to be mildly miffed by ALDI shopper?

[charleyfarleysaunt]

Yeah, I know I'll get flamed, but I have just got to vent... on the way home tonight I nipped in to ALDI and the woman in front just didn't seem to know how to ALDI (this should be a verb)

She had a full trolley (I had a basket with 4 items in - no, I didn't expect to go in front of her although it might have been nice ) which she proceeds to unload on to the conveyor belt ONE FECKING ITEM AT A TIME. Seriously... one thing at time and then rearranging everything to the extent that by the time she had finished faffing about the poor checkout assistant had already filled that little space at the end of the till

And then... she carefully lined up her bags in her trolley and faffed even more putting everything in to bags ONE ITEM AT A TIME...

Seriously? It's not Waitrose... or ASDA... there is bloody great shelf for packing your stuff away - you bung your stuff on the conveyor belt then bung it back in your trolley and THEN faf about packing on the shelf they so nicely provide for you! It's a speedy shopping place

The entire queue behind you, you drippy mare was getting very annoyed; could you not feels the waves of irritation wafting your way????

Oh, and if they staff are actually marked on speed you have buggered up the poor, patient assistant's stats tonight

(Thank feck one of my 4 items was wine - it goes well with venting)

I wouldn't deliberately dawdle but I wouldn't rush either.

The idea of going fast is just to increase the company profits and squeeze the last drop out of it's workforce. I'll go at my own speed.

Once it becomes a race you are effectively excluding the disabled or elderly. I'd like to know what anti discrimination organisations would have to say to a company whose staff told a disabled person they are too slow.

It's the thin end of a dangerous wedge, before long we'll be rushing everywhere just so companies can cut out jobs while the service we get declines.

I'm always shocked when a checkout person at Asda/Tesco asks if I want any help with my packing. I do a tinkly laugh/ smug smirk as I say "no thanks" as if to say "just you wait and see..." My packing skills are bloody amazing thanks to Aldi. Love it.

YANBU

I'm a Lidl/Aldi expert, honed by 5 years living in Austria.......there you don't dare (or didn't used to a few years ago, now in UK ) do anything other than sweep everything straight back in to your trolley. They all use the packing shelf there

I shop at Lidl and Aldi. I've never seen anyone use the packing shelves. Everyone packs the item in their bag. The shelves are used for the children to sit and play on

I think Aldi's selling point that it was cheaper than the main supermarkets was true maybe 5 years ago, but all supermarkets are competing now. Plus BMI homestores, Poundland etc are just as cheap. Does it really matter to their profits and business model if some people are a little bit slower. Young children, older shoppers, disabilities, etc., I am not convinced.

It takes great skill to aldi or indeed lidl. It is not for the faint of heart

Once it becomes a race you are effectively excluding the disabled or elderly. I'd like to know what anti discrimination organisations would have to say to a company whose staff told a disabled person they are too slow.

I can only speak for the ALDI go to, but the staff were kindness personified to the chap who was having difficulties and seemed confused the other month, and I have seen them be very helpful to disabled people and anyone who needs a hand

My Spanish Lidaldi (see what i did there?) help you pack, no rush, no care, no one tutting or tapping feet or PA huffing.

I usually grab a couple of empty boxes and pack into them. DS then uses the boxes at home for police stations and airports and the like. Current HQ for for his 'criminals' (he loves the police) is a box that once contained anti-cockroach/ant spray. So that's sitting on my living room floor, all black and shiney and covered in cockroaches, surrounded by Lego cops. Looks nice

Thanks for the information about shopping in Aldi. I've only been in an Aldi once about 10 years ago. I had a good look around, decided it looked far better than Lidl, but didn't buy anything (can't remember why).

I'm really OCD about how my shopping is placed on the conveyor belt, and I just cannot have anything stacked - everything must be of single height. I place all the toiletries together, all the frozen goods together etc, and they must be in neat rows too. I also take great care over what order items are packed into the bags. I also have separate bags for items that go into different cupboards, not just keeping frozen separate.

I really think I need to continue to avoid Aldi based on what you've all said, for fear of being lynched! My DH can't believe how particular I am on this matter, and always tries to insist I do online shopping, as I think I drive him crazy in the supermarkets.

I have a hidden arm injury which has taken so long to start healing.

I can't cope with the Olympic event of the tills in Aldi since that occurred, so I am back at Tesco, where I really prefer the scan and pack system anyway. Less hassle for me, and normally pretty fast too.

Price-wise I don't find so much difference any more.

Sparkling I always leave multiples of heavy/bulky items in the trolley and pass one of each to be scanned with the amount I have, the checkout person then double checks the trolley. It saves much faffing!

Charley I feel your pain.

