AMA Working for Aldi

[HoeAbout]

I've only just left my position due to a relocation, but wondered if anyone had any questions!

Worst times to shop, best time for a click and collect, anything behind the scenes :)

Why do they randomly stop stocking things? And then have them back 6 months later.

A mixture of ordering well (anticipating what will sell) and availability.

Each store will put their order in but what we receive is what's available from the warehouse.

Sometimes other stores have 'got there first' and if there's limited stock, that store will have plenty while our store has none for weeks.

Even managers aren't told what is and isn't going to arrive, the order is sent and then each day the delivery arrives and we've got what we've got!

Did you feel you were well looked after as an employee? Working conditions, rotas fair, breaks etc?

Nostalgia alert…

does anyone else remember - and I’m talking about the mid 90s here - when the aldi checkout staff knew the price of every single item in the shop and keyed it in as the items went through?

OP, did you find it a good employer?

Well looked after- not at the beginning.

When I started I had a 25 hour contract but was rota'd regularly at 35+ and shifts would randomly change last minute. But then the management changed, I had a chat and from then on, my hours were kept at 25.

I needed some time off at one point with a personal issue and the area manager was fantastic about it all.

Working conditions - clean, light and bright store, good facilities in our canteen with sofas, wide range of cooking equipment (mostly from the Specials!), clean loos etc.

The breaks are paid but very short. For a 10 hour shift, you get 30 mins. I'd regularly do 20,000 steps a shift so it's a lot of time on your feet!

I could never have done that! We need to know a lot of the produce codes (maybe 30) but they're short!

I did personally find them a great employer. But I got on extremely with all my managers and I worked hard, so I felt respected and valued.

What's with the ridiculously fast till thing?

Do they really have training and tests on it, and competitions?

So we have targets we have to hit, and can be written up if we fall below the scanning targets.

The idea with Aldi is that you pack your items at the packing bench and not at the till, so you just fill your trolley back up as we scan it through which can be done very quickly.

This means that we can serve a higher number of customers and therefore need less staff to man the tills. Less staff means cheaper running costs and cheaper items on the shelf for the customer.

From a customer point of view, with the cost of living, Aldi has pretty much been the reason I can food shop and my family eats well.
I love the fact that Aldi quietly get on with things kind of behind the scenes of Asda/Morrisons/Tesco with witty understated adverts.
I LOVE that the big supermarkets are forced to mention Aldi & Lidle in their own adverts for price comparison which we all know come nowhere near for a big shop.

For me it’s an underdog winning story, do you know if that has been purposeful and strategic or is that just the way they roll?

On the fast checkout and meeting targets subject, do you inwardly fume when someone slowly packs every item into a specific bag at the till?
I always thing “that’s not following the rules of Aldi” when I see it!

Also, I see Aldi supermarkets abroad, do they do as well abroad as they do here in the U.K.?

What are the rules for opening and closing tills? Does it get annoying to have to keep jumping between jobs?

The idea with Aldi is that you pack your items at the packing bench and not at the till, so you just fill your trolley back up as we scan it through which can be done very quickly.

If that is the idea then why don't they tell anyone! I have never seen anyone do this in all the hundreds of times I've shopped there.

I think they've done incredibly well with their advertising campaigns to hit the right notes with the public and the company genuinely does care about offering quality value at discount prices - I love their ads 🤣 and the social media team are great.

Personally I've shopped at Aldi for 10 years, long before I worked there, and I love their efficiency model. I don't want 30 kinds of brown sauce, just one good one!

Our newly opened store doesn't even have a packing bench or anything similar by the tills!

That's good you're so positive about them OP, glad they seem to treat their staff well as always the worry that staff care is compromised in pursuit of saving money.

When is the best time to shop to have more chance of getting what you need? Are delivery times different store to store? Whenever I go there's so many empty shelves that have to go elsewhere anyway; it's not cheaper anymore so not the worst thing in the world mind.

The rule is, if there's room on the belt then don't open the next till.

But if the belt is full and there's one customer waiting then you can open the next till. But that's assuming you have someone else on the shop floor with a till!

You will always have one till manned. That person is then responsible for till managing and sorting everyone's break times (they have to be staggered so you don't have anyone overlapping).

Yes it can be very very stressful when you have stock left on the shop floor and you're trying to get off the till to finish! Especially if it's chilled or freezer stock and you're the only one on the shop floor.

No idea about non UK ones but the PP is right RE North and South Aldi when the brothers parted ways!

UK is South Aldi.

Yep. How do people find this out? It's not mentioned anywhere in store... I wasn't aware until I read a different thread on Mumsnet!

I love Aldi, but the speed conveyor belt of doom is just about the only thing that puts me off... I dislike having to take the time to re-pack everything (usually as I put the bags in the car as the benches are too narrow to hold a big bag).
I see the point about costs, though...

No I had a lot of patience! I valued customer care over chucking things through the till to be honest, and especially with older customers or those that were not able bodied I would never rush them and I would help them pack. My manager agreed with this, luckily. I was fast when I could be (1200 items per hour) but would adapt to each customer.

I was never annoyed by customers, the only ones I took issue with were the abusive ones.

That would be very unusual to not have a packing bench, they're easy to miss if youre not looking for them specially as they just blend in?

Are you shopping in the afternoon? The best time for shopping is after delivery is completed in the morning. So the pallets arrive and staff will be stocking the shelves from 5am, stores open at 8am and it's generally aimed to be finished by then but it can take an extra couple of hours.

Some weekdays have smaller deliveries as they're quieter days - Monday, Tues and Weds generally will have less stock.

So I personally shop at 10am on a Friday. But of course it will depend on each store a bit.

Avoid Sundays at all costs!! Super busy.

Our village Aldi has recently opened self serve and often have only those open and no actual till! I don't mind if I only have a bit but when I've got a big shop with 75 ish items I ask them to open a till and they do not like it! Usually because people then join the till queue and they end up having to open more tills when they actually just want everyone using self serve!

Not a question just an observation haha

• Put bags in trolley at the beginning of the shop.
• Sort into categories as you pick the items up.
• Tip bags one by one gently onto the conveyor belt
• Put directly back in the same bag at the other end.

Super fast and easy on the back.

The benches are more than ample to hold a big bag on them

Yes in Germany (where Aldi originated) they have Aldi Nord in the North and Aldi Sued in the South which happened when the two brothers went their separate ways. I prefer Aldi Sued which is closer to the UK Aldi. We have the same logo but we've lost the word Sued.