Has Lidl become a bit of an outdated model?

[ARunByFruiting]

Or is it just my local one?

They used to be a no frills, quick shop where the staff at the check out scanned your goods really quickly and you were in and out. Now it seems to take forever to get through the check out (unless the store has self service check out that seem to be much quicker).

Sometimes if you've only got a few bits someone will let you go on ahead of them. Today I waited nearly 15 minutes as only 2 tills open and the queue was a mix of big (trolley full) shops and small shops and the staff are so much slower at scanning the goods and getting people through. It's so tedious and puts me off going in there as they rarely open a 3rd till and the whole process is just so slow with no other choice but to wait.

In other supermarkets, unless really busy, it is so much quicker and you have the option of self scanner as you shop, a mix of trolley self scan, basket self scan and the odd manned till. It takes about a quarter of the time to get through the tills to pay. So have Lidl fallen behind the others? (This is where everyone comes on to say theirs has 30 self checkouts and speedy gonzales working on their manned tills! 😁)

I shop at Lidl every day and I like the fact that someone is on the till.

Jobs are being erased at a rate of knots and especially jobs like till operators by all this scan and pack.

When there are no jobs left you'll be sorry.

I like talking to whoever is scanning it through and the little bit of humanity that there still is left in having a conversation before I go to work.

Our local Lidl is streets ahead of Asda, Morrisons and the Aldi we have nearby in terms of fruit and vegetables and they also have grass fed meat.

Hardly an outdated model.

I think it depends on the location? Our local one is excellent: well stocked, lots of check out, a nice mix of unusual and standard items. It's been relatively newly refurbished. We've been to other branches, they can be a bit rough and ready

Completely agree if they don't have self-service it's awful if you only want a basket shop. Everyone else has overflowing trolleys (much more so it seems than in places like Tesco) so it's a long time to queue for 5 or 6 items. Especially awful if you have a slow moving toddler and can't react quickly when a new till opens. In other supermarkets people would be courteous and suggest the person in front with a basket and small child goes first but in Lidl manners seem to go out the window. (No longer have toddlers so no skin in the game nowadays, it just used to really stand out to me how rude people in there were.)

The stores with self service tills seem to suffer far less from big queues.

Ours is fine whereas Asda never has enough staff and self checkout is useless for big shops

NOT wanting to derail the thread but their range isn't half as good as it was before Brexit. There used to be loads of great European products - now there are far more cheap knock-offs of branded UPFs. Fine if you want to eat Snaktastic's interpretation of Walkers crisps, Wotsits and Pringles at rock bottom prices, not so fine if you want interesting cold meats and cheeses.

Most supermarkets have gone down hill. A combination of not enough staff, people trying to restock during opening hours and places looking grubby. At least over Covid times they cleaned up a bit , but now the staff clearly don’t have the time.
Our big Sainsbury’s is becoming run down and one of the ladies toilets is permanently out of order! The staff are not that friendly and it’s all targeted for self service and scanners. So many tills have been taken away.
Our Lidl isn’t too bad. It could do with a bit of a clean , but the staff are friendly and has a nice bakery selection , but honestly, since Covid I feel that everywhere is just a bit rubbish wherever you go.

My local Lidl recently installed 3 self service checkouts. I was delighted as I'd often been stuck in long queues with a couple of items. However yesterday I had 3 things but all 3 self service tills were being used by people with full trolleys of stuff.
Then the woman af the manned till had to keep leaving her till to sort out problems with the self service ones.

A lot of Lidl products are a bit meh
Even biscuits tower gate brand iirc they're horrible.
I buy supermarket own brand so I'm not a brand snob

I would've let you go ahead of me👍😁

Our lidl just recently got the self service tills. I’m usually doing a big shop so I’ve only used them a couple of times but they definitely help with the queue.

Lidl was the second fastest growing supermarket for footfall in 2025.

@Thesuperlativesistillloveyou unfortunately they'd all started scanning their stuff before I arrived 😪

Gosh, yes, this!

