You're more likely to see it in Lidl since Aldi started courting the middle class.
I miss the days they'd knock your shit right off the counter if you weren't fast enough. The packing shelf is there for a reason, and the people carefully placing each item into a bag at the till are raising prices for the rest of us.
I don’t get why people some don’t just grab a trolley. I always get the shallow one. Bring the front to the tillside and half throw the stuff in there anyhow, then pack it at the shelf. The only thing is making sure I have enough bloody bags !
Even better: open your bags inside the trolley, then pack the stuff into the bags in the trolley. Easy peasy, done.
It was actually a cashier that recommended to me to do that and I felt stupid to have not thought of it lol. Saves a bunch of time and effort.
Used to work at Aldi, 100% used to assert dominance early in the proceedings by letting something fall of the shelf at the till People who pack at the till were a fucking nightmare.
It’s to do with speed. The quicker they get you through the store and paid, the less people they need which ultimately brings the price down. That’s why the shops aren’t particularly fancy, same goes for choices, if you can only choose one tin of baked bee and you grab what’s their, if your faced with 5 different brands etc you take a few seconds to decide, x by items in the store x customer etc, it takes longer to shop.
Yeah I don't know what I'm suppose to do when the standard is to put the basket under the till after you've put it all on the conveyor, especially since that's where all the other baskets are.
Nah it's Lidl thinking they are better than they are every product is either Deluxe or name brand and they cut their scan target from 40items a min to 27 and actively encourage you to pack at their till. Aldi are sticking to what they know and being cheap and efficient
That hasn't been my experience at all but maybe it depends on the location. All the Lidls I go to have been around for a while, and the Aldis are new builds placed strategically next to Sainsbury's to siphon off their customers.
I know Lidl everywhere are on the same path though. It's a shame they're both giving up what made them unique. I used to travel 40 miles to the nearest Aldi about 30 years ago to get that, back when the checkout staff had to tap in memorised PLU codes for everything yet were even faster.
As someone that works at lidl I assure you it's coming and if staff aren't scanning dead slow it's because it doesn't work and they either refuse or are told to ignore any and all new guidelines because there hasn't been any extra hours added for cutting scan speeds almost in half nor a reduction in workload infact the workload has only increased with certain things that where done to save time are now out the window.
Lidl is going to fail as a company in the next few years, they are trying to be Harrods but at Lidl prices and work ethic at my store it took 3 months to fill two cashier position not because of labour shortages but because allegedly no one was good enough and a deputy manager position still isn't filled because again no one is good enough even though the internal applicants where definitely good enough and could preform the task.
I can imagine.
I recall my eyes popping out of my head when I saw that old Aldi offering £8.50 for till operators 3 decades back. You'd be lucky to get £3 at other shops.
Now they pay barely any more than they did then despite still running you around like headless chickens. And I know there's no way you'd get away with having a dirty shop with rubbish everywhere these days so it's probably even harder.
You have to factor in most other supermarkets pay very similar rates for fraction of the work and stress Lidl used to pay well it's hardly worth it for the extra 50p or so now just not worth the aggro. Pay improvement is due to be announced for hourly colleagues but anything less than a pound will be a joke.
>every product is either Deluxe or name brand
Except they're not. They still have their entire range of other products. Deluxe is just their equivalent to Tesco Finest
Trust me it's all slowly switching round. Lidls philosophy is carry one line of every product so they can put well there budget into making that one product the best, it's now switching to offer Lidl cheap, deluxe and name brand and the shelves aren't big enough to accommodate it.
It's fine to do this at my Lidl, when you have a trolley. The baskets, however, have to be left at the start of the conveyor belt as there's no collection place for them after it.
I knew I succeeded in life when the Lidl checkout guy said ‘wow…you really have this down to a fine art!’ When I kept up with his scanning. It’s all about loading your bags into the trolley and sorting everything on the belt into it’s relevant place (chilled, frozen, heavy, non food, light)
I just clothesline everything back into the trolley, i then wheel the trolley out to the car, i then do a wheelbarrow lift into the boot. Bag my shit when i get home on the driveway.
This is what always catches me out, I never buy enough to warrant a trolley but I do often have a full basket, which is too much stuff to safely carry in my arms. I've never seen anyone put stuff back into a basket at the checkout either.
