This is why we hate supermarkets

HELL is other people at the supermarket. A new study has revealed our biggest pet peeves — and what Aldi shoppers hate most.

HELL is other people at the supermarket.

Men are the biggest whingers, old people can’t stand queues, and South Australians just hate each other, according to a new survey revealing Australia’s biggest supermarket gripes.

Consumer research company Canstar Blue asked 3000 shoppers to name their biggest complaints with supermarkets — not including prices, because we’d all like to pay less for groceries.

Overall, the number one complaint was checkout queues, with 24 per cent of respondents naming it their biggest gripe. Sold out items came in second (22 per cent).

Issues with other customers, including blocked aisles and misbehaving children, were the third biggest complaint (13 per cent), while problems with self-service check-outs came in fourth (10 per cent).

“It seems we’ve been complaining about having to queue up at the check-outs forever, yet it’s an issue the supermarkets have never managed to address to everyone’s satisfaction,” said Canstar Blue head Megan Doyle.

“The introduction of self-service check-outs has clearly helped get customers in and out faster, but they are not immune to long queues and frustrations.

“In fact, queuing to use a self-service checkout is arguably more annoying than queuing at a normal checkout because you expect the process to be quicker.

“Most shoppers can probably understand a slight delay at the checkout if they see all the stations are being manned, or in the case of self-service machines, are working properly.

“But if it looks like the supermarket isn’t helping the situation by not making all check-outs available, people have every right to feel aggrieved.”

The results also threw up some subtle differences in complaints between supermarket chains, men and women, age demographics and state by state.

Men are more likely than women to complain about checkout queues (27 versus 23 per cent), but women are more likely than men to be stressed about items being sold out (24 versus 19 per cent).

Aldi customers complain about each other. Picture: Claudia Baxter

Men are more likely than women to get angry when they can’t find an assistant (7 versus 5 per cent), but women are more likely than men to get annoyed by other shoppers (14 versus 12 per cent).

As we get older, shoppers get gradually more frustrated by checkout queues. Only 15 per cent of 18 to 29-year-olds named queues as their biggest annoyance, compared with 28 per cent of those aged 60 and over.

Younger shoppers were more likely to complain about store layout or self-service machines.

Checkout queues were the number one gripe in every state and territory except NSW, where queues tied with sold out items on 23 per cent of the vote.

Shoppers in WA were the most vocal about checkout queues (30 per cent), while South Australians were the most likely to complain about other customers (19 per cent). Shoppers in NSW were the least bothered by other customers (11 per cent).

While checkout queues were the main gripe for customers at Woolworths (27 per cent), Aldi (26 per cent) and IGA (26 per cent), the biggest problem for Coles customers was sold out items (23 per cent).

Aldi shoppers, meanwhile, were the most likely to complain about other customers (15 per cent) — which just goes to show money can’t buy happiness.

“Ultimately we’d all love to have a supermarket all to ourselves, but it’s never going to happen,” Ms Doyle said. “The best thing you can do to try and avoid the stress is to pick a quiet time to shop. But again, life is not that simple.”

OUR BIGGEST SUPERMARKET GRIPES

• Queues at the checkout — 24%

• Items being sold out — 22%

• Other customers (includes blocked aisles, misbehaving children etc.) - 12%

• Self-service machine errors — 10%

• Trying to find a parking space — 9%

• Store layout (not being able to find what you want) — 7%

• Not being able to find a staff member to assist — 6%

• Store opening/closing times — 2%

• Other reasons — 6%

Source: Canstar Blue