I don't disagree with they way it works, I just think it could be managed better.
I've seen people have to pick their shopping up off the floor because they couldn't keep up. That cant be right.
No, that isn't right. I've never actually seen that though, so would hope staff don't literally pile things up until it all falls on the floor!
The idea of packing later is a good one actually, but a lot of people probably aren't used to it or a little confused when they first go.
Remember when we used to have belts with a moving bar so one person could keep packing while a new person was served? That's still quite common abroad, but now even in Tesco it can feel like you're being rushed to pack and get out.
Given I don't buy much more than a carrier bag worth of stuff in Aldi, I can keep and up and pack at the till, and when shopping for more stuff I'll be at somewhere like Sainbury's where I can scan as I shop. I know I pay a bit more, but it's so convenient that I accept the premium for the time saving.
I've always found the local Aldi staff to be as friendly and accommodating as you could wish for, with no sign of these rumoured throughput targets at the tills.
By way of contrast, I encountered one in the Aldi in Witney who seemed to be deliberately trying to make you spill everything onto the floor. She was such a sour-faced, grumpy old hag that it was actually quite amusing
I think that's perhaps a bit unfair. That's the way it works in Aldi. Scan quick, take your goods and pack elsewhere (of course if you can keep up, then so be it).
Yes, you're paying for a service - but it's a service you either agree to or not. If you don't like it, you can shop elsewhere, not force them to work to your own personal standards.
Tesco and the like tell staff to scan slower, or wait, so as not to intimidate the customer. If that's what you want, shop at Tesco, Asda etc.
Aldi is all about speed - especially given the shortage of tills in comparison.
There are loads of things to dislike about Aldi, but the way they operate the checkouts isn't one of them IMO.
It's the speedy checkouts that I like most about Aldi. When I shop, I don't necessarily like to spend time chatting with a cashier, I want to get in and out in the shortest time possible.
We've all had that experience when the shopper in front of you stops to chat with the cashier about thier last holiday, the weather etc. It drives me up the wall.
As a mainly basket shopper, I just wish there was a little bit more room at the end to put my shopping bag. The same applies to Lidl. I know they want us to pack away from the checkout, but if I'm only using one bag I put the items straight in, no different from putting them back in the trolley.
It probably needs an organised campaign of disobedience from people without trolleys, "accidentally" dropping bottles and jars on the floor, while trying to get them into shopping bags balanced on those silly little ledges at the end of the conveyor. They's soon redesign their tills if they had to stop to clear up the mess every few minutes ;-)
Telling people to leave and not letting them back in. It's private property, so not hard.
They would need to employ staff on the doors at all times, and provide them with mugshots of all offending customers who have accidentally dropped items. I can't see that working.
As a mainly basket shopper, I just wish there was a little bit more room at the end to put my shopping bag. The same applies to Lidl. I know they want us to pack away from the checkout, but if I'm only using one bag I put the items straight in, no different from putting them back in the trolley.
It's odd that they perfer shoppers to put items back in the trolley then go to the back shelf to pack their shopping but have no alternative for baskets. If fact they tell you to leave the basket at the end of the till so if you have a full basket you cannot easily move to the back shef and are pretty much forced to pack there at the end of the checkout.
As a mainly basket shopper, I just wish there was a little bit more room at the end to put my shopping bag. The same applies to Lidl. I know they want us to pack away from the checkout, but if I'm only using one bag I put the items straight in, no different from putting them back in the trolley.
Sometimes you need to fight fire with fire.
My objective, at the back of the Aldi till, is to snatch the items from the hands of the till staff the instant I hear them successfully beep, shove them into my bag and end up waving the money under their nose before they've managed to get the till open. Then keep my arm held out, intimidatingly anticipative of the ensuing change. Sometimes they get flustered under the pressure and find it harder to work out what change to give me. That's when I know I've won. Again.
The last manager of my nearest branch was a formidable opponent. I even used to try to flummox her by shoving weird amounts of money made of many, many coins so that my change would be as few coins as possible, but still I never beat her ans was sad to see her go. Generally, the eastern European workers are the most difficult to out-maths. Especially the women. I doubt Rachael Riley would last long in Aldi, especially if she also took as long to stack the shelves as she does that blood board.
Both my local Aldi and Lidl have a list of banned people, usually shoplifters and other trouble makers. The security staff do spot them, even though they change every few months. I assume they do indeed have mugshots in the office, and the regular staff recognise people from previous incidents (some of which I have seen and were quite violent) and immediately inform the security staff.
This is a bit of a legacy thing. Aldi and Lidl have only had hand baskets for a couple of years. Before that you either got a trolly or found an old cardboard box and used that. They even used to deliberately leave a huge box of old smaller boxes by the entrance for people to use.