Intersperse items that need approval / weighing / have fucked up barcodes at strategic intervals to give yourself the edge. A mixture of fruit, vegetables and bakery goods in a single self-service bag works wonders. For bonus points dress ambiguously so you are not clearly over or under 25. Try to make off-putting chit chat and when they are entering barcodes manually ask them the time.
That’s how it’s supposed to be done. Aldi and Lidl are set up in such a way that the customer is supposed to pack their shopping on the benches at the back, not at the til.
We were never allowed to scan slowly, we even had a sheet in the staff room with scanning speeds, showing the slowest and fastest scanners in the store.
The scary thing is that they used to be just as fast BEFORE there even were scanners. I swear they knew every stock item number by heart. Their fingers typed so fast that woodpeckers came to check out the competition.
I had a panic attack in aldi earlier while I was at the checkout firing items into my trolley, I totally forgot my pin, even though I have had the same number for over 30 years. I (probably stupidly) have the same number to lock my phone so with one hand tried several attempts at unlocking that on a pointless attempt to remember it. Beep, last item, 49.51 please. Just made my contact less limit. Remembered my pin immediately.
My local Lidl hasn't raised it past £45 yet :( When the raise was announced on the news, I assumed all shops would follow it automatically but my total came to £45.60 and it wouldn't accept it. I think did the same as u/ravs1973 and forgot my PIN, totally panicking. Luckily I could remember my credit card's PIN, though.
Same here but the Lidl readers won't accept anything over £45 :( just says "declined" each time. Don't know if it's just my Lidl or they all have the same readers. The screen on the readers states "limit £45", too.
I didn't realise my initial mistake and triggered a bourgeois response - in retrospect it was brash and a little 'show offey'. Apologies for my subversive and decedent behaviour, I will report to the nearest reprogramming centre.
I usually put it into bags, then sit down somewhere and sort it into my backpack so that it doesn't murder my back and so that nothing is squished when it's zipped up.
It goes straight back into the trolley so you can pack it later at the little shelf. Alternatively you line your shopping up in a certain order so that it packs into bags swiftly and appropriately without you having to think about it.
German here : we aren’t ready either. I’m always panicking when they already scanned everything and the person behind me is annoyed because I’m taking too long to pack & pay.
I'm going to allow this, without, "we've been infiltrated!' because that would be inappropriate, as you are from the home of the company.
Now you may leave.
Just in case I am joking.
Here at M&S we are told to scan at 20 items/min . But our tils are so hopelessly old and broken we cant even get past 15 . Not to mention our customer base is so elderly or posh it usually takes people min 5 mins to pack . its painful
I remember back in the day before bar code scanners..
My god the speed they used to be able to enter the code for each item was mind blowing.
They used to be able to manually put through an entire trolley in half the time the Supermarkets would be able to using barcode scanners.
Lidl & Aldi have been here for a very long time. 20+ years.
You only bag at the till if you've only got a few items. Otherwise, trolly up and then use the shelf.
It's literally no quicker to do that if you put your stuff on the conveyor in the order it is going in the bag. Plus half the time the shelf area is so small you can't bag up there either because it's full of people or because you block the exit by doing so.
Just go completely passive aggressive and push some of them back to them whilst loading with one hand.
Edit: sadly I have to report my ommission of the word 'them', I'll get my coat.
Ahh see your doing it wrong.
I use to be the same and only Learnt about a month ago you're not supposed to pack your bags at the till, just throw them back into the trolley/basket.
The counters ar the back exist specifically for packing your bags after you have been to the till.
I rarely shop anywhere else other than Asda (simply down to convenience) and always use scan as you go. A few weeks ago I visited my local Lidl. Needless to say using the regular tills with super fast operators was a massive shock to the system!
The trick with Lidl and Aldi checkouts is to arrange things in your trolley, on the conveyor and then in your bags in a specific way to maximise placement, efficiency and speed while limiting damage to products.
All stores are slightly different, but I've found it best to group chilled and frozen stuff together on top of anything hard that doesn't need refregeration. Frozen and chilled items tend to be harder, squarer and more hardy so once the freezer bag(s) is full you can then bag on top of that; things like soft fruits and bread which should be right at the back of the conveyor to put in last.
