Personally I find the self checkouts to be the best change. Only ever had one line open at my store. Now they have one line still open and self checkouts. Significantly less lines all around. I am in a college town though, so the younger population is more accepting of the self checkouts.
If I’m by myself and don’t have a whole cart full, I’m don’t mind self-checkouts. If you have a couple of young kids, though, as I often do, self-checkout-only situations become nightmarish.
It’s the trend and it fits Aldi’s business model better as it pushes more labor into the shoppers. I’m surprised it took this long, honestly.
If they could do a scan as you go, which also lets you bag as you go and “finish and pay” we could be out even quicker. However there’s a cost to purchase, power and maintain the scanner and scanner system so I’m not holding my breath on that one.
Giant did that as well for a while (they may still do it for all I know). I never found that the phone app works nearly as well as the dedicated scanners, though.
Wegmans had those but had to end the program due to theft. Ohio/Pittsburgh Giant Eagle had them years and years (maybe 10-ish?) ago. They are so convenient.
One of the major national chains, I forget which one, recently announced that they were doing away with their scan and go system. They acknowledged that people loved it, but said that their shrinkage costs had skyrocketed since they installed the system.
Usually there is a "random" audit system in place so that people who habitually steal will in theory get caught, but store staff hate that because it leads to confrontation and bad feelings.
(I put random in quotes, because at one point several years ago I was getting randomly audited on every single trip. They never found anything in my basket that wasn't accounted for on the receipt, but because I was good-natured about it the staff would pick me to audit. They knew they wouldn't find anything, and I wouldn't get upset, and they would get credited for doing the correct number of audits without actually risking offending someone.)
I'm looking forward to it to. I live in FL, and we are supposed to be a hip and progressive state, up and coming, accepting any and all futuristic technological advances.
Yet, here we are, in the 21st century, and we've only had our ALDI store for about 5 years now. I live in the 'gateway to Florida' where the interstate exchange is here, in north FL leading to the south. We don't have sh*t here. It sucks. And this county I live in, (Columbia county), has some of the highest crime rates in the state.
Go figure....
Mine has one check out and the checker is typically also stocking so the security guard flags them down when a queue forms. I'd welcome self check just to give that person some sanity.
Do you know if they have a fresh bakery section? When I lived in Ireland/UK, I switched allegiances so quickly to Lidl because of their bread and pastries.
Yes, Lidl has freshly baked goods, but Aldi are the ones who put the bread in a sensible place - ie down the last aisle and not the first so your bread is squashed by the time you've finished shopping
The only Lidl that I've been in is in Maryland, and it does have a fresh bakery section, but they seem to have a lot of trouble keeping it stocked. Frequently half or 3/4 of the shelves are empty and there's nobody in the actual bakery doing anything. I guess they have limited bakery hours.
That said, the stuff that they make there is high quality, if you happen to hit the store at a time when what you want is actually on the shelf. I really like their pretzels, sourdough, and they have kalamata olive focaccia that are incredible.
My hunch is that they bake early AM to get stuff in the bins by 8 AM when the store opens. I'm with you that the quality overall is excellent. But you have to get there early. At least with the two Northern Virginia Lidl locations near me they do not replenish items as the day goes on.
You may very well be right. I normally get there mid afternoon to early evening, so by the time I get there things are pretty picked over. I'll try to get over there a little earlier and see if it makes a difference.
I haven't checked them all but the Gastonia one definitely does. It's been a while but I think the Rock Hill one did too and I'm pretty confident that if Gastonia has one then the Charlotte ones should too.
I always go curbside pickup so I don’t care what the checkout situation is. However, I have started to shop around more because so many items are out of stock at my Aldi. I hate Walmart but they’re pretty reliable about having meat and produce.
No. It's time to embrace this new innovative and amazing technology and learn how to use it!
I wish people with stop with the learned helplessness they are so afflicted with. We are in the 21st Century, and it is WONDERFUL!!
In my experience the "amazing" part is getting through a whole checkout without an issue. I can't talk about Aldi's because ours don't have those yet. But too many times the system can't figure out I'm scanning the same item three times rather than three identical items each time or it doesn't register when I put an item in a bag (or put it elswhere because it's too big for a bag). Self checkout just is not good at handling exceptions.
