Good and bad buys from Aldi and Lidl

Cornucopia

Lidl is the first supermarket to introduce the Living Wage. I saw an ad for Customer Service people in there yesterday - £8.60/hour IIRC.

OTOH, my local Lidl seems to be having staffing problems - so maybe that isn't enough in the local economy to attract people. (They only opened 4 months ago, and they seem to have lost many staff since then). Saturday morning with just two tills open does not work, and there wasn't anyone on the shop floor, or any security guard - so I wonder if they are lacking good management, too?

A._Badger

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Maybe that's the modus, to keep the staff running round like blue a*sed flies. (Tongue in cheek comment, in no supermarket other than Aldi and Lidl do I see staff working so quickly and efficiently in all areas).

I get the same impression - and the checkout staff in Aldi work like demons.

Whether that is better or worse for the staff, only they can say but the difference is quite marked.

Doc_N

A._Badger wrote: »

I get the same impression - and the checkout staff in Aldi work like demons.

Whether that is better or worse for the staff, only they can say but the difference is quite marked.

Round our way, Aldi and Lidl seem to attract people who enjoy working hard, and those who don't tend to head for the more traditional supermarkets.

The Tesco staff are unhelpful, chat a lot - to each other, ignoring the customers - and seem pretty unhappy with their lot.

At the Aldi next door, the staff work infinitely harder, get paid more, are helpful, and seem very happy to work hard. We've spoken to a few of them and they say they like to be busy. They tend to be Eastern European - and they genuinely do put their native English counterparts next door to shame.

MysteryMe

Feral_Moon wrote: »

Oh dear, how shameful of Aldi for reducing surplus packaging and costly landfill waste. I wonder how we used to keep food fresh before the advent of harmful plastics!

Did you actually read what was posted? Obviously not seeing as you are claiming Aldi are reducing landfill.


Aldi reducing packaging and me increasing packaging does not reduce landfill. It's replacing one form of packaging with another.


You seem to take delight in trying to be clever, a bit too clever on occasion.

MysteryMe

Happygreen wrote: »

Great, the zip-locks have been invented and you can re-use them, too

I know but people are always quick to claim Aldi are brilliant at XZY yet they have not reduced the cost of the item to reflect their reduced production costs and I am just replacing their packaging with my own at my expense.

mcculloch29

MysteryMe wrote: »

I know but people are always quick to claim Aldi are brilliant at XZY yet they have not reduced the cost of the item to reflect their reduced production costs and I am just replacing their packaging with my own at my expense.

It's quite possible that Aldi reduced packaging to defer a price increase due to the rising cost of raw ingredients. Rather than pass on a price increase to you or reduce the size of the product, they looked at where they could make savings elsewhere.

Re staffing. Aldi do have specialist stock assistants but the staff on the till have generally been trained in all areas, the pay is amongst the highest in the sector as a result.
I know they used to have speed tests for the staff on the tills, possibly they still do.

Whilst it's obviously dependent on individual stores and managers, staff who aren't prepared to work hard don't last long.

VfM4meplse

Doc_N wrote: »

Round our way, Aldi and Lidl seem to attract people who enjoy working hard, and those who don't tend to head for the more traditional supermarkets.

The Tesco staff are unhelpful, chat a lot - to each other, ignoring the customers - and seem pretty unhappy with their lot.

At the Aldi next door, the staff work infinitely harder, get paid more, are helpful, and seem very happy to work hard. We've spoken to a few of them and they say they like to be busy. They tend to be Eastern European - and they genuinely do put their native English counterparts next door to shame.

This is so true, although I have to say that the new Aldi that has opened near me recently employs lots of UK born young people, and they have just as admirable a work ethic.

maman

mcculloch29 wrote: »

Re staffing. Aldi do have specialist stock assistants but the staff on the till have generally been trained in all areas, the pay is amongst the highest in the sector as a result.
I know they used to have speed tests for the staff on the tills, possibly they still do.

Not sure about tests but I did notice a 'staff idle' (I'm paraphrasing can't remember the exact wording) notice came up on the till once when I was faffing around getting my purse out. I'm not sure if there's some sort of penalty for that.


My Aldi used to have predominantly Eastern European staff and very good they are too. Now more mixed as probably Aldi is seen as working there is seen as a good prospect. Most staff have been there for some years. I always find them very efficient and helpful.

Happygreen

This is not all good, Lidl was accused in Germany to spy on their staff with cameras, in the early years Aldi staff were sacked when they got a few items wrong at the till - when prices still had to be memorised! In Scotland Lidl recently got into the headlines for threatening Polish workers the sack when speaking their language to customers (Polish customers that is) or in their breaks with each other. Not about products but I needed to mention these in the course of this discussion re how hard they are working. True - and mainly good news for the customers. I've never been snubbed at at either chain when I asked something, they are always friendly and helpful however hard they are working.

candygirl

Our local ALD1 staff are lovely and helpful, whereas the LID1 ones don't seem as nice good job, as I must prefer the ALD1 produce anyway