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.

they have banned reusable bags at all shops as they can carry corona virus (so they say) and people dont / cant sanitize them

Who has? I've not been anywhere where they've insisted I get new plastic bags, and I've shopped at Sainsburys, M&S and Waitrose. I take a rucksack and a cloth shopping bag.

^^ previous poster from across the pond

Lets say you are going at a fair pace and not taking your time with it. What can they do.....nothing right. I would just say oh well and carry on. I mean seriously, what can they actually do......if they get shitty with you just walk out and leave the shopping that would take far more time to sort out and put back on the shelves.

^^thats what I did. Just agreed with them and carried on putting it all in my bags. Would have taken longer to take bags out.

@chunkyrun
I'm a sarcastic bugger at the best of times. Id probably just say 'that's nice but I'm ok here thanks' and carry on......My wife would have her head in her hands at this point! Lol

Packing at the car is such a good idea. Why haven't I thought of this before? I finally have a use for those crates left by delivery drivers.

I wish Aldi or Lidl would bring in those hand scanners though. I love shopping in our big Sainsburys because it makes life so much easier.

Packing at the car is only good when it’s not raining.

Our Aldi has changed the "pack at the bench" to "pack at your car" so there is no bench clogging (because as a PP has said - you cannot maintain distance).

I'm like you, OP - I have my bag open and just put stuff straight into it, but like you I was asked (nicely) to pack away from the till.

Maybe they have people (like DH) for whom packing is a challenge to get everything into one bag, like a tetris puzzle, and who take ages about it. I did point out to her (also nicely) thatI'd only bag stuff that could go straight into the bag and anything oddly shaped/ breakable/ soft/ awkward would just go straight into the trolley, but TBH I just did as she asked and then packed the bag at the car.

It didn't seem a big thing to ask of the customers, and if it makes the staff and everyone else feel safer, I wasn't going to cause a fuss. I think next time I won't even take my bag in and will just leave it ready in the boot.

Aldi are cheap because they're efficient. They have less staff, but pay them more and expect them to work harder.

Their staff are expected to scan 1200 items an hour, and their till speed is monitored (I worked there).

You may be able to keep up, but not everyone will and they can't have different rules for different people.

I have trolley bags, they snap round the trolley, then you just unsnap them at the car.

Aldi and Lidl are German supermarkets and are used to people following orders.
This doesn’t work where people think “don’t you tell me what to do I’m paying your wages, so you can fuck off, I’ll do as I like. 😁😁😁😁😁

We have this at our local Aldi and many people hate it. It makes no sense to me. I hate it with a passion. Seems like a blanket jobsworth decision.

Ok if you are a slow packer. But many aren't.

But if you have your big bags ready in the trolley, it takes as long to put into the trolley, as it would do straight into your bag.

So how is the cashier at any risk. You still spend as long near the cashier, either way.

Worse still, in Corona times, you then have to go over to the bench, repack everything : all the heavy items in the bottom of your bag and your bread on the top, so you are thus spending longer in the store then you even need to!

it just seems ridiculous to me and I hate it with a passion.

I have never had my shopping thrown at me in Aldi, though to be fair, I haveoly been going there since lockdown - there was a shorter queue at Aldi than at either Sainsbury or Asda, so that's where I went.

I have been impressed with the quality almost everything I have bought. The staff have all been very pleasant and helpful. The customers (except on one occasion where two were arguing over whose turn it was at a till, ignoring the fact that another till was shouting for customers - I went to it) have ll been very polite and forgiving of each other if the 2m rule is accidentally breached, and the very few children have been kept under control.

I'm going to continue shopping there when things are back to "normal"

Show of hands:

"Presumably, they've made that decision as part of their procedures to ensure minimal customer contact time."

No. I doubt that is the reason.
I don't know what it is. But I don't think it's that.

Besides most shoppers are relatively quick. So it doesn't actually work!

I'm in a wheelchair and automatically only select what I can carry in one bag on my lap. I then take contents out and put them onto the conveyor belt in the order I need to receive them so I can put them straight back into the bag on my lap.
This has worked to everyone's satisfaction for years, but recently cashiers have started reaching over the line of items and processing items out of the order they present in, or holding back a heavier/larger item they've just scanned, in one hand and scanning another lighter/smaller item and insisting I take that item next instead.
It's massively reducing my efficiency and making me take longer. It seems so strange to do this. Is it something to do with the new policy?

