‘Selfish’ trick to fix Aldi checkout problem slammed

A shopper has shared a solution to an Aldi problem that has annoyed people for years – but not everyone agrees with the move.

Aldi is famous for its speedy checkouts, but one customer’s method of slowing down the process has divided other shoppers.

The shopper shared a photo of an Aldi checkout in the Aldi Fans Australia Facebook group, showing how each grocery item had been purposely spaced apart.

“In your face Aldi. Just so we got time to pack,” the post, which appears to have been screenshot from another Facebook account, read.

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One shopper shared a photo of their groceries spaced out in an attempt to slow down the scanning process. Picture: Facebook/Aldi Fans Australia

But not everyone agreed with the shopper’s method, with some even going so far as to label it “selfish” and claiming that anyone who did it “should be banned”.

“One thing I like about Aldi is the speed at the checkout,” one person commented.

“If you can’t handle it, go to Woolies or Coles OR actually use the bench supplied for packing which is away from the checkout.”

“People like you packing their bag at the register is so annoying and selfish. Try packing at the bench like everyone else,” another wrote.

“I despise when people do this,” one commented.

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Aldi is famous for its speedy checkout process. Picture: Claudia Baxter

But some people were fans of the suggestion and appeared keen to try it out next time they shopped at Aldi.

“Ohhhh I love it! Packing at Aldi should be an Olympic sport!” one person said.

“Round of applause – this is genius,” one customer commented.

But the post also attracted the attention of some Aldi staff in the Facebook group, who poured cold water on the idea.

“I have customers do this I just put my arm up to move the belt let it all build up then start scanning,” one wrote.

“When I worked at Aldi and people did this, I would hold the first item back from the sensor with my arm until everything piled up,” another commented.

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Customers are allowed to request cashiers slow down if they are scanning too quickly.

Customers can ‘kindly request’ Aldi cashiers slow down

Unlike Coles and Woolies, Aldi’s check-outs are designed for items to be quickly scanned and then paid for, with customers encouraged to make use of the benches past the cashier to pack their items into bags.

A former Aldi manager previously told news.com.au checkout operators are required to scan a minimum of 1000 items an hour and will get a written warning if they underperform.

The speed of Aldi’s check-outs has been a common complaint over the years, with several customers saying it caused them “anxiety”.

But if customers are concerned that they can’t keep up with a cashier’s speed, Aldi advises them to “kindly request” the staff member slow down.

“Our employees will review and adjust their scan speed based on how quickly or slowly each customer packs their shopping. If any customer would like an Aldi employee to slow down at the checkout, we encourage them to kindly request this,” an Aldi Australia spokeswoman told news.com.au last year.

“Our stores are designed to ensure customers can do their weekly shop in an efficient and convenient way.

“One way we can do this is by asking customers to place their groceries back in their trolley once they have been scanned, and then pack at their own pace at the long bench behind the tills.”