Hi,
I'm 30+ yo male, live in Sydney, work in Aldi Supermarket for about 3 years.
Probably any of you would like to know anything about Aldi' stuffs or general supermarket/Aldi related things.
Thanks
[AMA] I Work in ALDI, You Can Ask Me Anything
LKobee on 01/03/2018 - 17:37
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That's just a simple example. I have done things like proffer $52.60 for a spend of $17.50 to reduce my coin collection and that didn't faze them.
Do you expect cashiers to be innumerate? That's not exactly splitting the atom.
It's a shame we have such low standards as a society.
@Scrooge McDuck: You'd be surprised at the number of cashiers I've seen who have to leave to the till to work it out. And not just in Australia. Something to do with easy access to calculators affecting mental skills.
You'd be surprised at the number of cashiers I've seen who have to leave to the till to work it out.
Probably not, I'm a regular patron at McDonald's.
And not just in Australia.
How about in East Asia?
Something to do with easy access to calculators affecting mental skills.
It also causes automation bias.
@Scrooge McDuck: Calculators causing confirmation bias, is there an app for that, hahaha. Actually even my friends have difficulty splitting bills. Now I'm not saying we should go back to the past, technology is there to help us. I'm just a bit impressed when I see some people buck the trend.
Ha, I see you've ninja edited it to automation. So I've addressed your point. I'm not a Luddite, just an observer.
Out country's educational outcomes in math are particularly poor for whatever reason.
As a former cashier was was an absoloute master in mental arithmetic, but on occasion, one might make the odd mistake.
Do you get annoyed with customers who put goods they have changed their mind about buying just anywhere in the shop? Like a pack of biscuits among the shampoo, etc.
Oh hell yesss!
Do you know what's more annoying?
Customers who put meat (YES MEAT!) or frozen stuffs somewhere on the shelf or table. I'm always very sad to see this (and angry) cause we have to throw them out.Customers who put meat (YES MEAT!) or frozen stuffs somewhere on the shelf or table. I'm always very sad to see this (and angry) cause we have to throw them out.
Oh that is just laziness and disgraceful behaviour.… If you put a packet of biscuits next to the cat food it isn't that bad but leaving meat and ice cream lying around is just rude.
Love Aldi's return policy though hopefully that never changes
Thanks!
Do you know what's more annoying?
Placing cat food with canned tuna?
Placing dog biscuits with lunchbox snacks?
Placing pork chops in the halal section?
Aldi has a halal section?!
Also really bad is people leaving the sliding freezer doors ajar. Some people just want to see the world burn.
Now on something you probably have no say over but I'm sad at the number of products that have come and gone. I used to buy Sailor's Mate (a Fisherman's Friend work-alike). Came one day, no longer stocked. Tubes of $1 Dentitex toothpaste, again no longer stocked. Some lines survived as another brand. I like the new tomato sauce formulation better than the old. I guess this is due to Aldi buying from manufacturers opportunistically?
Any comments? You don't have to.
Some products are come and go due to some reasons (management stuffs)
I don't have any info about this, sorry.I understand you have no control, but if you could tell management that someone REALLY misses their Christmas Maraschino and Amaretto Cherries in jars. :)
I used to buy a few every year but didn't stock up. I haven't seen them for 2-3 years now.Assuming they just stop stocking them cause they dont sell enough?
its shame when the few who do lose out on there favorite products but thats the nature of business i guess.
so where do you get your maraschino cherries from now? I use them in cocktails, and bought some a few months ago on ebay, not cheap though
And Woolies has a monopoly on canned mackerel, which they recently marked up.
@mavis30551: that would be und ratandable, but there is no way the dentist toothpaste didn't sell enough. I was watching the checkout and they reckon that if toothpaste is labelled as whitening then it's considered a cosmetic product and therefore has less rigorous testing process or something (hopefully someone can confirm). Now you have to buy the whitening one for more, or potetially buy some Chinese brand with even less controls
This matter is better to inform by phone to Aldi customer service
Some products are seasonal as in they're more popular at certain times of the year. ALDI have relatively small shops compared to other supermarkets (I think something like ~1500m2) and so every (or at least most) products have to sell fairly well. Sometimes they like to test the waters with special buys and if they've sold really well they become a permanent item. Certain ice-cream varieties are only available over the summer, cranberry sauce might only be there over christmas while others might come back in winter. If an item doesn't sell well it's either pulled or the facing is reduced and replaced with another product (if there's a new product)
I like the new tomato sauce formulation better than the old.
