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

maman

od244051 said:

Could someone tell me how does the 'traffic lights' work in Aldi's entrances? Everyone I know has always turned up and the lights are always on green, even when they leave. Then once inside, its quite crowded and some customers not social distancing at all

I went to Aldi this afternoon (Saturday)  instead of my usual weekday shopping. For the first time in weeks there was a queue and the lights turning red frequently. They are obviously linked to the number of customers in store.

The system does work but definitely far more customers are in store at a time than when they had a guy at the door monitoring things. 

Social distancing can't really happen because of the width  the size of aisles etc. but most people were wearing masks. 

od244051

maman said:

od244051 said:

Could someone tell me how does the 'traffic lights' work in Aldi's entrances? Everyone I know has always turned up and the lights are always on green, even when they leave. Then once inside, its quite crowded and some customers not social distancing at all

I went to Aldi this afternoon (Saturday)  instead of my usual weekday shopping. For the first time in weeks there was a queue and the lights turning red frequently. They are obviously linked to the number of customers in store.

The system does work but definitely far more customers are in store at a time than when they had a guy at the door monitoring things. 

Social distancing can't really happen because of the width  the size of aisles etc. but most people were wearing masks. 

Is it more customers - as in now more customers are shopping with their partners, children etc. As in the beginning of lockdown, many supermarkets preferred customers shopped alone. Or is it more customers if you count each individual, couple or family as one?

As if a supermarket allowed 50 customers enter a store during lockdown and during the early stages, only wanted individual customers (plus some with children if a single parent) - there might been 55-60 people in, Now as more people are shopping in groups again, they have kept the policy of  50 customers, but could be twice of number of people in the store.

Only times my parents have shopped together since lockdown was to the garden centre.

Unless people are walking home with bags of shopping, which they need the extra set of hands to carry the bags of shopping home, does it need the whole household of two parents and four kids to shop?

harz99

od244051 said:

maman said:

od244051 said:

Could someone tell me how does the 'traffic lights' work in Aldi's entrances? Everyone I know has always turned up and the lights are always on green, even when they leave. Then once inside, its quite crowded and some customers not social distancing at all

I went to Aldi this afternoon (Saturday)  instead of my usual weekday shopping. For the first time in weeks there was a queue and the lights turning red frequently. They are obviously linked to the number of customers in store.

The system does work but definitely far more customers are in store at a time than when they had a guy at the door monitoring things. 

Social distancing can't really happen because of the width  the size of aisles etc. but most people were wearing masks. 

Is it more customers - as in now more customers are shopping with their partners, children etc. As in the beginning of lockdown, many supermarkets preferred customers shopped alone. Or is it more customers if you count each individual, couple or family as one?

As if a supermarket allowed 50 customers enter a store during lockdown and during the early stages, only wanted individual customers (plus some with children if a single parent) - there might been 55-60 people in, Now as more people are shopping in groups again, they have kept the policy of  50 customers, but could be twice of number of people in the store.

Only times my parents have shopped together since lockdown was to the garden centre.

Unless people are walking home with bags of shopping, which they need the extra set of hands to carry the bags of shopping home, does it need the whole household of two parents and four kids to shop?

If the store allows 50 in that is 50 people not 50 customers, the counting equipment couldn't possibly distinguish who is a customer and who is not...As to the need for whole families to go around a supermarket together, I'd say not very often, people are just going back to what they've always done aided by the fact that most supermarkets don't seem to care as long as their tills are ringing!

od244051

harz99 said:

od244051 said:

maman said:

od244051 said:

Could someone tell me how does the 'traffic lights' work in Aldi's entrances? Everyone I know has always turned up and the lights are always on green, even when they leave. Then once inside, its quite crowded and some customers not social distancing at all

I went to Aldi this afternoon (Saturday)  instead of my usual weekday shopping. For the first time in weeks there was a queue and the lights turning red frequently. They are obviously linked to the number of customers in store.

The system does work but definitely far more customers are in store at a time than when they had a guy at the door monitoring things. 

Social distancing can't really happen because of the width  the size of aisles etc. but most people were wearing masks. 

Is it more customers - as in now more customers are shopping with their partners, children etc. As in the beginning of lockdown, many supermarkets preferred customers shopped alone. Or is it more customers if you count each individual, couple or family as one?

As if a supermarket allowed 50 customers enter a store during lockdown and during the early stages, only wanted individual customers (plus some with children if a single parent) - there might been 55-60 people in, Now as more people are shopping in groups again, they have kept the policy of  50 customers, but could be twice of number of people in the store.

Only times my parents have shopped together since lockdown was to the garden centre.

Unless people are walking home with bags of shopping, which they need the extra set of hands to carry the bags of shopping home, does it need the whole household of two parents and four kids to shop?

If the store allows 50 in that is 50 people not 50 customers, the counting equipment couldn't possibly distinguish who is a customer and who is not...As to the need for whole families to go around a supermarket together, I'd say not very often, people are just going back to what they've always done aided by the fact that most supermarkets don't seem to care as long as their tills are ringing!