"reduce cashiers contact time. "

But it doesn't. Does it?

Unless you are a very slow packer?

Why didn't I think bout packing in the car?
Brilliant idea I'm doing that next week.

YABU.

It is Aldi, the rule is you don’t pack at the till. There are not so many tills, there are no self service tills. You need to get the hell away of the till ASAP or the queues go out of the store.

I've never had an issue with loading into my IKEA bags. Ambient bag. Cold bag. Sling it in at the same pace as the cashier.

I've been parking further away to avoid manouvering the car near queues in a small busy carparkand putting the trolley away straightaway to avoid double-crossing through the queue.

I've got trolley bags too but I was 'told off' in Aldi too recently about this. I showed her the trolley bags but she was insisting that I remove them and put everything in the trolley, until her colleague at the next til told her not to be daft.

I always pack into bags in the car boot, I'd forget to take the bags into the shop anyway.

I cant stand it when customers pack at the till, sorry OP but it does take longer than at the benches or car.

they have banned reusable bags at all shops as they can carry corona virus (so they say) and people dont / cant sanitize them

Certainly not round here they haven't. I have been using my reusable bags every week, as has just about everyone I see at the supermarket.

I do like Aldi for some items, generally non-perishables as their fresh fruit and veg does seem much more hit or miss for quality.

I'm not a fast packer due to a right arm injury several years ago (it still has metal plates in it, which I can feel if I have to work it particularly hard. So I generally pack my bags at the car unless I only have half a dozen items or so.

I admit that I am wary of the Olympic event that is getting through the tills at Aldi. I gave up packing at the till years ago soon after it first opened here, in favour of the boot of my car.

I had a cashier get arsey with me at Aldi because I positioned the trolley incorrectly meaning they weren't shielded behind their protective screen. This is because I am left handed so it is easier for me to put things back into the trolley that way. Not my fault your H&S bods didn't take account of us lefties and doing things the opposite way round when installing your screens.

OMG why have I not heard of trolley bags before?!! They look awesome! I was an online only shopper of 12-odd years prior to CV and due to lack of delivery slots/general crap missing items with Morrisons have recently started doing the weekly shop in Aldi. I always thought it was defo no packing at the till but ours seems to be quite lax and allows this (often to much tutting from the queue!). Love the idea of being able to properly order what is on the belt!
PS - Aldis in Germany are strict no packing at the till, you get properly told off if you try!

*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*

There is no benefit to pack at the shelf. In fact it means people are hanging around more packing where people have to stand close together. I'd say packing at the shelf is worse than no benefit it is actually making things worse in terms of distancing and minimising the time spent in store. Of course it may helps Aldi's profit in that people may get through the till marginally quicker but it does almost nothing at all to help social distancing inside a store.

Packing at the car (if you have gone by car) is probably better than at the till but not by much if the bags are ones that sit open in the trolley and if the packing is simple, i.e maybe one bag for chilled/frozen and everything else goes in whatever bag.

I've just messaged a parent from DD's school who is a staff member at Aldi. He said it's blanket policy to get people through faster, minimise contact with bags from home whilst at the till and decrease time face to face with the cashier. He pointed out that everybody thinks they're "just as quick" packing straight into bags but it's rarely true and the polite, v British cashiers slow down incrementally to compensate for people who are determined they're able to "beat" the cashier.

I love the MN vernacular though. Aldi threads are always an airy "throw/chuck it into bags", contrasted with the implied PA cashier who is throwing/chucking shopping in a v different way. See also anti people wearing pyjamas in public threads. How hard is it to throw on/chuck on a pair of jeans? The faux, easy superiority does make me laugh. The same people are always out simply "grabbing" an item or "chucking/throwing" ingredients together for their from scratch meals.

I haven't shopped much in Aldi recently because they always seem to have a queue out the door. I take one look and drive past!
I encountered the new rule the other day and did it all wrong because I didn't understand. The cashier put the stuff through the till and placed it in a basket to one side. I think I was supposed, at the end, to take the the full basket to the shelf but I was unloading it as fast as she was filling it. oops.
It didn't seem good to me: as everyone else says above but also the work station wasn't set up for this new normal and the cashier had to keep twisting round to put things in the basket. All their cost savings will be eaten up in employee claims for bad backs.