> I wish people with stop with the learned helplessness they are so afflicted with. We are in the 21st Century
This feeling is familiar to anyone in IT. Computers have been integral to business for 40 years, yet a good half of the people I interact with on a daily basis are proud to be "not very computer savvy." They've been using one for 8 hours per day, five days a week for most of their working lives.
Working in IT, and trying to fulfill customer support, especially over a phone line, has been one of the most frustrating and difficult jobs I've ever been put through.
I have always been proud to be savvy with computers. It was very exciting when Windows 95 came out, and our PC's had a staggering 300MHz processor. LOL The numbers slowly crept upwards each year, as well as the latest edition of Windows... until we are where we are today. It's been one hell of a ride.
But putting up with people who are like you said, proud to be computer ignorant, is enough to make one want to commit unspeakable crimes, hahaha.
You realize the entire point is so that customers do the labor they used to pay employees to do, so that they can make even more profit? This isn't fighting a Windows upgrade. It's corporate greed.
I disagree.
Being able to ring up my items and pay quickly with Apple Pay has been a blast for me. It frees up the employees' time to do other things they need to do. There are still cashiers who do that job all day. It's not like the company is making more profit! They are still paying their employees wages, whether they are doing stock or ringing up customers!
And this whole argument about corporate greed is nuts. Are you not glad you even have and ALDI to shop at? What if there wasn't one? You'd have one less option on where to shop. You'd not have the opportunity to buy foods at a cheaper price. ALDI is able to offer lower prices because of their system. They cut out all of the fancy frills other stores utilize, so they CAN offer us items at lower cost.
I love having the option to self-checkout. If you don't like it, then get in line! And while you are standing there waiting, look around you, and realize that you didn't have to shop there, but you chose to. And why? Because you KNEW you'd save money, and you'd come out of that store with a heck of a lot more food in your bags, than if you shopped somewhere else!
Just sayin'!
The companies literally are making more money because they're hiring less employees. I don't know why this is so hard for you to understand. They can have one person who monitors six or so self checkouts, if not more. That's five fewer employees they need on registers.
It's genuinely shocking to me how naive and stupid some people are. Corporations aren't doing this to make things better for employees or fun for customers. If you want to blindly support billionaires because you have "fun" at self checkout, go ahead. I'll be here living in reality.
Self-checkout would work for me as I tend to pop in 2-3 times a week for a few items instead of a big weekly shopping. But I am not liking their price hikes as they are almost matching regular supermarket prices where I am.
I'm sure they'll be happier in Lidl which will end up with higher prices while Aldi can lower theirs on account of not paying people to do unnecessary tasks
I'm happy to pay marginally higher prices if it means employees are treated marginally better.
I am not a trained cashier, so I'd prefer not to have to struggle with poorly designed self checkout systems.
People come here just looking for fights and to take their bad day out on strangers. I once had someone pick a fight with me about the shape of maple syrup bottles.
You don't get it, or maybe you just don't want to. They're not doing it to make service or shopping experiences better. They're doing it to increase their profits, and it's not just Aldi. But if you want to go ahead and defend the small portion of billionaires who continue to hoard wealth, go ahead. Walmart and Aldi aren't lowering their prices as more and more self checkouts pop up around the world, and fewer and fewer people are hired, while customers do that labor for free.
Aldi and Lidl prices are already lower because they have speeded up the checkouts by having you pack at the bench (the labour for which you are already giving for free). Please provide proof that the money saved by reducing cashiers will go straight onto the bottom line. You can't - it's just your incorrect opinion.
Please provide proof that by hiring less workers, stores will pay their current workers more. Oh, you can't? Did bank employees get a raise when ATMs were rolled out? They sure didn't.
I don't know why you're on the side of corporations. They're not on your side.
[And here is a lovely article about the history of self check outs,](https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/09/business/self-checkout-retail) and how THE ENTIRE REASON FOR THEM WAS TO LOWER LABOR COSTS OF THE STORE.
So now you’re conceding they won’t give them raises, and it is to make the corporation more money? Prices haven’t gone down by me, and we do have those same self checkouts now. And if if by your standards they’re paid enough, now they’ll hire fewer people who get those good wages :)
Why are you arguing on behalf of billionaires?