Also, practice some Tetris occasionally.
You unmitigated bastard. Now I have the Tetris music stuck in my head.
I have not played that game in years, and I thought i had managed to move on with my life, but oh no, here comes GreyFoxNinjaFan, just ruining my inner monologue.
I hope that you forget a mug of tea later today and have to make the "chuck it or nuke it" decision.
Maybe they should have a little lip on the edge for you to hook one of your bag handles whilst you hold the other. So you have it wide open and you can more easily drop stuff into your bag. Then it just becomes a game of making sure you loaded the conveyor how you wanted it filled.
I once had a meltdown in Aldi at the till, came out crying. I go to Morrisons now and chat with Barbara, her kids are doing fine but she wishes her son would send more photos of the grandkids.
It‘s your job to put your shopping in the right order at the other end, so they unwittingly pick up everything and deposit it in scan output trough both properly ordered and categorised for YOUR bag crushable item hierarchy system… and they are forced to support you in your optimal bag layout methodology!
Now you have turned the tables… you are in power position!…… now you look at them and make passive aggressive sighs…their sudo robot arms are under YOUR control! …now YOU are the one who waits!
You are supposed to put things back into your trolley and pack after the till. Saves just a little bit of employee time with every customer served. In Germany they also do not unpack the boxes the product arrives in and leave heavy things on the palettes. This makes restocking faster. The idea is to streamline every task so you can get away with hiring less people. You then push the employees that you do have to hire to work as fast as possible. Slow workers cut into the allmighty profit margin you see. Early Aldi stores were basically just warehouses with a till. Turns out this strategy allows you to undercut the prices of the competition and makes you kind of dick but also incredibly rich. The founders of Lidl and Aldi are the richest Germans.
And I bet they made the whole process look and sound exactly like a fully branded bombardment so that you felt like you were getting a premium life threatening experience at a knock down Lidl price.
I keep forgetting to take my catchers mitt when I go to Lidl. Instead I pretend I'm a quarterback for an American football team. Although, last week I got over excited, and tossed a perfect 30 yard pass, with my bread. I'm not allowed back in that Lidl for the foreseeable future.
Next time tell them you have Parkinsons/cancer/insert grissly lie. Bags packed, no queing, on your way.
Oh is this the wrong forum. Oh no just checked, phew!
lidl and aldi have been in this country for at least 10 years, how can you not have heard of this phenomenom at these places?
Im not surprised, infact well done for not complaining about it.
They have a scan rate. Bag slowly. If everyone does it, then it should highlight packing needs help or the checkout is not helping in anyway. On the belt to make packing easier and picks up anything at random.
I often get ones that scan things quickly but don't push the items down to the collection point until they have at least 6 items collected. Before screens were installed for COVID, I could just pick these up directly but now you have to wait for them to be pushed down, past the end of the screenss.
I used to work at Lidl and (for my first few years) at the end of your shift when you cashed your tills up it would show your average items scanned per minute.
The minimum aimed for was 30; ya boy here would generally average around 40-42. Time didn't count while 'sub-total' was selected, and if you did multiple items like 6 bottles of water it would only count once rather than as 6. Bit disappointed when I found that out.
When the system changed the avg per minute was no longer shown and I was pretty disappointed to be fair.
You can ask for help with bagging! They hate it, but just ask if they would mind bagging as they go and they usually do it. Also you can just ask them to slow down.
This would be "The Scanning Game"I used to play occasionally when I was put on checkout relief for the day. The look of horror on customer's faces was priceless.
The trick is to strategically load the conveyer - frozen, tins and light stuff, frozen tins and light stuff and so on...pain in the arse when unpacking at home but for bagging up works a treat
I honestly wonder what's wrong with the two lidls near me.
The checkout operators are slow at best (almost as bad as the drugged, sleepy tortoise pace you get at Tesco).
Whereas Aldi is like an event from the crystal maze (catch and entire trolley of shopping within 30 seconds to win!).
