Forget Sat Nav; you can tell where you are in Edinburgh by the shopping bags people carry. If you see Waitrose bags, you’re probably in Stockbridge. If you see reusable fair-trade organic cotton bags, then you’re definitely in Stockbridge. If you see Tesco and Sainsburys bags, you could be anywhere from Bruntsfield to Cannonmills. But you know you’re in Leith when you see people walking the streets clutching Lidl bags.

There’s definitely a stigma attached to shopping at Lidl. In the world of supermarkets, the German owned chain is considered the lowest of the low – but is this reputation really deserved? In my opinion – no. Supermarket snobs may scoff at the store, refusing to be seen shopping at a place they associate with neds and chavs, but Lidl offers excellent value and a lot of good quality, if somewhat unfamiliar, food.

Past experiences of long queues and just one poor girl at the checkout had put me off a little, so it’s been a while since I ventured to a Lidl, but I was impressed with what I saw. A good range of products, largely from unknown European companies, which in my mind makes it more interesting, and there’s also a reasonable selection of more recognisable labels, plus a nice surprise: whole frozen lobster for £4.99! Now that is cheap…

With credit crunching, it’s likely that the higher end supermarkets will lose customers and that many people will swallow their pride and turn to Lidl in the coming months. The presence of organic products on Lidl’s shelves suggests that they are already reaching customers beyond their target demographic, luring more ethically minded and higher earning shoppers into their pallet-lined aisles.

It’s still unlikely that you’ll be seeing Lidl carrier bags in Stockbridge any time soon, but you may well see a Lidl lobster hidden in a reusable fair-trade organic cotton bag in Stockbridge. Just don’t expect them to admit where they got it from.