The grocery giant Lidl has celebrated 25 years in Ireland, where it has made its way into Irish hearts and homes through low prices and famously random finds in the middle aisle.

The group started in Ireland with just seven stores in the year 2000, and now boast over 180 locations, with more on the way.

Consumer affairs correspondent with the Irish Times Conor Pope told The Hard Shoulder that Lidl “completely revolutionised the retail landscape in Ireland”.

“In the 90s, the Irish supermarket landscape was just in bits,” he said.

“Everybody was paying over the odds for prices; the retailers used to laugh and call us ‘treasure island’ because they were making so much cash from this country.

“So, first Aldi came to town and then I think just under a year later Lidl came to town and they completely changed the game.

“But I think it’s really important to remember the context, because when Lidl first opened in 2000, they were greeted with such mistrust.”

Shopping in Lidl supermarket, London, England, UK. Image: Alex Segre / Alamy. 17 September 2014.

However, Mr Pope said that following the financial crisis, those who previously would have turned up their noses at Lidl’s discounted prices suddenly changed their tune.

“When I started doing Pricewatch 20 years ago, I think the Irish shopping trolley was typically made up of 8% own brand, 92% branded products,” he said.

“There was a historic reason for that because when yellow pack launched own brand in Ireland in the early 1980s it was muck.

“Yellow pack became a pejorative word, so for a generation we went, ‘Oh, I’m not going own brand’ - but then the German discounters came to town and suddenly we realised, ‘You know what, some of this own brand stuff is excellent’.”

According to Mr Pope, around 50% of products found in typical Irish supermarket trolleys nowadays are own branded.

Main image: Lidl supermarket store exterior, with woman shopper outside the entrance. Image: Paul Maguire / Alamy. 4 December 2019