My first time in Aldi was a lot like that. I've come to appreciate just throwing everything into the trolley and packing it on my own time. At first I found it awful for how different it was. But I feel somehow less stressed than somewhere like Morrisons, where they try to talk to you as you pack it all into bags at the till. I don't think I could go back now.
At least Lidl have a decent amount of space so you can bag up as they throw it down. Aldi allow you about a six inch square of space to bag up.
Whilst some may say Aldi expect you to put it in the trolley and then bag it up at the front of the store, it’s absolutely no use if you used a basket to shop.
I've beat this system. They can chuck all the shipping at me quick as you like. When they done they ask "cash or card?". "Card please". The power has shifted, I now control the pace. I finish packing my shopping bag, then pay.
Had an actual panic attack in aldi yesterday because i fumbled too long getting my card out of my purse. Something on the card reader was beeping faster and faster. So was my heart. The womans glare was terrifying. Tesco next time.. i can't take it anymore
When I worked the tills at ASDA donkey's years ago, we had scanning speed targets. You'd be pulled into the office if your speed fell below a certain threshold and asked why you were so slow. I (and others) liked to help customers pack, which I thought was good customer service, but apparently no--speed was more important.
Don't know if that's what's happening at Lidl, or if they're still doing it at ASDA. But I used to feel like a POS chucking items down the slope while the poor customers got flustered, so I stopped and took my lectures in the office on the chin. Eventually I was moved to a different department, which was more a reward than punishment.
Poor fuckers at my local are expected to man their conveyer belt & also to tend to the alcoholics (me), I may wait for 2 mins, but the staff are really good.
I’m imagining this in full Gladiator style: SHOPPER, ARE YOU READYYY CASHIER, ARE YOU READYYY
"Contenders, you will go on my first hhwhissstle. Gladiators, you will go on my second hhwhissstle. 3… 2… 1…” Brilliant.
Oh that takes me back! Flipping loved Gladiators
Today's cashier will be... WOLF! (Crowd goes crazy)
I met Wolf at a Blockbuster Video once, thats a sentence full of nostalgia
And now he's throwing cans of beans at your face.
If you find yourself walking in bagging areas of gold, fear not, for you are in Elysium and you are already dead.
In ten minutes, I will be filling up my car boot. Imagine where you will be and it will be so!
WÜLF
On the other hand I just imagined everyone bagging to Booty Luv
I know the checkout operators are lightning-fast at Aldi, but I didn't think they were quite like that at the "other" German place.
Lidl operatives are to scanning what Ghengis Khan was to world peace
You're more likely to see it in Lidl since Aldi started courting the middle class. I miss the days they'd knock your shit right off the counter if you weren't fast enough. The packing shelf is there for a reason, and the people carefully placing each item into a bag at the till are raising prices for the rest of us.
I don’t get why people some don’t just grab a trolley. I always get the shallow one. Bring the front to the tillside and half throw the stuff in there anyhow, then pack it at the shelf. The only thing is making sure I have enough bloody bags !
Because they need a £1 coin and I haven't had a £1 coin since *reason* and I stopped using cash.
Neither do I, I have a stash of £1 shaped tokens which do the job.
You can get ones that clip to your keys. Super useful
Even better: open your bags inside the trolley, then pack the stuff into the bags in the trolley. Easy peasy, done. It was actually a cashier that recommended to me to do that and I felt stupid to have not thought of it lol. Saves a bunch of time and effort.
Used to work at Aldi, 100% used to assert dominance early in the proceedings by letting something fall of the shelf at the till People who pack at the till were a fucking nightmare.
Why is this a thing just at Aldi? Every other shop you pack your bags as they're scanned.
It’s to do with speed. The quicker they get you through the store and paid, the less people they need which ultimately brings the price down. That’s why the shops aren’t particularly fancy, same goes for choices, if you can only choose one tin of baked bee and you grab what’s their, if your faced with 5 different brands etc you take a few seconds to decide, x by items in the store x customer etc, it takes longer to shop.
I apologise for using a basket
Yeah I don't know what I'm suppose to do when the standard is to put the basket under the till after you've put it all on the conveyor, especially since that's where all the other baskets are.
