Aldi expands self-serve checkout trial as customer backlash continues

The supermarket is finally giving customers alternative checkout options – but it comes as public sentiment around self-serve has shifted.

Aldi has unveiled its latest Sydney store – showing off an array of controversial checkouts in the process.

The German retailer is famed for its unique checkout process in which items are scanned at pace, only allowing shoppers the time to place them back in their trolleys before having to move to a separate area for bagging.

However, Aldi recently began trialling self-service checkouts in response to customer feedback which labelled the experience “stressful”.

While the self-serve option is now available in more stores as the trial expands, this style of checkout – which is also available in major Australian retailers Kmart, Coles, Bunnings and Woolworths – has recently been rocked with criticism as customers call for staffed checkouts to be reinstated.

Aldi however has described the cash registers as an “enhanced customer convenience”.

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A new Aldi store has opened in Sydney recently with an array of self-service checkouts. Picture: news.com.au/AndrewBackhouse

“We offer a supermarket experience that is like no other in Australia and we are proud to call ourselves ‘Good Different’,” Alex Foster, the retailer’s regional managing director in Australia, said.

“It’s our differences such as having never offered single-use plastic bags, using a coin deposit system for our trolleys and our tight product range that allow us to bring unbeatable value to our customers every day.”

Aldi fans have been quick to slam the new checkouts in the Parramatta store, describing them as “ridiculous”.

“I like to pay cash for groceries so I won’t be using the self checkouts,” one Facebook user declared.

“They should be called ‘self ridiculous service’,” another remarked.

While one simply wrote: “Noooooo.”

But public sentiment around the ‘convenient’ option is changing. Picture: news.com.au/AndrewBackhouse

As well as the widely-debated checkouts, the new Aldi store in the city’s western suburb of Parramatta features “expansive wooden produce bays”, easy to find products and “newly designed registers” where customers will be served by one of the supermarket’s fast-trained employees.

Aldi first began trialling self-serve checkouts in June 2021 after previously stating it had “no plans” to bring the option to its Australian supermarkets.

The supermarket is also offering shoppers baskets as part of the trial after previously only having coin-operated trolleys available.

However, the checkout choice is currently under fire from frustrated shoppers who feel retailers are making them do work paid employees previously performed.

One woman went viral after an experience in Kmart where she served herself and then was forced to participate in a receipt check at the exit.

She argued retailers should either trust customers to be honest at the self checkout or reinstate staffed checkouts.

“You can either trust me to do self checkout, or you can put your cashiers back in place like it used to be. I’m not interested in proving that I did your job for you,” she wrote.

“You want me to be a cashier with no training then that’s your problem not mine. Don’t audit me for a position you refuse to employ any longer.”

The self checkouts have recently become a topic of contention among Australian shoppers recently. Picture: Supplied

In less than 24 hours, her post had attracted comments from thousands of people, many agreeing with the original poster.

“I agree. Why should I use a self checkout. I am not getting the items any cheaper. Bring back that little thing called service,” one comment read.

“I hate self checkouts. If I wanted a job doing that, I would have applied for one ages ago. I refuse to use them as it encourages job losses for others,” another comment, which was liked hundreds of times, said.

“Totally agree. I refuse to use self checkout. I ask the person on the self checkout to put my items through for me. I don’t work there. I don’t get a discount for self-service,” someone else wrote.

Others raised concerns about not having enough space at the self checkouts to place all their items, while some felt removing staffed registers would disadvantage young people starting out in the workplace.