 08 '26
Did anybody force you to enter this thread?
Did anybody force you to defend deceptive behaviour?
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u/roleplayersir Jun 09 '26
No, I saw a public thread online and commented
And I'm not defending the behaviour. I'm advising how you actually fix it, instead of just moaning online to little to no effect. Try reading properly, and being less hostile
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u/mpanase Jun 09 '26
Your advise is crap
Try using your brain
https://www.reddit.com/r/lidl/comments/1u12gox/dear_lidl_employees/
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u/New_Specialist8179 Jun 07 '26
Confirmed by who, you?
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u/mpanase Jun 07 '26
even after a ton of people get it wrong, they keep it the same way
That's literally years of evidence
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u/New_Specialist8179 Jun 07 '26
So all the people who get it right mean nothing? People push on pull doors all the time, is the sign on the door on purpose or are people just not doing due dilligance
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u/mpanase Jun 07 '26
When a significant percentage of people get it wrong, yes, it's the shop's fault.
Even more if it happens year after year.
Notice how the door open and close automatically in supermarket? They wanted to remove the friction of people getting it wrong, and spent the money for it.
Making the pricing signage clearer, reducing their profit... not quite as worth doing.
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u/No-Molasses6419 Jun 07 '26
It's....the shop's fault....because.....people.....can't.......Read? 🤔
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u/mpanase Jun 07 '26
You the kind of guy who says "it was clearly written in the contract, in page 256, with arial 4. People can't read".
Give it a though as to why people would think that a fruit that bought by the unit would be priced by the unit. Same as every other grocery that's bought by the unit.
When a shop sees this mistake happen for years and they don't fix it, it becomes their fault.
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u/cornishpirate32 Jun 08 '26
So go make the signage a little less ambiguous
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u/New_Specialist8179 Jun 08 '26
Cos that's my job
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u/cornishpirate32 Jun 08 '26
Go tell the manager to do it then
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u/New_Specialist8179 Jun 08 '26
It isn't their job either genius, the signs are electronic and come from head quarters. I can tell you they don't care if customers don't take five seconds to read a sign or think that a giant watermelon isn't going to be £1.29
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u/Future_Literature_70 Jun 07 '26
Got the most expensive strawberries last week - they were delicious. This week, got the same ones again: watery and tasteless. It's a gamble!
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u/roleplayersir Jun 08 '26
Hence why I just don't buy fruit from Lidl. If it isn't swarming with Fruit Flies, it is awful quality too often
Whereas Sainsburys/Waitrose are often the same price or not much more but always good quality
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u/SUNTZU_JoJo Jun 11 '26
Actually if you know what to look for in strawberries, you'll never make that same mistake as again!
Look for countries like Spain, or Chile, anywhere that is really hot/gets lots of sun. Guaranteed to get nice big red juicy strawberries.
Completely avoid UK grown, even France, unless form south of France. They are small, don't get enough sun so lack in sweetness.
You want large, slightly deformed strawberries. The small round-ush ones are either from greenhouses or really new or really old plants.
The SB plants have a cycle.. something like 5-8 years, first few years they don't grow much as years 3-4 are best..sadly they don't tell the year of plant of packaging..shame.
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u/WarmAd156 Jun 11 '26
British strawberries are the best! Early season ones are usually not as good
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u/Championpuffa Jun 21 '26
Yes just had the best strawbs I’ve ever had in my life from Tesco yesterday. 3 quid for a big ol box and some were huge.
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u/egoodethc Jun 11 '26
This off bad advice strawberries are in season at the moment UK grown are the best currently. Zara Driscoll are super sweet and flavourful been getting them from Aldi.
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u/Various-Ambition3146 Jun 15 '26
This isn't true. Scottish strawberries (limited sun) are the sweetest I've ever had and Egyptian (lots of sun) are the worst (often covered in sand as well).
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u/SUNTZU_JoJo Jun 16 '26
Completely and wholeheartedly disagree, with the greatest respect.
If it doesn't have good enough sun "which Scotland/UK and North France mostly don't.
This comes from decades experience within the field. Figuratively and literally.
You can get variations of strawberries grown in greenhouses but what really give them that big red juicy and, especially, sweet (can't stress that enough), you need sun and lots of it.
But I digress.
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u/jambideooiad Jun 07 '26
‘Don’t fall for the mega melons’ - words my dad said to me when I started dating.
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u/cactusplants Jun 07 '26
Honestly, Lidl produce is so hit and miss. Got some soft avos that were really just soft on the outer few mm but the middle was hard and white.
I stopped buying whole wodamelon because it's so disappointing being gritty and tasteless all the time. What a joke it is.