Old tomato sauce was 127 calories/110g, new one is 119 calories/100g. It been watered down. Its watered down so much its gone from being a non-Newonian to Newtonian fluid which is an important property of tomato sauce, so its not worth buying.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2034273/Why-k…
I just didn't like the taste of the old formula. It doesn't matter a jot how much cheaper it is if you don't like it. Taste is personal.
I've gone back to the large containers of name brand sauce, which I tip into the small sauce bottles. Masterfoods BBQ sauce is prefect.
@ColonialBoy: I used to buy Heinz or Masterfood instead of the old Aldi. Now the new one is acceptable.
Are you required to scan items through the register at a particular rate to meet targets?
We do have to scan items on certain speed but we have to keep up with the customers' speed. Nowadays we are more tolerable with the scanning speed for less stressful check out :)
We can not push customers to quickly pack their stuffs but we have to remind them that the easiest way of checking out is to put everything in the trolley then pack in bagging area. This is just the way to speed up the check out process which won't make customers lining wait for too long.
Does it frustrate your German efficiency when customers crack jokes at the checkout?
Meh
I just grab a few from Colsworth beforehand.
And I've been stockpiling them at home to prepare for the drought.
Or an empty box which there're thousands of and are recyclable
Get ready to do this everywhere…
Thanks enviroMENTALists!!
Thanks bad pun dad.
Free plastic bags are garbage and barely hold anything.
They're good for holding garbage in Ikea bins
Free plastic bags are garbage and barely hold anything.
If your views were accurate, you wouldn't need to resort to falsehoods.
I've found supermarket plastic bags to be adequate and convenient.
Sorry I'm not going out of my way to explain the weight capacity of a cheap less than paper thin paper bag?
Literally every time I come to Melbourne and go down to the shop to buy a few things (1.25 bottle of drink and a few bagged items) the bag always gives way on the way home.
We don't have this problem in SA where we have proper plastic bags.
Literally every time I come to Melbourne and go down to the shop to buy a few things (1.25 bottle of drink and a few bagged items) the bag always gives way on the way home.
I drink tap water not "drink", but I'd imagine that the bottle top of a heavy bottle would cause quite a stress concentration if horizontal in the bag. That's a completely different case than your claim of them barely holding anything, there are plenty of things which they hold completely adequately.
Chemists, Target and Kmart all have free large bags.
You know you can use the empty boxes that are around the store. Or you can bring bags from home.
How many empty boxes can you carry in each hand?
9?
I put mine in the trolley.
BYOB
And surcharge for eftpos.
I annoyed the cashier when they did a sneaky surcharge of 0.5% and I said "in that case, I'll pay cash"
How is it sneaky? It says on the eftpos machine.
maybe 'cheeky' is a more appropriate word then.
eftpos (savings) is cheaper than cash, unless you're dodging tax.
Cashiers can't manually apply a surcharge to a transaction so there's no sneaky business going on anywhere. A flat 0.5% surcharge is payable on all CREDIT purchases including paywave/paypass as these transactions are processed through the CREDIT network. This facility is provided by VISA & Mastercard. AMEX is not accepted. I assume to the overall higher cost of accepting these payment even if only by small.
There is no surcharge paying by card with eftpos - you have to either use the chip or swipe (rare) and select cheque or savings. Eftpos payments can't be paid with tap payments.
(As a side note, I read eftpos does have tap and go available but banks for one reason or another do not route these payments through the eftpos system. Read more over at SMH
This was in about 2007 iirc, but there certainly was a 0.5% surcharge for me to use my green magnetic strip card from CBA. It wasn't a VISA or a MC.
I haven't been back to Aldi since then.
You should live in ACT then!
I'm sure it wasn't about 15¢, a paltry return for the time wasted, but creating a story to collect attention on OzB later. Who knows maybe it only happened in that member's imagination.
Lol I'm so glad someone else has mentioned this here!! Don't even have to click on there to know what is was.. There's OzBargainers and then there's scabs.
Amen to that.
Hes a troll to my own heart
there's scabs.
*there're
WatchNerd is that you? :)
I've lost count the number of times I've seen checkout operators cross-examine someone over those stupid bags…
Checkout: "That'll be 15 cents for the bag."
Customer: "It's mine."
Checkout: "Didn't I just see you get it from under the counter!?"
Customer: "NO I LEANED OVER TO TAKE IT OUT OF MY HANDBAG."
Checkout: "Mutter, mutter."
