Good and Bad Buying at Lidl and Aldi (***Please don't expire***)

harz99

maman said:

I went to Lidl today after my walk. I thought as I was nearby I'd stock up on the cornichons and muesli that we like from there.

30 minutes queuing to get in. I'd have given up if it wasn't so pleasant standing in the sunshine. When I got inside I could see why the queue was so slow. The shop was almost empty and just 2 tills open! I'd just love to take some Lidl management to Aldi and show them how to operate checkouts. Will they never learn?

IF the shop was "almost empty" why was having only two tills open a problem? Don't understand, did you mean to say almost full? 

maman

Effectively they were admitting customers at the rate they chose to let them through the checkout. So their choice of just 2 customers paying at a time meant large queues. OK, it was probably preferable to queue outside in the sunshine but they'd have done far more business with more checkouts. I saw people driving in and straight back out or giving up and leaving the queue as it moved so slowly. I'll be sticking with Aldi or Sainsburys for the foreseeable where they maximise the throughput by opening checkouts to match the available customers. 

Cornucopia

I went to Lidl today.  I waited outside for about 5 minutes, and it was quite pleasant in the sunshine.  Once inside, there were maybe 20 customers in a smallish store.

One thing I did notice is that they seemed to have changed from "one out-one in" to a more active assessment of crowding in particular areas of the store - mainly seemed to be aisle 1 (Fruit, Veg, Dairy and Meat) and the till area.    They were opening and closing tills more quickly than usual to avoid queues building up.   Seemed to work quite well, although I think they need to explain it better to customers. 

They also had eggs (only a few) for the first time in several weeks.   Had to get extra large, though.  Yum!

Space_Captain

I drove into the lidl car park after work yesterday. Saw the queue outside and drove away. Seems like the self service tills have been shut for a few weeks as well which slows things down a lot. 

General_Grant

My nearest Lidl is in a shopping centre, it and Boots being the only stores open.  I've queued only once in the past month.
They open staffed conveyor belt tills more often these days.  The self-serve are set up for alternate use  but as they are both sides of the area, one still passes closer than 2m to people as you walk out with your purchases.
The security staff stand by the doors, also less than 2m from people going past.
Often play a notice about respecting other shoppers and washing hands.

maman

Yes, they were playing that message in my Lidl too. 

I suspect that the varied experiences are down to local management. I think mine is 'nice but dim'.  Yesterday I heard a member of staff asking if she was needed to open another till. The manager looked at the (small) queue in the store for the 2 available checkouts and said No. What she should have done IMO was turned around and looked out of the window and seen the queue in the car park which was ever lengthening because they were only serving (and so letting in)  2 people at a time. To me. it's obvious, if you have queues you open more checkouts to clear them quickly and serve more customers. It's irrelevant whether the queue is inside or outside. 

suki1964

Ring up and complain

I did the other week, not because they were so slow or anything, but because they had too many people in store, whole families,  kids on wheelies and the security man wasn't doing a thing to stop it.

It got sorted straight away. I went in a week later and it was a completely different experience. The security man is now more proactive and is counting  customers in and out, apparently our store has been assed to allow 50 in. So we have to queue outside for 20 mins or so but its ok. Id rather be in a queue then in a store where people are leaning over you to get what they want

Im not one to complain usually, indeed I praised the staff as they really are very good in my local store. it was just the security man not doing what he was paid to do that was the problem

maman

Thanks for the tip. 
The guy at the door was doing his best. He was hampered by the in-store decision to severely limit the check outs. 😣

Ken68

Other people are doing my shopping now, appalled at some of the prices... though grateful for the help. 

maman

Ken68 said:

Other people are doing my shopping now, appalled at some of the prices... though grateful for the help. 

You're right. You can't really insist that they stick to Lidl or Aldi. I was horrified by how much I had to pay for eggs in Waitrose and porage oats in the little Coop when they were in short supply a few weeks back. It was more than double what I pay in Aldi.