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Bristol Post
Bristol Post
Entertainment
Tristan Cork

The strangest Aldi middle aisle items we found at Bristol's new store

A new Aldi store opened in Bristol today, Thursday, and is one of the biggest in the city so far.

And as well as the fresh food and vegetables, meat and drink, the one thing that makes Aldi a special place to shop is the middle aisle.

The new Aldi store, which opened with a little fanfare at 8am on Thursday morning in Imperial Park, Hartcliffe, is so big it has not one, but two middle aisles - in fact three, if you count the toiletries and baby products aisle.

But the two aisles at Aldi's new store certainly do not disappoint when it comes to finding things that you just don't see in any other supermarket in the land.

And when the Aldi store opened at Imperial Park, they had pulled out all the stops -  for where else would stock, within two display units of each other, a reciprocating saw, a skittles set, a paint-your-own garden unicorn and a 1,000-piece Stranger Things jigsaw.

So let's go down the middle aisles with this handy little guide - just so you're prepared, mentally and physically, when you get there.

1  A steel firepit

(Tristan Cork/Bristol Live)

Imagine sending your other half to the shops for a pint of milk, a loaf of bread and a couple of ready meals and they come back with a huge stainless steel firepit.

This one is perhaps the most striking, heaviest and potentially hottest thing on offer in the middle aisle of Aldi in Imperial Park, and forms part of an extensive and rather eclectic gardening section of one of the two middle aisles. 

2 An archery kit

(Tristan Cork/Bristol Live)

South Bristol isn't particularly known as a hotbed of archery - try Nottingham or, er, Hastings - but perhaps the young people of the neighbourhood could really benefit from something which fires projectiles at a target. 

3 A potty

(Tristan Cork/Bristol Live)

Not just a potty, but a range of different size seats and toilet appendages - literally every base is covered for that transition from nappies to big kid toilet usage.

There will be one family that might well need to visit this part of the store.

The Imperial Park Aldi is at one end of the road - Hartcliffe Way - which has Bedminster Fire Station at the bottom - where  Kirsty Smith took her two-year-old son Callum to be freed after he somehow managed to get one of these stuck on his head.

4 Inflatable sport boat

(Tristan Cork/Bristol Live)

Last month, Bristol Live broke the news that Aldi's main rivals Lidl were selling what they described as an 'ocean-going kayak' - or at least a kayak that was sturdy enough to be paddled out to sea and around the coast.

This is Aldi's version - and there are two different kinds of inflatable boat on offer. They vary in size, one is for a family, the other is a bit more serious for two adults. The nearest waterway to Imperial Park is the Pigeonhouse Stream and the landscaped lake outside what used to be the headquarters of Imperial Tobacco and is now Lakeshore.

5 1,000-piece Stranger Things jigsaw

(Tristan Cork/Bristol Live)

In fact, if one image sums up the bizarre mixture of the middle aisle at Aldi it is this - here we have a skittles set at the top, a paint-your-own pottery thing which aren't really gnomes, but are like gnomes, but are actually the shape of things like unicorns, and there, on the right, a number of 1,000-piece jigsaws, including one for the weird TV series Stranger Things.

6 Reciprocating Saw

(Tristan Cork/Bristol Live)

Something for the trained carpenters and woodworkers among Aldi's clientele here, or indeed, the builders and demolition experts.

A reciprocating saw, for those of us who will stand there, look at it and wonder, is the heavyweight tool of the sawing world. Basically, it can cut up and down as well as side to side, and is primarily used to cut stuff up when you just need it cut up - in demolition work, for example - rather than when you're cutting something to fit.

7 Junior wetsuits

(Tristan Cork/Bristol Live)

It was with incredible disappointment that Aldi in Imperial could not find room for a surfboard or even a body board in their middle aisle, but there are wet suits, which are perfect for everyone planning to head to the seaside with their kids this August.

8 Electric Lawnmower

(Tristan Cork/Bristol Live)

The size of the new Aldi at Imperial Park allows for a full gardening section , and what gardening section of any supermarket is complete without a proper big electric lawnmower? We're not even sure this would fit in a trolley.

9 Hats

(Tristan Cork/Bristol Live)

They say the middle classes have colonised Aldi now, and looking at this range of hats, that could well be true. They are billed as ladies' hats, but equally could be worn by any man, particularly with a job out touring soft fruit farms to see if that year's crop was ready to harvest.

10 Croquet sets

(Tristan Cork/Bristol Live)

Croquet is a game traditionally played on the finely manicured lawns of English stately homes, but now the game has arrived in all its confusing glory in South Bristol.

This is being reported in advance to explain to people why they will suddenly see vast numbers of young people playing croquet on Hengrove Park or in Willmott Park in Hartcliffe.

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