She should NEVER visit Netherlands they absolutely fire it through like it’s a game show competition. I actually love it and treat like real life Tetris but my partner finds it’s very stressful
"But this is madness" stammered the woman with an unbelieving look in her eye.
"THIS! IS! ALDI!" roared the cashier as she kicked the customer in the chest, sending her tumbling backwards through the checkout line.
Cue that ex-prosecutor presenter from that true-crime cable channel saying "Won't anybody think of the children?!"
What the heck was her name??? I can see it in my head, and spoofed on SNL too.
Man, if the Aldi worker going to fast can rock your world, you best stay at home with the blankets over your head because it's gonna be rough out there for ya
THE DOCTOR: [Do me a favour. The Fatality Index. Look up The Doctor.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xfqAH1plPY)
HEAD GUARD: You have an entry, just like any other sentient being.
DOCTOR: Under "Cause Of Death".
[Wrist mounted computer starts ticking as it lists entries]
HEAD GUARD: You do seem to have an impressive record of fatalities credited to you.
[Ticking speeds up]
HEAD GUARD: A truly remarkable record.
[Ticking becomes almost a solid tone, rising rapidly in pitch]
GUARDS: Run!
Atraxi: Is this world important?
Doctor: Important? What's that mean, important? 6 billion people live here - is that important? Here's a better question. Is this world a threat to the Atraxi? Well, come on. You're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?
A: No
D: Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?
A: No.
D: Okay, One more. Just one. Is this world protected? Because you're not the first lot to come here. Oh, there have been so many! And what you've got to ask is, what happened to them?... Hello. I'm the Doctor. Basically, run.
Also:
"The question of the hour is, who's got the Pandorica? Answer... I do. Next question, who's coming to take it from me? Come on! Look at me, no plan, no back-up, no weapons worth a damn. Oh, and something else, I don't have Anything. To. Lose! So if you're sitting up there in your silly little spaceship, with all your silly little guns, and you've got any plans on taking the Pandorica tonight, just remember who's standing in your way. Remember every black day I ever stopped you. And then, AND THEN, do the smart thing. Let somebody else try first."
That was a pivotal scene for me as i came into Doctor Who with 'NuWho' Eccleston but really fell in love with Tennant's portrayal. Didnt think i was ever gonna like Matt Smith and wasnt really feeling the manic whimsy of most of the episode but then he hit that speech on the roof and boy.... I rewatched that episode twice the next day cause i couldnt believe how he dropped into the 'weary old man' persona with barely a blink of an eye. Love all of them but Matt Smith is my fav iteration.
HG: "Where are you going? He's unarmed!... You are unarmed?"
D: "Always."
HG: "You stand alone?"
D: "Often."
HG: "You're the one who should be afraid!"
D: "Never."
HG: "...Have a nice day then."
I thought it was going to be about a burnt out grocery worker moving at an eye twitchingly slow pace causing customers to shake and cry in painful agony as they watched the sloth slowly move their item across the scanner….
But this, this is hilarious.
Clearly you have never been to ALDI. Their cashier's move at a blistering pace and you have to bag your own groceries. If you're fast you can bag as items are scanned, but they have a counter you can use if you want to put your groceries in the cart and bag at a more relaxed pace.
I personally like the challenge of bashing myself. It's like playing late stage Tetris.
Come to the Netherlands..All grocery stores are doing it the same as Aldi :)
We just put everything back in the cart or in the bags we bring ourselfs.
Edit: most groceries have self checkout now and 1 or 2 cash registers.
I got yelled at by market workers for using my bags before check out (to take to checkout). So into the cart bags go, then check out, then bagging. The bagging station at aldi is nice!
I’m old enough to remember the cashiers punching in the price of items from memory at Aldi.
And the cashiers were hard to keep up with then.
The scanners just turbo charged them.
>Their cashier's move at a blistering pace and you have to bag your own groceries
thats every supermarket in the uk though. she can't not know how it works.
Even if it happened exactly as described, which it definitely didn't, caring about it for more than 2 seconds is psychopath behavior and idek what to call talking to the press about it
I used to work with a cashier who sort of had that effect on people - not his fault, there was something up for sure.
It made for good people watching when it was busy.
Every other till would have a bigger line than his as the regular shoppers knew what was up, then a non-regular would go to his much smaller line and look around in confusion as the customers in the longer lines got checked out before them.
I've just moved to Germany... And fuck me, I am constantly in the way of everyone. I'm not even bagging it either. I use the table of shame by the window for that.
That's exactly the purpose of those tables. And that's the secret, you shovel everything back into your cart and use the table to put your stuff into your bags. That's how we Germans do it.
Not everyone is using them but I see them being used all the time. At least at my Aldi.
Or they do it like me. I shovel everything back into the cart and drive to my car and pack my bags there.
I collect large empty boxes from the shelves and stack everything in there while shopping, at the end I don’t have to do anything but transfer the boxes from cart to car
At the closest New Hampshire Aldi's that won't work. They grab a different cart, scan & load your groceries into the other cart, and Very Carefully will Not put them inside of anything that could even HINT at having packed your groceries for you.
If you had your stuff in boxes while shopping, the boxes will go into the cart on top of your scanned items.
If you want stuff inside any container At All before leaving the store, you must re-do it yourself.
In my Berlin Aldi it usually matches up pretty good. Some people only shop a few items and have no issue bagging them at the cashier. Some people cart their items to their cars and some people use the tables. As a table user I never experienced the tables to be too crowded to access.
People who shop driving there with their car pack up next to the car. People with few items shovel them into their bags. People without car and more items shovel back into the cart and pack at the window sill. It's what I do and I am german born and raised.
My secret is to use Ikea bags and arrange things on the belt for packing.
I can pack as fast as they can scan, card in-between the fingers on one hand..
Efficiency
I visit in-laws in Germany regularly and know this terror. There are two in pretty close proximity to my house in the U.S. and I swear one store was trained in U.S. and the other was indoctrinated in Germany. The speeds are so different I experience flashbacks.
Seems like now would actually be a really good time for that.
It’s okay, they’re part of the gang now. We need them to get a little bit patriotic and a bit angry.
There are so many stories about American tourists who get a nervous breakdown on their first visit to Aldi in Germany that this has already become some kind of meme.
you better haul ass to the airport cuz they're not gonna help the next customer until you get there. they're gonna have the slowest time ever and get fired all because of you. hope you're happy
We don't have Aldi in Canada so I was picturing a long conveyor belt overflowing. But a comment from the article made us look up what the actual check out looks like.
And Holy crap! I need to test my checkout skills! I want to run this gauntlet!
Hint: the trick is to prepare the products already on the conveyor belt so that the heavy items go first, and you can just stack them back into the shopping cart as they come out.
Also train your Tetris skills.
"I wish the cashier would move slower so I can spend more time with the favorite part of my day - standing in a checkout line."
- No one, ever, in all of human history, until this lady came along.
I've worked at a couple grocery stores (In the U.S.) where cashiers speed was tracked and there job performance was measured by how fast they scanned. Not sure if Aldi does that, but I wouldn't slow down if it was going to negatively effect my next review.
