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?

I haven’t read the full thread so apologies if someone has already mentioned it, but this is the third thread I’ve seen on here talking about the same thing so it’s obviously a new policy that they’re really pushing. Feel sorry for the workers who are probably made to do it by management. Don’t shop there as there isn’t an Aldi near me but if I did this would definitely stop me going.

I’d been in savers buying cleaning products then went to Aldi after and I had the savers stuff under my buggy (some of the stuff isn’t even sold in Aldi)

i was approached at check out and told I’d “forgotten to pay for the stuff under my buggy” I said no I bought these in savers and the guy said can he see receipt - I said no (not use I even had it tbh!) it got weird then and the security approached me and I was with my baby and felt intimidated! I did suggest he checks the cctv to see me walk in with that stuff and he said he needed proof of purchase - I said call the police if you think I’ve ship lifted then - he got flustered and I left

I haven’t went back since I feel really uncomfortable

Completely pointless. You could have a backpack stuffed full of stolen goods, purchase one stick of gum and walk out legitimately with your receipt.

I actually think these barriers are a boon to the common or garden shoplifter as for sure the store has reduced security expense in other areas, making it actually easier to steal.

Okay my comment was deleted (first one ever after years on here).

I'll put it in a slightly different way.

OP I do not consider this to be a problem, and could not care less if it happened to me. I think you should focus on something in the world that really is a bad thing, rather than this non-issue about someone glancing in your empty carrier bag in Aldi for very good reason-because theft is so widespread now.

Good for you. Arseholes!

I wish shops went further......its not unusual in Spain to have to put bags in a locker before going around the shop. You get it back when you are finished. I was in a supermarket in The Netherlands last year, you could leave without scanning you receipt.
No-one was bothered.

I had a post in AIBU about Aldi at the beginning of last year about people taking lids off things and testing even though they weren't testers. Perfume , makeup, lotion etc. I wanted to buy something and so I took the opened bottles to a member of staff to say they were unsaleable.

Then a member of Aldi staff wrote about me on Facebook saying I was rude, was trying to get the stuff that cost £7 for free (I wasn't).

The vitriol and abuse I got here from posters was off the scale. I remember being told things like having too much time on my hands, I was crazy, I was after freebies and other really nasty remarks.

Nobody thought the member of staff was out of order and thought it fine for browsers to meddle with products because they were cheap. I found it all very baffling.

Who cares? Embarrassed and humiliated - how ridiculous. They have a job to do - it isn’t personal even though you have made it that way.

If you don’t steal it isnt a problem. I also don’t mind being scanned at an airport. Same idea.

Some people just want to be offended….

There are barriers like that in both Lidl and Morrisons close to me. Tesco and Morrisons also have all spirits in locked cabinets and you have to press a button to get something out.

Don't take this personally. I shop weekly at Aldi and have now gotten into the habit of opening up/ showing them all my carrier bags.

So instead of just showing them the receipt and going on you merry way you thought it was better to argue with a baby and tell them to get the police involved.

Why not de-escalate a simple situation?

Have you always had a chip on your shoulder? Do you complain or feel so offended when you go through airport scanners? When you leave shops that have security alarms at the doorway? When a ticket collector checks your ticket on a train? What about an assistant asking to see your receipt when you want to return an item of clothing to a shop?
I’ve had my shopping rescanned in Tesco several times, my shopping bag checked in Lidl, have used Ryanair myriad times and never have I felt ‘humiliated’ or that I was being treated like a thief. That’s because I’m not a thief nor do I expect 1st class service from a budget airline.
There are so many ways we are scrutinised as we go about our daily life that we now barely acknowledge it. Getting so worked up about it is a waste of energy.

I've never thought to be offended by this - around here they check everyone's shopping bags on the way in and out. If they were picking and choosing whose bags to check that would be more offensive surely!

This isn’t the win you think it is. It does make you sound like a shoplifter though.

I don’t mind it at all.
Shoplifting is rampant, so I couldn’t care less if they regarded me as a potential thief (along with everyone else).
Our local Aldi does it, but they’re polite about it.
I’m much more annoyed with the shoplifters if anything.

I'd rather have this than the scan your receipt to get out of the barrier system they have in Lidl and Sainsburys now which are really annoying. I don't agree they are pointless as they slow everyone down long enough for a security guard to question a suspected thief, I used to see people run out of the store with their loot before these were introduced though so I can see why they have done it.

Do you mean the empty bags you have in the trolley or your actual handbag / backpack?
Doesn't bother me the bags I put in the trolley. You're supposed to have a clear trolley according to my Aldi so they check the bags to check nothing is hidden. Seems sensible to me
If you don't want them to check, use the self service ones. Most aldi's have these now too.

Doesn't bother me.

They've been doing it for well over a year at my local Aldi. I have to say I raised my eyebrow initially but saying that so much stuff is stolen from there it keeps the prices down if they do stop people pinching stuff.

But this is s direct result of shoplifting being decriminalized and police taking no action. Instead of blaming Aldi (good on them for keeping their prices down) how about lobbying for better policing?

I was a store manager for Woolworths in the 90s and we had a policy of no empty carrier bags in the store and also spot checked people we though were shoplifting. I would think it's not unique to Aldi

Yep that’s a completely comparable situation you’ve picked.

I didn’t have the receipt they don’t always just hand them out in the savers shop and I never think to ask 🤷‍♀️

Shop staff do not have the right to search your bags only the police do !

I guess the shop has the right to ban you if you don’t co operate with their policies 🤷‍♀️ but nice within walking distance to 4 big supermarkets and aldi is the only one that is heavy handed with this stuff - so people can just chose to shop elsewhere to avoid being treated like a shop lifter

I don't see any problem with it at all

What was the reason they gave for checking your bag?