That way, you carried your stuff around in a cardboard box, emptied it onto the conveyor belt and took the box to the back of the till with you, to refill.
Now they have baskets at the entrance, but haven't provided a matching solution to what happens on the back of the till.
But I don't understand why they won't let you take the basket through the checkout?
Did they have a spate of basket thefts when they were first introduced?
I don't know about the number of thefts, but think it was just part of their policy not to allow them through in case they were taken away. A kind of preventative measure.
However, I have noticed that since they first introduced them, they've 'upgraded' them to baskets with tags that set the alarm off if you walk out the door with them. Whether that was driven by thefts or managerial paranoia, I've no idea. The big supermarkets don't allow you to take them though either, but their tills are different and they don't have the legacy of a culture of shopping in cardboard boxes.
If anyone does have problems packing their stuff in Aldi of Lidl, check whether they have a large box somewhere in the store that's usually got empty boxes in it and use one of them instead of a basket. If not, just look for empty boxes in the aisles, or boxes with just one or two items left that you can move out to free-up the box for your own use.
Personally, I preferred it when they had no baskets and their 1L tubs of yoghurt were £1.29. That was less overheads to allow for better food at cheaper prices. I notice my local Lidl has recently installed a silly computer system that shouts out which tills are opening and closing. That probably cost millions to roll out nationwide. No wonder dried yeast went up from 59p to 65p, chocolate from 99p to £1.05 and the battered fish went up 10p to £1.59.
And the 1L tubs of yougurt have clibmed to £1.79 over the last few years too.
I never bother with a trolley, but put one of those heavy duty Aldo bags in the bottom of my basket. When I get to the till I have no option but to balance the bag on a ledge about a foot wide. In the past I have accidentally dropped (genuinely) jars of jam onto the floor when they slipped out of the side of the unsupported bag. Another time I tried putting the bag on the floor, but cracked a bottle of wine doing that (which they replaced). The only real answer is to take as much time as you feel is necessary to fill your bag safely. That is a perfectly reasonable thing to do and will defeat the object of them trying to rush things through the scanner. To be fair, I can't imagine this causing any aggro from the staff at any of my local branches.
You don't have to rush that much, and I've never ever heard anyone being told to hurry up or move to the packing area.
In fact, it's other customers who are more likely to get angry. Some people do pack page in a trolley at the till, and again staff don't appear to say anything.
I am pretty sure I've never seen anyone putting stuff back into a basket getting told off either.
What I have seen, albeit not Aldi but Asda, is people carrying baskets home with them. Near my sons nursery, it's particularly common to see students do this (I wonder if they take them back?) and also trolleys that haven't locked up after passing the red line.
In all my years I'd never imagined people would simply take their basket home with them! Now it seems a new trend, perhaps since many places started charging for bags.
I don't think I've ever considered an Aldi product to be absolute and utter crap before, but I just bought their pulled pork and... good grief!
I'm sure other supermarket pulled pork is the same, but after hearing so much about it, I saw it on special offer today for £1.99 and bought a box. They sold me a small, cheap marinated pork chop that I had to bake for 45 minutes (so I consider the claim it was "slow cooked" false on the grounds that I cooked it and 45 minutes isn't 'slow') and then pull apart myself with two forks (whilst removing the lumps of fat), before syphoning-off the nasty grease (as advised!) and drowning it with a supplied sachet of BBQ sauce to add some actual flavour before cooking it even more!
I could have bought any old pork chop, marinated it myself and minced it up with forks after cooking, as though I were a 7-year-old playing with my food on my plate. Then just squirted-on a splash of BBQ sauce from a bottle and served it as though it was something remotely good. In fact, it's almost like what comes out of a mother's mouth when she chews food for her baby to swallow.
What a complete waste of £1.99. I long suspected that pulled pork was baby food for adults, and now I can finally speak with authority! I expected the box to contain pork that was already pulled, and all I needed to do was heat it up and serve!
To ad insult to injury, when I finally ate it, it didn't taste particularly nice and the thin strands just got clogged up in my teeth like a Gillette razor used on very long stubble.
It's made me re-evaluate McDonalds as haute cuisine.
Yesterday I was in Lidl and had a peek at their pulled pork. It seems the same, providing a marinated pork steak in a bag that you're expected to roast in the oven and pull apart yourself.
They say you should try everything once, and once is as many times as I'll be trying pulled pork!
Yesterday I was in Lidl and had a peek at their pulled pork. It seems the same, providing a marinated pork steak in a bag that you're expected to roast in the oven and pull apart yourself.
They say you should try everything once, and once is as many times as I'll be trying pulled pork!
I would expect that the pork steak had been precooked in the bag and that the process at home involved heating it up slowly and then shredding. The effort of a long cook has thus been done for the buyer.