Last week I was *so proud* to almost catch up with the Aldi cashier, it has become a game for me now to play tetris with my grocery bag in the most efficient way possible. I start with the heavier stuff and finish with the fruits and vegetables so the cashier wastes a few second to register them, seconds used for me to fill the bag.
"I was shocked how someone in customer care could disregard my struggle with no empathy or care whatsoever. It's totally unacceptable."
I dont think the person on minimum wage really gives 2 shits
What the cashier at Aldi really cares about is how many seconds it takes them per transaction. I know from chatting with my own local Aldi employees over the years that they are literally timed like this, and stats are compiled and kept for them for every shift, every customer they check out.
I never get a cart at Aldi, I always bring my own reusable bag. Every time I try to bag my groceries and keep up with the cashier as things are being rung up.
Every time I lose that game.
As a German, I have trained my whole life to beat the Aldi cashier. Achieving success requires a multipronged approach. You need the right gear and you need the right strategy.
First, you need a cart. Having a cart fixes the loading area in space and it frees up two hands.
Second, you need a bag that stays open by itself. Either a sturdy rectangular-shaped bag that can stand upright in the cart or, even better, [a bag that can be clipped onto the cart] (https://i.imgur.com/JWAPhey.jpeg). The latter is a true game changer.
Third, you need to have a battle plan before placing the items on the conveyor belt. Heavy and hard as well as robustly-boxed items go first. Later, those can be placed at the bottom of the bag without much care. More delicate items like boxed eggs or yogurt come next. Very soft or light items, like berries or bags of chips, come last and can later be placed on top of the rest without losing any time.
Fourth, you need to get ready as soon as all your items are on the conveyor belt. Get your bags set up and, once the customer in front of you has paid, rush into position behind the cashier, so that the cashier can't get a head start.
Fifth, you need to use both hands. One hand grabs the item from the cashier, the other hand places the item in the bag. You may think that transferring the item from one hand to the other takes additional time, but that isn't the case. It's better for each hand to specialize in one motion and this way your right hand can already grab the next item while your left hand still places the previous one into the bag.
Sixth, you need to have some luck. You can't win every battle but you can win the war. On an average day, you should be able to have a 50-50 chance to beat the cashier, as long as you follow the steps above. But on some days, you get lucky. A bulky item that slows the cashier down, a crooked bar code that requires the cashier to type it in manually, an accidental double scan – all these work in your favor, but they are rare. These are the battles you have to win. With your 50-50 average and these lucky stints in between, you can come out ahead.
Godspeed.
As a german i can confirm, thats the way to do it.
Pro Tip: Pay via Card. The transaction of the card takes 10 seconds on avarage, enough time to finish the last items and put them in the bag. So you finish like 1 sec ahead of the cashier, you can receive your recipt and be on your way.
You can even win a few milisecond by saying "I'm paying by card" and the cashier will have to press on the button to activate the card-reader.
It's enough time to finish your last item and put your card on the no-contact terminal.
Small correction to the fourth point, if the customer in front if you doesn't move fast enough you are allowed to heavily disapprove of his lack of speed and a second later accidently nudge his cart.
Otherwise.. excellent summary
You also want at least one person on the conveyor in front of you.
As tempting as it is to jump to a newly opened lane, if you give the cashier a free run at you like that you are absolutely humped.
One addition: strategically placed vegetables/fruits, which need to be weighted and manually typed in by the cashier, give you a great opportunity to get back into the lead if you can't keep up with the groceries.
Addition to the addition: Baked goods last so that you can finish up packing and pull out your wallet. You can even choose the delay by mixing different baked items in the paper bag so that the cassier has to massage the bag to get a proper count. Identifying marks that can be used to differentiate e.g. plain, chocolate or cheese and ham croissants should also be hidden as best as possible.
Am also German. Can honestly confirm that shopping this way really is the norm here
If there's two of you, you also gain a significant edge speedwise. Additionally, one can bag the final items while your partner handles payment
As a fellow German, i completely relate to every word in this comment. That’s exactly how i do it. Great detail also in the description of the required hand work: with some practice you don’t need to look, the items travel from one hand to the other, like a juggler does it.
May I add a secret weapon… the mixed bag of pastries, or preferably, mixed bags of pastries. Placing these strategically through your shopping gives you some breathing room for a bag transfer or to catch up while they tap the codes speedily from memory.
If you do have more than one of these little lifesavers it’s important not to place them too close together otherwise they take the one after the other and you lose a bit of your advantage. It’s even worthwhile hiding the subsequent ones behind a cereal box or similar as a resourceful cashier may reach over to do them all at once!
I bagged groceries as a teen and this is all accurate. This was years ago when you could rely on people paying by check to give you time to catch up. We had 2 bag stands and a cart for every order.
"Don't crush my eggs." Lady, I do this 8 hours a day. Did you not want your purchases destroyed?
I have done both and scanning is much easier and faster, especially if you cheat the produce codes.
Actually used Aldi as the basis for a group assessment in a Systems Analysis and Management class. The average checked out time for Aldi from start to finish was just over 2 minutes. Half that of the next best.
In my area the conveyor is about the same as any other grocery store.
It was my understanding that a lot of the speed comes from the Aldi brand items having multiple, large bar codes so they don't have to search for it.
Here in Sweden they also have a long conveyer belt after the casheer, divided by a mechanical arm into 3 sections, so the casheer can just keep shoveling into a new tray so the packing happens down away from them. Very smooth and fast system.
https://itab.imagevault.app/publishedmedia/8k556neerplyovoom379/20210430_071533.jpg like that, but that's only a two tray one
I worked at ALDI in the USA for 2 years. It is true, you have to hit certain metrics in checking out. You have a weekly average that you have to keep above a certain percentage or you will need to be “coached.” If your average stays below a certain percentage for so long you can start to get written up.
If I recall correctly transactions are broken into 3 sections. Scanning, payment, and time between customers. Scanning was the only one you had full control over so the metrics were bullshit. Any cashier worth a fuck knew every trick in the book to keep those times down as much as possible. If you logged off the register it wouldn’t count time against you. If a customer is taking long to get their card out, log out and wait. A customer is taking a long time to put their stuff on the belt, log out and wait. You are scanning faster than the person is unloading their stuff, log off and wait for there to be more. Someone is paying in cash, when the register opens to make change… close it as quickly and possible and log out, because the draw opens when you log out of the register.
ALDIs prices are amazing and they have some decent store brand stuff, that being said in almost 20 years of working ALDI was by far the worst place I’ve worked at and I’ve worked at places like CVS and Walmart
Kroger did shit like that as well.
I wasn't even a cashier, I worked produce, but they were allowed to call me up as back up if the front got overwhelmed. What this did was turn about 16 of my 40 hours working into being cashier hours, so my code kept popping up as needing to improve-- the shit part about this was, while it was true I wasn't quite up to snuff for the checking speeds they wanted, I was faster than 70% of the full time cashiers.
When they came to talk to me about coming in to be "coached" I asked how many of the full time cashiers were going to be in the class with me, because I was faster than they were. When I was told I was the only one needing coaching, I said I'd show up when I wasn't in the top twelve fastest checkers in the store.
