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AIBU?

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Original poster

Aldi checkout madness!

44 replies

DexyMidnight · 07/12/2018 18:52

Shopping in aldi. Just had a basket load but in a half trolley. Headed to checkout - all quite busy at 5pm on a friday unsurprisingly - and chose the one that looked most empty. Manoeuvred into checkout easily (this is relevant). Dropped the 'next customer' toblerone thing on the conveyor belt and started loading my (basketload) of bits. Had no sooner put down my third bottle of wine (#friday) when a woman clutching two multipacks of bog roll said "no! I was here first!" grabbed a basket of groceries from the foot of the conveyor belt that were sat on the floor and started loading her stuff. Shock

Her basket was in no way visible to me and it was stationed immediately in front of the checkout in such a way that my trolley didn't hit it, if you see what i mean. I assume she had left it there because the velt was literally full when she'd gone off to grab her extra bits. I had no way whatsoever of knowing she'd attempted to 'reserve' a spot in the queue. Ignoring whether that's really ok in a supermarket queue (if it was I'd just put my basket at the end of a belt while i grabbed my last bits and bobs to save time Hmm)

I said "no I'm sorry you weren't here i was here first", placed another toblerone down, pushing her shopping along the belt as i did so, and continued loading my things.

She then started reaching over me, and pulling my things off the belt and throwing them on the floor and/or back in my basket. Thankfully she never threw anything hard on the floor, just some salad and loo roll.

Other customers were looming and the checkout lady paused what she was doing and i said very loudly "excuse me can we get security here" while she kept unloading my shopping while i kept picking it up off the floor /my trolley and reloading it.

No one did anything and while she continued tantruming i said "you're embarassing yourself stop it". At this point i clocked that the security guard had turned up and i said "can you please remove thus lady".

Then someone (maybe a supervisor?) appeared and said to her "can you please come to checkout three and we will open it for you" and she huffed over there with her basket while they opened up a new checkout for her and she sailed through past everyone queuing / being served.

When i made it to the front of the chekout (quite shaken, i must say!) a woman pushed forward with two pints of milk and said "I've just got these" and the checkout lady started serving her!!! Shock

I'm afraid I'd had enough at this point and said "no sorry i was first" (yes - mildly ironic!) and when the checkout lady protested i refused to relent, and the chekout lady and the milk lady were all cats bum face.

Wtf?!

FAOD 1) if angry lady had said "sorry i was here first i left my basket while i nipped off to get some other bits" and was polite i would have let her past and b) if the woman with the milk had asked politely to skip the queue i would have said ok (maybe grudgingly because no one is so special that we can't wait our turn).

Sorry so long winded - this all happened in about 30 seconds (unfortunately apart from her being queue jumped by the staff).

My AIBU is this: is it ok to allow tantruming shop bullies to be aggressive towards other passengers and to reward them by opening a special aisle for them?!

I get that staff are not police and want to simply diffuse situations but wouldn't you (as staff) say to the customer who'd had her shopping thrown all over the floor "are you ok? Hope you don't think we condone thus behaviour we just wanted to remove the aggressive customer" - anything? Anything to make me feel human?

I left the shop feeling so upset and tbh a bit worthless.

AIBU to write and ask if they'd treat a white customer this way?

OP posts:
musicposy · 07/12/2018 18:58

To be honest, I'd always let someone with only two pints of milk in front of me in Aldi - I think 's kind of what you do as they don't have tills for only one or two items. That's unless you only had four or five things yourself.
No excuse for the other woman though. People who think they can reserve places at a till whilst they bugger off and do half their shopping need challenging!

PirateWeasel · 07/12/2018 19:02

Good lord, those are some crazy ass shoppers! And two in one day as well. Don't blame you for feeling shaken up afterwards. You just can't reserve a space in a queue by dumping your basket. If you forget something tough luck! Good on you for holding firm though. People with bad manners like that need to be told where to get off.

