to get really irritated by Aldi opening and closing tills?

[flitwit99]

I was only in 15 minutes and they must have opened and closed till number 5 about 4 times. Then they opened till number 6. But then closed it again once it has served one person. Drives me insane.

I feel like I'm missing out here.

An Aldi opened up a few months ago near me. I was quite excited about the challenge of packing faster than they could scan!

Been a handful of times now and they've scanned reaaaaally slow

I had the opposite experience one lidl the other day - the only way I can keep my toddler entertained in the shop is to let her push the trolley. She powered ahead leaving me to desperately throw everything on the list into the trolley as she marched past it. Felt like I was playing supermarket sweep!

Aldi have the highest basic supermarket pay if you take London stores into account; Sainsburys if you don't with Aldi second.

So the pay ain't hat good then. And why would I take London stores into account, I don't live in London- it's not the only place in the world you know. I disagree, there are other ways to provide cheap food without treating staff and customers like shite.

And why would I take London stores into account, I don't live in London- it's not the only place in the world you know

Why would you exclude it from a national statistic?

RE beating the packing, if you strategically place bananas and pastries on the belt it really slows the fuckers down.

They do it at Lidl too.

I think Aldi is very efficient. The till opening and closing thing is understandable. I don’t even mind being in a bit of a queue as I use their free Wi-Fi and check things in my phone while I’m waiting.

It is annoying. Equally annoying is there is no till for 10 items or less. Often had to queue behind a couple of big shops when I have four or five items..

*And why would I take London stores into account, I don't live in London- it's not the only place in the world you know

Why would you exclude it from a national statistic?*

Because I am assuming it is an anomaly and the high wage affects the average disproportionately.

But, really that's not my point. I have seen Aldi's and Lidl operate in a much more civil manner in Europe, I'm assuming their wages are compatible. I have seen other stores produce food for cheap without having to purchase unripe avocados, rotten potatoes and green bananas, And without those silly till games

It is annoying. Equally annoying is there is no till for 10 items or less. Often had to queue behind a couple of big shops when I have four or five items.

So true... I have gone in there before for a few items and have dumped my food as not wanted to wait in the queue

This is the world of retail now. They keep the bare minimum of staff now. Whatever they are sent off to do, it won't be long enough to get anything finished

The only lidls I've been in have all of 3 checkouts. One was threatened with closure and the staff were monumentally slow. The other two just had long wuesrs, period and weren't the least bit fast when we got served. Most of the aldis I've been in seem well oiled, apart from the one time I went into one off peak, between Christmas and New year, and the poor sales assistant had a streaming cold and bags under her eyes and had just had to deal with a woman handing her about 10 boxes of mints, one at a time, rather than putting them on the belt!

@rubyroot last time I was in there with my five things, the lady in front of me with her two things did that. Said she had a shift to start and could not hang about.

Ruby, London accounts for about 15% of the UK population. Hardly an anomaly.

I generally like most things about Aldi - the fast tills being one; I love taking my time at the packing shelf without holding up a queue. Don't have the patience for Tesco tills anymore, but luckily they do have self-scan.

I'm with the OP on the constant loud exclamations over the whole shop on the status of tills, though. I assume there's a purpose for it (people are too stupid to look at the green and red lights?), but it's very loud and nearly constant, and puts me on edge. I'm jumpy at loud noises at the best of times, and the shops are already a bit difficult (so many sounds, bright lights and people around), so I could do without them.

Absolutely yes, the lack of basket / small number of items / self checkout tills is really annoying. I pretty much only use Aldi got nappies, recently I’d picked up a couple of things then found the nappies I wanted were out of stock. Looked at the queues, decided the couple of things I had weren’t worth waiting for and left them. If there had a been a quick option I’d have bought them.
I can’t imagine ever bothering to do a full shop there, the toddler and baby are grouchy enough by the end of a shop without getting everything back out of the trolley after it’s been paid for and repacking it again on a separate bench.

I pack at the till, basket usually 10 items or less and am super fast. I live about 3 minutes away so i just chuck things in the bag indescriminately.

Occasionally I do a big shop at Sainsbury's and I find it difficult to keep up because I normally have my big shop delivered and you have to consider putting heavy things at the bottom etc when you are packing bags for a car. Maybe I'm buying the wrong things but I don't actually find Aldi that much cheaper. I used to live in an area where the only option was Tesco for miles around, and it's definitely better value. But Sainsbury's basics is similar in price and quality to Aldi.

Ruby, London accounts for about 15% of the UK population. Hardly an anomaly.

I don't think you understand. I will try and put it simply... if the pay in the rest of the country is say... £7.50 and in London it is say 12.50. It will affect the average pay disproportionately as most in the country will be paid 7.50 but the average will make the pay appear significantly higher as it has been affected by a high value.

@Wearywithteens- totally agree with this. Couldn't have put it better myself!

I shop there as I like the prices and a lot of the food and wine. Put up with the checkout system and having my shopping launched at me - but it really irritates me when they try to move my trolley a certain way round - even though it's not causing any obstruction to anyone.

The two Lidl’s I use are very different. One has a self service check out and usually 3 out of the 5 manned tills are in use. The other, which is nearer to me, has about 7 manned tills and usually only one (occasionally 2) is manned. I avoid that one if I can. It’s a shame because before they rebuilt it it was actually quite good. I choose the closer Aldi mostly.

The local Lidl here used to have self-checkout, but they got rid of them all, presumably because of shoplifters

Love Aldi and Lidl because unlike Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda I don't have to put up with a cashier who goes slow and wants to do small talk about the stuff I've bought.
Yes these peppers ARE on special offer and this choc pudding DOES look wonderful.
I DON'T CARE! I just want to get through the tills asap, pay and pack my stuff afterwards, not chat about the weather, holding everyone else up behind me.