Aldi Experiences Massive Surge in Chinese Food Sales Following TV Show Influence
- Aldi sees a 94% increase in Chinese food sales due to TV show influence
- Ready meals, noodles, and sauces are especially popular
- The spike is linked to BBC One’s ‘Race Across the World’
Aldi has witnessed a significant jump in Chinese cuisine sales, largely spurred by viewers of BBC One’s popular show, ‘Race Across the World,’ who are eager to replicate the adventures seen on screen.
The supermarket has reported a 94% increase in sales of its Chinese Curry Ready Meal priced at £2.49, after the show’s new episodes aired. Additionally, Oriental Cooking Sauces and Medium Egg Noodles have seen notable sales boosts of 27% and 48%, respectively.
The show features contestants traveling from China to India, experiencing local cuisines along the way, leading to viewers wanting to recreate these culinary experiences at home. Julie Ashfield from Aldi UK mentions that customers are keen to explore new flavors that are both convenient to prepare and budget-friendly.
Tom Church, Co-Founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, remarked, "It's fascinating to see how popular culture can directly impact consumer habits and product demand."
Good price for a ready meal but prefer to cook from scratch rather than buy processed 
I always look at the curries in Aldi when in there as a huge curry fan but they all look rubbish to me where you only get a little bit of curry sauce and about 60% rice which I never buy as extremely poor value. I like the curries in Iceland or other supermarkets where there is no rice included. Iceland do 2 frozen curries for 4 pounds and because they are frozen they don't have as many additives as chilled curries and the rice to go with them only costs a few pence from a 1kg bag for 55p. Aldi really are absolutely terrible for curries, both poor value and horrible tasting in my experience.
However I have occasionally bought a jar of curry sauce from there and that seems the same as other supermarkets, I'm assuming just a different label slapped on compared to the other supermarkets as it seemed very similar in taste. I think they were close to a pound a jar though which is about the same and sometimes more than other supermarkets. I tend to buy the 45p jar of Chinese curry sauce which you can get from one of the supermarkets but for the life of me can't remember which it is, might be Morrisons or Asda. It often needs a tiny bit of chili powder just to heat it up a tiny bit so it matches the sauce of actual Chinese takeaways.