Original poster
DexyMidnight · 07/12/2018 19:04

@musicposy but milk lady didn't ask! She just pushed up behind me and said "I've just got these" and the chekout lady just carried on as if she had been next in queue.

I do let polite people cut in but i think it's cheeky and i don't do it myself. It's aldi. If you're popping in for milk and too precious to queue for 5 minutes you can go to tesco and try your luck at the self service (still queues there mind!)

And i only had twelve items myself! (roughly)

OP posts:
musicposy · 07/12/2018 19:05

And yes, I think staff could have been nicer to you about it.

I was in Aldi today and the lad at the checkout didn't look at me or say a single word to me. No hello, no goodbye. Mumbled the price and that was it. Was capable of shouting over me to the girl on the next door till that he only had 15 mins until break, though.

He was downright rude, so yes, they probably would treat a white customer that way. I always think it's because I've hit 50 so am now invisible. Hmm However, I think it's more to do with, you get the cheap prices, don't expect anything on top.

Chasingsquirrels · 07/12/2018 19:05

Shopping throwing woman sounds a bit unhinged if that's how it happened and I would definately expect the staff to say something similar to what you suggested.

A few months ago I let someone with just a few bits go in front of me and then while I was unloading someone else came behind and asked if he couldn't put his few bits through first. I said no, having already let someone in front of me and he was very PA peeved about it.

purplecorkheart · 07/12/2018 19:06

I rarely shop in Aldi as it is a pain to get to but go to Lidl regularly. In both though no one jumps ahead even if they have one item.

Pfingstrose · 07/12/2018 19:08

The other customers were rude and I'd be annoyed and rattled by the whole thing too.

From what you have written though, assuming the lack of customer service you received was because you aren't white, might be a bit of a leap?

Discount supermarkets tills are pretty cutthroat at the best of times.

SauvignonBlanche · 07/12/2018 19:09

I’m white and 50 so am also invisible and have been routinely pushed past in Aldi. I found Lidl to be even worse.

Original poster
DexyMidnight · 07/12/2018 19:10

I concede it might be a leap. I'm rattled. Sorry

OP posts:
PuppyMonkey · 07/12/2018 19:11

Sorry but I’m laughing my head off at “passengers.”

Basket woman sounds batshit to throw your stuff around, but I would have probably let her go first and done a cat’s bum face.

Aldi etiquette is that people with just a few things go first, but milk lady should have waited to be asked first.

DannyWallace · 07/12/2018 19:12

Omg OP I have the rage just reading that!!!
I would be SO pissed off if I was you (but I'm a bit hormonal at the minute so maybe I'm a bit irrational 😂😂).
But by the time the woman with the milk came along I feel like I would've screamed "FUCK THIS" and walked out (leaving all my stuff on the belt).

But, like I said, hormones 😂😂

cowfacemonkey · 07/12/2018 19:14

In our older Aldi store the staff are nothing but polite and helpful and would have definitely dealt with you situations! Our newer store is shite, staff never acknowledge or speak to you at the till, they are either talking to each other on their headsets or shouting across to staff on the next till.

I often let people go in front of me but not barge ahead. Except once in Iceland who justified it by saying "I'm staff" right that's much better then!

MsVestibule · 07/12/2018 19:17

I was in Aldi with a fairly small trolley of shopping. I'd unloaded a few items when a woman behind me started putting her items on, leaving me no room to put the rest of mine on. I politely told her I still had more to put on, but she just glared at me as if I was a complete idiot and said 'well, you can put the rest of your stuff down in front of yours when their stuff (i.e. the person in front of me) has gone through.' I don't think she understood how conveyor belts work Confused.

I really didn't want an argument in Aldi (I'm classy like that) so just had to pile all of my stuff in top of each other. I've never had issues like that in the far more upmarket Asda.

LivingDeadGirlUK · 07/12/2018 19:22

I have often had lovely people let me go in front of them when I am just getting a sandwich but yes the first woman sounds a bit bonkers.

gamerchick · 07/12/2018 19:23

Next time line the handle of your trolley with the edge of the checkout and then unload. Nobody else can get near the belt until you let them.