I have bought slow cooked pork belly which required 40 mins of reheating but which had been cooked for quite some time previously. It was delicious but expensive but I could not have done it like that at home as I think it has been cooked in a water bath which I don't have. And before someone tells me that I could create a water bath at home and could constantly check the temp is constant for 4 hours - I know but I will not be doing that as it is easier to buy the product. precooked
I don't think I've ever considered an Aldi product to be absolute and utter crap before, but I just bought their pulled pork and... good grief!
I'm sure other supermarket pulled pork is the same, but after hearing so much about it, I saw it on special offer today for £1.99 and bought a box. They sold me a small, cheap marinated pork chop that I had to bake for 45 minutes (so I consider the claim it was "slow cooked" false on the grounds that I cooked it and 45 minutes isn't 'slow') and then pull apart myself with two forks (whilst removing the lumps of fat), before syphoning-off the nasty grease (as advised!) and drowning it with a supplied sachet of BBQ sauce to add some actual flavour before cooking it even more!
I could have bought any old pork chop, marinated it myself and minced it up with forks after cooking, as though I were a 7-year-old playing with my food on my plate. Then just squirted-on a splash of BBQ sauce from a bottle and served it as though it was something remotely good. In fact, it's almost like what comes out of a mother's mouth when she chews food for her baby to swallow.
What a complete waste of £1.99. I long suspected that pulled pork was baby food for adults, and now I can finally speak with authority! I expected the box to contain pork that was already pulled, and all I needed to do was heat it up and serve!
To ad insult to injury, when I finally ate it, it didn't taste particularly nice and the thin strands just got clogged up in my teeth like a Gillette razor used on very long stubble.
It's made me re-evaluate McDonalds as haute cuisine.
I've had their pulled pork twice. The first time it was lovely but the second time it was horrible - just like described in the above post. I haven't had it since.
Comments
No, that isn't right. I've never actually seen that though, so would hope staff don't literally pile things up until it all falls on the floor!
The idea of packing later is a good one actually, but a lot of people probably aren't used to it or a little confused when they first go.
Remember when we used to have belts with a moving bar so one person could keep packing while a new person was served? That's still quite common abroad, but now even in Tesco it can feel like you're being rushed to pack and get out.
Given I don't buy much more than a carrier bag worth of stuff in Aldi, I can keep and up and pack at the till, and when shopping for more stuff I'll be at somewhere like Sainbury's where I can scan as I shop. I know I pay a bit more, but it's so convenient that I accept the premium for the time saving.
By way of contrast, I encountered one in the Aldi in Witney who seemed to be deliberately trying to make you spill everything onto the floor. She was such a sour-faced, grumpy old hag that it was actually quite amusing
It's the speedy checkouts that I like most about Aldi. When I shop, I don't necessarily like to spend time chatting with a cashier, I want to get in and out in the shortest time possible.
We've all had that experience when the shopper in front of you stops to chat with the cashier about thier last holiday, the weather etc. It drives me up the wall.
I always manage to say hello, thank you and goodbye at Aldi and smile but that's about it. Suits me fine!
How would they go about doing that?
Try smashing things on the floor and saying 'what are you going to do about it' in your local supermarket tomorrow and let me know how you get on.
I don't think that was suggested.
They would need to employ staff on the doors at all times, and provide them with mugshots of all offending customers who have accidentally dropped items. I can't see that working.
Sometimes you need to fight fire with fire.
My objective, at the back of the Aldi till, is to snatch the items from the hands of the till staff the instant I hear them successfully beep, shove them into my bag and end up waving the money under their nose before they've managed to get the till open. Then keep my arm held out, intimidatingly anticipative of the ensuing change. Sometimes they get flustered under the pressure and find it harder to work out what change to give me. That's when I know I've won. Again.
The last manager of my nearest branch was a formidable opponent. I even used to try to flummox her by shoving weird amounts of money made of many, many coins so that my change would be as few coins as possible, but still I never beat her ans was sad to see her go. Generally, the eastern European workers are the most difficult to out-maths. Especially the women. I doubt Rachael Riley would last long in Aldi, especially if she also took as long to stack the shelves as she does that blood board.
Both my local Aldi and Lidl have a list of banned people, usually shoplifters and other trouble makers. The security staff do spot them, even though they change every few months. I assume they do indeed have mugshots in the office, and the regular staff recognise people from previous incidents (some of which I have seen and were quite violent) and immediately inform the security staff.
This is a bit of a legacy thing. Aldi and Lidl have only had hand baskets for a couple of years. Before that you either got a trolly or found an old cardboard box and used that. They even used to deliberately leave a huge box of old smaller boxes by the entrance for people to use.
That way, you carried your stuff around in a cardboard box, emptied it onto the conveyor belt and took the box to the back of the till with you, to refill.
