The overall Aldi experience

LABMAN

Why are you spelling till(s) til(s)?

renegadefm

LABMAN said:

Why are you spelling till(s) til(s)?

Typo error, predictive text does this, I dont know why. But I'm hoping most readers understood the story. 

JGB1955

My nearest Aldi is great - you never feel rushed and nobody seems to need to use the packing shelf - plenty of time to bag your goods as they come off the belt.  An Aldi 3 miles further away still has the slightly 'european' feel, where goods are flung off the belt into your trolley at a rate of knots.  I guess it's down to the local Manager.

comeandgo

The Aldi I use is great.  You know if the light above the check out is red it's going to close, if it's green it's going to open, the staff are good at waiting for slow customers to get their goods together.  I also like the high number of Scottish products they have.

renegadefm

JGB1955 said: An Aldi 3 miles further away still has the slightly 'european' feel, where goods are flung off the belt into your trolley at a rate of knots.  I guess it's down to the local Manager.

This sounds more like our branch. 
I just assumed its connected with how they keep the prices down. Hence why there is limited staff about. But the staff that are there are stretched,  which is why I wanted to emphasise this isn't a dig at staff, its more to do with whoever is local manager it seems. 

maman

As well as the red light, the sign on the conveyor and the assistant telling you in person, we have an announcement over the speaker system that tells you a check out is about to close. 

MysteryMe

You could contact Aldi head office in the UK and draw your concerns to them just in case it's a poorly managed store.  The cashiers have targets to reach as far as processing transactions is concerned but they are supposed to keep in tune with the customer not the other way around. I've not seen an incident where a cashier randomly closes a till, they ask a customer to put the till closed sign on the belt and any customers that approach are advised that the till is closing. Perhaps the customer had ignored or not seen the till closed sign?

renegadefm

maman said:

As well as the red light, the sign on the conveyor and the assistant telling you in person, we have an announcement over the speaker system that tells you a check out is about to close. 

No none of those things happened. I was next in the queue and witnessed everything. The customer started putting a few items on when the till operator just suddenly stood up and said sorry this one is closing. Then the customer stormed out, probably never to return. So Aldi lost a customer that day as far as I could see. 
Plus there is the issue with toilets. Very often we have our 4 year old daughter with us when I am taking mum around, so we have to ask a member of stafd to use the toilets as they insist they are for staff only, but eventually give in and let my daughter use them. But how many supetmarkets do you know that dont provide public toilets? Surely this is another sign they just want you in to spend your money quickly and leave. They don't want customers to linger long. Even the car park is limited to an hour. But I have witnessed some elderly people who might take at least an hour and get close to breaching the parking rules.
I just dont get Aldi at all 

maman

Loads of places don't have public toilets such as Iceland or B&M or any of the smaller supermarkets like the 'local' Tesco, Sainsburys, Coop etc. or even my local Waitrose. 
I don't think Aldi is for you renegadefm. I suggest that you go to one of the larger, mainstream supermarkets. You'll have your toilet and a checkout person who's not very busy but you'll be paying for the convenience (excuse the pun).

elsien

If someone stomps out in a huff over a till closing, I'd suggest they've got bigger issues going on in their lives than Aldi's customer service.
I've jettisoned my shopping in Lidl once or twice (shoved it quickly back on the shelf as life is too short to be standing in a queue for a couple of tins) but I still go back, just at quieter times.
I get more annoyed by the people used to Tesco etc who spend ages packing their bags at the till instead of putting items back in the trolley and using the packing shelf than I do with the staff.
The stores have far different demographics and if you want toilets, long chats at the till and help packing your bags then the discounters are not for you. 
Its not usual for 4 year olds to need to use the loo every time they sets foot in a shop.