Aldi bag check

[LotsOfLovexx]

Has anyone else had this recently?

I was opening up my bags ready to pack and the cashier asked to see inside the bags first. Embarrassed me as never happened before and was very busy.

Made me feel like I'd done something wrong. Considering switching supermarkets if this is a new thing.

Many years ago I worked in Homebase. Someone had a trolley full of laminate flooring and all that went with fitting it, paid for the lot. Set the alarm off on the way out. The lady had four rolls of wallpaper border stashed in her handbag, £22.00 worth. We still called the police

At least they still have checkout operators. We buy a lot more in Aldi since Tesco replaced most of their trolley tills with self service ( I don’t like the bag thing, but it’s less hassle than Tesco now).

There is an epidemic of shop thefts. They are trying all sorts of things to reduce it. Its just how it is now

Customer Assistant has to override the weight of the bags on their scales. Whoever is only doing their job to ensure the bags are empty.

I work in a shop and we're told we lose 10% of our income to theft (quite a few go for high end goods) - that's 10% could help keep prices down for the customer, but also be spent on better wages, training, store improvements.

I don't have any problem with my bags being checked as I have nothing to hide. I make sure to get and keep receipts to show if needed. I set the alarm off in TK Maxx yesterday and waited for an assistant to come and check, all fine.

I get a supermarket check of 5 items every single time I shop at Sainsbury’s. I hate it. They mess up my packing and I really hate it, and no I can't change, it's my nearest, local, most convenient and I buy many things I can't get anywhere else, so changing supermarkets I can't do. We all shop in Aldi, occasionally Tesco, booker, Iceland, Costco.

I asked another poster but haven't had an answer, can you articulate what is offensive please. I genuinely can't see what the issue is

It’s been like that here in Australia for at least 18 years, shops have signs on the door basically saying agreeing to a bag check is a condition of entry.

The two main supermarkets have just introduced even more security checks in their self serve area - Coles has a barrier by the self serve that doesn’t open unless you’ve paid at your till (the cameras track your location till choice) and Woolies have cameras on the self serve tills that check your trolley contents and what you put on the scales.

All orange coloured fruit/ veg will only bring up orange coloured choices (to stop avocados being scanned through as carrots) and if you’ve got other shopping in your trolley and you try to pay the assistant has to come and check the trolley before you can pay.

Its yet another example where the few are spoiling it for the many.

What is offensive is the assumption that I am a thief and that all shoppers are thieves - guilty until proven innocent.

While I understand there has been a massive increase in shoplifting which is causing untold losses to retailers, and filtering down to the rest of us in the form of price increases I find it abhorrent of Aldi to assume that we are all thieves. I have always been honest enough to pay my way and fortunate enough to be able to afford what I need for my family.

Are other shops searching customer's bags when they have put their items on the conveyor belt to have them checked out? I haven't experienced this in any other shop/supermarket except Aldi and until they drop this policy I will be shopping elsewhere.

On a separate note I scanned a steak at the self scan in my local Tesco - there was no visible security sticker on the item. Lucky for me I was able to get a printed receipt (often not available at this checkout) as the steak set of the alarm on the way out so I had the security guard demanding to see the receipt. Wondering what would have happened it the receipt wasn't available.

Yes, my bags have been checked a few times, but locally they now ask everyone to put their own bags on the conveyer belt and pass them straight back to you which is better I think.

Happened once to me in Aldi, can't say it bothered me x

The police wouldn't come now, it's 2023 a thieves paradise.

True sadly. We were all surprised that the lady had stolen so little compared to what she actually paid for.

It’s not offensive, it’s to reduce losses, and they aren’t targeting anyone in particular
Some folk must live very sheltered lives if they want to take offence at being asked to shake their shopping bags at the cashier.

I would find it hilarious.

The thing is in my local Aldi, thieves do t walk through the till they grab a basket and they then run at speed through the door as it opens.

I feel like it also leaves people open to profiling. In my situation, I was one of a number of customers who had a bag for life- something we are encouraged to have now- and i was the only one stopped. Why?

I wouldn't have an issue if it generally was every person with a bag for life. But if not it smacks of the assistant assuming you are a thief and I would ask how that judgement is made. I'm there to buy shopping, not be looked up and down as a potential criminal.

Either check everyone, or no one elsewise of course it's going to cause offense to the shopper and embarrassment too.

At least with Sainsbury's you scan your receipt on the way out and everyone has to.

My local Aldi has a massive sign at the entrance asking not to use bags to put the shopping in whilst shopping but instead please use a basket or trolley. On every till once those plastic screens came down there is a printed notice saying all bags will be checked due to an increase in theft.

My bags never get checked because they are supermarket trolley ones and rolled up and closed with velcro and hooked on the back of the trolley. I unfasten them as I go past the person on the till using my body to push the trolley. I hold them up so the till person can see them and they have a mesh bottom so you can see nothing is inside them.

I love Aldi and I wouldn't feel bad if they asked to look in my bags. But then we also shop at Costco and they check your trolley and receipt every time right by the door.

I’m in Aus and have been asked to do this in Aldi occasionally. Takes me 2 seconds, and I just gathered they may have had a recent spate of theft perpetrated by fat old ladies, wasn’t anything personal per se.

I am in Ireland and read somewhere that this policy is being introduced in stores here. I can't say it overly bothers me. I tend to have my bags folded, place things back in my trolley on paying and then repack at the shelf. Much like I don't take offence at being pulled over for a random frisk/bag search. I know that staff are told to check every x person etc.

You're offended that a supermarket chain is trying to protect themselves from the losses they all suffer due to shoplifting? Wow.

No it's offensive when they say it's a blanket check yet pick and choose who they check in my store. It also leads to potential profiling as with the current rise in American in Walmart where ethnic minorities are targeted more than others.

Yes I had a granny trolley and they asked to see inside.. it was empty. If the store has a shoplifting issue then employ security guards or use a system like Decathlon where it detects when someone has shoplifted... don't make it a customer issue, embarrassment, degraded, violation! The store wouldn't even put the prices down if shoplifting decreased.. greedy supermarkets

But they aren’t making it a customer issue, asking to see inside your shopping bags is hardly doing a strip search. Based on all the arsey responses on this thread I now proactively offer my bags, poor bloody cashiers.