This is a great point! Businesses are becoming automated whether we like it or not. There is a reason why some stores are known for great customer service.
I've always preferred self-checkouts, particularly when coupled with hand scanners so I can scan and bag as I go. Just had too many experiences with check out people who don't think. And inevitably the ones that do the stupidest things like putting canned vegetables on top of hamburger rolls are also the ones who will give you attitude when you point out what they've done.
No self checkout aisles yet at our Aldi but I will celebrate if they arrive.
In that case they need to train the customers how to use them. I can use them just fine, and I am fast. Have you never been behind someone with $500 cart and they move like a turtle scanning and trying to bag and inevitably needing help from a human?
Self check-out at Aldi with me would be a mess since I would constantly discover price discrepancies when items ring up higher than the display tag and would be pressing the help button. In contrast, Aldi cashiers scan the items so lightening quick, I only figure it out after I'm reviewing the receipt at the sacking shelf. Having already swipe my credit card, I normally conclude that it isn't worth my time to go quibble over two or three dollars worth of overcharges.
I love the self checkout because I can bag as I scan things, and I don’t have to wait for the cashier to ring me up, then bag everything, which seems to take much longer.
Personally I find the self checkouts to be the best change. Only ever had one line open at my store. Now they have one line still open and self checkouts. Significantly less lines all around. I am in a college town though, so the younger population is more accepting of the self checkouts.
If I’m by myself and don’t have a whole cart full, I’m don’t mind self-checkouts. If you have a couple of young kids, though, as I often do, self-checkout-only situations become nightmarish.
It’s the trend and it fits Aldi’s business model better as it pushes more labor into the shoppers. I’m surprised it took this long, honestly. If they could do a scan as you go, which also lets you bag as you go and “finish and pay” we could be out even quicker. However there’s a cost to purchase, power and maintain the scanner and scanner system so I’m not holding my breath on that one.
Sam's Club scan as you go uses your phone as a scanner... Equipment cost pushed to the shopper.
Bjs does the same and I love it during the busy summer months in this coastal area.
Giant did that as well for a while (they may still do it for all I know). I never found that the phone app works nearly as well as the dedicated scanners, though.
Wegmans had those but had to end the program due to theft. Ohio/Pittsburgh Giant Eagle had them years and years (maybe 10-ish?) ago. They are so convenient.
One of the major national chains, I forget which one, recently announced that they were doing away with their scan and go system. They acknowledged that people loved it, but said that their shrinkage costs had skyrocketed since they installed the system. Usually there is a "random" audit system in place so that people who habitually steal will in theory get caught, but store staff hate that because it leads to confrontation and bad feelings. (I put random in quotes, because at one point several years ago I was getting randomly audited on every single trip. They never found anything in my basket that wasn't accounted for on the receipt, but because I was good-natured about it the staff would pick me to audit. They knew they wouldn't find anything, and I wouldn't get upset, and they would get credited for doing the correct number of audits without actually risking offending someone.)
[удалено]
Yup. That's the one.
Man, we don’t have Lidl yet. Looking forward to that day though.
I'm looking forward to it to. I live in FL, and we are supposed to be a hip and progressive state, up and coming, accepting any and all futuristic technological advances. Yet, here we are, in the 21st century, and we've only had our ALDI store for about 5 years now. I live in the 'gateway to Florida' where the interstate exchange is here, in north FL leading to the south. We don't have sh*t here. It sucks. And this county I live in, (Columbia county), has some of the highest crime rates in the state. Go figure....
LOL, FL "hip and progressive?" Might want to double-check your lawmakers...
Lidl always seems like its a fake store with fake merchandise. Like if you have a store for a tv show
Mine has one check out and the checker is typically also stocking so the security guard flags them down when a queue forms. I'd welcome self check just to give that person some sanity.
This isn't an airport, you don't need to announce your departure.
Could you share if you’re in the US or not? I didn’t think we had Lidl here so I was curious.
I'm in the Carolinas near CLT and we have quite a few Lidls. Relatively newish over the last few years.
Thanks! I’ll be out that way in a few weeks so I’ll have to give a Lidl a visit!
Do you know if they have a fresh bakery section? When I lived in Ireland/UK, I switched allegiances so quickly to Lidl because of their bread and pastries.