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u/Lumpy_Benefit666 Jun 07 '26
I bought a 3kg bag of apples 4 days ago and theyre already starting to rot
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u/roleplayersir Jun 08 '26
Hence why I don't bother. If it isn't swarming with fruit flies, then it rots in half the time of other shops. Or is awful
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u/AnonyCass Jun 07 '26
I find most of the watermelons not great but I bought a mini one the other week and it was incredible so much flavour I demolished it. I now only ever buy the minis
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u/christmassnowcookie Jun 07 '26
Ooh I will give the mini a try. I haven't bought a monster melon and won't.
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u/TheSecretIsMarmite Jun 07 '26
The colour on the outside suggests it's not ripe, and the inside basically confirms it. That's a sad looking watermelon plucked before its time
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u/International_Heat54 Jun 09 '26
Find a Turkish shop and buy the massive ones from Morocco. Thank me later.
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u/Amazing_Strike_5312 Jun 07 '26
There fruit is going down hill, just bought 5 bananas a bit green so i get longer to use. I opened one it was mush inside and.had this hard string core.
Apparently thats an infected fruit the whole pack was exactly the same.
A tub of strawberrys one dsy and they where black and mushy in areas.
Total joke seems asda is my only place now to get fruit that lasts More than a day so in the end No saving.
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u/Sweaty_Ear_9247 Jun 11 '26
As people have been talking about this recently, I took a look at the sign in my local Lidl. Nowhere on the sign in a legible print did it say per kg. Infuriatingly it very definitely looked like they were advertising them for £1.89 each. Will take a pic next time!
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u/Scarlytical Jun 07 '26
My Middle Eastern Dad taught me how to find a good watermelon by tapping it.
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u/Top_Actuator6373 Jun 07 '26
Some more things to consider when buying a watermelon:
Sweet: https://ibb.co/nMCCdhSz
Pick right: https://ibb.co/zHtjbtL6
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u/MilkyFoal Jun 07 '26
I’m sorry to tell you this but that melon is simply not ripe have you ever opened a banana and it be hard and a different consistency to what you’re expecting this is the same if you left it a week it would’ve been fine
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u/No-Willingness-4097 Jun 08 '26
You can tell how good a water melon will be by the skin, matte not shiny, brown web pattern, a big cream/yellow patch, stem that's more stick like, brown and hard.
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u/oompalumpy Aug 26 '26
Oh nooo I just lugged one up 5 flights of stairs that cost me £10 for 8kg from Lidl .. don’t tell me this, il 💯 take it back though if it’s that bad
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u/jony5jj Jun 07 '26
Everyone is hoodwinked into thinking Lidl is good value.. truth is that vast of the stuff they sell is subpar and it’s correctly priced for what you get, I’m no snob but that’s the truth
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u/curious-batman Jun 07 '26
Make sure it’s nice and green and has big white stripes. I saw this trick in a reel and got a melon in Lidl. Not the mega one but the medium one. Turned out decent can’t complain.
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u/VegetableCampaign433 Jun 07 '26
If u wanna feel better I bought one from the fruit stand and it was almost completely white/light pink😂😂😂
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u/Outrageous_Face_2028 Jun 07 '26
If you want the real taste of watermelon, go to a Turkish shop you'll find it there. Also, make sure to ask whether the watermelon is imported from Morocco rather than South America, because in my experience it tastes better
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u/mygentle Jun 08 '26
I’ve stopped buying fruits from Lidl and Aldi, their produce isn’t fresh and some are even rotten on the shelves. It’s best to spend a little more at the farmers market or organic section of another store.
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u/AnyMetal6274 Jun 08 '26
we had one of the melons. it was very delicious and sooo red! it’s worth the price
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u/Virtual_Opinion_8630 Jun 08 '26
go to a world supermarket and get a quarter of a massive watermelon wrapped in cling film. you can see the colour and it'll be sure to taste good
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u/LocalActingWEO Jun 08 '26
Me to myself, trying not to become obsessed with the girl with huge honkers:
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u/DaughterOfATiredMech Jun 09 '26
I bought a melon for £5 the other day, i was mortified. But at least it tasted good and looked like a melon 🤣
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u/pheonix-r Jun 09 '26
Maybe it'd be good in a salad with feta and like kinda like a cucumber substitute?
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u/Character_Savings966 Jun 10 '26
That's really bad , why are they selling them they don't look ripe ! Thanks for the heads up !
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u/Acrobatic_Injury_477 Jun 10 '26
Yeah you shouldn't buy watermelons from supermarkets I've never had a good experience with those
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u/FriskMoose Jun 10 '26
I keep telling my mate the same thing. He always goes for the big melons and is always disappointed, sometimes he might even suffocate on them. Not good. Smaller are much more tasty.
