Aldi no packing rule

[chunkyrun]

I always shop in Aldi. Got to the till. Well prepared. Have my bags organised ready to throw in my shopping quick as I can. Cashier told me policy is to put shopping into trolley and pack at benches. I don't get what the difference is if I put my shopping next to my bags in my trolley or straight in the bags already open in trolley. I usually chuck stuff in racing the cashier then organise stuff at benches. I just don't get the point and who it benefits. Surely most people who shop in Aldi know the drill.

I always have two large Aldi bags open in the trolley ready to pop them in as the cashier puts them through the till.

I only had a problem once when the snotty manager had to stand in for an employee and objected to me puttting them directly into their bags.

The reason they 'throw' them is it keeps the prices down as they can have a fast turnover of endless customers. No taking forever at the till like the larger supermarkets. It is a bit factory like but it does help the cost of living for the many of us that need to keep our food bills down as much as possible.

I still go to the larger stores weekly e.g. Tesco and Asda but rate quite a lot of Aldi food and dread to think how much my weekly food bill would be if I wasn't a frequent patron. It is high enough as it is as me and my teenage son both eat like gannets lol.

Excately I'm expressing why I dont shop there. The op was saying they were now having to put they shopping straight to trolley unbagged and pack. I expressed MY opinion why I dont shop there which I'm entitled to do so

I suppose it's hard for them to tell if you're going to be a quick packer or not so it's best to just say that you can't do it as some people will be awful!

As an aside WTF is the matter with people in Aldi? They just don't seem to get how a check out works. We always do a really big shop in there but the number of people that come up right behind you and start loading their stuff onto the belt when you have a trolley full, leaving no space whatsoever is probably the thing that annoys me more than anything else in life!!

We have always put back on trolley and packed at shelves... Thought everyone did?

Since coronavirus, both of my Aldis have reinforced the pack at the shelf rule every time. They used to let you get on with using bags if you could keep up but there's a blanket rule now. Presumably, they've made that decision as part of their procedures to ensure minimal customer contact time. I just pack the trolley in the right order instead and it takes around 2 minutes to sort into bags.

The assistant doesn't care what you pride yourself on. They've been given procedures to minimise risk. The woman in front of me last night was so nasty when told v politely to not pack at the till.

The policy there has always been "please pack at the shelf".
However, I've noticed on my last few visits there is a regular announcement regarding their CV policies and that states "please pack your items at your car".
It helps get you out of the store quicker so others can go in I guess.
I don't have any problem putting stuff back in my trolley and packing at the car. I might moan if it rains though!
Everything has to change at the moment and it's one of the things I'm happy to accept.

Ours is also advising to pack at your car. Fine by me but I don't fancy it when it's pissing with rain. Suppose it would make me quicker tho.

if you want to fart about packing at the till, go to Sainsburys and pay the extra.

the 2m distancing can slow things down as you can't start loading the belt until the previous person is far enough away. Don't need any more slowing down. Put it all in the trolley and bag it elsewhere. Ideally at the car because that gets you out of the shop - reduces your exposure and also lets the next person in the queue come in.

you are not special or super important. The prices are what they are DUE to this system.

I've shopped at aldi from when there were just a few shops and the checkout staff had to input the price of every item from memory. No-one's ever 'thrown' items at me. They move them through pretty quickly but I like that, shopping is a chore so the faster it's over, the better. The staff are really pleasant and helpful at our local Aldi, it's a much better experience than I've had at Tesco and some Morrisons. Not quite up to Waitrose level though

I used to have large Costco/ikea bags now have the large Lidl bags they used to sell. I open them in the trolly and just chuck stuff in as it was scanned. I've done this for years and years. When I lived in Germany I done this at both Lidl and Aldi where it was accepted (and they would shout people who where too slow or tried to pack at the till!)

YABU. This is how Aldi is supposed to operate. They are probably now enforcing it to reduce cashiers contact time.

If you don’t like it shop elsewhere.

I always feel like shouting "YES!" and pumping my arms in the air when I keep up. I'm out of practice now unfortunately

Put a couple of items in the middle that need to be weighed and it gives you a chance to catch up if you're behind.

Lidl's are doing this too unfortuntately, I can chuck them in a bag just as quickly but I don't suppose everyone is as speedy.

I've always packed straight into the car.
I have never noticed a lack of quality, either.

Genius idea to pack in car! 😃

and they would shout people who where too slow or tried to pack at the till!)

^^ I love that a trolley packing Pt

The woman in front of me last night was so nasty when told v politely to not pack at the till.

^^ no excuse for nastiness. I just carried on chucking my stuff in bags would have taken longer to take them all out.

They don't seem to think about people who are carrying their shopping home on foot though. There's never any point my using a trolley (least of all when there's the hassle of finding a coin to unlock it) because I can only carry what fits in a basket; therefore it makes negligible difference to them (as I'm a very fast packer) and quite a lot to me whether I pack at the till or the shelf - or the non-existent car.

Haven't been to Aldi since before lockdown, though, as I prefer self-service tills for minimal contact. The aisles in Aldi are narrower too so social distancing would be harder.

In about 16 years of shopping there, only one checkout assistant has ever complained about my packing at the till. I just avoided her till after that and she's long gone from the branch now

I think Aldi varies very much from store to store. Our local one (3 miles away) is fantastic, friendly staff, good layout, never had a problem with any of their products.
The next nearest (about 5 miles in the other direction) is shocking.

I'm packing in the back of the car after.

Yes - it is a bit more faffy, and takes longer.

But it means I still save £20 on my week's shopping and get nice olives and cheese as part of the deal.

This is why I don’t shop at Aldi

But I don’t see the difference between putting in straight into bags that are already open and back into your trolly and pack elsewhere

But I don’t see the difference between putting in straight into bags that are already open and back into your trolly and pack elsewhere

^^ I'm struggling to see any benefit

I noticed a couple of cashiers enforcing that rule for the first time a couple of weeks ago, after shopping in Aldi for a year and a half. I notice they seem to have dropped the idea again now.

I shop for five people and the large trolley is full. It would be far slower to carefully put everything back into the trolley and repack again than sliding it quickly into the trolley bags (having a bag to one side for crisps and bread so things don't get squashed). Plus the fact it's harder then to maintain social distancing at the packing shelf as people squeeze past between the packers and the people at the tills. plus I then spend longer in the shop faffing about packing and the queue gets longer outside. It makes no sense for a large trolley full. If I'm only getting a few things then fine.

Another trolley-bag packer here; it works very well, and while I'm slower now we all have to shop on my own, the staff are fine with it

Brilliant service at ours too; they really couldn't be better and it seems a long time ago when shopping at Aldi was an "urgh" thing to do

They're doing this at Whole Foods too.

It's absolutely pointless, just a randomly organised intervention that does nothing at all. Our new normal.