DontCallMeCharlotte · 07/12/2018 19:24

And this is why I shall never set food in Aldi.

There's a guy on the checkout in our local Tesco who flings your shopping through really fast. I asked him to slow down once and he just said "Oh you'll be fine!". I had to remind him it wasn't Aldi. And I'm not a slow packet.

Original poster
DexyMidnight · 07/12/2018 19:25

@DannyWallace i honestly wish I'd done that and for good measure swooshed my arm over the belt and swiped it all - wine and all - onto the floor. I'm so cross!!

OP posts:
HildaZelda · 07/12/2018 19:27

The staff should definitely have intervened earlier. I don't bother asking any of the female staff in my local Aldi for anything because all of them bar one Polish girl, are pig ignorant. For the same reason, I'll always go to a male manned (so to speak!) checkout.
The majority of the guys working there are Polish and they're all lovely.

figelnarage · 07/12/2018 19:32

Loony tune

CommonFishDiseases · 07/12/2018 19:32

The weird thing is, OP, while reading your post I was thinking "hmm, I wonder if OP is not White"... then I see at the end that you were wondering if race was a factor here. I don't think you are completely paranoid... I think some people consider other people a pushover or not as important based on racist stereotyping or unconscious bias. It's very hard to put your finger on it though.

happyclutterchucker · 07/12/2018 19:33

See, what you do in Aldi is you position your trolley diagonally behind you at the checkout instead of in front of you. You can then unload at your leisure (well, as leisurely as it gets at an Aldi checkout) without the hassle of other people trying to jam their stuff on the conveyor behind you and not leaving you enough room.
If need be, you can also give the trolley an accidental shove in their direction as you are leaning into it.

Original poster
DexyMidnight · 07/12/2018 19:39

Thanks all to be clear I'm no wallflower and don't go to Aldi for the retail experience. If someone 'encroached' on my space on the belt (which does happen a lot at aldi as they have no checkout area, per se) i don't get hissy or emotional but this was next level.

OP posts:
MyChemicalMummy · 07/12/2018 19:42

There's a unwritten rule in our Aldis that all baskets go to till number 8 if open, it's great

HTKS · 07/12/2018 19:46

O
M
G

I am so cross for you my BP is up and I probably need a glass of wine.

I am afraid I would have had to reenact my mums Bejam Christmas Incident of 1988.... the cashier was very rude to her so after she'd scanned through our two trolleys of shopping, but before we paid, my mum upended all the bags all over the till area, floor and conveyor belt and walked out.

MsMightyTitanAndHerTroubadours · 07/12/2018 19:48

I was stuck behind some slowpoke the other day in lidl...not only was she shilly shallying putting her massive trolley load of stuff on the conveyor she was spreading it out so that there was at least a foot of clear space between her items

Also we had already "crossed swords" in the store as she was using the wheelchair trolley and was NOT in a wheelchair and kept abandoning it across aisles so no one could get by, I had "excused me" and shimmied by her, and moved her trolley as I had picked up my goods

I had only gone in for an armful of stuff so had no trolley or basket, so I put my heavy stuff in a tall pile right at the end of the conveyor before she had placed the divider....her face was a picture at my audacity, but by then there was a queue and the woman behind me was craning her neck to see why she was not getting any conveyor
room so MsSlowPoke in front of me decided not to moan at me, and the lady behind and I just exchanged glances and sighed

MsSlowPOke took for fucking ever to pack at the till too, but the cashier did tell her that next time she had to pack at the shelf, lady behind and I practically highfived at that dressing down and because we had so few things between us we were still practically out of the store before MsSlowPoke.

Also I am more than happy to let folks with a couple of items through in front, but if they huff and puff and jostle me, then it's never going to happen, and I will strike up a lovely conversation with the cashier too, to add to their delay :o