aldi stores

horse7

I think aldi need to look at their checkout policy. Its happened to me at both lidl and aldi. Here is the scene, the checkout queue is long(but moving,as the cashier is doing their best) and finally the customer in front is finished(or so it seemed)but they decide they have forgotten an item, the whole queue has to wail another 5+mins for the guy to return to the till, its ridiculous. When a shop is that busy they should just pay for their goods,and requeue if they wish. The other issue is people putting a few items on the conveyor belt and going off to shop some more.I phoned aldi to ask about their checkout policy,the call is routed to the uk,and they are not interested. Any views on the bad behaviour of fellow shoppers.

foggy_lad

horse7 wrote: »

I think aldi need to look at their checkout policy. Its happened to me at both lidl and aldi. Here is the scene, the checkout queue is long(but moving,as the cashier is doing their best) and finally the customer in front is finished(or so it seemed)but they decide they have forgotten an item, the whole queue has to wail another 5+mins for the guy to return to the till, its ridiculous. When a shop is that busy they should just pay for their goods,and requeue if they wish. The other issue is people putting a few items on the conveyor belt and going off to shop some more.I phoned aldi to ask about their checkout policy,the call is routed to the uk,and they are not interested. Any views on the bad behaviour of fellow shoppers.

You should ask to speak to the manager at that store and tell them about it, this kind of disregard for other shoppers is frowned upon as it slows down everything in the store.

Cabaal

horse7 wrote: »

The other issue is people putting a few items on the conveyor belt and going off to shop some more.I phoned aldi to ask about their checkout policy,the call is routed to the uk,and they are not interested. Any views on the bad behaviour of fellow shoppers.

This one is easy, if they are not there when the sales assistance is ready then you skip over their stuff and put it aside. I've done it plenty of times.

Have to say the problems you've stated I've perhaps experience a very small amount of times overall though and if anything I've experiences them far far more in Supervalue's across the country then any other supermarket I've visited

horse7

I do intend to search for the adli manager in clonee,but i had wasted enough time today already.

Discodog

Both Aldi & Lidl refuse to have tills for those with a few items. I have often popped in just to buy a tool & given up.

foggy_lad

Discodog wrote: »

Both Aldi & Lidl refuse to have tills for those with a few items. I have often popped in just to buy a tool & given up.

Many people with full trollys are considerate enough to let those with just a few items through while they are loading their own shopping onto the belt, But some people would never let anyone ahead of them in any que.

Opening a seperate till for those with just a few items is very costly and adds to the cost of your weekly shopping!

Discodog

In truth I don't buy tools there or in Lidl any more because they just recycle the same items at the same time every year. Most of us bought them the first time !

Procrastastudy

Low prices are low for a reason in these stores. They cut back to the bone on staffing, fixtures and locations. Try M&S you'll be though in a jiffy - you'll be paying twice as much though.

It's impossible to acurately predict customer flow. There is always some muppet holding things up and in this type of retail the staff cant down tools and jump on to serve as the tasks (such as restock) would never get done.

Personally I have the rather excellent - We have all the time in the World by Louis Armstrong - on my phone to play at oppitune moments

dudara

This isn't really a Consumer Issue, though I at a loss where to move it to.

dudara

monkeysnapper

As a rule your supposed to watch the que's and if you see a person with 1 or 2 things you are to ask politly if you can just let the person pass, only if the one in front has a large trolley .... Ish

On the problem the op had what i do very often is either push a gap and let other people in or box stuff quickly and chuck it over on another checkout that is closed .
Last week i had a lady that dumped her box of grocerys on checkout and then pissed off so i put it on floor, she came back and tryed to enter que in same place but i sent her to the back, ... She didnt like it but it was upset her or upset the other people, i made a judgement , i think ive been watching to much judge judy

longhalloween

dudara wrote: »

This isn't really a Consumer Issue, though I at a loss where to move it to.

dudara

Ranting and Raving perhaps?

Most times I'm buying only a few items people let me go ahead. Never seen anyone 'book' a spot by leaving a bit of shopping on the belt.

