Is your Aldi checking that your shopping bags are empty before you pack?

[Sunshineandrainbow]

Or is it just mine?
Cashier is checking that your bags are empty before you pack. Some are asking them to go on the convveyor belt with shopping.

Yes, they started it about 3 months ago. I'm assuming due to the increase in shoplifting.

I always put my bags open in the trolley after I've loaded the belt, and now always lift them up so the cashier can see underneath then & that they are empty. Takes about 10 seconds to do & I'm happy to make their life easier by showing them.

Standard practice in Germany in all supermarkets. It only took me a few years to get over myself and stop taking it personally.

Funnily enough was in Aldi last night and saw it for the first time. Person in front of me was a “test purchaser” they then gave feedback to the cashier there and then (which I thought was odd and unprofessional but oh well) passed her on asking to lift the bag to make sure nothing hidden underneath. But failed her on not checking inside the bag also for hidden items and for taking the “customers” word on how many items they had in the trolley eg they said they had 7 bottles of wine so she scanned 7 but they actually had 8. In all for it, I have nothing to hide and frankly the cost of shop lifting will always impact those honest customers by shops increasing their prices

Mine did it for the first time last weekend. I don't mind. Took me a second to show him and if it helps prevent shoplifting and therefore mitigates price rises, it's fine with me

in France at my Dads at the moment, checking bags has been going on here for as long as I can remember.

Can’t take another bag of shopping into the store, DH forgot something last year and popped back in and got in trouble with security, there’s lockers for shopping not purchased there.

here you can go round the store and put it straight in your bag instead of using a basket and then unload it at checkout and show the empty bag.

personally I don’t find it an issue in the UK, I think we just need to accept the supermarkets need to tackle the shoplifting crisis (which we are all paying for in the hiked prices of the things we buy).

at home our local co-op store is being ransacked by youths on a regular basis and the staff have been told to stand back and let them do it! I’m wondering how long before the co-op decide to pull out of our estate and the elderly and everyone who use it won’t have a local store.

shoplifting needs to be stopped in my opinion. If showing my bag/under my buggy etc helps that issue then I’m quite happy to do it.

Yes, they ask you to lift them up out of the trolley, it’s just policy due to shoplifting. I’ve always put mine on the belt for them to check

Yes Aldi just this week I put my bags in the trolley at the checkout ready to pack into them and she asked if I could lift them up toncheck nothing was underneath.

Yes, our does. I get why - thefts are rife. I really feel for our local Aldi staff. Even with a security guard on shift most days they still have endless hassle.

The shops should really pay more employees rather than one frazzled employee trying to watch over 8/10 self checkouts.

It's company policy. It was widely reported in the press in the summer. Aldi checkout staff checking all shopping bags for theft in some stores | News | The Grocer

They can't demand to see inside the bags of random passers by , but they are perfectly entitled to refuse service to people who refuse their request and to deny entry to the store. Don't like it? Shop elsewhere. Not wanting shop assistants to look in your bag is not a protected characteristic.

Our Lidl has self-scan tills. Pretty rough area too,

Yes they do at my local Aldi. I don't mind.. if it reduces shoplifting, good!
My DS2 works in Asda and the amount of stuff that people steal is incredible..mostly alcohol and meat. Staff get SO much abuse from thieves and generally from the public. I think it should be mandatory in all shops tbh. They aren't interested in your personal items or body cavities, just keep your receipts if you've been shopping elsewhere first!

I love the string bag idea!

I have only ever seen people fill a bag with stuff and try and walk out. Hadn't realised there was a problem with people scanning some stuff and not other things. Makes sense though!

A bit like the mirrored panels on Tesco tills.

My local Aldi checks bags. It is not a problem, takes 2 seconds and helps to reduce shoplifting.

I would like to see it extended to all shops.

I'm not so precious that I see it as an infringement of my rights or any other arsey opinion people seem to have.

Aldi are the only self check outs that don’t give me the rage. I don’t know but I suspect their weighing has slightly more tolerance as I don’t get the in-out-in-out if the bag debacle to get it to register correctly.

Therefore, I wonder if other shops are more accurate at spotting if something is in the bag to start with, whereas Aldi doesn’t? I know it’s rejected my bag in Tesco before because it had a single car key in.

Haha yes, it seems to be a recent policy in our local Aldi. It happened to me when I was wearing my gym kit, no make-up, hair scraped back and I came back laughing and told my husband that they must have thought I looked like a shop lifter. But then it happened to him the following week when he was looking very smart in his suit after work, so think it’s just a new blanket policy in our store.

Yes. My handbag looks like a small rucksack. I was putting the shopping on the belt and the lady asked if that was a rucksack left in the trolley. I picked it up and showed her the outside- as soon as she saw how small it was, she said 'oh yeah, that's fine.'

I asked her about this- she said they've got a big problem with shoplifting- people now put large rucksacks in the trolley, as if they are going to pack them- then put something like a joint of beef in the bottom.

Pack 'paid for' food on the top and leave.

She said all the batteries boxes in our store are now empty as someone stole the whole display.

seems like a sensible idea, if other people didn't steal stuff they wouldn't need to do it.

I can't imagine how little you must have going on in your life to have spare energy to get upset about this.

Obviously it's not personal bags or bodies.

Obviously it's a broad rule introduced to reduce shoplifting and therefore prices.

I suspect it will become the norm in all supermarkets before long. Some people have much huffing ahead!

Not in our local Aldi, but they do in the Lidl and Aldi near to my mum. I haven't got a problem with it; if you've got nothing to hide etc... We used to go to Costco and they used to check your trolley tallied with your receipt on the way out and that was years ago.

No never had this. But DP has the bags folded up and squashed flat so probably looks like there is nothing in there, he only shakes them out when the trolley is at the end of the checkout.

Never seen anybody else be asked to show the bags or lift them up and i live in a rough town in the North West.

Ours have been doing this since last year. Nothing new here!

It takes seconds. "Are your bags empty ?". Lift bags for life type bags and angle towards cashier. "Yes" and on we go. If I have bought other things from other shops I leave them in the car. I can't walk to any shop and then walk home ( I live in a village 7 miles from any shops) so other stuff in other bags just goes in the car that I have to use to get anywhere. If I had another bag with things in it I'd just show it to them. I doubt they can be bothered to judge my shopping habits . People are stealing huge amounts from shops. It seems perfectly reasonable to have a policy that puts them off stealing from Aldi.

this has been a normal thing in Germany (where it has been normal to take your own bags for years and years and years) since i was a small child.

I don't know why people in the UK get so huffy about it.