A few years ago, a friend who works in the north of England told me how he and some of his work colleagues joked about paying surreptitious visits to the German retailer Lidl.

It was definitely not, in his colleagues' eyes at least, a place in which to be seen, although several of them would periodically race into the store, make a small purchase and subsequently present it the following day (to a chorus of hearty laughter) as evidence of having been Lidling'.

At first, this new verb sounded like some sort of strange activity one might stumble across on the Internet.

In the eyes of my pal's work colleagues however, visiting Lidl was a peculiar thing to do, especially given the comprehensive range of magnificent and inexpensive fare on offer at supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda.

Nonetheless, Lidl has continued to flourish and it now boasts more than 400 UK stores. And the company's perceived image, as being a discount supplier to the poorer echelons of society, is changing at a remarkable pace.

Recently, we had my mate and his wife join us and a handful of other friends for drinks and a curry.

Naturally enough, they arrived with a few bottles of plonk which I set to one side in the kitchen, although just as naturally, as the night progressed, one of them, the red, was opened.

Now, I'm certainly no wine connoisseur, but I was impressed and as I quaffed, my pal announced that it was "Lidl's finest."

Later, I ribbed him about his Lidling' tale and how embarrassed he once seemed about visiting the supermarket.

He said: "Not any more - in fact, you probably see more Mercedes in the Lidl car park than you would at Waitrose."

Ignoring the possible social consequences of such a comment, the turnaround in his attitude towards the retailer reminded me of how Tesco had once been considered the decidedly down-market ugly duckling of the retail world.

Long before Clubcards, international expansion and an enviable position as one of Europe's largest retailers, Tesco was perceived as a pile-it-high, sell-it-cheap market trader. In the space of 20 years, it has transformed itself into a market leader. One wonders whether Lidl and its German rival Aldi could do something similar.

As consumers continue to tighten their belts while the economy endures a periodic contraction, so the popularity of Messrs Aldi and Lidl looks set to soar.

Furthermore, their respective business models suggest they can withstand any prolonged economic buffeting and continue to trade profitably.

Unlike our existing supermarket giants that regularly stock up to 45,000 different lines on their pristine shelves, Lidl and Aldi offer a more limited range to customers (perhaps 10,000 lines) directly from cardboard boxes stacked on pallets in very basic stores.

Instead of stocking, say, 20 types of orange juice, they sell just one, but they shift significant quantities of a limited number of products, so enabling them to drive prices even lower.

Aldi and Lidl plan ambitious expansion projects over the next few years and just as Easyjet and Ryanair began eating into the market share of established airlines a decade ago, so this Teutonic twosome will probably do the same to the weakest British retailers.

Just as low fares have resulted in the middle classes becoming Easyjet's and Ryanair's biggest users, so the ultra-low prices and quality offered by these German retailers will ensure that to Lidl' is likely to become the verb of choice for the same demographic group.