To get the aldi rage...

[chillypop]

... when people pack at the till?

Aldi is predicated on low costs, meaning a smaller number of staff, meaning fewer checkouts open, meaning the etiquette is for customers to haul ass through the checkout. There's a packing area to accommodate this!

Today I found myself and many others waiting whilst an individual decided to meticulously pack a shop which was presumably to feed the population of a small country. Even the member of staff at the checkout seemed a touch bewildered.

Yes, a first world problem. Am I just being impatient?

My Aldi technique is to pick a checkout that is busy so I have time to unload. Load on conveyor in the order you want to pack, so when I put items in trolley to begin with it isn't all mixed up and is in sections. When the staff member scans all I need to do is throw it in a bag which is ready and it is pretty much in order to unpack at home. I'm usually very quick and I wouldn't be fannying about with the back bench, infact I've never seen anyone use this ever. Seems more logical to order your shopping before getting it on the conveyor in the first place.

I always pack at the till. I put the heavy items at the front of they conveyor belt and the lightest at the back and then quickly pack as much as I can while they scan. I just throw the stuff in the bags the same way I would throw it in the trolley. If I have a full trolley I usually pack at the bench though as I find it too stressful.

Also am I the only person who has never had their shopping scanned at lightening speed and thrown at them? I've shopped in Aldi for years and don't find they scan any different to other supermarkets .

Good grief. If you are a quick packer like my DH with his long arms and spatial awareness, go for it. If you aren't quick enough to keep up with the scanner, repack at the bench. Youve already saved half an hour by not trekking miles around a huge Tesco, 5 minutes extra won't hurt.

Missing the point a bit. It's set up like that amongst other things to keep overheads down. So it is cheap for the customers. If up want shit to stay cheap then follow the thing the way it's set up. You don't get to have it all.

You don't pack at the till. It's simple.

At some point you're going to be stuck in a queue backing up while some women (because it's always women ime) carefully packs a full trolley before she pays.

It's irritating.

I would give short shrift too.

The only thing I don't really like about Aldi is the Olympic event getting through the tills.

I only usually pick up a select number of items there, not a full shop, but I put them back in the trolley as they come through the till and then go and pack them outside in the car boot. Works better for me that way. I hate being forced to go at a speed I uncomfortable with.

I always pack at the till, have had many compliments off Aldi staff on my speed and efficiency. Slow packers piss me off. 🤣

exactly.

I have my bags for life open in my trolley and throw the stuff in them - just as quick as throwing them into the empty trolley. I don't have the time or inclincation to stand at a bench unloading my trolley for the second time.

Aldi and Lidl should ditch the manned checkouts altogether and just have self-scan ones. It would cut down on the number of staff required, one person could supervise a bunch of self-service checkouts to authorise alcohol and help out the occasional incompetent customer. Self-service tills are so much more convenient.

Yes there are signs

I don't pack at the packing benches. They just annoy me but equally I also throw things in bags at the same speed as the cashier fires them through. It would really annoy me waiting for someone to pack who was holding up the queue.

I’ve honestly never seen anyone use the packing station at ALDI. My favourite part of shopping there is watching people speed pack to keep up with the cashier (I’ve gotten it down to a fine art now).

I pack at the till but it involves me chucking the stuff on the bottom of the pram so I don’t think it takes me any longer tbh.

This! I have the bags that clip on the side of the trolley so it's easy!

Get to Watrose then!

Packing bench? What the hell is that? I shop at Lidl sometimes and always pack at the till. Have never heard of doing otherwise (but have bags open in my trolley and pack quickly).

Yep. Staff member should have told her.

Aldi have pissed me off a few times this past week or so.

Letting people pack at the till! (VERY annoying.)

Also

Till no 5 was closing, and I hadn't noticed. As I went to put my stuff on the belt, the checkout operator said 'I'm closing, go to till 4.' So I did as she said. I waited patiently behind 3 people there, and some bloody woman joined the queue at till 5, and piled her 20 odd items on the conveyor belt. She completely ignored the CLOSED sign on the conveyor belt, and as she was doing it the checkout operator said NOTHING. She told me to move to till 4, but said NOTHING to this woman.

So the fucking bint sailed through while I was still standing at till 4. I don't mind taking my turn (or the tills closing when they need to,) but this was a piss take. I was actually fuming. (I know - first world problems!)

I got served 3 or 4 minutes later, and saw the woman afterwards closing her boot lid and driving off in her 4X4.

I had the last laugh though. I saw her again on the car park of the little co-op we have on the fringes of town, and I beat her to the last parking space. I was only in the shop for 2 minutes and when I came back out, she was still sitting there waiting for one of the 16 parking spaces to come up. So I got in my car and opened a pack of crisps and my bottle of mineral water, and sat there with the radio on, reading my magazine. I turned around after a few minutes and she had pulled up much closer to me, and was staring at me purple in the face with rage, as she was still waiting for a space.

As soon as a space popped up (another 2 or 3 minutes later,) she drove into it, and I drove off.

Petty? Moi?

You have obviously never been in a Lidl OR an Aldi, if you don't know what a bloody packing bench is!

Winds me up every time. And the entitled attitude of the people that pack at the till is evident on this thread! The whole point of Aldi is the speed of the checkout and less staff working them. Why should you pack at the till and other people back correctly, at the bench?!

When Aldi first opened in the UK we were putting stuff back into the trolley to go and pack at the bench, the person on the till said You've lived in Germany, haven't you? You can always tell!
My all time favourite check out experience was at a normal supermarket, maybe Morrisons, a couple were checking out when she decided to trot off to get what they'd forgotten, he'd packed it all by the time she returned with an armful of stuff. She looked at the packed bags and yelled at him that he'd not packed it right, she then proceeded to unpack it all, still at the check-out and not paid, while the queue got more and more agitated. When someone made a loud comment she turned on them too, it wasn't me, I did a polite tut tut.

YANBU but you’re not being very kind either. As others have mentioned, older people and those with hidden disabilities can’t be hurried.

I get the rage over stuff like this too sometimes (usually when stressed) and try to take it as an indicator that I might need to rethink my schedule or take some holiday. Not unreasonable to want people to follow Aldi etiquette, but you might feel better if you can accept the slightly slower pace.

I think my scanning and packing at Aldi takes about 3 to 5 minutes including paying. Usually a £120 quid shop, so pretty much whole conveyor. Think that's pretty good. I would time myself, but I will probably be the subject of a hysterical AIBU thread on here for having the audacity to time myself in Aldi.

I think some people have been annoyed I've got a big shop in front of them and it's the only til open, but that's not my problem, unless they have a handful of items, then I let them go ahead of me. I don't know why they don't do self scan there.

On the other hand I have used Asda and the lady scanning nattered away when I was in a rush and I found that much more annoying.

Not allowed in Lidl and Aldi. But I only know that from Mumsnet!

When I go to Lidl or Aldi, I use the self-service tills, so I can pack as I want (but I don't buy much there anyway, usually coffee and chocolate, so it's easy to put into a bag).

I'm quite curious what your real issue is with this. I'm guessing it's not about time, because you've got time to start this thread. Is it about rule following?

My partner is a wizard at packing at the till, he manages to keep up with the scanning somehow, I don't try to help as I'd mess up his system!