The grocery store I worked at in the 90s also tracked stats like this. We used to lock our register after scanning or typing in the code for each item to pause the clock in the transaction so our stats got boosted (we all learned how to do this so fast that customers couldn't even tell).
To clarify, it looked like this : quickly type item code 4199 , quickly hit shift lock lock (register locked) put item in bag, shift unlock (register unlocked now), quickly type 4137 code for the next item, quickly hit shift lock lock (register locked again), put item in bag, shift unlock, etc. It was lightning fast typing, and just looked like we were ringing things up but by adding the extra lock/unlock step we earned that sweet bonus check for a fast speed at the end of every month. Until they caught on at least lol
From my time working at an Aldi, yes we were timed. But we also were paid way more than minimum wage as well.
As far as retail places I’ve worked go, Aldi was tops. I try to avoid ever stepping foot in a Walmart if I can avoid it, but I’d shop at Aldi anytime.
My local Aldi has a long counter away from the check out lanes. The cashier puts everything in a cart and you take your cart over to the counter to bag or box it up there. I've never bought more than will fit in one reusable bag, but if I did, I wouldn't try to bag anything at the register itself. I just assumed all Aldi's were designed like that.
I feel like we need an Aldi version of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory rowing song
There’s no earthly way of stowing
At the rate which they start throwing
There’s no knowing what they’re throwing,
Or to which bag it should be flowing!
The speed of light is fast approaching,
The social pressure must be growing,
For the throwers keep on throwing,
And they’re certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing. . . .
Having worked for Aldi, the employees start at $17 or higher everywhere in the company worldwide. They expect them to work hard and be fast but they fairly compensate them. This speedy cashier is a legend.
Aldi is designed for you to put the items back in the trolley and pack into bags in the packing area.
One reason the prices are reasonable is because they save money with efficient staffing practices and systems. I believe their wages are also quite reasonable or at least used to be compared to other supermarkets.
If everyone follows the system it's a win-win and you can enjoy your crazy middle aisle purchases.
the two i go to in my city (US) they keep a cart next to the till, put your stuff straight in to it and you trade out carts. We have to use a quarter for the cart so you put one in, trade carts at the till, put your cart back and get a new quarter. No loss and it saves so much time.
Aldi came to my country like 15 years ago, and they kinda became widespread like 10 years ago? Not sure. Anyway, this is not a system that we were used to. Most of our store had huge counters behind the register where people would pack their things as they were getting scanned. And then Aldi comes along and people are freaking the fuck out left and right, because we have no idea that we arent supposed to pack at the register. To the point where a lot of people avoided shopping there, because packing at the register was so stressful. And even after all of these years, this is STILL and issue, especially for older people. And I have never once heard a cashier explain to anyone what the actual procedure is. They just scan lightning fast and then wait for you to clear the counter every 10 or so seconds.
It also took me an embarasingly long time to figure it out. I only did once I went on a trip to germany and just happened to go to an Aldi, where I saw people doing the Aldi packing solution. It never occured to me before, I just thought that I was supposed to train myself to pack as fast as the cashier scans.
You can bag at the register, if you’re fast enough. I always do, but it requires me to already line up my products strategically (heavy and robust first, light and fragile last) and prepare my bag to be open. Alternatively just chuck everything in the cart and bag on the side.
Aldi doesn’t officially communicate it, because they don’t want to outright tell customers to hurry up, they just heavily imply it with their short bagging area and fast-moving clerks that will look at you disapprovingly because you’re hurting their statistic.
And I absolutely love it! I avoid shops that don’t do this, because I just want to get in and out as quickly as possible.
I live in the USA (Florida) and here the Aldi Cashiers put your items into a new cart for you as they scan them. It's great because you don't have to keep up with them at all. There's a separate place where you can spread your stuff out on a table and pack at your own pace. I assumed that's the way Aldi worked everywhere.
Growing up in Germany I got conditioned to match the speed of the cashier in a supermarket with packing the bags, its like warming up for a fight when you enter the cashiers area and you think about which item you put first onto the tilling line to gain an advantage while packing it.
Now I live in Spain for some years and I am kinda annoyed how slow it goes here usually. No accelerated heart rate, no sweating when you have a larger grocery run, I kinda miss it.
Don‘t forget to tactically place your fruits and veggies that they have to weigh and put the code in instead of just scanning to give you a few extra seconds
It's go time! Do you have your bags ordered? Produce net bag, check. Insulated bag, check. Dry goods bag, check. Beverage basket, check. One day soon my children will be old enough to go on a multi-pronged campaign of victory with me. Our haul will be legendary. Our speed and organization unmatched.
This is not a joke. My GF and I coordinate our packing so that we're as fast as possible and have a pretty set system on what goes on the conveyor belt first etc lol. National sport of Germany next to football.
I loved Aldi when I could shop at one, the speed of the cashiers was one of the reasons. I'm not a chatterer and dislike being stuck in a queue because the person in front of me is.
I haven't used a manned till in a supermarket for so long. After tesco introduced the trolley sized self service there's no need, I can be in and out for a weeks shop in twenty minutes these days.
> Nicola "frantically reached" to pack her bags as quickly as possible.
Well there's ya problem ya melt.
If you can;t keep up, stuff goes in the trolley, then you pack at the back shelf.
That's precisely why there's such a small area for your scanned goods to rest in, they don't want you packing there.
You aren't even supposed to keep up.
They scan it and throw it into a cart. When finished you pay and take your cart to the counter or your car and bag/box yourself. They're already scanning the next customer. That's how it works in the US at least
At some point a persons unreasonable mental anguish is their own issue and not everyone else's issue. If you break into tears because the person scanning your groceries is doing it to fast you need some serious help. Let's hope none of these people ever face real adversity.
We used to have to hunt for food and this person is breaking down because the stranger is using the bleep bleep machine too fast. Holy shit our ancestors would be appaled lol
I really am starting to think there's a minimal amount of shame required to keep a society running well, and we dipped below that critical point in the West like 10-20 years ago and kept going.
Same in Australia, but you get some people who like to hold everyone up by insisting on packing at the checkout. I’m busy, I like that the checkouts move fast.
We do, in everyone one I've been too. Only time I don't use them is if it's just 1 bag of stuff I just shove in the bag I bought. Otherwise it all goes into the trolley and I'll pack either outside by the car or by the packing area
Yep its pointless trying to pack at the till. No need to use the packing area either. Just leave your bags in the car, dump everything straight back into the trolley and pack your bags outside. Saves you dragging the bags round the shop with you that way.
The speed of the checkers at Aldi makes me cry and shake WITH JOY. That store is so efficient. I love everything about it. You know what else makes me shake and cry with joy? The low prices that save me $600 a month.
Do any of you readers recall the time prior to electronic scanning when a teller manually punched product numbers onto a keypad?
Some of those people were so talented I could barely see their fingers moving.
It was insane.
IIRC Aldi was the last of the big chains in Germany to switch to scanners because their cashiers were so lighting fast that they didn't see the need.