I used to go to Lidl/Aldi for cheaper, authentic European foods. It was mostly populated by other middle-class shoppers filling their trollies with Manchego, Emmental, Proscuitto and jars of antipasti, plus a few bottles of Cremant!

Nowadays, it's all about knock off beige UPFs and sweet snacks for less. The demographic of the shoppers has changed a lot too.

Hat's off to them, they've adapted to changes in shopping habits to keep (and grow) their market share.

That's nice and I genuinely mean that, it's nice you enjoy the interaction. Me however, when I'm trying to pick up ingredients for dinner after a long day at work and just want to get in and out the nearest supermarket to work because I'm mentally drained do not want to stand in a queue for ages. I just want to scan and go, I've had more than enough human interaction at work for one day!

I love all the European food and wine! It is my secret source of cheap food wine... But my closest branch is excellent and minimal queues now that they have finally added some check out machines. Waiting before that was a pain but worth it. I do most of my shop in Lidl then nip across to one of the posher supermarkets for a few middle class luxuries better elsewhere but they are starting compete on that front too - can't beat Lidl for fruit, veg, bread flour, yeast with minimal upf, croissants, wine and pesto.

Ours only has a tiny basket self service bit, card only too. However if more than two people are waiting at a till then a new till is opened. It's the most time efficient supermarket around here.

I avoid our local Lidl because of the queuing. Aldi is bigger and has self scanning. I only go to Lidl when it's greek week or during the cricket season as it's round the corner from the club.

I go to Lidl because it's cheap and I enjoy the fun of never knowing what random things they'll have in the middle aisle. Not especially worried if it's quick or not.

yeah I have noticed staff are less likely to throw things at you now and go a lot slower. The issue with lidl (and aldi) is when it works, it's great, but the moment you have someone who queries a price or who forgets their card or is just very slow, then it holds everyone up, because there aren't multiple other checkouts open or staff around to go and price check so queues build up very quickly and it is really frustrating when you only have a few items and are stuck behind someone buying for the 500.

I think they are gradually adding self checkouts in more stores though, just taking a while to do all of them.

They should put those £2 discounted boxes of veg on racks by the conveyor and any customer is authorised to lob them at people who want the prices but don't play by the rules (i.e. can't keep up with scan rate and/or take their own sweet time to pack at the till).

Also staff should be able to move their trolleys to the bench and make them go over there.

Mine has got rid of half of the tills and used the space for twenty or so self check out so customer move through quite quickly...

I love the rotation of foreign cuisine. It's fun and reasonably priced! What's not to like!

Occasionally I am tempted in by the bakery and then after standing with my single almond croissant in an endless queue of trolleys I realise why I don’t do it more often. There are about 5/6 tills but I’ve never seen more than two open, even when the queues are backing up down the aisles.

I did an online shop at Sainsbury’s recently, first time in ages (and for the first time in years used a Nectar card) I was amazed at how much I got for my money. I spent £88 including delivery and have worked out it will last me a good two weeks, maybe more. It is just me here but that’s three proper meals a day plus fruit plus desserts. I have been finding Lidl’s offerings very dull and repetitive. Even their speciality food weeks don’t really tempt me like they did year’s ago. I buy dishwasher tablets there though as they’re much cheaper and seem to do a good job.

Not at my Lidl….loads of self service tills…rarely queue more than 1 person at a manned till…maybe it’s just your Lidl eh

Our local Lidl stores never let a queue get longer than about 3 people before opening another till if they have tills available - they've got self scan as an option as well but the checkout staff scan stuff at a speed that means you've got to be properly on your game to get it all back into your trolley 😆

By contrast, Sainsbury's never have any staffed checkouts open (except the cigarette counter) and the self checkouts are overseen by one harassed member of staff trying to resolve everyone's problems, do all the ID checks, put away baskets, change till rolls... Tesco isn't much better and both cost more for a weekly shop even if you buy the basic brands.