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Original poster

Have you ever dumped an entire trolley of food at a till and walked out?

469 replies

sunnydaytoday0 · 07/10/2023 19:56

I was in a Lidl store today and a very long queue built up.. and it became apparent that another till was not going to be opened despite the queue getting longer and many of whom had a big trolley load of food. There are no self service tills.

I then saw a man walk to the front and dump his entire shopping on the conveyor belt of an adjacent till and stormed out.

I'm sure if there was more staff this would've been avoided so it wasn't the fault of the person on the till. I know there is pressure on supermarkets to cut costs, but is this now getting to a tipping point in terms of impacting on customer service? Or is it the case that if you go to a so called 'discounter' type shop then you just have to accept that the service levels will be bit lower which allows them to offer lower prices?

Have you ever dumped your shopping at a till and walked out? I thought if the guy wanted to walk out he could, he didn't actually need to go the effort of unloading it all on a belt in a dramatic fashion in front over the worker and then storm out.

OP posts:
1daughterand3sons · 10/10/2023 14:54

Yes In Aldi a few months back when they brought in the policy of searching bags at the tils. The guy put his hand under my pushchair to move the blanket and I told him that he shouldn't be touching my stuff left the shopping on the belt and walked out. I went back there the other day and noticed my bag nor pram was checked but other people where being checked.

Brefugee · 10/10/2023 15:17

to be fair they should either not let you bring your bags in, or should be allowed to ask to look in them.

Yes people get in a snit of "they suspect me of shoplifting" but the simple fact is that many people do shoplift. It has been normal here in Germany for years to bring your own bags/boxes and nobody has an issue with a quick "can i look in your bag" or "please lift up the box so i can see in the trolley".

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 10/10/2023 15:31

‘And those many many people who dont have a smartphone?’

Dont worry about us. We can remember to take our card with us when we go shopping, because we have not outsourced our brain to a little screen.

Greenpolkadot · 10/10/2023 16:00

Not me and not a shopping trolley but one Christmas a woman threw a Christmas cake across the queue at the checkout because they had to change the till roll.
Missed me inches

doris9034 · 10/10/2023 16:30

LightDrizzle · 07/10/2023 21:15

I once abandoned a massive trolley full of expensive Christmas food shopping at the deli counter in either Big Tesco or Sainsbury’s, because an incredibly rude assistant would not have it that while yes, Parma ham comes with delicious white fat at the outer edge in particular, the rind and any yellowing outer fat layer is always trimmed prior to slicing. She was so obnoxious about it rather than simply unaware, that I turned around and walked out. It’s not cheap and I wasn’t going to pay for what she wanted to give me and then set about it with bacon scissors! She clearly hadn’t a clue but rather than checking with someone else on the counter who might, she opted to dig her heels in and treat me like shit on her shoe.

you could just have not bothered with the ham? surely this wasn't worth abandoning "a massive trolley full of expensive Christmas food shopping" 🤔

Zimunya · 10/10/2023 16:44

nationallampoons · 07/10/2023 20:20

People who do this out of spite are just pricks. It makes the staffs day harder.

Head office will not get more staff and give more hours just because customers cannot wait.

If you've left your wallet at home that cannot be helped but customers doing it to be a prick should be banned

It's very difficut to ascertain who is having a strop and who genuinely can't continue, owing to anxiety, overwhelm, screaming babies, late for the school run, emergency phone calls, etc. Life keeps happening, even whilst you're doing the shopping.

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 10/10/2023 17:00

We abandoned a trolley load once, in France.

As we got to the till, there were some people making a fuss at the checkout, shouting and generally threatening behaviour. Then the kids made their appearance , running around customers who were distracted by the till scene and relieving them of their wallets.

We had seen a pretty similar scenario at a bus stop in Florence, there we only just forestalled the tiny hand in my handbag. So we abandoned the trolley and got out before the doors were closed, gendarmes called , etc etc.

It was a nuisance, because I had some very nice mushrooms in the basket.

DonnaBanana · 10/10/2023 17:20

Never unloaded it but I have left a basket before when I got to the tills and it said cash only. That's not my problem to sort out on their behalf.

enchantedsquirrelwood · 10/10/2023 17:24

Brefugee · 10/10/2023 15:17

to be fair they should either not let you bring your bags in, or should be allowed to ask to look in them.

Yes people get in a snit of "they suspect me of shoplifting" but the simple fact is that many people do shoplift. It has been normal here in Germany for years to bring your own bags/boxes and nobody has an issue with a quick "can i look in your bag" or "please lift up the box so i can see in the trolley".

It's funny how this stuff is apparently normal in Germany and Denmark (apparently ALL the shops in Copenhagen scan your receipt before they let you out) and yet I've never experienced it. Not once.