This isn't Aldi's fault, it's the customers.

foggy_lad

longhalloween wrote: »

Ranting and Raving perhaps?

Most times I'm buying only a few items people let me go ahead. Never seen anyone 'book' a spot by leaving a bit of shopping on the belt.

This isn't Aldi's fault, it's the customers.

I have seen staff shut down a till when someone left to get something they had forgotten, he went and opened another till and when the other person came back she was told the till was closed.

wmpdd3

As above, this is exactly what i saw happen one day, the scan rate and transaction time seems to be monitored, staff seem to limit the time the till is scanning, when a woman disappeared to get more stuff, the guy immediatly closed the sale and moved me to another till. I didnt stick around to fine out what happened to the woman.

Discodog

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

It's impossible to acurately predict customer flow.

It's very easy & UK supermarkets do it every day. You count the rate at which customers are coming through the door & you know the average shopping time per customer. So you can move staff onto the checkouts in time for the increase. Tesco do this to such an extent that even branch managers will man tills if necessary.

coylemj

longhalloween wrote: »

Never seen anyone 'book' a spot by leaving a bit of shopping on the belt.

+1 I've never seen it happen and if someone tried it on me, I'd leapfrog them at the checkout. If the checkout operator had started scanning their stuff and allowed them to bugger off to get something they had forgotten and the queue was held up waiting for them, I'd abandon my stuff on the conveyor and walk out.

Discodog

I think that people do it in a less obvious way. They unload some shopping & then conveniently forget something. They assume that the queue won't of reached the till.

A couple of Tesco type self service tills would be good for say 5 items or less.

dudara wrote: »

This isn't really a Consumer Issue, though I at a loss where to move it to.
dudara

Surely customer service, or the lack of it, is a consumer issue.

Procrastastudy

Tesco and Lidl / Aldi are two completely different customer service models. Moaning about long queues in Lild / Aldi is a bit pointless. If the model didn;t work they wouldn't be in business.

Both stores have a reasonable rep for CS when things go wrong. They operate a barebones till and floor service to reduce costs. The only way to increase this service would be more staff - which would mean higher prices.

This really is a bit of a no brainer - its not a consumer issue because some people prefer lower prices over service. This is entirely why internet shopping is so popular.

foggy_lad

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

Tesco and Lidl / Aldi are two completely different customer service models. Moaning about long queues in Lild / Aldi is a bit pointless. If the model didn;t work they wouldn't be in business.

Both stores have a reasonable rep for CS when things go wrong. They operate a barebones till and floor service to reduce costs. The only way to increase this service would be more staff - which would mean higher prices.

This really is a bit of a no brainer - its not a consumer issue because some people prefer lower prices over service. This is entirely why internet shopping is so popular.

The ques at tills in Lidl and Aldi are usually only a fraction of what you would see in tescos and they manage to cope with only a fraction of the number of tills. Carlow Tesco with 15 tills open is a lot slower to get through than a packed Aldi with only 4-5 tills open!

Procrastastudy

foggy_lad wrote: »

The ques at tills in Lidl and Aldi are usually only a fraction of what you would see in tescos and they manage to cope with only a fraction of the number of tills. Carlow Tesco with 15 tills open is a lot slower to get through than a packed Aldi with only 4-5 tills open!

I completely agree - its all down to the way its managed and to be fair to Tesco they would be seeing much higher footfall than Lidl/Aldi. I love the way L/A almost throw the stuff at you - I have my bag ready and play a little game of 'come on then if you think you're quicker than me!'

That is of course after I've queued up behind a muppet fannying about - who's proably stood there himself for five minutes and hasn;t got ready to go.

For the love of god though its queue!

JimsAlterEgo

one problem I have with both LIDL and ALDI is when they open a new till when there are long queues, they make no effort to ensure people further up the q get on first, obviously doesn't make sens to move people off belts but those at top of q before the belt should be ensured to be first.

ejmaztec

JimsAlterEgo wrote: »

one problem I have with both LIDL and ALDI is when they open a new till when there are long queues, they make no effort to ensure people further up the q get on first, obviously doesn't make sens to move people off belts but those at top of q before the belt should be ensured to be first.

