If you're thinking of shopping at Aldi in Llangollen for your gluten-free food, forget it.
Because, as I discovered to my disgust earlier this week, they no longer have the Free From section which I and other gluten-avoiding consumers have been happily purchasing from for over a year.
There are currently around 8.5 million people in the UK - me included - who have chosen a GF diet because their delicate gastro-system makes it an absolute necessity, or they just adopting that kind of diet.
But, as everyone who buys it knows literally to their cost, your GF stuff is eye-wateringly and unfairly expensive.
Fine, you can still get it at many other outlets - and some of the larger supermarkets have an excellent offering - but nowhere can you buy it nearly as cheaply as at Aldi.
I gather from an excellent article in the Denbighshire Free Press a couple of days ago that around 300 of the 1,000 Aldi branches in the UK, obviously including Llangollen, started up a dedicated Free From section on a trial basis back in January 2025. And, regrettably, that trial has now come to an end.
And at one arbitrary stroke by the Aldi high command - which came without prior warning - this casts GF people like me back into the hell of inescapably high prices.
In the Free Press piece, the budget giant claimed they were "committed to ensuring" customers with dietary requirements will still be able to buy what they need and that they engage with key allergy charities.
Oh yes, then why is that on my last trip to the Llangollen Aldi there were just the last few, sad GF offerings crammed into a corner of what used to be their well-stocked Free From section?
A reliable source within that store to whom I complained about the situation said that the decision to scrap it had nothing to do with local management but was down to "head office," which was surprising, they said, as the Free From items had been selling well there.
The newspaper piece described how gluten allergic people across the country were now complaining bitterly about the ripping away of their budget-priced Free From items, including staples like bread which was often about half the price at Aldi than anywhere else.
While the corporate culprits are still trotting out what I know from my years in journalism are standard public relations responses to a situation which has alienated customers, I reckon it's time for direct action. Time, in fact, to deluge Aldi head office with complaints about what they have done to us in the hope they'll see sense and return to us what they have taken away.
* You can email Aldi customer support at: https://help.aldi.co.uk/contact-form-product I've already done so and it feels like a good way of fighting back.
Just a few points about filling in the form:
* Question "select category" - choose "other"
* Question "purchased online" - choose "no"
* Question "barcode number unknown" - choose "my issue does not concern a product"
Happy complaining.
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