Customer's husband: "What's the problem?"
Customer: "He's accusing me of stealing a plastic bag.
Checkout: "I saw her bend over and take out a bag."
Customer: "I went to but then remembered I had one in my bag and pulled it out while I was still leaning over. You can see it's not new - the printing is worn off!"
Customer's husband: "For goodness sake… Give him the bag if he really wants it. Will that make you happy, mate?"Me standing behind them thinking to myself: "You THROW my items at me like missiles, but then waste time arguing over these stupid plastic bags."
Do you find Aldi caters to the lower demographic? Last time I went to Aldi I had just a few items but there was only one lane open. There was a couple at the front of the line who were holding it up because the first card they tried to pay on was declined, followed by the second card. They ended up having to take a few items out and spilt payment over the 2 cards.
Had I gone to Woolworths I would have been through the self serve checkout in no time. I haven't been to Aldi since.
I'm pretty sure Aldi caters most demographic.
This issue happens all the time. I feel sorry for the customer sometimesThey should have another register opened for any congested lines over the belt.
Well they are the cheapest, it makes sense.
SOME things are cheaper. Many that once were no longer are. Meat certainly isn't cheaper any longer. It used to be that Aldi prices were the same, or slightly cheaper than, Colesworth when on special. Now it's the other way around. Chicken thigh fillet is more at Aldi. Breast fillet is about 50 cents more last time I compared. Even their cheapest sausages are slightly more expensive than… Coles I think it was. Whole fresh chickens slightly more expensive at Aldi last time I looked too. Aldi used to have 'bolar blade roasts' (beef) for about $9/kg. Haven't seen them for a couple of years.
i used to work at coles, this would happen about once per 4 hour shift
What annoys me is that most of the cashiers would say the card 'didn't work', and suggest that they try again, so the customer would use the same card multiple times, even though the cashier would know it had insufficient funds. It's not that hard or awkward to say 'that card has been declined, have you got another payment method today?'
Worst was people who paid with cheques, the cheque printer would crash the OS every single time.
It probably annoyed you because you found it inefficient… But did you stop to think why they do that?
Telling people the card "didn't work" gives them a free non judgemental pass and gives them an opportunity to make the decision to use another payment method, without the cashier making that decision for them. It also prevents awkward situations on the flipside where the system is at fault and an uppity cashier is making incorrect judgements about a customers financial situation.
I was in this situation literally less than two hours ago at a restaurant, and if the server had have inferred I had insufficient funds in my account, I probably would never eat there again, I'm not paying to be judged.
I'm not sure if some banks still have that BS $20 fee for overdrawing but I got stung $60 once (3 tries) so I'll take honesty any day of the week.
You raise a good point. I haven't banked with anywhere that has dishonour fee in a very long time so that's not something that crossed my mind.
Have you considered switching banks? I know it's a pain in the arse to update all the auto payments, but charging people because they don't have enough money is something that should have been left behind a very long time ago.
Edit: Just re-read your comment and reads like you have.Makes me think of Red Alert… Insufficient fund…
Most systems tell the cashier the exact problem. 51 means insufficient funds. There are one's for transaction error, network error, card declined, etc.
It's not hard to work with a customer by letting them know the error you are getting to find a suitable form of payment. It's not about embarrassment, it's about not wasting the customers time because of the cashier's social awkwardness.
@Cubist: I was with ANZ and I have switched since that happened to CUA as my savings bank and ING as my paid into both 100% fee free. I like ING because of the benefits it gives but since it doesn't have physical locations in Cairns I have a CUA savings one in case of a tight spot such as when an account is frozen (for example a newly created account couldn't have money withdrawn for 10 days after activation but if you go into the bank they can work it out) or internet goes down to Cairns (has happened twice).
Did you mean cheque reader? They are writing the cheques so presumably you don't need to print anything
nah, you had to put the cheque into a printer to put on the payment details. It broke literally every time.
There was a guy behind me, he was there with a friend, implying Aldi customers are dumb. I have 3 masters degrees …
It might be a long shot, but are you able to check which aldi store in nsw that still has the one year aldi mobile package?
I saw one few months back but couldn't remember where it was or it wasn't there anymoreI don't think any Aldi store have this since this was sold months ago. I don't have any power to do that.
Do you have Blonde hair, blue eyes, and a hookedrog moustache?
Hahah no
You forgot to say, "Does your mystery person…".
I have no questions.
But have you remembered your socks..
It’s not mentall math. Just counting up.