Now they have baskets at the entrance, but haven't provided a matching solution to what happens on the back of the till.
Did they have a spate of basket thefts when they were first introduced?
I don't know about the number of thefts, but think it was just part of their policy not to allow them through in case they were taken away. A kind of preventative measure.
However, I have noticed that since they first introduced them, they've 'upgraded' them to baskets with tags that set the alarm off if you walk out the door with them. Whether that was driven by thefts or managerial paranoia, I've no idea. The big supermarkets don't allow you to take them though either, but their tills are different and they don't have the legacy of a culture of shopping in cardboard boxes.
If anyone does have problems packing their stuff in Aldi of Lidl, check whether they have a large box somewhere in the store that's usually got empty boxes in it and use one of them instead of a basket. If not, just look for empty boxes in the aisles, or boxes with just one or two items left that you can move out to free-up the box for your own use.
Personally, I preferred it when they had no baskets and their 1L tubs of yoghurt were £1.29. That was less overheads to allow for better food at cheaper prices. I notice my local Lidl has recently installed a silly computer system that shouts out which tills are opening and closing. That probably cost millions to roll out nationwide. No wonder dried yeast went up from 59p to 65p, chocolate from 99p to £1.05 and the battered fish went up 10p to £1.59.
And the 1L tubs of yougurt have clibmed to £1.79 over the last few years too.
Btw before they provided baskets, I just used to put everything in my own shopping bag, then unload it all on to the checkout belt.
In fact, it's other customers who are more likely to get angry. Some people do pack page in a trolley at the till, and again staff don't appear to say anything.
I am pretty sure I've never seen anyone putting stuff back into a basket getting told off either.
What I have seen, albeit not Aldi but Asda, is people carrying baskets home with them. Near my sons nursery, it's particularly common to see students do this (I wonder if they take them back?) and also trolleys that haven't locked up after passing the red line.
In all my years I'd never imagined people would simply take their basket home with them! Now it seems a new trend, perhaps since many places started charging for bags.
I'm sure other supermarket pulled pork is the same, but after hearing so much about it, I saw it on special offer today for £1.99 and bought a box. They sold me a small, cheap marinated pork chop that I had to bake for 45 minutes (so I consider the claim it was "slow cooked" false on the grounds that I cooked it and 45 minutes isn't 'slow') and then pull apart myself with two forks (whilst removing the lumps of fat), before syphoning-off the nasty grease (as advised!) and drowning it with a supplied sachet of BBQ sauce to add some actual flavour before cooking it even more!
I could have bought any old pork chop, marinated it myself and minced it up with forks after cooking, as though I were a 7-year-old playing with my food on my plate. Then just squirted-on a splash of BBQ sauce from a bottle and served it as though it was something remotely good. In fact, it's almost like what comes out of a mother's mouth when she chews food for her baby to swallow.
What a complete waste of £1.99. I long suspected that pulled pork was baby food for adults, and now I can finally speak with authority! I expected the box to contain pork that was already pulled, and all I needed to do was heat it up and serve!
To ad insult to injury, when I finally ate it, it didn't taste particularly nice and the thin strands just got clogged up in my teeth like a Gillette razor used on very long stubble.
It's made me re-evaluate McDonalds as haute cuisine.
A DIY pulled pork pack, which would most probably include a raw pork shoulder or belly, a spice mix and a BBQ sauce.
Such as this: https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/recipes/recipes-by-category/recipes-using-pork/pulled-pork-shoulder-with-ginger-and-black-pepper/
What I have also bought in supermarkets are pork chops in BBQ sauce. These are not for pulled pork.
Do you have a picture of the packaging of the product you purchased?
I've thrown it out now, but it was this product:
https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/product-range/fresh-bakery/this-weeks-latest-meat-offers/meat-offers-product-detail/ps/p/pulled-pork-with-sweet-bbq-sauce-1/
Yesterday I was in Lidl and had a peek at their pulled pork. It seems the same, providing a marinated pork steak in a bag that you're expected to roast in the oven and pull apart yourself.
They say you should try everything once, and once is as many times as I'll be trying pulled pork!
I would expect that the pork steak had been precooked in the bag and that the process at home involved heating it up slowly and then shredding. The effort of a long cook has thus been done for the buyer.
I have bought slow cooked pork belly which required 40 mins of reheating but which had been cooked for quite some time previously. It was delicious but expensive but I could not have done it like that at home as I think it has been cooked in a water bath which I don't have. And before someone tells me that I could create a water bath at home and could constantly check the temp is constant for 4 hours - I know but I will not be doing that as it is easier to buy the product. precooked
I've had their pulled pork twice. The first time it was lovely but the second time it was horrible - just like described in the above post. I haven't had it since.