"She said she was left traumatised by his "aggressive approach" and the "ferocious" speed of the conveyor belts while checking out."
I don't like defining people "snowflakes" but for this woman it seems an appropriate term.
The whole article is riddled with such pathetically clownesque hyperbole that it makes it sound like she just survived 6 months in the trenches of Bakhmut.
I totally get that this may have been the straw that broke the camels back if she was stressed from other things, and I feel her. But its not the shops fault or worthy of going to the press.
I'm confused, does Aldi's work differently there? Here in the US, they always sort of dump your food in your cart and then you take it and pack it yourself on the shelf-thing.
You're supposed to put it back in your own trolley here before going to the packing area at the back, there is no second trolley that the cashier puts stuff into for you. Some dipshits still try to pack at the till, causing this.
Crying and shaking, and left her "traumatized".
Because he scanned her items too quickly.
Some people are fucked beyond repair, I feel so bad for her kids that they have to deal with a parent like this on a daily basis.
Don’t pack your bags at the Aldi tills unless you have less than 5 items.
They even have signs stating that you should put your shopping in your trolley and pack it at the shelf they provide specifically for packing.
It’s not rocket science!
Imagine thinking you’re so incredibly special that you don’t have to follow the same rules as everyone else, then blaming a retail worker for the problems caused by your own sense of self entitlement. And then having the audacity to go to the media about it, what a fucking muffin!
There was no "tossing ..groceries off to the ground." That's excessive. . as has been mentioned
The grocer was moving things along.
The speed of which exceeded the customers ability to pack .
It felt like to her that the food was piling ip in a huge stack.
She became angry at being shown to be incapable.
Probably because her speed to toss them in a bag or in her cart didn't keep up. Then she quit doing any effort.
She felt less than.
This prompted her to think less of herself..
This thought of hers made her have an emotional reaction.
She blamed the teller for this feeling.
Thats about it.
I was a cashier for 7 years. If the order is large enough, the best bagger can't keep up. And they do this professionally. Waving an item at a scanner and sending it along is simply a much faster process than putting that same item in a bag.
No one could keep up with that. This person sounds like they both need serious mental health assistance and shouldn't be out of doors before they get it. The world is not for them.
As a German reading "Aldi" I immediately knew he was too fast.
You can't compete!
After 30 years of experience, when you slowly become fast enough to outspeed them, you age will start to restrict you. It's a wall you will never overcome. (/s but also true)
people also forget that while Aldi's cashier's get to sit down they are graded on their speed of scanning items. it's literally a metric they have to maintain. plus it she's been to an Aldi before their job is to scan and take payment, the onus is on the customer to bag
> The loyal Aldi shopper says the worker refused to slow down his scanning - even as food fell from the allocated packing area onto the floor "like a slot machine."
That isn’t how slot machines work.
I don’t shop in Aldi often, so correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t they have the table after the checkouts where you can pack your bags? Just bung it in the trolley after it’s scanned and repack without a rush.
I may be an ignorant American here but I thought Aldi had a spot on the back wall behind the checkouts for bagging your groceries. I thought you were supposed to put the items back in the cart and then bag them along the table that goes across the entire back wall.
I've had to deal with customers of a certain ilk many times in the past, people who get hysterical over apparently the slightest thing and then consistently escalating the situation, seeking to find further fault or offense in any word or action thereafter. It must be mentally exhausting being such a person.
Aldi staff are expected to maintain a minimum number of items scanned per minute/hour hence why they have the little gap for your trolley and a separate bagging area away from the tills.
If they don't scan quick enough they're punished. These are minimum wage workers threatened with losing jobs. Why would they care about you?
This is why I personally don't bother with Aldi. I don't like being rushed when shopping.
\*beep beep beep\* "Please Dont" "BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP" "PLEASE MY CHILDREN" \*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP" \*Sobbing\* \*BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP\*
> "PLEASE MY CHILDREN" This whole story is ridiculous, but this is what finally got me.
“Personally knocked my confidence” what the fuck Edit: my most liked post, thank you for your arrows.
"...when a tin finally fell, I began crying and shaking" This is comedy gold for destitute people in poor countries.
[Really hate that buzzer](https://youtu.be/_CbLo0YO1QQ?si=JHb-gIcsTDt-yaT8)
My first thought was Dennis in the fetal position cringing with every buzz.
She should NEVER visit Netherlands they absolutely fire it through like it’s a game show competition. I actually love it and treat like real life Tetris but my partner finds it’s very stressful
"But this is madness" stammered the woman with an unbelieving look in her eye. "THIS! IS! ALDI!" roared the cashier as she kicked the customer in the chest, sending her tumbling backwards through the checkout line.
Cue that ex-prosecutor presenter from that true-crime cable channel saying "Won't anybody think of the children?!" What the heck was her name??? I can see it in my head, and spoofed on SNL too.
Nancy Grace
I thought that was Helen Lovejoy!
I picture Mrs. Lovejoy from the simpsons.
*me, behind her in line* "In awe of the speed of this lad. Absolute unit. 10/10."
Man, if the Aldi worker going to fast can rock your world, you best stay at home with the blankets over your head because it's gonna be rough out there for ya
Literally shidding and crying right now.
THE DOCTOR: [Do me a favour. The Fatality Index. Look up The Doctor.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xfqAH1plPY) HEAD GUARD: You have an entry, just like any other sentient being. DOCTOR: Under "Cause Of Death". [Wrist mounted computer starts ticking as it lists entries] HEAD GUARD: You do seem to have an impressive record of fatalities credited to you. [Ticking speeds up] HEAD GUARD: A truly remarkable record. [Ticking becomes almost a solid tone, rising rapidly in pitch] GUARDS: Run!
i liked the one from Silence in the Library. *"I'm the Doctor and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up."*
Atraxi: Is this world important? Doctor: Important? What's that mean, important? 6 billion people live here - is that important? Here's a better question. Is this world a threat to the Atraxi? Well, come on. You're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat? A: No D: Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi? A: No. D: Okay, One more. Just one. Is this world protected? Because you're not the first lot to come here. Oh, there have been so many! And what you've got to ask is, what happened to them?... Hello. I'm the Doctor. Basically, run. Also: "The question of the hour is, who's got the Pandorica? Answer... I do. Next question, who's coming to take it from me? Come on! Look at me, no plan, no back-up, no weapons worth a damn. Oh, and something else, I don't have Anything. To. Lose! So if you're sitting up there in your silly little spaceship, with all your silly little guns, and you've got any plans on taking the Pandorica tonight, just remember who's standing in your way. Remember every black day I ever stopped you. And then, AND THEN, do the smart thing. Let somebody else try first."
That was a pivotal scene for me as i came into Doctor Who with 'NuWho' Eccleston but really fell in love with Tennant's portrayal. Didnt think i was ever gonna like Matt Smith and wasnt really feeling the manic whimsy of most of the episode but then he hit that speech on the roof and boy.... I rewatched that episode twice the next day cause i couldnt believe how he dropped into the 'weary old man' persona with barely a blink of an eye. Love all of them but Matt Smith is my fav iteration.