I'm an Aldi Olympic shopper. Love a blue bag challenge. I used to be scared of one staff member's speed but now I like being on their till because it's even more fun! I've accidentally told staff to "go" like we are playing a game before, quite like nonchalantly pretending we weren't having an insane race 2 seconds earlier whilst I pay . Also please get your card out people, stick it in your back pocket or something so you are ready to pay as quickly as possible.

This is why I don't shop at aldi. I don't fancy having my shopping lobbed at me.

I go every once in a while just for cat litter. There is a ginormous number on the side of the pack they read from the trolley IIRC.

There are no baskets at my local Aldis in the US. It's trolleys or nothing, though you can pick up an empty cardboard box off a shelf or out of their box trolleys if you want to use one to bring your things home in or carry stuff around the shop in.

You unload the trolley onto the belt EGGS FIRST if you have eggs. Then you wheel your trolley around perpendicular to the conveyor belt, with the child seat preventing you from attempting to load your stuff into bags, and the cashies swipes your groceries with right hand, then transfers to left hand, which puts all the items in the trolley, eggs first, carefully, and then the rest pretty fast. Then you proceed to the counter to bag everything. Or you walk to the car with your trolley load of stuff and bag it all there.

If you have nabbed a cardboard box, you would put items on the belt in order of heaviness, then put the box on the floor at your feet at the till, take the things from the cashier and hastily put them all in the box, then shift the box to the counter to rearrange if you hadn't put them on the belt in heaviest to lightest order.

You used to be able to leave your second and so on of multiples in the trolley, so the cashier could scan one and be done with it, but they have recently put up notices asking that every single thing be put on the belt. Not sure why.

They are helpful if you ask for help, or if you have some obvious issue like an arm in a sling or crutches, and I must say other customers are generally helpful too. Maybe that is an American thing.

They always open up new tills if a line develops. I can get my whole shop done really fast there.

I have several Aldi boxes at home that the cat naps in. It certainly adds to the ambiance.

In the olden days, Aldi didn't even have barcodes on the items, as it had a limited variety. I remember watching in awe as the cashier whizzed through my mum's weekly shop by typing in each individual code from memory.

I think the introduction of biweekly specials did away with that.

@Argeles I'm funny about loading the conveyor belt too. DP once tipped the basket onto the belt. I actually had to walk away and come back when he'd packed and paid.

Some posters are saying everyone uses the packing shelf in both Aldi & Lidl and some are saying that no-one does.

I clearly live in a town of two halves. In Aldi, you most definitely do the "sweep everything into the trolley & proceed without delay to the packing shelf". Nobody ever packs at the till. In Lidl you are free to chat amiably with the cashier while you pack at leisure at the till. You may get tuts from the queue, but the staff will never rush you. Lidl is more relaxed than Waitrose here!

Santas it's not packing as you would think of in a Tesco type fashion. It's two or three big blue ikea bags already lining the bottom of the trolley and hurl the shopping in as fast as you can with some sembelance of packing. Then simply lift ikea bags in to the car. No shelf required.

You get your bags ready before entering the shop and pack into them as you shop, unload onto til, reload into same bags

OMG, I'm totally doing this from now on. Great idea.

Trolley Bags are a must buy!!

They are AMAZING

Really - go and buy some

TROLLEY BAGS

Im a Super Aldier . In fact this thread propelled me to my local Aldi -which is my nearest shop !! - for 'just a bottle of wine ' in honour of having to work to 6.30 pm.

I came out 27 quid lighter but the Chilean Sauvignon blanc (£3.99-maybe £3.89?) turned out to be lovely and I have enough stuff in the fridge to last until Monday at least.

I wonder sometimes why ,if the shops have rules , they dont enforce them? Maybe they dont actually have these rules at all and its just our perception.

I was in a supermarket in canada and there were signs telling shoppers how to use the tills.
Load all of the stuff on the belt, take the trolley round to the end of the till and the assistant will deposit the goods into the trolley .You pay for the goods and take the trolley to the packing areas -newspaper provided to wrap items!- pack the items into your own bags.
If you slow down the queue they will tell you to move.
Maybe that how I honed my Aldi skillz

I do Aldi correctly now but still get nervous that I'm going to be told off at the till for some reason
Does everyone get this fear? It's not like that in Tescos, though I usually self scan these days so I can get rid of loose change without annoying anyone.

I go to Aldi to be as quick as possible, know exactly what I want, no faffing, managed to do £50 shop in less than 10 minute before. I cannot stand faffers in there. I go at 8pm to avoid them. Tonight I went and some woman was blocking a huge amount of the margarine shelf bit with her trolley, when I just needed to grab my tub of much needed vegetable lard. WHY block the shelf when the store is nearly empty? 😡 Anyway, grabbed the margarine, and my teenage Dd was 'omg mum, that lady was totally giving you evils' (she does an ace Vicky Pollard impression). Argh... I'm in Aldi, faffers feck off to Waitrose if you want to faff!!!!