Would you object if Aldi staff checked your personal bag?

[vruskin]

Are you aware that ALDI has a policy of treating cuztomers like thieves.
I was at ALDI Caterham yesterday.
The cashier checked my empty plastic bag inside even though it was very obvious that there was nothing in it.
I then complained to a manager who didn’t even apologise and said that it is their policy to treat every customer like they were thieves.
Would you object to it? I felt disrespected and humiliated. How would you feel?

Well, this thred isn't going the way that @vruskin wanted it to.

It wouldn’t bother me , I know how prolific thieving is and shops are trying to protect their goods .

But it's actually illegal to check bags without consent. Retail staff choose to behave like absolute pricks then complain that they're 'abused' by the public. Customer service is dead in this country!!

Even a supposedly empty shopping bag?
I guess if you refused then theu could refuse to let you in the shop.

a) They don't behave like pricks in my experience
b) The abuse they get is from pricks who think they are above the law
c) Customer service isn't dead in this country. I get treated with consideration and respect, probably because I treat retail staff with consideration and respect. If this is happening to you then the common denominator is you

It's illegal to check without consent. It's perfectly legal to refuse entry to someone who refeuses.

It wouldn't bother me at all because I'm honest but I know not everyone is and you can't tell by looking who is or isn't a thief. I have nothing to hide.

Good way to make a profit lol.

There is a definite difference in customer service, depending on which shop you happen to go into.

I live near a Waitrose, so I tend to use that supermarket the most just because it’s within walking distance. Quite a few times when I was going through check-out with my daughter and had a book in the trolley for her, we were given it for free(!)

No because it's illegal to search anyone without a warrant.

I'd happily wait for them to call the police who are trained to search someone properly.

If you mean shopping bags, I'll show them my empty bags but there's no way they can touch my belongings personally.

They wouldn’t call the police
they just ask you to leave and refuse to serve you which they have every right to do

you do realise there only asking to look at the bags you have placed in there trolley there not strip and cavity searching you

Honestly I agree. Shopping now is becoming such an unpleasant experience. Do these companies have no shame.

In Australia they check your bags on the way into the shop as well as on the way out! Treat everyone like shoplifters BEFORE they even shop in their store!!!

Do you object to having your bag checked at concerts because they treat everyone like they could be a terrorist? I have no problem showing that my bags are empty. Why would I?

only time I was ever embarrassed was many moons ago when my kids were little. They were in their pushchair and I’d hung the basket on the back, run out of room and put something on the hood. Queued up. And by the time I got to the front the hood had opened enclosing the said item. I’d unloaded the shopping and got to the front. They checked the buggy basket and hood and there it was… a guilty jar of herbs (think it was mixed, might have been basil). I was embarrassed because it looked like I was stealing when it was just frazzled mum brain. But no I have no problem showing my bags are empty.

It is entirely different.

No, because that is entirely different.

Are you OK hun?

That was part of my point. 1. I wouldn't want this as a routine experience as a customer 2. It's ineffective in terms of results and just creates a shit customer experience, leading to less footfall 3. I don't even want regular retail staff to be asked to challenge potential shoplifters this way - for some staff it will not end well. When I worked in a perfume shop the manager wanted us to chase after teenage shoplifters and we collectively refused. Even if I could catch them (unlikely even when I was 20) I wasn't going to risk my personal safety for a 50ml bottle of Kouros.

Quite. Just because some people on here worship authority and enjoy being ordered around when they go shopping. Probably miss the days of being told off because you wanted to buy more than four potatoes or you took a wrong turn down aisle 4 and missed an arrow stuck on the floor.

@DeftGoldHedgehog For goodness sake. Having your shopping bag searched isn't a "shit customer experience".

You really need to get over yourself or get some therapy. And no, I don't worship authority. I'm just not paranoid.

It wouldn't put me off shopping in Aldi. What does put me off is the fact that their fruit and veg goes off more quickly and the quality of some of the food items isn't as good.

Explain how? In one situation some people steal things in their carrier bag and Aldi have no idea who, I the other some people use fake notes and the shops have no idea who. In both cases they have a policy of checking.

I don't shop in Aldi very often as despite what everyone says I find the quality of their food both fresh and prepared to be rubbish. However I occasionally popped in to take a look at their middle aisle if I'm passing and the last time I did this, in January I needed a receipt to exit the shop. I asked the guy on duty at the self service to let me out and he then told me he'd lost his card to activate the gate to let me out and that next time I should buy something before leaving. I haven't been back.

How many times have you had your bag searched when shopping? Zero times for me in 50 years. Yes it would be a shit customer experience. Grocery shopping isn't fun at the best of times, and personally I have the bulk of it delivered and only get small amounts from bricks and mortar shops. Maybe supermarkets could use, I dunno, all the enormous and massively increased profits since 2020 to have other measures to counter theft (as they already do, because most determine that having checkout staff search bags is entirely counterproductive). In fact, if they even have staff as most shops now prefer you to scan your own stuff and prefer to take the higher risk of theft over saving staff costs.

Accuse someone of needing therapy when they hold a different opinion to you is a fresh take, at least.

Do better. Expect better.

I did shop in Aldi for a long time as most of their stuff is good. Even fresh stuff, they usually have very good lemons and avocados. Less reliably, apples, green veg and soft fruit. Switched to Tesco for main shop because their supply chain is much more reliable, their greengrocery is actually better and I found myself topping up more when I used Aldi as they would suddenly stop stocking things I bought every week. And now I get a local veg box instead of buying most veg from Tesco. Then with price rises, I could see less of a difference, so Aldi lost their USP for me. I do actually enjoy going in there to get a few things but if I learned they were introducing bag searches, that would likely put me off.

Same here. Doesn’t bother me at all. It happens at all the supermarkets around me. France and Luxembourg too.
One French supermarket, if you go in with shopping
from another shop (it’s in a mall) you have to heat seal your other shopping bags at the entrance and it is checked that it is still sealed going out.

It wouldn't bother me. I am not a thief and I have nothing to hide. It's standard practice in many countries to show that your bags are empty. When DD lived in France her local supermarket insisted that backpacks had to be left at the door.