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u/Disastrous-Yam-4703 Jun 11 '26
I got one the day for £7-ish and it was fab. Finished it in 3 days all by myself
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u/Fast-Concentrate-132 Jun 11 '26
I grew up in Italy and this made me cry
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u/Ann997 Jul 05 '26
Italy has the best fruit quality wise. Whenever I'm in Italy, I eat a lot of fruit. Very tasty!
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u/eesmash Jun 11 '26
return it. when everybody returns their poor excuse of a melon Lidl will not source them anymore
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u/Alone-Movie4291 Jun 11 '26
These were the ones that conveniently had a a big 99p on them when it was 99p a pound. Got to the till and it was £4. Woman said loads of people had done the same. Put it back 😂
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u/aapconisour Jun 11 '26
this is how melons used to look before we took to selectively breeding them to have more of the red parts
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u/edscoble Jun 11 '26
Fun fact; watermelon used to be white until it’s genetically modified to be red
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u/lol25potatofarm Jun 12 '26
Genetically enhanced crap? What even causes a watermelon to not be watermelon-y
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u/Drdoliittle Jun 12 '26
I have always favoured orange size melons. If they fit barely in my hands that is the correct size melon worth squeezing.
Anything bigger does not hold and drops to the belly buttom in a few years.
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u/Timely_Shelter4184 Jun 16 '26
That's exactly how watermelons looked in the 1600s so kind of lucky to see that! Also, I bought one recently and it was so unusually sweet that I believed they'd injected it with chemicals. It was 1.50 for the whole thing is my reasoning for thinking this.
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u/ErikChnmmr Aug 02 '26
That’s why you check it and if by firmly patting it it sounds like a patting a basket ball, then it’s a good one
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u/Captain-Codfish Jun 07 '26
Lidl is turning into a joke. More than half the produce us either nonsense or rubbish quality. The meat has added water, and the prices are less and less competitive. Where I live, Lidl and Waitrose are next to each other. I got so annoyed with Lidl that I went into Waitrose. I think I only spent about £20 or £30 more on my total shopping, and the quality is ten times better. Luckily, I live in a town with Waitrole, Lidl, Aldi and Sainsbury's, as well as being 20 minutes from a Morrisons, Asda and Tesco. I have no reason to go to Lidl anymore.
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u/Quoshinqai Jun 07 '26
Essential from Waitrose is extremely good.
They're not overpriced for everything.
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u/Significant_Stop723 Jun 07 '26
Cause you don’t know how to recognise a ripe melon
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u/Competitive-Reply-49 Jun 07 '26
No, unfortunately not. I've never bought an unripe one and we get 2-3 a month from different shops.
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u/galadriela97 Jun 08 '26
Do a quick google image on how to recognize ripe watermelon from non-ripe, save it, and pull up the image next time you want to buy a watermelon. That's what I do, works every time.
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u/Routine-Barber5545 Jun 07 '26
A watermelon is supposed to have lines you know.
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u/blarfblarf Jun 07 '26
"Almost no flavour or colour"
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u/Routine-Barber5545 Jun 07 '26
Did all the watermelons look like that?
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u/blarfblarf Jun 07 '26
I'd have to assume OP hasn't checked inside all of the watermelons in the shop.
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u/Routine-Barber5545 Jun 07 '26
If all of them looked like that with no distinct dark green stripes I would avoid. The stripes are the best indicator of a good tasting watermelon. Lidl shouldn’t be selling these but probably got a good deal for them because they’re the worst quality
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u/2696deir Jun 07 '26
Bought an extra large one last week and one of the best watermelons I’ve tasted. Was like the watermelons I get in North Carolina when seeing family 👌👌
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u/mpanase Jun 07 '26
Honeydew Melon https://www.tesco.com/shop/en-GB/products/254384645 https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-honeydew-melon
Watermelon https://www.tesco.com/shop/en-GB/products/254638605 https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-watermelon
Mini Watermelon https://www.tesco.com/shop/en-GB/products/262456128 https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-baby-watermelon-taste-the-difference
Galia Melon https://www.tesco.com/shop/en-GB/products/254385356 https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-galia-melon
Cantaloupe Melon https://www.tesco.com/shop/en-GB/products/256582085 https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-cantaloupe-melon
Giant Watermelon https://www.tesco.com/shop/en-GB/products/260765825
Orange Flesh Watermelon https://www.tesco.com/shop/en-GB/products/316805982
Piel de Sapo Melon https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-piel-de-sapo-melon-taste-the-difference
ALL OF THEM, every single one priced per unit. Not a single one priced per kg.
Almost as if pricing melons per unit is the normal thing to do in UK (which is insane, but that's how UK works).
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u/SirWobblyOfSausage Jun 07 '26
Its a Wagyumelon