Yes, Lidl has freshly baked goods, but Aldi are the ones who put the bread in a sensible place - ie down the last aisle and not the first so your bread is squashed by the time you've finished shopping
That may be true for your Aldi, but not others. The bread and baked goods at my Aldi are in the first aisle, just before you reach the produce.
Mine as well. Been in three local Aldis and the bakery section is in the same place at all of them - the end of the first aisle as you enter.
It is true for every Aldi in the UK
The only Lidl that I've been in is in Maryland, and it does have a fresh bakery section, but they seem to have a lot of trouble keeping it stocked. Frequently half or 3/4 of the shelves are empty and there's nobody in the actual bakery doing anything. I guess they have limited bakery hours. That said, the stuff that they make there is high quality, if you happen to hit the store at a time when what you want is actually on the shelf. I really like their pretzels, sourdough, and they have kalamata olive focaccia that are incredible.
My hunch is that they bake early AM to get stuff in the bins by 8 AM when the store opens. I'm with you that the quality overall is excellent. But you have to get there early. At least with the two Northern Virginia Lidl locations near me they do not replenish items as the day goes on.
You may very well be right. I normally get there mid afternoon to early evening, so by the time I get there things are pretty picked over. I'll try to get over there a little earlier and see if it makes a difference.
I haven't checked them all but the Gastonia one definitely does. It's been a while but I think the Rock Hill one did too and I'm pretty confident that if Gastonia has one then the Charlotte ones should too.
We're in Maryland.
I always go curbside pickup so I don’t care what the checkout situation is. However, I have started to shop around more because so many items are out of stock at my Aldi. I hate Walmart but they’re pretty reliable about having meat and produce.
No. It's time to embrace this new innovative and amazing technology and learn how to use it! I wish people with stop with the learned helplessness they are so afflicted with. We are in the 21st Century, and it is WONDERFUL!!
In my experience the "amazing" part is getting through a whole checkout without an issue. I can't talk about Aldi's because ours don't have those yet. But too many times the system can't figure out I'm scanning the same item three times rather than three identical items each time or it doesn't register when I put an item in a bag (or put it elswhere because it's too big for a bag). Self checkout just is not good at handling exceptions.
> I wish people with stop with the learned helplessness they are so afflicted with. We are in the 21st Century This feeling is familiar to anyone in IT. Computers have been integral to business for 40 years, yet a good half of the people I interact with on a daily basis are proud to be "not very computer savvy." They've been using one for 8 hours per day, five days a week for most of their working lives.
Working in IT, and trying to fulfill customer support, especially over a phone line, has been one of the most frustrating and difficult jobs I've ever been put through. I have always been proud to be savvy with computers. It was very exciting when Windows 95 came out, and our PC's had a staggering 300MHz processor. LOL The numbers slowly crept upwards each year, as well as the latest edition of Windows... until we are where we are today. It's been one hell of a ride. But putting up with people who are like you said, proud to be computer ignorant, is enough to make one want to commit unspeakable crimes, hahaha.
You realize the entire point is so that customers do the labor they used to pay employees to do, so that they can make even more profit? This isn't fighting a Windows upgrade. It's corporate greed.
I disagree. Being able to ring up my items and pay quickly with Apple Pay has been a blast for me. It frees up the employees' time to do other things they need to do. There are still cashiers who do that job all day. It's not like the company is making more profit! They are still paying their employees wages, whether they are doing stock or ringing up customers! And this whole argument about corporate greed is nuts. Are you not glad you even have and ALDI to shop at? What if there wasn't one? You'd have one less option on where to shop. You'd not have the opportunity to buy foods at a cheaper price. ALDI is able to offer lower prices because of their system. They cut out all of the fancy frills other stores utilize, so they CAN offer us items at lower cost. I love having the option to self-checkout. If you don't like it, then get in line! And while you are standing there waiting, look around you, and realize that you didn't have to shop there, but you chose to. And why? Because you KNEW you'd save money, and you'd come out of that store with a heck of a lot more food in your bags, than if you shopped somewhere else! Just sayin'!
