Aldi Special Buys problem leads to clever solution at NSW store

The mayhem of Aldi Special Buys causes many issues – but a “fair” solution used at one NSW store has left shoppers pleading for it everywhere.

While Aldi shoppers love its bargains, there’s one issue about the store that regularly rears its head – the chaos of the weekly Special Buys deals.

Just yesterday there were queues snaking around store car parks and reports of pushing and shoving in the aisles as customers grappled to snag an air fryer.

Shoppers are also not restricted to how many of the limited items they can buy, meaning customers can take all the stock leaving others empty-handed.

The situation has always been concerning, but in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic it has become even more so.

Which is why, when one woman visited her local Aldi yesterday and witnessed staff implement a fair and “civilised” system to dish out the limited products on offer, she has praised the solution to Aldi’s biggest problem.

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Aldi yesterday faced mayhem over a $149 air fryer Special Buys. Picture: Instagram

But one woman said her local store offered an amazing solution. Picture: Facebook / Aldi Mums

“I was very impressed with Aldi Seven Hills this morning. I arrived at 7:50am to find approximately 25 people in front of me,” the NSW woman wrote in the Aldi Mums Facebook group.

“At around 8:15 a staff member came out and went down the line (in order) asking who wanted the Air Fryer.

“He took everyone’s names and told us to line up near the registers and they would be handed out.”

She finished by thanking her local store, adding: “Normally it’s a sh*t fight trying to get the specials, but today it was very civilised.”

Aldi have long had a nationwide policy of not limiting or restricting its weekly deals with customers, but said stores “do reserve the right to limit purchases to one per customer when they anticipate unusually high demand”.

Aldi shopping trolley full of special buys

Understandably, the hundreds of shoppers who have experienced the mayhem of Special Buys in the past were very impressed, calling on Aldi to introduce the system everywhere.

“That’s amazing! Hopefully the other stores follow suit!” one said.

“That is a great idea, all stores should do that,” another agreed.

“Wow that’s so much better! And also fair,” someone else chipped in.

It’s not the first time customers have called on the budget retailer to introduce a “fairer” system – with a ticket upon arrival being the most favoured option among shoppers.

In light of social distancing measures, some have pleaded with the supermarket retailer to ditch Special Buys altogether to prevent the “rushing, grabbing and fighting”.

“It just seems like this style of shopping as it is, isn’t helping people social distance,” one mum wrote on Facebook recently, to much support.

In response, Aldi told news.com.au it was “disappointing to see when social distancing measures are not adhered to” and called on people to “keep at least 1.5 metres apart from each other at all times”.

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