My friend works for Sainsburys and they count a customer as a couple, parent n child, small family as 1 customer. Those families that bring 4 children count as two. They are allowed 40 customers, so it could have up to 120 people in there. As couples and families that live together or support bubble don't need to social distance from each other.

harz99

od244051 said:

harz99 said:

od244051 said:

maman said:

od244051 said:

Could someone tell me how does the 'traffic lights' work in Aldi's entrances? Everyone I know has always turned up and the lights are always on green, even when they leave. Then once inside, its quite crowded and some customers not social distancing at all

I went to Aldi this afternoon (Saturday)  instead of my usual weekday shopping. For the first time in weeks there was a queue and the lights turning red frequently. They are obviously linked to the number of customers in store.

The system does work but definitely far more customers are in store at a time than when they had a guy at the door monitoring things. 

Social distancing can't really happen because of the width  the size of aisles etc. but most people were wearing masks. 

Is it more customers - as in now more customers are shopping with their partners, children etc. As in the beginning of lockdown, many supermarkets preferred customers shopped alone. Or is it more customers if you count each individual, couple or family as one?

As if a supermarket allowed 50 customers enter a store during lockdown and during the early stages, only wanted individual customers (plus some with children if a single parent) - there might been 55-60 people in, Now as more people are shopping in groups again, they have kept the policy of  50 customers, but could be twice of number of people in the store.

Only times my parents have shopped together since lockdown was to the garden centre.

Unless people are walking home with bags of shopping, which they need the extra set of hands to carry the bags of shopping home, does it need the whole household of two parents and four kids to shop?

If the store allows 50 in that is 50 people not 50 customers, the counting equipment couldn't possibly distinguish who is a customer and who is not...As to the need for whole families to go around a supermarket together, I'd say not very often, people are just going back to what they've always done aided by the fact that most supermarkets don't seem to care as long as their tills are ringing!

My friend works for Sainsburys and they count a customer as a couple, parent n child, small family as 1 customer. Those families that bring 4 children count as two. They are allowed 40 customers, so it could have up to 120 people in there. As couples and families that live together or support bubble don't need to social distance from each other.

Yes,sorry but this thread is about Aldi/Lidl not Sainsbury, my comments refer to Aldi's traffic light system of entry which is what an earlier comment and question was about. A simple unmanned electronic counter cannot know anything about bubbles/families/children/adults, it just counts the number of people in or out!

Cornucopia

harz99 said:

Yes,sorry but this thread is about Aldi/Lidl not Sainsbury, my comments refer to Aldi's traffic light system of entry which is what an earlier comment and question was about. A simple unmanned electronic counter cannot know anything about bubbles/families/children/adults, it just counts the number of people in or out!

I'm sure that the Aldi system works as designed (although like other posters, I've only ever seen it showing Green whenever I've been there).

I assume that it works not by counting people (which is technically quite complicated) but by counting the number of times the exit doors are triggered by one or more people passing through them.   Similarly, when the entrance doors open, one or more people may pass through.    That is probably good enough, especially if there is overall supervision from the Manager's office, but it isn't particularly sophisticated.

It's a whole lot better than my local Lidl, where they replaced the security guard some time ago with a small, handwritten sign saying "one customer out, one customer in", which is routinely ignored.

Sea_Shell

For a while DH was shopping alone, but having to go twice a week.  Since Aldi are not actively enforcing a "shop alone" policy, we now both go, do a bigger shop, but only need to go once a week.

Rosa_Damascena

Cornucopia said:

I got some of the special offer Baklava yesterday in Lidl.   No idea how traditional they are, but they are delicious.  

Lucky you! I went after finishing work yesterday - admittedly very late - but the shelves were bare  . Not a problem for me personally, but it's nice to serve guests with.

Re: customers wearing masks I am not that happy with Aldi CS' response to me - unusually poor on this occasion. The family concerned was just blatant and I was particularly PO'd that the so-called adult was reaching over me left right and centre. Other than that Aldi is great and I did double check the prices for prunes: £1.65 for 500g in Aldi vs 99p for 250g in Lidl. I shall never eat a shrivelled up prune again.

203846930

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203846930

Doc_N said:

duncanthedog said:

The plums from Aldi today are not a patch on the ones from Lidl last week, the Aldi ones are basically tasteless where the Lidl one were so sharp and bursting with flavour.

We're not sufficiently educated in this country on varieties of fruit and veg.  The variety makes a huge difference to texture and flavour, but knowledge and information is poor.

Apples aren't just apples and neither are plums,  but it's describing a multiplicity of fruits as easy peelers, sometimes with no further detail,  tbat really hacks me off.

I was not able to give the variety of the plums as the label had gone out with the packaging.
The ones from Lidl are Fortuna from Spain, I went back for more this morning.