Aldi/Lidl staff aren't responsible for the queue-jumping rabble having no manners. They'd have to employ someone to monitor the queues to prevent customers losing their position because people can't be trusted to play fair. Unfortunately the law of the jungle prevails.

Discodog

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

This really is a bit of a no brainer - its not a consumer issue because some people prefer lower prices over service. This is entirely why internet shopping is so popular.

Internet shopping is also about convenience. No queues, no travelling, parking etc. Especially in Ireland it is also often about getting a product that isn't sold in Ireland.

Tesco Ireland will get queues because they don't use the Tesco UK system where they open a new checkout if more that one person is queuing.

jor el

Discodog wrote: »

Surely customer service, or the lack of it, is a consumer issue.

This thread is about ignorant customers though, and not bad customer service. It also happens in all supermarkets, not just Aldi. What is the supermarket supposed to do when the customer just walks away? They can't be forcibly restrained you know.

JimsAlterEgo]one problem I have with both LIDL and ALDI is when they open a new till when there are long queues, they make no effort to ensure people further up the q get on first, obviously doesn't make sens to move people off belts but those at top of q before the belt should be ensured to be first.

This is again not exclusive to Lidl or Aldi. There are no shops that make an effort to control the queues when another till opens. Tesco, Dunnes, etc all do it the same way. Open the till and everyone piles in. It's first come first served. People at the back of a queue will likely have a bit of an advantage as they're more free to move than people in the middle of a queue.

Discodog

jor el wrote: »

This thread is about ignorant customers though, and not bad customer service. It also happens in all supermarkets, not just Aldi. What is the supermarket supposed to do when the customer just walks away? They can't be forcibly restrained you know.

The supermarket does have a duty to monitor it's customer behaviour & adapt it's systems to improve customer service. They spend millions researching customer behaviour in order to maximise sales. People won't tend to reserve spaces, jump queues etc if there isn't a big queue. And the queue size is proportional to the number of checkout staff, checkouts & the ability to react to increased customer flow.

foggy_lad

JimsAlterEgo wrote: »

one problem I have with both LIDL and ALDI is when they open a new till when there are long queues, they make no effort to ensure people further up the q get on first, obviously doesn't make sens to move people off belts but those at top of q before the belt should be ensured to be first.

I have told people to get back that they were not next in line when a new till opens in Aldi/Lidl and they try to cut in front of me, I usually follow that by telling them I would have let them go in front as they only have a few items if they had some manners.

It is up to the customer to asset themselves. If you want to pay more for your shopping just to have your backside wiped for you then go to tescos.

wmpdd3

Tesco Ireland will get queues because they don't use the Tesco UK system where they open a new checkout if more that one person is queuing.

Tesco do, if more than 15% of a store's customers have more than 1 customer in front of them, the store fails that KPI.

JimsAlterEgo

jor el wrote: »

This thread is about ignorant customers though, and not bad customer service. It also happens in all supermarkets, not just Aldi. What is the supermarket supposed to do when the customer just walks away? They can't be forcibly restrained you know.


This is again not exclusive to Lidl or Aldi. There are no shops that make an effort to control the queues when another till opens. Tesco, Dunnes, etc all do it the same way. Open the till and everyone piles in. It's first come first served. People at the back of a queue will likely have a bit of an advantage as they're more free to move than people in the middle of a queue.

staff in tesco before have actually come to me at the top of the q and said "I am opening this one, come with me". not saying it always happens but IMO they do try and keep some order.

JimsAlterEgo

foggy_lad wrote: »

I have told people to get back that they were not next in line when a new till opens in Aldi/Lidl and they try to cut in front of me, I usually follow that by telling them I would have let them go in front as they only have a few items if they had some manners.

It is up to the customer to asset themselves. If you want to pay more for your shopping just to have your backside wiped for you then go to tescos.

I try as much as possible to do it but doesn't always work (6ft 4 Bodybuilder is not going to listen to little old me) and the staff have never backed me.

senordingdong

If I found someone reserving a spot on the que I would happily toss their items aside, or if I liked the items in question, I might buy them and send said offender off on another hunt.

jor el

Discodog wrote: »

People won't tend to reserve spaces, jump queues etc if there isn't a big queue. And the queue size is proportional to the number of checkout staff, checkouts & the ability to react to increased customer flow.