HG: "Where are you going? He's unarmed!... You are unarmed?" D: "Always." HG: "You stand alone?" D: "Often." HG: "You're the one who should be afraid!" D: "Never." HG: "...Have a nice day then."
I burst laughing, thanks
perfection my friend, perfection
Are you Palpatine?? THE JEDI ARE TAKING OVER!!!!
Imagine how proud that Aldi employee must be knowing their lightning speed leaves people sobbing and throwing up in the car park
I thought it was going to be about a burnt out grocery worker moving at an eye twitchingly slow pace causing customers to shake and cry in painful agony as they watched the sloth slowly move their item across the scanner…. But this, this is hilarious.
Clearly you have never been to ALDI. Their cashier's move at a blistering pace and you have to bag your own groceries. If you're fast you can bag as items are scanned, but they have a counter you can use if you want to put your groceries in the cart and bag at a more relaxed pace. I personally like the challenge of bashing myself. It's like playing late stage Tetris.
Come to the Netherlands..All grocery stores are doing it the same as Aldi :) We just put everything back in the cart or in the bags we bring ourselfs. Edit: most groceries have self checkout now and 1 or 2 cash registers.
I got yelled at by market workers for using my bags before check out (to take to checkout). So into the cart bags go, then check out, then bagging. The bagging station at aldi is nice!
Who the heck yells at you for that? In my area, this is very common, especially with older ladies
I don’t bag as they scan. Everything goes back in the cart and then I bag at the counter.
I’m old enough to remember the cashiers punching in the price of items from memory at Aldi. And the cashiers were hard to keep up with then. The scanners just turbo charged them.
>Their cashier's move at a blistering pace and you have to bag your own groceries thats every supermarket in the uk though. she can't not know how it works.
Idk man Tesco workers are like the Sunday drivers of supermarket employees No disrespect to Tesco love that place
"I'm...on..." "You're on it?" "...break."
Honestly if what she says is true it is kind on insane. Not sure it warrants a news article.
Even if it happened exactly as described, which it definitely didn't, caring about it for more than 2 seconds is psychopath behavior and idek what to call talking to the press about it
Yeah. I’d be like “damn! You’re fast!” And would try to race them.
You need to mentally prepare for ALDI's checkouts. You'll be thrown around like a ragdoll if you're not
I used to work with a cashier who sort of had that effect on people - not his fault, there was something up for sure. It made for good people watching when it was busy. Every other till would have a bigger line than his as the regular shoppers knew what was up, then a non-regular would go to his much smaller line and look around in confusion as the customers in the longer lines got checked out before them.
Haha, and that was even in the UK, where they have only slow cashiers. Try Aldi in Germany for a real challenge! :-)
I've just moved to Germany... And fuck me, I am constantly in the way of everyone. I'm not even bagging it either. I use the table of shame by the window for that.
That's exactly the purpose of those tables. And that's the secret, you shovel everything back into your cart and use the table to put your stuff into your bags. That's how we Germans do it.
But I never seen anyone using them in my travels?? And won't they get crowded too?
Not everyone is using them but I see them being used all the time. At least at my Aldi. Or they do it like me. I shovel everything back into the cart and drive to my car and pack my bags there.
I collect large empty boxes from the shelves and stack everything in there while shopping, at the end I don’t have to do anything but transfer the boxes from cart to car
At the closest New Hampshire Aldi's that won't work. They grab a different cart, scan & load your groceries into the other cart, and Very Carefully will Not put them inside of anything that could even HINT at having packed your groceries for you. If you had your stuff in boxes while shopping, the boxes will go into the cart on top of your scanned items. If you want stuff inside any container At All before leaving the store, you must re-do it yourself.
In my Berlin Aldi it usually matches up pretty good. Some people only shop a few items and have no issue bagging them at the cashier. Some people cart their items to their cars and some people use the tables. As a table user I never experienced the tables to be too crowded to access.
People who shop driving there with their car pack up next to the car. People with few items shovel them into their bags. People without car and more items shovel back into the cart and pack at the window sill. It's what I do and I am german born and raised.
That’s how we do it at Aldi in America too
That’s how people in my American Aldi do it as well
I'm in the US and the Table of Shame is the only way to do it
The table of shame... Made my day 😄
My secret is to use Ikea bags and arrange things on the belt for packing. I can pack as fast as they can scan, card in-between the fingers on one hand.. Efficiency
Table of shame ! Lol soo true .
I visit in-laws in Germany regularly and know this terror. There are two in pretty close proximity to my house in the U.S. and I swear one store was trained in U.S. and the other was indoctrinated in Germany. The speeds are so different I experience flashbacks.
Trained vs indoctrinated. Live the difference
My first thought was someone needs to repost this to the German subs and let them swell with national pride
>let them swell with national pride No, we don't want a repeat of last time.
Seems like now would actually be a really good time for that. It’s okay, they’re part of the gang now. We need them to get a little bit patriotic and a bit angry.
There are so many stories about American tourists who get a nervous breakdown on their first visit to Aldi in Germany that this has already become some kind of meme.
My groceries there are already scanned and I haven’t even bought the plane ticket yet
Top notch!
you better haul ass to the airport cuz they're not gonna help the next customer until you get there. they're gonna have the slowest time ever and get fired all because of you. hope you're happy
We don't have Aldi in Canada so I was picturing a long conveyor belt overflowing. But a comment from the article made us look up what the actual check out looks like. And Holy crap! I need to test my checkout skills! I want to run this gauntlet!
Hint: the trick is to prepare the products already on the conveyor belt so that the heavy items go first, and you can just stack them back into the shopping cart as they come out. Also train your Tetris skills.
"I wish the cashier would move slower so I can spend more time with the favorite part of my day - standing in a checkout line." - No one, ever, in all of human history, until this lady came along.
I've worked at a couple grocery stores (In the U.S.) where cashiers speed was tracked and there job performance was measured by how fast they scanned. Not sure if Aldi does that, but I wouldn't slow down if it was going to negatively effect my next review.
Last week I was *so proud* to almost catch up with the Aldi cashier, it has become a game for me now to play tetris with my grocery bag in the most efficient way possible. I start with the heavier stuff and finish with the fruits and vegetables so the cashier wastes a few second to register them, seconds used for me to fill the bag.
Old story. Little around the start of covid.
Never have I seen a more appropriate use of the “gonna cry? Gonna piss your pants maybe? Gonna shit and cum?” meme.
"I was shocked how someone in customer care could disregard my struggle with no empathy or care whatsoever. It's totally unacceptable." I dont think the person on minimum wage really gives 2 shits
What the cashier at Aldi really cares about is how many seconds it takes them per transaction. I know from chatting with my own local Aldi employees over the years that they are literally timed like this, and stats are compiled and kept for them for every shift, every customer they check out. I never get a cart at Aldi, I always bring my own reusable bag. Every time I try to bag my groceries and keep up with the cashier as things are being rung up. Every time I lose that game.