I did get screamed at in a branch of Norma once when I (accidentally) dropped a bottle of mineral water. Yes I do mean "screamed". Not just moaned at. I didn't shop there again. Norma is and was the pits. I walked past one the other week and it looked just as bad as it did when I was a student. For those not in the know, Norma is the (very) poor relation of Lidl and Aldi. And yet it's still going!

I saw a tweet yesterday saying that their local supermarket in Berlin had tried self serve and the customers had said only if you give us a discount or pay us so they took it out again! Good for them! That said, I do find it useful but someone made the good point that people find self service useful because there aren't enough staff - if every till was (wo)manned, you wouldn't have to wait long.

enchantedsquirrelwood · 10/10/2023 17:24

DonnaBanana · 10/10/2023 17:20

Never unloaded it but I have left a basket before when I got to the tills and it said cash only. That's not my problem to sort out on their behalf.

It's usually the other way around - you want to pay cash but the machines won't let you Grin

TabbyBeast · 10/10/2023 18:35

Cassieno · 07/10/2023 20:43

I have dumped a full basket at Sainsbury’s because the woman who was running the queue was calling men forward and ignoring me. I had previously noticed she always running to help men who needed transactions authorised or whatever and ignored women.

When I challenged her she accused me of pushing in. I hadn’t. I just said ‘OK if you don’t want my business…’. Went to Tesco down the road and didn’t look back. Lost at least £100 a week.

Edited

I hate this! Always on the self service tills the assistants run to the men who need assistance. Even running past me several times who also has an orange flashing help light. They always get narky when you point out you've been waiting for a lot longer than other customers (men) for help. I've even had an assistant apologise to a man who had arrived long after me after I pointed out I had been waiting.

MammaTill2Pojkar · 11/10/2023 14:55

enchantedsquirrelwood · 10/10/2023 17:24

It's funny how this stuff is apparently normal in Germany and Denmark (apparently ALL the shops in Copenhagen scan your receipt before they let you out) and yet I've never experienced it. Not once.

I did get screamed at in a branch of Norma once when I (accidentally) dropped a bottle of mineral water. Yes I do mean "screamed". Not just moaned at. I didn't shop there again. Norma is and was the pits. I walked past one the other week and it looked just as bad as it did when I was a student. For those not in the know, Norma is the (very) poor relation of Lidl and Aldi. And yet it's still going!

I saw a tweet yesterday saying that their local supermarket in Berlin had tried self serve and the customers had said only if you give us a discount or pay us so they took it out again! Good for them! That said, I do find it useful but someone made the good point that people find self service useful because there aren't enough staff - if every till was (wo)manned, you wouldn't have to wait long.

Show quote history

I've experienced being asked to look under/in bags in Berlin when we lived there for a couple of years, don't think I've ever been asked in Sweden yet though.

I have noticed a couple more supermarkets in Sweden adding in gates at the exit so you have to scan your receipt to be able to leave, but for the most part you can just walk out. I don't really see how the gates help either, as you could still not pay for every item and get through as long as you pay for some, I actively avoid shops with such gates when I need something specific and can't be certain they have it so I can easily leave the shop again if I don't actually find anything to purchase.

Do you mean Normal? curious as I tried to google Norma in Denmark/Copenhagen and couldn't find any shops other than Normal. I like our Normal shop in Sweden, granted it mostly sells beauty and skin care related products which rarely interest me, but it also sells a small selection of British foods and fizzy drink cans at reasonable prices compared to our local British Shop (hoping they get some decent flavours of chocolate oranges in again this year) and single serve bags of crisps, a strange phenomena with both Germany and Sweden is the lack of single serve crisps, they're almost all giant share bags.

Hoping to visit Copenhagen in a couple of weeks, we'll see what the customer service is like there.

asdfgasdfg · 13/10/2023 20:28

I can recommend the "stocard" app. Load all your loyalty cards and call them up and scan

ChickHenLittle · 16/10/2023 12:57

No I haven't done this. Because I'm not a prick.

HerRoyalGoddess · 16/10/2023 15:58

ChickHenLittle · 16/10/2023 12:57

No I haven't done this. Because I'm not a prick.

This made me laugh 👏

asdfgasdfg · 16/10/2023 16:37

My sainsbury's makes you scan your till reciept to exit the self service area

Icelandia · 10/12/2023 16:07

Yes. It felt good. But I had to go shopping again later - chose a different store.

Hollowtree3 · 23/12/2023 16:50

Yes, several times in my life, maybe once every few years. Have never felt guilty at all as I only do it if the shop literally can’t cope with serving any more customers at that time

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