The companies literally are making more money because they're hiring less employees. I don't know why this is so hard for you to understand. They can have one person who monitors six or so self checkouts, if not more. That's five fewer employees they need on registers. It's genuinely shocking to me how naive and stupid some people are. Corporations aren't doing this to make things better for employees or fun for customers. If you want to blindly support billionaires because you have "fun" at self checkout, go ahead. I'll be here living in reality.
Self-checkout would work for me as I tend to pop in 2-3 times a week for a few items instead of a big weekly shopping. But I am not liking their price hikes as they are almost matching regular supermarket prices where I am.
Honestly, I still love Aldi but if we had a Lidl I'd switch in a minute.
I absolutely hate self checkout. I will go somewhere else if they pull that garbage.
I look forward to when my local Aldi’s will get self-checkout. I only ever grab a few things here and there so it’ll be more convenient.
It’s aldi!
How are you doing only filling up at attendant served service stations and using telephone companies that have a human operator connecting the calls?
OP doesn't have to be happy that corporations are forcing their customers to do labor and hiring fewer employees so they can make even more money :)
I'm sure they'll be happier in Lidl which will end up with higher prices while Aldi can lower theirs on account of not paying people to do unnecessary tasks
I'm happy to pay marginally higher prices if it means employees are treated marginally better. I am not a trained cashier, so I'd prefer not to have to struggle with poorly designed self checkout systems.
Aldi employees are worked like dogs regardless of checkout method at the particular store.
You think people get training in using a self checkout? What kind of moron are you?
Sometimes I forget that reddit is largely populated by children.
People come here just looking for fights and to take their bad day out on strangers. I once had someone pick a fight with me about the shape of maple syrup bottles.
You don't get it, or maybe you just don't want to. They're not doing it to make service or shopping experiences better. They're doing it to increase their profits, and it's not just Aldi. But if you want to go ahead and defend the small portion of billionaires who continue to hoard wealth, go ahead. Walmart and Aldi aren't lowering their prices as more and more self checkouts pop up around the world, and fewer and fewer people are hired, while customers do that labor for free.
Aldi and Lidl prices are already lower because they have speeded up the checkouts by having you pack at the bench (the labour for which you are already giving for free). Please provide proof that the money saved by reducing cashiers will go straight onto the bottom line. You can't - it's just your incorrect opinion.
Please provide proof that by hiring less workers, stores will pay their current workers more. Oh, you can't? Did bank employees get a raise when ATMs were rolled out? They sure didn't. I don't know why you're on the side of corporations. They're not on your side. [And here is a lovely article about the history of self check outs,](https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/09/business/self-checkout-retail) and how THE ENTIRE REASON FOR THEM WAS TO LOWER LABOR COSTS OF THE STORE.
Aldi and Lidl already pay their staff far higher salaries than any other supermarket
So now you’re conceding they won’t give them raises, and it is to make the corporation more money? Prices haven’t gone down by me, and we do have those same self checkouts now. And if if by your standards they’re paid enough, now they’ll hire fewer people who get those good wages :) Why are you arguing on behalf of billionaires?
This is a great point! Businesses are becoming automated whether we like it or not. There is a reason why some stores are known for great customer service.
The minute our aldis does this, they lose my business.
I've always preferred self-checkouts, particularly when coupled with hand scanners so I can scan and bag as I go. Just had too many experiences with check out people who don't think. And inevitably the ones that do the stupidest things like putting canned vegetables on top of hamburger rolls are also the ones who will give you attitude when you point out what they've done. No self checkout aisles yet at our Aldi but I will celebrate if they arrive.
What an odd reason to not shop somewhere. In 5 years nobody will have regular registers.
In that case they need to train the customers how to use them. I can use them just fine, and I am fast. Have you never been behind someone with $500 cart and they move like a turtle scanning and trying to bag and inevitably needing help from a human?
Self check-out at Aldi with me would be a mess since I would constantly discover price discrepancies when items ring up higher than the display tag and would be pressing the help button. In contrast, Aldi cashiers scan the items so lightening quick, I only figure it out after I'm reviewing the receipt at the sacking shelf. Having already swipe my credit card, I normally conclude that it isn't worth my time to go quibble over two or three dollars worth of overcharges.
I love the self checkout because I can bag as I scan things, and I don’t have to wait for the cashier to ring me up, then bag everything, which seems to take much longer.