Aldi bag search

[tiger2691]

Motorcycle panniers, on the baggage hook on the trolley, not in the trolley, reasonable or unreasonable? I told the checkout operator that it was unacceptable, and he said it was company policy. Strangely enough my fairly big shoulder bag, which I was wearing, was ignored. I felt a bit sorry for the bloke tbh, I don't think he really wanted to do it.

I shop there weekly, it's not like I'm new. Anyway, I consented, but I wont necessarily do so if it happens too often. Profiling perhaps, because I bought a bottle of rum, ha!

i bought a bra in M & S and they have to open the box and check

They shouldn't search people like me, especially in this leafy area.

Do you look like a wrong 'un though?

ha ha

I wouldn't mind being checked tbh. I often take bags in and could easily slip stuff in there! Our aldi can't even have carrier bags out because people nick them.

I imagine shoplifting has got quite a bit easier since the introduction of charges for carrier bags and the normalisation of people bringing their own bags or other receptacles

Yep and now people use them instead of baskets, so you watch people going round filling their bags up not knowing if they're gonna dash off or not.

We ask people to just use baskets but alot refuse

Of course the customer shouldn’t have the right to refuse, that’s ridiculous. You enter their shop, you accept their terms. Paniers on a trolley would be a prime place to hide stolen goods. I’d much rather bags were searched and prices kept down as a result of less shoplifting.

Most shoplifters are regulars because they do it until they get caught, chatting to the cashiers, paying for part of their 'shopping ' all adds to the image of how trustworthy they are.

Just leave your little bags on your bike in future.
^^
That's unreasonable - they'd be nicked.

I wouldn’t shop there again if they tried that - my local Aldi’s never checked my bags before, and I often come in having already picked up a few pieces in Morrisons/farm shop etc.

I did once get hauled up in front of all the other customers in a Tesco self-service. I’d bought £80 worth of shopping but hit the wrong pastry on the bakery screen by mistake, a 5p difference. The security guard came over with the checkout attendant, all Billy Big Bollocks, loudly proclaiming that I was shop lifting and making me unpack all my shopping bags and re-scan everything while he kept up a loud commentary. I was mortified.

The attendant or the guard must have seen when I hit the wrong button and could have quietly come over and pointed it out but chose instead to ‘make an example’ of me. I paid the 5p and never went back there again.

So…I may just be traumatised lol.

I wouldn't say most, but the most effective and prolific ones definitely.

We had one that used to ask us to stock stuff and then come back and steal it, which was eventually how we caught her after she'd been shopping in our place for nearly a decade

I honestly don’t understand why people on this thread have an issue with bags being searched. Surely it’s better that theft is reduced and prices are kept low? Smirking at a poor employee just doing their job? Grow up!

I have never ever had my bag checked in a supermarket. Nor have I seen it happening.

It's interesting that the big stores are starting to crack down now, their lax approach and the police approach (no arrest for under £200, so basically no one) have made people fucking brazen.

Different worlds!

agree,
i have absolutely no problem with showing my bags
and if i have shopping from another store in said bags, i might have the receipt, or it might say Waitrose on the tin for example.
they dont want to run after you, they dont want to wrongly accuse you, but they do need to simply check your bags. no problem. dont take it personally, it is not intended personally.

On the one hand, shops are complaining that shoplifting has gone up - on the other, they are replacing staff with more and more self-service tills.

The answer is staring them in the face.

but it costs to employ staff

Why do you take your panniers into the shop?

I'd have to side with op. Unless they saw you putting item in it ,I do t think they had any grounds to search your panniers.

Switch panniers for prams and ask if it would acceptable to search without good reason

I've had my reusable shopping bags checked to see there was nothing already in them. I had a clear conscience so it didn't bother me in the slightest. Of course, people probably go in and try to hide some batteries or whatever in their bags so why wouldn't they search them? That don't know who is/ isn't going to nick stuff.

Shop staff have no power to search you, even if the know you have or suspect you may have shop lifted. If they want you searched then they would need to call the police. The police must have reasonable grounds to search you, just having bags on your trolley isn't enough.
Shop staff cannot detain you while they wait for the police if they are only suspicious. If they know you have been shop lifting however they could make a citizens arrest and detain you while the police are called.
What they can do is ban you from the shop. A lot of areas have shop watch schemes which would also ban you from all other shops in the scheme.
The easiest thing might be to just not put the bags in your trolley.

Yes - presumably it is cheaper for them to lose revenue through shoplifting than it is to pay wages - they have made their choice, in my view.

I have no problem whatsoever with being searched. My usual routine is to take my backpack to load shopping into. This weighs more than an empty bag as it always has detritus supplies in it (glasses, phone recharger etc - the phone recharger alone weighs more than their scales accept for an empty bag). I always unzip the BP fully and leave it exposed on the scales for the MOS to see it has nothing from the shop inside. Why not?

My local one now searches your bags in your trolley when your all set up and read for the checkout.