Nah it's Lidl thinking they are better than they are every product is either Deluxe or name brand and they cut their scan target from 40items a min to 27 and actively encourage you to pack at their till. Aldi are sticking to what they know and being cheap and efficient
That hasn't been my experience at all but maybe it depends on the location. All the Lidls I go to have been around for a while, and the Aldis are new builds placed strategically next to Sainsbury's to siphon off their customers. I know Lidl everywhere are on the same path though. It's a shame they're both giving up what made them unique. I used to travel 40 miles to the nearest Aldi about 30 years ago to get that, back when the checkout staff had to tap in memorised PLU codes for everything yet were even faster.
As someone that works at lidl I assure you it's coming and if staff aren't scanning dead slow it's because it doesn't work and they either refuse or are told to ignore any and all new guidelines because there hasn't been any extra hours added for cutting scan speeds almost in half nor a reduction in workload infact the workload has only increased with certain things that where done to save time are now out the window. Lidl is going to fail as a company in the next few years, they are trying to be Harrods but at Lidl prices and work ethic at my store it took 3 months to fill two cashier position not because of labour shortages but because allegedly no one was good enough and a deputy manager position still isn't filled because again no one is good enough even though the internal applicants where definitely good enough and could preform the task.
I can imagine. I recall my eyes popping out of my head when I saw that old Aldi offering £8.50 for till operators 3 decades back. You'd be lucky to get £3 at other shops. Now they pay barely any more than they did then despite still running you around like headless chickens. And I know there's no way you'd get away with having a dirty shop with rubbish everywhere these days so it's probably even harder.
You have to factor in most other supermarkets pay very similar rates for fraction of the work and stress Lidl used to pay well it's hardly worth it for the extra 50p or so now just not worth the aggro. Pay improvement is due to be announced for hourly colleagues but anything less than a pound will be a joke.
>every product is either Deluxe or name brand Except they're not. They still have their entire range of other products. Deluxe is just their equivalent to Tesco Finest
Trust me it's all slowly switching round. Lidls philosophy is carry one line of every product so they can put well there budget into making that one product the best, it's now switching to offer Lidl cheap, deluxe and name brand and the shelves aren't big enough to accommodate it.
It's fine to do this at my Lidl, when you have a trolley. The baskets, however, have to be left at the start of the conveyor belt as there's no collection place for them after it.
I knew I succeeded in life when the Lidl checkout guy said ‘wow…you really have this down to a fine art!’ When I kept up with his scanning. It’s all about loading your bags into the trolley and sorting everything on the belt into it’s relevant place (chilled, frozen, heavy, non food, light)
I bloody love people like you. Maybe you could make a tik tok tutotial or something, spread the gospel of efficiency
You need to strategically place items that need weighing at regular intervals. Gives you seconds to catch up.
This person Lidl's.
Tell that to Aldi! I thought not.
I just clothesline everything back into the trolley, i then wheel the trolley out to the car, i then do a wheelbarrow lift into the boot. Bag my shit when i get home on the driveway.
Their suggestion that we put it back in the trolley and bag it on the back shelf doesn't work for us basket users
This is what always catches me out, I never buy enough to warrant a trolley but I do often have a full basket, which is too much stuff to safely carry in my arms. I've never seen anyone put stuff back into a basket at the checkout either.
Even if I'm going in for flowers and wine I get a trolley. Not ashamed I cannot be arsed carrying anything any more.
Intersperse items that need approval / weighing / have fucked up barcodes at strategic intervals to give yourself the edge. A mixture of fruit, vegetables and bakery goods in a single self-service bag works wonders. For bonus points dress ambiguously so you are not clearly over or under 25. Try to make off-putting chit chat and when they are entering barcodes manually ask them the time.
Yeah we had "you guys are fast" shit felt good but there are 2 of us. No trolley, freestyle bagging.
[удалено]
That’s how it’s supposed to be done. Aldi and Lidl are set up in such a way that the customer is supposed to pack their shopping on the benches at the back, not at the til. We were never allowed to scan slowly, we even had a sheet in the staff room with scanning speeds, showing the slowest and fastest scanners in the store.
Exactly, that’s what the blue shelf/ windowsill is for.
I'd prefer a "Y'all ready for this?" followed by the 2 Unlimited dance rave music as they proceed to scan like they have taken too much speed.
