To think Aldi staff need to stop being jobsworths over 6p bargains?

I don't give kindness and respect to people who use the word 'jobsworth' to describe people having to literally do their job a certain way to avoid disciplinaries and questions of 'Why didn't you stop that full grown adult who was acting like a spoilt brat?' whilst being paid the lowest possible legally.

I also have no kindness or respect for someone who can't think of others, that the sale's assistant is someone's daughter, maybe mother, maybe sister, and how the manager having to come over reflects on her within the staff despite the fact you were the one causing problems.

I also have no kindness or respect for someone who considers not being sold an excess of cheap items as 'cruel'.

And yes, I do question, to a very low level, your ability to parent your child when they get their first job (or even work experience) if you expect to be a special case after being told 'no, we can't'. I certainly feel like you're going to either struggle with empathy, or say your child was treated unfairly, without reflecting on your own behaviour.

I find it strange they have a rule where they can't sell you it, but they effectively stole it from the shop by giving you an extra one for free?

Great contribution

If the staff are potentially going to get into trouble then it's not 'jobsworth' - it's them having to follow the rules.the fact that's it's 6p or £6,000 makes zero difference

They work there and know their employers rules. It may seem petty to you but it's their livelihood and they are abiding by their employer's rules. You do need to understand them. You are not employed there. Cruel? Get a grip.

So a store has a policy. Staff enforce policy or face disciplinary action. But poor you for not getting your bargain. You are right, staff should definitely risk their job for 6p.

Use your brain on this one. Staff don’t make the rules.

Lily019, I would* *have done exactly the have done. Tiny acts of kindness like this make a huge difference in a world where people are really struggling. I think Aldi has a model a bit like the huge bakery chain DC works for. If you have a good area manager, and then a good store manager then you have a happy functioning shop. When one leaves it can quickly go to shite....

I worked in Aldi for a bit a few years ago..Was an ok job and better paid than other places, but their rules are very stringent and yes, weird shit like this happened all the time..The customer is NOT always right nor appears to come first all the time, weirdly, and no matter how bad it appears from a customer service perspective, or just plain common logic, rules are rules..
At 1 minute to closing, a very vulnerable adult was 18p short on their shopping. I was under pressure to finish on the dot. I paid the remaining 18p myself with my card to get it through the process on time. Customer went on their way happy. It was Christmas Eve.
I was reprimanded the next working day. ...

It was an ok experience but frankly the Aldi business model is totally weird.. Never again..

Just amazing that this thread is still going and so mumsnet that it has transitioned into pulling people up on their grammer, then the ramdon posts about how awful Aldi for spurious reasons. In the interim, lots of posts explaining Aldi (and all retail outlets) policy, this just a bit of an oversight by retail staff that explains how/why this happens sometimes and the consequences for those on the shop floor who are apparently 'being a jobsworth' . Just to add some balance, my local Aldi is wonderful. Always fully stocked, fresh produce and friendly and helpful staff. If there is a queue at any check out then staff are called and it is cleared within minutes. Aldi is also a company that donate stock to charities, so those 6p bouncey balls were not heading to landfill.

If the items in question aren’t actually supposed to be sold then the staff could have got in trouble as the sales would have shown up on reports of some sort.Also remember that there are cameras everywhere so they could correlate the transaction with the staff members involved.I know it sounds petty but this what companies are like now,I once worked with a guy that got sacked for eating a bar of chocolate that fell out of a parcel in the warehouse where he worked.

Yes it’s cruel and rather silly that they’d rather it go to waste than let a customer buy for 6p. I saw a roll of wallpaper at bnm marked down to 10p, but as there was no barcode, staff couldn’t scan it in, he git his manager ti come assist and said that particular one was supposed to be off the shelf so can’t sell it to me but I can have it for free.

I HATE Aldi so frankly I don't gaf🤷🏼‍♀️

Why should anybody subsidise your kid's birthday? The self-pity is ridiculous.

Hrft but if I find such a bargain, I will just go round a few times picking up 2 of said item, preferably while shop is busy whilst purchasing a cheap bottle of lemonade etc so as not to aroused suspicious.

Honestly jobsworth imo.

Contract Law if payment changed hands I think they were yours.
..

She probably means 'mean' rather than cruel.
It is kinda mean

Well the shop agreed to 99p

You'll probably be told to chill for saying that she was rude.

Jaysus, do you not know how rude that is?
(Were you the person with a mile-long thread about being mildly inconvenienced in a coffee shop yesterday, where the OP/you also made a point of slamming any grammatical errors you spotted? Very similar language, and vibe of superiority)

I remember decades ago a local supermarket used to give some out of date food to a homeless charity my mother worker for, well they did until they informed it was illegal. The manager informed my mother that they would have to throw the food out, although he did tell her exactly when it would be left out so she could pick it up.

Despite the dramatic flair to your story, they were not jobsworth....they were just doing their job, the one I suspect they need to pay for their homes and families. If you had glanced upwards, you would have noticed the the CCTV filming the whole interaction. Years back I worked for JDs and there was a 2p tolerance on cashing up, if tills were wrong I could be sacked over 2p! In the current jobs market, there will be hundreds that could step into their roles, so they were correct to apply the rules, and you are just being entitled and a bit ridiculous

I would have told them I was reporting them to trading standards and that usually puts the fear of God into any retailer.

It really doesn’t. Said as a retail manager, we know our policies are built around the legislation and those words have no effect on us. We may simply say that is your right, go ahead and we certainly lose no sleep over it.

In this particular instance:
“The legal breakdown relies on these elements:

• No Statutory Obligation to Sell: No UK legislation—including the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or the Sale of Goods Act 1979—forces a shop to sell to a customer. These acts only dictate what happens after a contract is legally formed (e.g., that the goods must be of satisfactory quality). 1, 2, 3, 4]
• The Common Law Precedent: The specific mechanism that allows a retailer to decline a sale is the concept of the Invitation to Treat. In English contract law, placing an item on a shelf is merely an invitation for customers to make an offer. 1, 2, 3]
• The Binding Ruling: This was explicitly solidified in the UK courts by the landmark case Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots Cash Chemists (Southern) Ltd [1953]. The Court of Appeal ruled that a contract is not completed when a customer takes an item off the shelf, but rather when the shopkeeper accepts the customer's cash or card at the till.”

You are being unreasonable.

If the items were scanning at 6p, that means they would have already been wasted in the inventory systems, which means they were not for sale. Leaving them out on the shop for was an oversight that they were alerted to by you buying the item. They were able to then intervene before you bought more.

They can't just sell items that are marked as waste, it would mess up the inventory and could cause paperwork problems. Everything has to be accounted, something missing from waste would raise questions.

The rule for not selling wasted items will be strictly enforced. The staff don't want to be accused of wasting items and then buying them themselves at 6p, so the rule has to exist.

There are a lot of rules and regulations in retail, to protect the business, the staff and the customer.

It isn't always common sense, but don't blame the staff.

They probably get a list of what to remove and missed it, especially as the price on the shelf wasn't changed. When you have thousands of products then one is probably easy to miss.

If they donate it then the cost doesn't go into the wastage budget but if it's reduced to silly money then the difference between that & the original price goes into their wastage score which the team are under pressure to achieve.

They did the right thing & let your normal purchase go through the till at the silly price but then stopped you going back for me. They don't have to sell it to you & all offers can be withdrawn at any point.

I don't see how it's cruel on your children's birthday party as you didn't want them in the first place - you went back for them because of the silly price. Can the children still have the party without them? It's probably more cruel on the charities & people they support as they miss out on the treat.