I love my local aldi! Before we moved I had a lidl close to me but I didn't use it very often. Their range of fresh fruit, veg and meat was rubbish, however everything else was great quality and great value. I think it was just the area, they didn't sell alot of the fresher items so it didn't make sense for them to stock a large range.
When I moved I started going to aldi and I love it! The one local to me used to be a co-op so it's much bigger and more spacious than most of them which are purpose built. I can get everything I need there including fresh fruit and veg and meat. I usually spend £50 a week for a basic shop for a family of 4 (3 meals every day of the week, nappies and wipes and basic cleaning supplies). I can spend the same in tesco just picking up a few bits. I might spend £60-£65 if I include extras that week like sweets, snacks and juice. This week we were £46 for the weekly shop, basic meals for the week, no nappies and wipes but we did get extras like crisps, biscuits and sweets plus tins and bits for the cupboard (trying to stock up incase we get hit with bad snow this year).
I think people are getting more comfortable with using discounters since they have less disposable income and more people are using them. There's less embarrassment about it. I know people that work there and most of the stuff comes from the same factories as asda, tesco etc it's just packaged differently.