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?

Gosh. I’ve never experienced a bag check at the supermarket! Unless you count the self check out ‘unrecognised item in bagging area’ alert when I have to get a staff member to come and swipe to tell the machine to please just get on with it - but even then they don’t look in the bag! Probably because those machines as so flipping useless. I thought with shoplifting the biggest problem was the large scale some people are committing it on, going into the same stir several times a day and clearing shelves? Where the security staff aren’t actually allowed to physically stop them..

I don't mind at all if they look inside my 2 or 3 carrier bags. They don't check handbags (they can't).

If you’re not a shoplifter, why are you bothered?
Thieves operate daily and come from all walks of life. The stores have to do something.
Just don’t take it personally. You are one of many who get checked.

This wouldn't bother me in the slightest.

They are doing their job. No need to get het up over it if you've nothing to hide.

it’s their premises their shop their products their rules. Don’t like it? Take your money elsewhere 🤷‍♀️

My local aldi has asked you to open up and show the empty carry bags to the staff. They've done it for years. I've never seen staff touch the bag just watch me hold them up. I have no issue with something that takes 5seconds. 🤷‍♀️

This.

I find it bizarre that people think this is normal. I've never seen this on my life, not even in my multiple retails stints.

Nope, it’s not like they asked you to open your handbag and called you a dirty thief!

A Lidl has opened up near us recently and I was a bit taken aback to find that if you’ve. gone though the self-service checkout, you have to actually scan your receipt at a barrier to be allowed out! I know most places have sensors, and alarms go off if anything untoward is detected, but it’s the first time I’ve seen a physical barrier in a supermarket preventing exit.

Cant stand Aldi! Staff are the rudest (generally), there is absolutely no customer service and you get your shopping thrown at you as a thank you.. so this doesn't surprise me. Didn't mind when it was cheap. Nowadays it'snot any cheaper than the supermarkets.. you can buy naff Aldi branded products for the same price as branded in many cases. Quality has gone downhill massively. Oh and while I'm at it, can't stand how they copy the big brand items and packaging is almost identical!!

Really? This is very common on the continent

The way to look at is they don’t know you personally so it’s not personal. You know you’re a law abiding citizen but they don’t. They could go about it with a better manner though.

I watched a Youtube video yesterday of a 63 yr old upstanding looking woman and her perfectly decent looking daughter get apprehended for stealing money out of the tip jar in a coffee shop (USA). The mother was very offended and denied any wrong doing, even when the police officer showed her footage of her taking it. You wouldn’t have guessed these two middle class looking women were thieves. 🫤

Well clearly we’d all like to live in a society where we weren’t accused of being thieves. But we don’t and we can’t. I would rather show the contents of my bag than have prices inflated to cover thieving. You do realise that a massive chunk of shoplifting is done for resale purposes (eg nappies, laundry detergent)? I don’t want that to be able to be done.

I think I would feel shitty if I was the only person whose bag was searched but searching everyone’s seems like the right thing to do.

Humiliating and disrespectful would be an announcement going out over the tannoy "would security please search the woman in the pink fleece at checkout 5. She looks well dodgy' followed by a public pat down whilst surrounded by sniffer dogs. Humiliating isn't someone asking to glance in a carrier bag that they can then see is empty.

I am assuming that @vruskin is not a 6'4" bloke. I wonder if she would have received the same lack of courtesy or even been asked if she was

I do my weekly shop at Aldi and have done for years, no one has ever asked to look in my bags.

This has been a thing at Aldi for ages, doesn’t bother me in the slightest. It did at first as I always set my bags out in the trolley in anticipation of the stressful game of packing as quick as they scan, and them making me lift the bags to show they were empty put me at a disadvantage for the game but now I just ask them to hold off on scanning until I’ve sorted my bags and it’s fine.

far better to treat everyone as a suspected thief than single people out- I’d definitely be offended then 😅 shop lifting rates have increased dramatically, they’re jus trying to protect their business. If you really don’t like it I guess just shop somewhere else.

Yes, I am aware because they did a big announcement about it when they decided to do it.

I can’t imagine them doing that here as people would definitely complain. Also, I don’t believe they’re legally entitled to check your bag if you refuse to let them. They have no special powers. 🤷🏻‍♀️

They should employ security staff if they actually want to catch thieves but it’s cheaper to get till staff to humiliate ordinary customers.

My shopping bag(s)? I don’t think I‘d mind. My personal bag / handbag? that would make me uncomfortable.

But my shopping bag may not be empty when entering the store due to getting items from various shops. So there’s that 🤷‍♀️

If you’re humiliated by that, you can always do a click and collect.

I am fed up with the number of people I see stealing from shops so wouldn't mind this. Do you get upset that people think you are a terrorist or knife carrier when your bags are checked going into venue events? This isn't really any different.

Everyone knows people steal from supermarkets so if it helps keep theft down and this prices down, I don't mind.

But then I've lived in Australia where bag checks are usual as you walk out of a department store if you're not buying anything, didn't bother me.

No it wouldn’t bother me at all. If you have nothing to hide what’s the issue? Shop lifting is out of control now. Some people's really will steal anything.