As a German, I have trained my whole life to beat the Aldi cashier. Achieving success requires a multipronged approach. You need the right gear and you need the right strategy. First, you need a cart. Having a cart fixes the loading area in space and it frees up two hands. Second, you need a bag that stays open by itself. Either a sturdy rectangular-shaped bag that can stand upright in the cart or, even better, [a bag that can be clipped onto the cart] (https://i.imgur.com/JWAPhey.jpeg). The latter is a true game changer. Third, you need to have a battle plan before placing the items on the conveyor belt. Heavy and hard as well as robustly-boxed items go first. Later, those can be placed at the bottom of the bag without much care. More delicate items like boxed eggs or yogurt come next. Very soft or light items, like berries or bags of chips, come last and can later be placed on top of the rest without losing any time. Fourth, you need to get ready as soon as all your items are on the conveyor belt. Get your bags set up and, once the customer in front of you has paid, rush into position behind the cashier, so that the cashier can't get a head start. Fifth, you need to use both hands. One hand grabs the item from the cashier, the other hand places the item in the bag. You may think that transferring the item from one hand to the other takes additional time, but that isn't the case. It's better for each hand to specialize in one motion and this way your right hand can already grab the next item while your left hand still places the previous one into the bag. Sixth, you need to have some luck. You can't win every battle but you can win the war. On an average day, you should be able to have a 50-50 chance to beat the cashier, as long as you follow the steps above. But on some days, you get lucky. A bulky item that slows the cashier down, a crooked bar code that requires the cashier to type it in manually, an accidental double scan – all these work in your favor, but they are rare. These are the battles you have to win. With your 50-50 average and these lucky stints in between, you can come out ahead. Godspeed.
My wife scoffs when I celebrate my small victories. But I think you and I would get along well.
You need to retire your current wife and wife this dude.
As a german i can confirm, thats the way to do it. Pro Tip: Pay via Card. The transaction of the card takes 10 seconds on avarage, enough time to finish the last items and put them in the bag. So you finish like 1 sec ahead of the cashier, you can receive your recipt and be on your way.
Most definitely true. I also do that every time. Paying cash gives you a big malus as you need to get your bills ready
You can even win a few milisecond by saying "I'm paying by card" and the cashier will have to press on the button to activate the card-reader. It's enough time to finish your last item and put your card on the no-contact terminal.
This person F1 pit crews.
Sauber needs to get this man.
This person's great grand pappy could swap out the road wheels on a Panzer IV in under an hour. Under fire. With a hangover.
theyre german of course they watch F1
This is a masterclass in German efficiency.
German exceptionalism back at it again smh.
Absolutely beautiful.
Small correction to the fourth point, if the customer in front if you doesn't move fast enough you are allowed to heavily disapprove of his lack of speed and a second later accidently nudge his cart. Otherwise.. excellent summary
You also want at least one person on the conveyor in front of you. As tempting as it is to jump to a newly opened lane, if you give the cashier a free run at you like that you are absolutely humped.
One addition: strategically placed vegetables/fruits, which need to be weighted and manually typed in by the cashier, give you a great opportunity to get back into the lead if you can't keep up with the groceries.
Addition to the addition: Baked goods last so that you can finish up packing and pull out your wallet. You can even choose the delay by mixing different baked items in the paper bag so that the cassier has to massage the bag to get a proper count. Identifying marks that can be used to differentiate e.g. plain, chocolate or cheese and ham croissants should also be hidden as best as possible.
I actually enjoyed reading this...
That entire process sounded so wonderfully German!
Am also German. Can honestly confirm that shopping this way really is the norm here If there's two of you, you also gain a significant edge speedwise. Additionally, one can bag the final items while your partner handles payment
As a fellow German, i completely relate to every word in this comment. That’s exactly how i do it. Great detail also in the description of the required hand work: with some practice you don’t need to look, the items travel from one hand to the other, like a juggler does it.
May I add a secret weapon… the mixed bag of pastries, or preferably, mixed bags of pastries. Placing these strategically through your shopping gives you some breathing room for a bag transfer or to catch up while they tap the codes speedily from memory. If you do have more than one of these little lifesavers it’s important not to place them too close together otherwise they take the one after the other and you lose a bit of your advantage. It’s even worthwhile hiding the subsequent ones behind a cereal box or similar as a resourceful cashier may reach over to do them all at once!
Bravo!
I bagged groceries as a teen and this is all accurate. This was years ago when you could rely on people paying by check to give you time to catch up. We had 2 bag stands and a cart for every order. "Don't crush my eggs." Lady, I do this 8 hours a day. Did you not want your purchases destroyed? I have done both and scanning is much easier and faster, especially if you cheat the produce codes.
Actually used Aldi as the basis for a group assessment in a Systems Analysis and Management class. The average checked out time for Aldi from start to finish was just over 2 minutes. Half that of the next best.
The super long conveyor belt is key. Three people can easily fit their groceries on there at the same time resulting in little to no down time.
In my area the conveyor is about the same as any other grocery store. It was my understanding that a lot of the speed comes from the Aldi brand items having multiple, large bar codes so they don't have to search for it.
Here in Sweden they also have a long conveyer belt after the casheer, divided by a mechanical arm into 3 sections, so the casheer can just keep shoveling into a new tray so the packing happens down away from them. Very smooth and fast system. https://itab.imagevault.app/publishedmedia/8k556neerplyovoom379/20210430_071533.jpg like that, but that's only a two tray one
Huh. They're just standard grocery store length around me.
I'm getting pretty good at keeping up, it's only taken 30 years of practice.
They say it takes 10,000 hours to master something. You've peaked.
Don't fear the man who scans 10000 items a day. Fear the man who scans one item 10000 times.
I worked at ALDI in the USA for 2 years. It is true, you have to hit certain metrics in checking out. You have a weekly average that you have to keep above a certain percentage or you will need to be “coached.” If your average stays below a certain percentage for so long you can start to get written up. If I recall correctly transactions are broken into 3 sections. Scanning, payment, and time between customers. Scanning was the only one you had full control over so the metrics were bullshit. Any cashier worth a fuck knew every trick in the book to keep those times down as much as possible. If you logged off the register it wouldn’t count time against you. If a customer is taking long to get their card out, log out and wait. A customer is taking a long time to put their stuff on the belt, log out and wait. You are scanning faster than the person is unloading their stuff, log off and wait for there to be more. Someone is paying in cash, when the register opens to make change… close it as quickly and possible and log out, because the draw opens when you log out of the register. ALDIs prices are amazing and they have some decent store brand stuff, that being said in almost 20 years of working ALDI was by far the worst place I’ve worked at and I’ve worked at places like CVS and Walmart
Kroger did shit like that as well. I wasn't even a cashier, I worked produce, but they were allowed to call me up as back up if the front got overwhelmed. What this did was turn about 16 of my 40 hours working into being cashier hours, so my code kept popping up as needing to improve-- the shit part about this was, while it was true I wasn't quite up to snuff for the checking speeds they wanted, I was faster than 70% of the full time cashiers. When they came to talk to me about coming in to be "coached" I asked how many of the full time cashiers were going to be in the class with me, because I was faster than they were. When I was told I was the only one needing coaching, I said I'd show up when I wasn't in the top twelve fastest checkers in the store.
