Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
Tjzmummabear · 07/12/2018 19:49

no it's not ok to reward wallies. But whoever said life was fair? After an Aldi Staff member was killed in North Yorkshire perhaps Aldi have stated not to put staff member's lives at risk. Perhaps why she defused the tension by opening another till.

Busybusybust · 07/12/2018 19:52

Hey Ho. Christmas is coming!😀😀😀😀😀

Icecreamdreams · 07/12/2018 19:53

I had this in Aldi, well similar. A woman left her trolley & said she forgot tomato’s the conveyor belt was full so she couldn’t load anything yet anyway - fine. But she was ages & half the conveyer became empty whilst she was gone. I was behind her & the checkout lady gestured me forward & said ‘it’s already busy it’ll hold us up’ so I started putting my stuff on. I had quite a full
Trolley & must of got half way through unloading when this woman came back & call all huffy about it ‘I only went to get tomatoes!’ I just shrugged & the cashier said it’s busy we can’t wait. She carried on huffing & puffing putting her shopping on Hmm some people are so entitled! If I forget something, then I leave the queue & accept it unless I’m literally going to be 20 seconds & not hold anyone else up! YANBU OP, those situations can really rile you up to!

fairislecable · 07/12/2018 19:54

Last week in Aldi whilst getting a few items I put down my basket at the end of the aisle in order to reach up and get some cheese (shelf was being restocked). I returned to my basket to find someone had stolen my shopping bag! It was my favourite fabric fit in your handbag one.

So I also will not be visiting Aldi anytime soon.

DexyMidnight · 07/12/2018 19:57

@HTKS: gold. Will bank for future.

Wish I'd had the foresight to let her process it all and then say "ahhhh i don't have my purse!"

OP posts:
happinessischocolate · 07/12/2018 20:27

*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* 😂😂

Id have got to that stage when they opened a new till for the obnoxious woman or even before that.

I've walked out of Lidl many a time and just left my stuff there, can't be arsed with rude shoppers and staff who enable them.

Travisandthemonkey · 07/12/2018 20:33

A check out person was so rude to bum mum once that she just walked out and left it all on the conveyor belt.
I was mortified. But would probably do the same now that I’m slowly turning into her.

Travisandthemonkey · 07/12/2018 20:33

aaaah my mum.
She didn’t rudely bum her in lidl!!!! 😱😱😱

HildaZelda · 07/12/2018 20:41

@Travisandthemonkey, GrinGrinGrin

skybluee · 07/12/2018 20:50

Well done for standing firm and being assertive.

They don't sound very nice.

They know nothing about you, you could be in pain standing or have any kind of health conditions - yet assume it's fine to push in because they only have two items. What if your needs were greater than theres? Even if not, it's really rude.

You can't leave the queue and come back and expect your place to still be there. You can ask, but it's not a given. Like you say if she'd said sorry, I just left to get tomatoes and then she was nice about it maybe it would've been different. Life is hard enough, there's no need for all the animosity and quite honestly, it would've shaken me a little bit too, sorry you felt bad.

I had something horrible in Tesco - there were two queues, one for self scan, one for checkouts. There was even a sign with an arrow saying self scan this way and pointing. There was one long queue leading back from the checkouts and no one the other side of the arrow. So I assumed everyone was queuing for the checkout (there are certain items behind it you can only get there). Anyway I went to the self scan and this HORRIBLE woman kicked up a massive fuss about it - it blatantly obvious there are two queues but she somehow missed it and thought I'd queue jumped and started shouting about it. I didn't really give a shit about the queue, shopping or anything at that point but how vile and aggressive she was about it (it was quite late too). It's probably silly but she was so over the top and bc it was a saturday night there was a weird air of aggression about outside anyway and i didn't like it...

I don't know why people have to be like this, sorry you ran into it.

BarbaraofSevillle · 07/12/2018 21:47

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

I've been shopping in aldis across the land for about 25 years and I ve never seen anything higher than till 6 .

Number12 · 07/12/2018 21:58

OP yanbu!

I was in aldi last week loading up a fully loaded trolley onto the conveyer belt when half way through a bloke came up behind my trolley and threw a whole chicken down on the belt. Well as you can imagine it landed with a thud. He then threw down a spacer thingy. I glanced up and he was staring me down whilst shaking loose change in his hand. He then threw down another spacer right next to the first one!
At this point he had pissed me off. I really don't mind letting people going in front when they only have a few bits but the very deliberate and very aggressive "look at me now I've only got one item and I should go in front" attitude pissed me off (blame the hormones) if he'd have asked, I would have let him go first. He couldn't Wait for me to notice he only had one item so had to make a show of it.

Aldi should bring in fewer then ten items till or basket only.

Number12 · 07/12/2018 22:04

Skybluee thats so true. Its peoples attitudes and the aggressive tone. Its so sudden and full on that it can be shocking and totally unnecessary.

DexyMidnight · 08/12/2018 09:59

@skyblue exactly : she could have tried the "sorry i think i was next" line eith me instead of launching herself towards me like a maniac. Swear to god she was like a banshee it was as if she'd spotted me leading her child away by the hand. Pure hysteria.

I've got a dozen items and so do you - even if you think you had successfully 'reserved' a place just chill the f out!

OP posts:
HauntedPencil · 08/12/2018 10:25

I've had the milk woman happen to me but she looked the type to fillet me like a fish in the carpark so I just let her crack on.

I do feel sorry for the till people though to be honest they must have to deal with this crap all day long.

Basket woman was bonkers. You just can't do that.

DexyMidnight · 08/12/2018 10:36

@Haunted the checkout woman was completely lacking in any social skills. I waited my turn to be served (think two people ahead of me) and when i got to the front she didn't even say 'hi' let alone 'sorry about that'.

I would expect her to have said to one of us (me or angry lady) 'don't worry I'll be right with you' - ANY attempt to diffuse the situation.

Urgh

OP posts:
queribus · 08/12/2018 10:38

This thread has reminded me why I avoid Aldi and Lidl Grin

But those posters talking about unwritten rules and conventions, how on earth are you supposed to know!? Is it some sort of weird telepathy know only to regular shoppers, or a secret hand shake, or some thing??

Surely you just get your stuff, stand in queue, pay and leave...

Seniorcitizen1 · 08/12/2018 10:42

I understand these lower kevel supermarkets have a strange system at checkout so avoid.

Singlenotsingle · 08/12/2018 11:00

Travis made me laugh out loud Grin

New posts on this thread. Refresh page