'Is this a new rule?': ALDI shoppers confused over checkout act
“In two years, this is the first time I've been told this."
It’s no secret that going through the check out at ALDI can be the most daunting part of your shop.
You either find yourself battling a self-checkout, or being attacked with groceries to pack by a slightly-too-efficient cashier.
One ALDI shopper has taken to social media after facing another hurdle, and they’re wondering if it’s the norm.
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“Is that the normal way?”
An Aussie ALDI shopper has taken to Reddit asking if their experience at their local store was normal.
The shopper said they went through the self-serve checkout with two large special buys, scanning and packing as they went.
“I scanned one special buy, put it in the bagging area to register the weight (because I can't scan the next item without weighing the one before) and then put it in the trolley, no issue, scanned the next large special buy, did the same. I did it to make room for my groceries,” the poster said.
“Then I started scanning groceries, but when there wasn't much room in the bagging area, I placed the scanned items in my shopping bag and continued with the next lot of groceries.”
But, according to a staff member watching on, this wasn’t okay.
“An employee came to rudely tell me that I have to leave all scanned items in the bagging area, even if they don't fit, pay and then I'm allowed to pack,” the poster said.
The poster then asked fellow shoppers if this was the norm, a new rule, or if it was a one-off.
“In two years, this is the first time I've been told this,” they said.
“Is that the normal way? Maybe I should just either stick to the staff checkout and bag as it's scanned or avoid ALDI altogether. The staff are starting to get bad lately.”
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Commenters were divided
Commenters were split on whether or not this was the norm, with many saying it was the standard across all supermarkets.
“This is the same across all self-serve. The Woolies and Coles machines stop working and yell at you if you remove items from the bagging area,” one person said.
“That's normal. It's not store policy is just badly designed software and bagging areas. The employees probably hate it as much as you do,” another agreed.
However, some said the employee was being completely unreasonable.
“Australian ALDI worker here. This most definitely is not a rule! In fact you can leave bulky items in your trolley or wherever and scan them with the hand-held scanner, or put in the big yellow code so you don’t even need to physically pick them up and scan them through or leave them on the bagging area,” a staff member assured.
“Every self-checkout I've ever used at any store you can put the item in the bagging area and then immediately remove it (or a whole bag) once it's recognised the weight to make room for new items. It would be literally impossible to use a self checkout with more than a basket of items if you had to stack them all there at once,” another commenter agreed.
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So… what’s the deal?
ALDI has confirmed that the original poster’s experience was no new rule, instead saying that customers are not required to retain all scanned items within the bagging area if they exceed the capacity prior to completing the transaction.
Once a scanned item's weight is confirmed in the bagging area, customers can move it to make room for their next items as part of their self-checkout process, or even scan bulky items directly from their trolley using the handheld scanner at self-checkout counters.
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Originally published as 'Is this a new rule?': ALDI shoppers confused over checkout act