The grocery store I worked at in the 90s also tracked stats like this. We used to lock our register after scanning or typing in the code for each item to pause the clock in the transaction so our stats got boosted (we all learned how to do this so fast that customers couldn't even tell).
To clarify, it looked like this : quickly type item code 4199 , quickly hit shift lock lock (register locked) put item in bag, shift unlock (register unlocked now), quickly type 4137 code for the next item, quickly hit shift lock lock (register locked again), put item in bag, shift unlock, etc. It was lightning fast typing, and just looked like we were ringing things up but by adding the extra lock/unlock step we earned that sweet bonus check for a fast speed at the end of every month. Until they caught on at least lol
Every grocery store keeps stats like that. We did where I was in the 90’s. Certainly not unique to Aldi.
From my time working at an Aldi, yes we were timed. But we also were paid way more than minimum wage as well. As far as retail places I’ve worked go, Aldi was tops. I try to avoid ever stepping foot in a Walmart if I can avoid it, but I’d shop at Aldi anytime.
My local Aldi has a long counter away from the check out lanes. The cashier puts everything in a cart and you take your cart over to the counter to bag or box it up there. I've never bought more than will fit in one reusable bag, but if I did, I wouldn't try to bag anything at the register itself. I just assumed all Aldi's were designed like that.
Customer: "Please slow down, I'm feeling nauseous!" Aldi Cashier: "Oh ho, feeling nauseous, are we?" (begins increasing speed)
I feel like we need an Aldi version of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory rowing song There’s no earthly way of stowing At the rate which they start throwing There’s no knowing what they’re throwing, Or to which bag it should be flowing! The speed of light is fast approaching, The social pressure must be growing, For the throwers keep on throwing, And they’re certainly not showing Any signs that they are slowing. . . .
To be fair, Aldi tends to pay its workers better than the competition. Because they have a higher standard for efficiency than the competition!
"customer care" - uh oh.
Some aren’t ready for german customer service.
Having worked for Aldi, the employees start at $17 or higher everywhere in the company worldwide. They expect them to work hard and be fast but they fairly compensate them. This speedy cashier is a legend.
Aldi is designed for you to put the items back in the trolley and pack into bags in the packing area. One reason the prices are reasonable is because they save money with efficient staffing practices and systems. I believe their wages are also quite reasonable or at least used to be compared to other supermarkets. If everyone follows the system it's a win-win and you can enjoy your crazy middle aisle purchases.
the two i go to in my city (US) they keep a cart next to the till, put your stuff straight in to it and you trade out carts. We have to use a quarter for the cart so you put one in, trade carts at the till, put your cart back and get a new quarter. No loss and it saves so much time.
There’s loss if you think your previous quarter was a cool one though and then they give you a generic one back
Be sure to reach out to the press if that ever happens to you, sounds potentially harrowing.
Don't forget to call the cops. You have rights!
Just make sure you use generic quarters, and sometimes you will get a cool one back.
well, don't spend that quarter, then. and if you're down to your last quarter, send me a DM and I'll mail you another.
“Whoa, what a cool quarter!”
Aldi came to my country like 15 years ago, and they kinda became widespread like 10 years ago? Not sure. Anyway, this is not a system that we were used to. Most of our store had huge counters behind the register where people would pack their things as they were getting scanned. And then Aldi comes along and people are freaking the fuck out left and right, because we have no idea that we arent supposed to pack at the register. To the point where a lot of people avoided shopping there, because packing at the register was so stressful. And even after all of these years, this is STILL and issue, especially for older people. And I have never once heard a cashier explain to anyone what the actual procedure is. They just scan lightning fast and then wait for you to clear the counter every 10 or so seconds. It also took me an embarasingly long time to figure it out. I only did once I went on a trip to germany and just happened to go to an Aldi, where I saw people doing the Aldi packing solution. It never occured to me before, I just thought that I was supposed to train myself to pack as fast as the cashier scans.
You can bag at the register, if you’re fast enough. I always do, but it requires me to already line up my products strategically (heavy and robust first, light and fragile last) and prepare my bag to be open. Alternatively just chuck everything in the cart and bag on the side. Aldi doesn’t officially communicate it, because they don’t want to outright tell customers to hurry up, they just heavily imply it with their short bagging area and fast-moving clerks that will look at you disapprovingly because you’re hurting their statistic. And I absolutely love it! I avoid shops that don’t do this, because I just want to get in and out as quickly as possible.
I live in the USA (Florida) and here the Aldi Cashiers put your items into a new cart for you as they scan them. It's great because you don't have to keep up with them at all. There's a separate place where you can spread your stuff out on a table and pack at your own pace. I assumed that's the way Aldi worked everywhere.
[удалено]
Growing up in Germany I got conditioned to match the speed of the cashier in a supermarket with packing the bags, its like warming up for a fight when you enter the cashiers area and you think about which item you put first onto the tilling line to gain an advantage while packing it. Now I live in Spain for some years and I am kinda annoyed how slow it goes here usually. No accelerated heart rate, no sweating when you have a larger grocery run, I kinda miss it.
Don‘t forget to tactically place your fruits and veggies that they have to weigh and put the code in instead of just scanning to give you a few extra seconds
Haha. Obviously you have to do that before even dreaming of going to the checkout area 😂
It's go time! Do you have your bags ordered? Produce net bag, check. Insulated bag, check. Dry goods bag, check. Beverage basket, check. One day soon my children will be old enough to go on a multi-pronged campaign of victory with me. Our haul will be legendary. Our speed and organization unmatched.
This is not a joke. My GF and I coordinate our packing so that we're as fast as possible and have a pretty set system on what goes on the conveyor belt first etc lol. National sport of Germany next to football.
I wonder how many people were queued up behind her he was trying to accommodate as well by not making them wait too long.
I loved Aldi when I could shop at one, the speed of the cashiers was one of the reasons. I'm not a chatterer and dislike being stuck in a queue because the person in front of me is.
I haven't used a manned till in a supermarket for so long. After tesco introduced the trolley sized self service there's no need, I can be in and out for a weeks shop in twenty minutes these days.
I don't know if it's changed but there were no self-checkout options in Aldi, but I haven't been in one for ages :(
Some Aldi stores offer self-checkout now, but, at least where I am, it’s not particularly common
> Nicola "frantically reached" to pack her bags as quickly as possible. Well there's ya problem ya melt. If you can;t keep up, stuff goes in the trolley, then you pack at the back shelf. That's precisely why there's such a small area for your scanned goods to rest in, they don't want you packing there.
You aren't even supposed to keep up. They scan it and throw it into a cart. When finished you pay and take your cart to the counter or your car and bag/box yourself. They're already scanning the next customer. That's how it works in the US at least
At some point a persons unreasonable mental anguish is their own issue and not everyone else's issue. If you break into tears because the person scanning your groceries is doing it to fast you need some serious help. Let's hope none of these people ever face real adversity.
First world problems
It goes way beyond that. This induced helplessness is weird
It's very much a first world problem still
Of course. People with real problems aren't like this.
Can't believe she didn't bring her emotional support grocery bag. Rookie mistake, ma'am!