The shop can do something to control queue sizes, yes, but can do nothing about a person walking away from the conveyor to go and get more items. If it's just a quick dash to grab one more thing, and they're back before their shopping starts t oget scanned through, then there's no real problem. It's the people that go off around to continue half their shop, while the other half is holding up a till that are the problem. The shops can do very little to prevent this, bar having security personal monitoring this behaviour and stopping it. That would lead to far worse publicity for the shop though, as ignorant people like that tend to be the loudest too.

senordingdong wrote: »

If I found someone reserving a spot on the que I would happily toss their items aside, or if I liked the items in question, I might buy them and send said offender off on another hunt.

As long as the operator hasn't started scanning them, I'd happily jump ahead of someone's abandoned shopping.

tayto lover

You should also be allowed to shoulder someone out of your way. I mean the fecker who sees you approaching the checkout carrying one or two items and proceeds to race you to it using his full trolley to block you. Either a good shoulder or a trip.

foggy_lad

jor el wrote: »

The shop can do something to control queue sizes, yes, but can do nothing about a person walking away from the conveyor to go and get more items. If it's just a quick dash to grab one more thing, and they're back before their shopping starts t oget scanned through, then there's no real problem. It's the people that go off around to continue half their shop, while the other half is holding up a till that are the problem. The shops can do very little to prevent this, bar having security personal monitoring this behaviour and stopping it. That would lead to far worse publicity for the shop though, as ignorant people like that tend to be the loudest too.



As long as the operator hasn't started scanning them, I'd happily jump ahead of someone's abandoned shopping.

Aldi and Lidl stores have recieved mention before on Liveline over staff removing the shopping of those who leave their shopping unattended at the tills or abandon their trollys elsewhere around the stores usually at bottlenecks like the fridges and bread areas.

ejmaztec

I got caught out being polite in Aldi once. Some guy was carrying a couple of items so I let him in front of me, and a couple of minutes later his missus showed up with a cardboard box full of stuff and emptied it into her husband's space.

Between them they had more feckin items than I had.:(

senordingdong

Jesus, this sounds like some sort of cult epidemic in the discount german supermarkets.
I'm going to have to keep my wits about me next time I go back.

tayto lover

ejmaztec wrote: »

I got caught out being polite in Aldi once. Some guy was carrying a couple of items so I let him in front of me, and a couple of minutes later his missus showed up with a cardboard box full of stuff and emptied it into her husband's space.

Between them they had more feckin items than I had.:(

You should have sneakily pushed your most expensive item into their pile and watch their faces when their bill is totted up. I did that once to an obnoxious old git who pushed in ahead of me. Priceless watching him explain that it wasn't his.

bagels

tayto lover wrote: »

You should have sneakily pushed your most expensive item into their pile and watch their faces when their bill is totted up. I did that once to an obnoxious old git who pushed in ahead of me. Priceless watching him explain that it wasn't his.

i like it

washiskin

Tell you what gets on my wick, people who put their stuff on the belt and then just stand at the bottom of it watching their shopping making it's way up and all the while you're standing there trying not to drop your own stuff as your arm is going dead from the weight. No amount of polite "ahem"s can shift these dossers :rolleyes:
Happened to me last week and in the end I had to resort to plopping a 6-pack of Cat Food on the metal bit to waken the dozy sod in front of me up.

Procrastastudy

I guy I used to work with (in retail) had a phrase which sums up customers pretty well. He used to walk into the office and say "I hate humans". Wayne if you're out there buddy - I agree

slave1

Checkouts, whether it's Aldi, Tesco or any other shop, just accept it, breathe easily and chillax, life is too short to let these type of things get to you.

senordingdong

slave1 wrote: »

Checkouts, whether it's Aldi, Tesco or any other shop, just accept it, breathe easily and chillax, life is too short to let these type of things get to you.

And should you just 'accept' someone jumping in ahead of you?