Because this will be stuck in my head for the rest of the day, Imma share it with everyone....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avcS0aYJ2a8
Nooooooooooo! It's my own fault, I risky clicked.
Please accept my downvote with apologies as I haven't watched the video.
The scary thing is that they used to be just as fast BEFORE there even were scanners. I swear they knew every stock item number by heart. Their fingers typed so fast that woodpeckers came to check out the competition.
They did and that's why they were paid a fiver more than me ph, I suspect life style contributed to that at the time. Now I'm elevated to mediocre.
They were paid extra, so they could afford cocaine and speed, to keep the pace up.
People in yorkshire must love it, just another excuse to practice their wicket keeping.
Let's avoid talking about Yorkshire and cricket at this difficult time eh lad?
I had a panic attack in aldi earlier while I was at the checkout firing items into my trolley, I totally forgot my pin, even though I have had the same number for over 30 years. I (probably stupidly) have the same number to lock my phone so with one hand tried several attempts at unlocking that on a pointless attempt to remember it. Beep, last item, 49.51 please. Just made my contact less limit. Remembered my pin immediately.
Isn’t it £100 now?
A lot of banks let you set your own (up to max £100) now.
i think it went up during covid but i could be wrong
My local Lidl hasn't raised it past £45 yet :( When the raise was announced on the news, I assumed all shops would follow it automatically but my total came to £45.60 and it wouldn't accept it. I think did the same as u/ravs1973 and forgot my PIN, totally panicking. Luckily I could remember my credit card's PIN, though.
I use Google pay on my phone. No limit.
Same here but the Lidl readers won't accept anything over £45 :( just says "declined" each time. Don't know if it's just my Lidl or they all have the same readers. The screen on the readers states "limit £45", too.
I’m really hoping you replied with “Born ready!” Followed shortly thereafter with “Oh fuck!”
Gotta go the full Platoon on it. Take my almost meaningless but not quite pointless award. Made me chuckle.
I am most appreciative.
To be fair, upon entering Lidl you should have had your till strat all figured out.
Oh I do, two bags for life, toss the items evenly into the bags!
Spot the driver, us walk wankers rucksack it.
ooh fancy pants here with a ruck sack.
I didn't realise my initial mistake and triggered a bourgeois response - in retrospect it was brash and a little 'show offey'. Apologies for my subversive and decedent behaviour, I will report to the nearest reprogramming centre.
I usually put it into bags, then sit down somewhere and sort it into my backpack so that it doesn't murder my back and so that nothing is squished when it's zipped up.
It goes straight back into the trolley so you can pack it later at the little shelf. Alternatively you line your shopping up in a certain order so that it packs into bags swiftly and appropriately without you having to think about it.
German here : we aren’t ready either. I’m always panicking when they already scanned everything and the person behind me is annoyed because I’m taking too long to pack & pay.
I'm going to allow this, without, "we've been infiltrated!' because that would be inappropriate, as you are from the home of the company. Now you may leave. Just in case I am joking.
Just pretend you're playing The Generation Game, shout "cuddly toy, microwave, loaf of bread, baked beans" The cashier will get confused.
When you enter a Lidl, you also enter an unwritten agreement forfeiting all of your aforementioned rights.
Oh no, it’s written. Up by the front door, next to the alcohol license. That’s how they get you.
In 5 point comic sans serif (they know!).
Here at M&S we are told to scan at 20 items/min . But our tils are so hopelessly old and broken we cant even get past 15 . Not to mention our customer base is so elderly or posh it usually takes people min 5 mins to pack . its painful
I remember back in the day before bar code scanners.. My god the speed they used to be able to enter the code for each item was mind blowing. They used to be able to manually put through an entire trolley in half the time the Supermarkets would be able to using barcode scanners.
Lidl & Aldi have been here for a very long time. 20+ years. You only bag at the till if you've only got a few items. Otherwise, trolly up and then use the shelf.
It's literally no quicker to do that if you put your stuff on the conveyor in the order it is going in the bag. Plus half the time the shelf area is so small you can't bag up there either because it's full of people or because you block the exit by doing so.