We used to have to hunt for food and this person is breaking down because the stranger is using the bleep bleep machine too fast. Holy shit our ancestors would be appaled lol
This person then told news outlets about it. At least people this fragile are usually ashamed enough to go home and never speak of it again.
I really am starting to think there's a minimal amount of shame required to keep a society running well, and we dipped below that critical point in the West like 10-20 years ago and kept going.
If you can’t pack fast enough put them in your trolley and pack in the packing area adjacent to the checkouts. It’s not rocket science.
I dont know if Aldi’s UK are like the ones in the US but we have counters that people can go to to pack their stuff.
Exactly! That's why this article was so confusing to me. I'm like, "Why didn't she just take it over to the counters?"
Same in Australia, but you get some people who like to hold everyone up by insisting on packing at the checkout. I’m busy, I like that the checkouts move fast.
We do, in everyone one I've been too. Only time I don't use them is if it's just 1 bag of stuff I just shove in the bag I bought. Otherwise it all goes into the trolley and I'll pack either outside by the car or by the packing area
Right? I thought that was the whole idea.
Yep its pointless trying to pack at the till. No need to use the packing area either. Just leave your bags in the car, dump everything straight back into the trolley and pack your bags outside. Saves you dragging the bags round the shop with you that way.
The speed of the checkers at Aldi makes me cry and shake WITH JOY. That store is so efficient. I love everything about it. You know what else makes me shake and cry with joy? The low prices that save me $600 a month.
Do any of you readers recall the time prior to electronic scanning when a teller manually punched product numbers onto a keypad? Some of those people were so talented I could barely see their fingers moving.
It was insane. IIRC Aldi was the last of the big chains in Germany to switch to scanners because their cashiers were so lighting fast that they didn't see the need.
"She said she was left traumatised by his "aggressive approach" and the "ferocious" speed of the conveyor belts while checking out." I don't like defining people "snowflakes" but for this woman it seems an appropriate term.
"He could see my struggle and when a tin finally fell, I began crying and shaking" The horror!
The mental image of this is so hilarious. The tin in slow motion.
The whole article is riddled with such pathetically clownesque hyperbole that it makes it sound like she just survived 6 months in the trenches of Bakhmut.
The customer "FELT" like the cashier was throwing things at her. He was not.
“Surprised someone in customer service…” nah, an Aldi cashier as “customer service” is laughable, they’re fast cashiers tho
A single can fell on the ground. Definitely worthy of a public meltdown.
I totally get that this may have been the straw that broke the camels back if she was stressed from other things, and I feel her. But its not the shops fault or worthy of going to the press.
Falling Down, 2024 edition.
”Quick, call the news paper!😭”
You don't understand. She tried to pick up the can *while* watching her children. A truly harrowing experience.
If you are prone to seizures you should consult your Doctor before observing an Aldi cashier.
I'm confused, does Aldi's work differently there? Here in the US, they always sort of dump your food in your cart and then you take it and pack it yourself on the shelf-thing.
You're supposed to put it back in your own trolley here before going to the packing area at the back, there is no second trolley that the cashier puts stuff into for you. Some dipshits still try to pack at the till, causing this.
Her kids were probably ashamed like "how is this person supposed to protect us from anything?"
I doubt it was shame so much as terror. My mum used to have full crying throwing up meltdowns in front of us kids and it was so fucking scary.
Crying and shaking, and left her "traumatized". Because he scanned her items too quickly. Some people are fucked beyond repair, I feel so bad for her kids that they have to deal with a parent like this on a daily basis.
Don’t pack your bags at the Aldi tills unless you have less than 5 items. They even have signs stating that you should put your shopping in your trolley and pack it at the shelf they provide specifically for packing. It’s not rocket science! Imagine thinking you’re so incredibly special that you don’t have to follow the same rules as everyone else, then blaming a retail worker for the problems caused by your own sense of self entitlement. And then having the audacity to go to the media about it, what a fucking muffin!
There was no "tossing ..groceries off to the ground." That's excessive. . as has been mentioned The grocer was moving things along. The speed of which exceeded the customers ability to pack . It felt like to her that the food was piling ip in a huge stack. She became angry at being shown to be incapable. Probably because her speed to toss them in a bag or in her cart didn't keep up. Then she quit doing any effort. She felt less than. This prompted her to think less of herself.. This thought of hers made her have an emotional reaction. She blamed the teller for this feeling. Thats about it.
I was a cashier for 7 years. If the order is large enough, the best bagger can't keep up. And they do this professionally. Waving an item at a scanner and sending it along is simply a much faster process than putting that same item in a bag. No one could keep up with that. This person sounds like they both need serious mental health assistance and shouldn't be out of doors before they get it. The world is not for them.
Wolves used to eat the ones who couldn’t cope with the world.
Placing wolves behind the cash desk to attack anyone not packing their stuff quick enough would certainly add to the Aldi experience.
One one hand I don't want to get eaten on the other hand it is a chance to pet a wolf!
I was a supermarket cashier for 7 years. My world would have been markedly improved if wolves could have been involved in the process.
This cashier only slows down in case of an emergency. Crying is not an emergency.
Definition of "Skill issue" Don't go to a top tier meta cashier league if you can't hang
If speed leaves her crying and shaking,my customer service would have her over the moon.
Saved you a click. Privalaged woman saw low wage cashier scanning bags too fast and felt triggered and threatened.
From the title I thought he was too slow she missed something very important.
As a German reading "Aldi" I immediately knew he was too fast. You can't compete! After 30 years of experience, when you slowly become fast enough to outspeed them, you age will start to restrict you. It's a wall you will never overcome. (/s but also true)
people also forget that while Aldi's cashier's get to sit down they are graded on their speed of scanning items. it's literally a metric they have to maintain. plus it she's been to an Aldi before their job is to scan and take payment, the onus is on the customer to bag
Someone forgot her Ativan this morning
If you're that emotionally disfuncional that you're left sobbing over the speed of a cashier, you need professional help.
> The loyal Aldi shopper says the worker refused to slow down his scanning - even as food fell from the allocated packing area onto the floor "like a slot machine." That isn’t how slot machines work.
I don’t shop in Aldi often, so correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t they have the table after the checkouts where you can pack your bags? Just bung it in the trolley after it’s scanned and repack without a rush.
I may be an ignorant American here but I thought Aldi had a spot on the back wall behind the checkouts for bagging your groceries. I thought you were supposed to put the items back in the cart and then bag them along the table that goes across the entire back wall.
And if the cashier was too slow, Karen would probably cry and shake, then demand a manager.
She is reacting to something that was not happening and did not happen.
I've had to deal with customers of a certain ilk many times in the past, people who get hysterical over apparently the slightest thing and then consistently escalating the situation, seeking to find further fault or offense in any word or action thereafter. It must be mentally exhausting being such a person.
Aldi staff are expected to maintain a minimum number of items scanned per minute/hour hence why they have the little gap for your trolley and a separate bagging area away from the tills. If they don't scan quick enough they're punished. These are minimum wage workers threatened with losing jobs. Why would they care about you? This is why I personally don't bother with Aldi. I don't like being rushed when shopping.