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)

Yeah the inevitable cries about disability turned up. Lidl (who have same pack later and not hold people up in queues principle), in Ireland at least, are looking at that as an issue: www.dublinlive.ie/whats-on/shopping/lidl-host-autism-friendly-quiet-13391097

But I love the challenge of beating the cashier by getting shopping into the trolley quicker than they can scan it. Clear use of bags means its also mostly packed and dont need to re-bag stuff, just some rebalancing of bags as I use public transport.

I went to Aldi once years ago.

I didn't understand the rules, have never been back.

My friend gets me Aldi wine, she knows how to Aldi and I know how to drink.

I do Aldi, but only in a limited fashion. I never do a full shop there - I just get a few things only as I know I will never be fast enough at the till to deal with my stuff. I only barely cope with the few things I get! Maybe after a few years I'll graduate to a half-shop?

DH is a champion Aldi shopper. Stuff goes into sections of the trolley according to how it will be loaded onto the conveyor belt, then packed back into trolley bags at lightning speed.

Then we moved to a country where supermarkets are massively overstaffed with incompetent people. Last week one person insisted on unloading the trolley (randomly!) onto the conveyor belt, where the cashier picked up stuff first from straight in front of her, then from three feet back, then in front of her again. Then a second "helper" body blocked us to pack the bags, badly. All this at a glacial pace.

Poor DH's perfect system disintegrated before his eyes. I thought he was going to cry at one point

(Oh yes, and you're expected to tip for this service.)

I don't understand this obsession with the checkout, I don't think I have done a big shop and gone through the manual checkout for at least 2 years.I always scan and shop , It's such a waste of time unpacking everythingonto a conveyor belt just to repackage it again.

I've never been in an aldi but it would never occur to me to put stuff back in the trolley & then pack it elsewhere
This ^^. How are you expected to know that normal rules don't apply?! Downright stupid idea to me.

Well the trolley shaped space at the checkout instead of a packing area probably would be your first clue.

@Nikephorus by having a bit of awerness of the infrastructure (no packing area by belt, ooooh, shelves and boxes over there) and seeing what everyone else is dong??? Just don't be an oblivious selfie absorbed egg and you'll cope fine in aldi.

What's a packing shelf? Our Aldi doesn't have one.

The whole packing rush thing is exactly why I don't do a full shop at aldi. I pick up bits and pieces through the week and I love the fact the staff are efficient and don't make small talk. I can completely understand why someone who hadn't been before didn't understand the etiquette although in our store she would have been told.....

I don't understand who would put their shopping onto a conveyor belt without sorting it so that heavy stuff goes through first, cold / frozen stuff is together and light stuff is right at the back?

The trick to beating the cashier is to ensure that there are tricky items scattered throughout the shopping: small, fiddly things or stuff that they have to enter codes for. This gives you a chance to catch up

The packing business is why I go to selfscan and pack as you shop at Tescos, much easier than faffing about with conveyor belts etc
I do like Aldi, however really only go in there for bits and pieces so not a full shop.

I can just about Aldi with recalcitrant toddler in tow. The checkout staff are great with her. I do the shelf or car pack though!

I have yet to come across people packing into trolley bags as quick as just putting into the trolley and packing at the shelf. Lots of people seem to think they can do it, but you can see the checkout staff just slowing down. It should be zero tolerance. Come the revolution things will revert to the good old days where if you even dared to try and pack at the checkout you would be met with a polite but stern request to pack at the appropriate point.

And I don't mind self scan for baskets, but self scanning a trolley is the slowest thing ever.

I like the stuff in Aldi but detest the experience. Someone said upthread about the assisstant barking 'cash or card' before the stuffs even packed away, to me thats one of the worst parts of it..some of us dont know till we open our purses if we have enough to pay by cash. Why does that extra 2 seconds matter so much to them??!

I rarely go to Aldi (or Lidl) and never noticed the shelf and never knew that rule so thank you Mumsnet , it will be useful when I buy the inevitable mini stollen in December or perhaps September as they are so yummy

Same as Sparkly.
If Aldi had self service checkouts, I might be tempted to go more often.

I am now so used to Aldi that Morrisons feels too quick.

LET ME EXPLAIN.

At Aldi I (correctly) fling everything into the trolley then pack at the shelf at my leisure, choosing precisely the right bag for the right item, keeping all the cold things together, etc etc. Faffing but out of the way of the queue or the general Aldi process.

At Morrisons I have to pack straight into bags at their speed and no matter how well I try to arrange the conveyor belt it's half the length of an Aldi belt so you have to stack and they somehow ignore the neatly stacked cold meat at the end of the fridge stuff in favour of loaves of bread or juice cartons or something.

YY they really aren't geared up for people that only want a few items. A 'Ten items' till they wouldn't even consider presumably due to their staffing system.

If I only wanted a bottle of milk or some bread I wouldn't even consider Aldi. Lidl have self scan tills now.

Well the trolley shaped space at the checkout instead of a packing area probably would be your first clue.

That and the metre-high signs telling you to pack at the shelf. And all the other shoppers packing at the shelf.

I once went to Lidl and the whole packing shelf was not being used. So I was doing my packing when a couple came and stood right next to me with their trolley.
The man said 'She's there so we can't do our packing' and they stood there until I had finished and used the exact space.
There was the whole length they could have used but I had obviously nabbed 'their' bit.

@NancyDonahue Yanbu. The checkout operator should have told her to hurry up.
Every time I fill in the receipt survey I make a point of asking them to fully empower and encourage their till staff to make people move to the packing bench. Mine are all too polite so I stand there with steam coming out of my ears.

@stupidcoldfeet I didn't know any of this! blush
Every branch I have been in has decently sized signs explaining the Aldi Way.

DP is a master at Aldi. He's in his element arranging things on the conveyor in order of size and shape (it's the Forces brain he has) and has a meltdown if we go to another supermarket where they have a much more laisezz-faire approach to things. Tesco is just awful for him!

When we went to Calais on a booze cruise culturally rich excursion, he was most dismayed by the French policy of supermarket shopping. IT TOOK HOURS.

ShotsFired

Encourage? They should give them tasers. DISSENTERS ARE NOT TO BE TOLERATED IN ALDI. EVERYONE NEEDS TO USE THE PACKING SHELF.

Mind you, the packing shelves could do with being bigger - some people reward their survival of the checkout by STANDING THERE AND HAVING A CHAT.