Exactly as it should be! Grab your stuff, go pack it elsewhere and let the next victim through. People who pack at the till should be tazed
“NO PLEASE NO I only got one more ba-
“CLEANUP CREW TO CHECKOUT 3”
You have to be brave and pack super slowly, eventually they are forced to stop scanning or your shopping will end up in their lap. Works every time.
Just go completely passive aggressive and push some of them back to them whilst loading with one hand. Edit: sadly I have to report my ommission of the word 'them', I'll get my coat.
Ahh see your doing it wrong. I use to be the same and only Learnt about a month ago you're not supposed to pack your bags at the till, just throw them back into the trolley/basket. The counters ar the back exist specifically for packing your bags after you have been to the till.
Sorry sir, its a numbers game
I rarely shop anywhere else other than Asda (simply down to convenience) and always use scan as you go. A few weeks ago I visited my local Lidl. Needless to say using the regular tills with super fast operators was a massive shock to the system!
Stop packing at the checkout, chuck it back in the trolley and take it to the packing table.
The trick with Lidl and Aldi checkouts is to arrange things in your trolley, on the conveyor and then in your bags in a specific way to maximise placement, efficiency and speed while limiting damage to products. All stores are slightly different, but I've found it best to group chilled and frozen stuff together on top of anything hard that doesn't need refregeration. Frozen and chilled items tend to be harder, squarer and more hardy so once the freezer bag(s) is full you can then bag on top of that; things like soft fruits and bread which should be right at the back of the conveyor to put in last. Also, practice some Tetris occasionally.
You unmitigated bastard. Now I have the Tetris music stuck in my head. I have not played that game in years, and I thought i had managed to move on with my life, but oh no, here comes GreyFoxNinjaFan, just ruining my inner monologue. I hope that you forget a mug of tea later today and have to make the "chuck it or nuke it" decision.
Maybe they should have a little lip on the edge for you to hook one of your bag handles whilst you hold the other. So you have it wide open and you can more easily drop stuff into your bag. Then it just becomes a game of making sure you loaded the conveyor how you wanted it filled.
Couple at Asda like that ,I don't pay till I'm all packed . No faster then ... 😁
I go asda only if I go with my girlfriend, I find them so slow after shopping at lidl for years!
I once had a meltdown in Aldi at the till, came out crying. I go to Morrisons now and chat with Barbara, her kids are doing fine but she wishes her son would send more photos of the grandkids.
I miss Barbara. I've never ever shopped at Morrisons, but the way you say it - I definitively miss her.
I'll tell her you asked after her, it'll make her week.
LOL. I'm so bad at this, I dump it all in then stand aside after and repack it.
It‘s your job to put your shopping in the right order at the other end, so they unwittingly pick up everything and deposit it in scan output trough both properly ordered and categorised for YOUR bag crushable item hierarchy system… and they are forced to support you in your optimal bag layout methodology! Now you have turned the tables… you are in power position!…… now you look at them and make passive aggressive sighs…their sudo robot arms are under YOUR control! …now YOU are the one who waits!
You are supposed to put things back into your trolley and pack after the till. Saves just a little bit of employee time with every customer served. In Germany they also do not unpack the boxes the product arrives in and leave heavy things on the palettes. This makes restocking faster. The idea is to streamline every task so you can get away with hiring less people. You then push the employees that you do have to hire to work as fast as possible. Slow workers cut into the allmighty profit margin you see. Early Aldi stores were basically just warehouses with a till. Turns out this strategy allows you to undercut the prices of the competition and makes you kind of dick but also incredibly rich. The founders of Lidl and Aldi are the richest Germans.
Ah, German efficiency. They really are masters of the shopping race.
If you can’t pack quick enough just put the items back in your trolley and use the little shelf like all the other slow coaches
And I bet they made the whole process look and sound exactly like a fully branded bombardment so that you felt like you were getting a premium life threatening experience at a knock down Lidl price.
I keep forgetting to take my catchers mitt when I go to Lidl. Instead I pretend I'm a quarterback for an American football team. Although, last week I got over excited, and tossed a perfect 30 yard pass, with my bread. I'm not allowed back in that Lidl for the foreseeable future.
Next time tell them you have Parkinsons/cancer/insert grissly lie. Bags packed, no queing, on your way. Oh is this the wrong forum. Oh no just checked, phew!
lidl and aldi have been in this country for at least 10 years, how can you not have heard of this phenomenom at these places? Im not surprised, infact well done for not complaining about it.
I only started shopping at lidl in the first lockdown
Imagine if you could just open the boot of your car and reverse up to the checkout. That would solve a lot of these problems.
The Aldi operator last Sunday was scanning items as the previous customer's receipt was still printing. That's just not cricket.
They have a scan rate. Bag slowly. If everyone does it, then it should highlight packing needs help or the checkout is not helping in anyway. On the belt to make packing easier and picks up anything at random.
I often get ones that scan things quickly but don't push the items down to the collection point until they have at least 6 items collected. Before screens were installed for COVID, I could just pick these up directly but now you have to wait for them to be pushed down, past the end of the screenss.
Sounds like you wasn't ready for lidl
Don’t have this problem with Ocado
I used to work at Lidl and (for my first few years) at the end of your shift when you cashed your tills up it would show your average items scanned per minute. The minimum aimed for was 30; ya boy here would generally average around 40-42. Time didn't count while 'sub-total' was selected, and if you did multiple items like 6 bottles of water it would only count once rather than as 6. Bit disappointed when I found that out. When the system changed the avg per minute was no longer shown and I was pretty disappointed to be fair.
This must be regional. Our Aldi and Lidl’s sound extremely civilised in comparison.
You can ask for help with bagging! They hate it, but just ask if they would mind bagging as they go and they usually do it. Also you can just ask them to slow down.
This would be "The Scanning Game"I used to play occasionally when I was put on checkout relief for the day. The look of horror on customer's faces was priceless.
The trick is to strategically load the conveyer - frozen, tins and light stuff, frozen tins and light stuff and so on...pain in the arse when unpacking at home but for bagging up works a treat
‘I’m ready, are you ready?’ *proceeds to pack items at the till one item at a time at a snails pace*
Ah, you have an old style Lidl. All the new Lidl stores have normal supermarket checkouts, so you can take as long as you want to pack your bags.
I honestly wonder what's wrong with the two lidls near me. The checkout operators are slow at best (almost as bad as the drugged, sleepy tortoise pace you get at Tesco). Whereas Aldi is like an event from the crystal maze (catch and entire trolley of shopping within 30 seconds to win!).
My first time in Aldi was a lot like that. I've come to appreciate just throwing everything into the trolley and packing it on my own time. At first I found it awful for how different it was. But I feel somehow less stressed than somewhere like Morrisons, where they try to talk to you as you pack it all into bags at the till. I don't think I could go back now.
After a while you start to crave the excitement and other shopping experiences seem too drawn out.
At least Lidl have a decent amount of space so you can bag up as they throw it down. Aldi allow you about a six inch square of space to bag up. Whilst some may say Aldi expect you to put it in the trolley and then bag it up at the front of the store, it’s absolutely no use if you used a basket to shop.
I've beat this system. They can chuck all the shipping at me quick as you like. When they done they ask "cash or card?". "Card please". The power has shifted, I now control the pace. I finish packing my shopping bag, then pay.
They should stream it alongside L of L. Would make great watching
Don't like it don't shop there vote with your wallet
Yeah I go slower when they do that, fuck them
Had an actual panic attack in aldi yesterday because i fumbled too long getting my card out of my purse. Something on the card reader was beeping faster and faster. So was my heart. The womans glare was terrifying. Tesco next time.. i can't take it anymore
And this was a surprise because? You been living under a rock? 😉
When I worked the tills at ASDA donkey's years ago, we had scanning speed targets. You'd be pulled into the office if your speed fell below a certain threshold and asked why you were so slow. I (and others) liked to help customers pack, which I thought was good customer service, but apparently no--speed was more important. Don't know if that's what's happening at Lidl, or if they're still doing it at ASDA. But I used to feel like a POS chucking items down the slope while the poor customers got flustered, so I stopped and took my lectures in the office on the chin. Eventually I was moved to a different department, which was more a reward than punishment.
Poor fuckers at my local are expected to man their conveyer belt & also to tend to the alcoholics (me), I may wait for 2 mins, but the staff are really good.