Aldi and Lidl checkout system

Commotion Ocean

I regularly go to a local Aldi and Lidl and in principle, the queuing system is excellent.

Lob your stuff on the conveyor belt, move to end of the checkout, your stuff is quickly scanned through and you (just as quickly) put the stuff back into the trolley and pay.

Move to the preparation window sill things at the end and repack and organise there.

What p1sses me off about Aldi and Lidls here is that most people are organising and packing at the end of the tills.
The whole mantra of Lidl and Aldi is efficiency, which thus translates into cheaper goods due to less dwell time and wasted time. There is no justification to have more tills open in Lidl / Aldi if people just copped on and stopped packing at the till.

THAT'S WHAT THE WINDOW SILLS ARE THERE FOR :mad:

I've been to Aldi and Lidl in Germany and the Netherlands and you'll get dirty looks for holding up the system. People there actually respect the system there.

GLaDOS

People are idiots.

OldMrBrennan83

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Commotion Ocean

Patww79 wrote: »

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It shouldn't though. Why should people pack AT the till when there's a preparation are for that very purpose. It wastes time and hold up everyone.

sdanseo

While this is true I'm sure, I do think there are times when they need to have more tills open. There's 6 or 8 in most stores and I don't think I've ever seen more than half being staffed.

Mind you, queues move fairly quickly when the above system works and there are no dothery aul wans asking for bags or boxes or forgetting their PIN.

Ted111

Why do they constantly open and close check-outs. If Mary is going on a break and Svetlana is coming back then Mary stand up, take a step to the right and Svetlana sit down. Line keeps moving.

OldMrBrennan83

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NomadicGray

Ah yes, this thread again.

dbagman

how hard is it to have your empty bags open in the trolley ready to go? I always pack at the till. whats the point in putting the stuff in the trolley twice?

Commotion Ocean

dbagman wrote: »

how hard is it to have your empty bags open in the trolley ready to go? I always pack at the till. whats the point in putting the stuff in the trolley twice?

Because the queue moves quicker.

If I was the Hitler of supermarkets, I'd start imposing an "efficiency levy". The longer you take at the till, the higher your bill becomes

artanevilla

"Cash or card?"

"Yes"

Always confuses them.

maximum12

Ted111 wrote: »

Why do they constantly open and close check-outs. If Mary is going on a break and Svetlana is coming back then Mary stand up, take a step to the right and Svetlana sit down. Line keeps moving.

Accountability for the cash in the till.

Outlaw Pete

Packing something into a trolley or basket again is not that much quicker than people packing stuff into their own bags or whatever.

Never saw the big fuss about this issue.

Not having payment ready wastes far more time and those people should be executed for sure.

Felix Jones is God

I don't use a trolley,i fill my bags and then pack them as she scans them , I pay by card and I'm finished before the card is processed....
Fck the window sill !!

dbagman

dfeo wrote:

Because the queue moves quicker.

How does the Q move faster if I put my items into the already open bags in my trolley over putting them in loose and repacking the whole lot on the window sills at the back?

ProudDUB

Patww79 wrote: »

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The old Superquins used to have a black plasic bar thingy, at the cashiers arm. She could angle it so that the groceries she was scanning, could go into 2 separate lanes, so that your shopping was kept separate from the person before you, if they were taking their time packing up their stuff. The end of the conveyor belt was wider, so that it could handle two sets of shoppers shopping. The end of the belt had a gentle slope down too, so that each scanned item fell down into the packing area automatically and a backlog wasn't created at the cashiers elbow. As she didn't have to keep pushing scanned items out of the way, she didn't get slowed down ringing things up. Fergal Quinn knew his stuff !

maximum12

The best bit about these German shops is racing the cashier. They know it, we know it.

SCOOP 64

i just throw it in the basket, then have the bags in the boot of car then pack into bags there, because i like the challenge of keeping up with the till operator,i wont be bet!

OldMrBrennan83

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maximum12

Does anyone use the counters at the back?

I only ever see my kids climbing on them

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I've never seen anybody do anything but pack their bags at the till. I've never seen the window sills used. It's a minute or two, at most, of a wait usually. No big deal. If a few minutes at a checkout riles you then you have a hard road in life ahead of you.

Commotion Ocean

Jeremias Brave Rower wrote: »

I've never seen anybody do anything but pack their bags at the till. I've never seen the window sills used. It's a minute or two, at most, of a wait usually. No big deal. If a few minutes at a checkout riles you then you have a hard road in life ahead of you.

That's not the point Jeremias Brave Rower, you can't justify this kind of tomfoolery because there are other problems n the World.

Efficiency in Lidl / Aldi could be improved several-fold if people copped on. Don't get me started on people who stare into space when things are being scanned then fumble around handbags / wallets / satchels to get payment.

Red Kev

Yeah, I like to race the till people as well.

There's a few simple tricks tobeating Tillman or his female sidekick Tillwoman. First of all get the smaller trolley with the higher loading level as it saves time bending down. Place open bags and/or cardboard box into this.

If it's Lidl I always put the bread around 2/3rds of the way down the conveyor belt, so they need a few seconds to look at the contents which gives me a few seconds to keep packing. Veg at the end as it never scans first time.

So by the time they turn around to put the last piece of veg on the counter I'm standing there with my hand open looking for it, the debit card in the other.

Ensures a defeated Tillman/Tillwoman and a slightly smug but very confident walk across the paving bricks to the car. Makes my week.

Turtyturd

Checkout system seems to be to open another till as soon as I have gotten blocked in or put my stuff on the conveyor belt.

Pricks.

HellSquirrel

Why do they constantly open and close check-outs. If Mary is going on a break and Svetlana is coming back then Mary stand up, take a step to the right and Svetlana sit down. Line keeps moving.

Fairly straightforward reason for that - Svetlana has to log in on her own name to the till, which would be awkward midprocess. Also, if something goes wrong and there's a dispute, it needs to be one person to trace it back to, else Mary and Svetlana themselves won't even know what went wrong or if the customer is correct or trying it on.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

dfeo wrote: »

That's not the point Srameen, you can't justify this kind of tomfoolery because there are other problems n the World.

Efficiency in Lidl / Aldi could be improved several-fold if people copped on. Don't get me started on people who stare into space when things are being scanned then fumble around handbags / wallets / satchels to get payment.

Efficiency for whom? Does efficiency for the individual customer count for nothing? No more sales will be made by everyone using the window sills.

Wanderer78

ah yes, the ould, lets make shopping more efficient, i.e. incredibly boring and depressing for both customers and workers! humans are not machines, we re very dynamic beings that require interaction and conversation. the german model is hell bent on reducing the interaction and conversation time between both customers and workers. this is seen and making a more efficient system. the more 'efficiency' thats built into these systems, the less interaction we re having in these environments. it must be incredibly boring and depressing for the workers in these environments. i suspect this is largely due to neoclassical theory, this has not been a great economic theory for the well being of humans!

OldMrBrennan83

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qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Ted111 wrote: »

Why do they constantly open and close check-outs. If Mary is going on a break and Svetlana is coming back then Mary stand up, take a step to the right and Svetlana sit down. Line keeps moving.

If there's any mistakes on the toll from Mary and svetlana jumps onto Mary's till and the till is down 100 euro at the end of day, who's in the firing line?

OldMrBrennan83

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Wanderer78

Patww79 wrote: »

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fair enough, maybe we should automate everything, and we ll all live happily ever after, or will we!

OldMrBrennan83

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Mister Vain

They need to get with the times and bring in the self service machines.

spurious

The window sills are where toddlers sit with their nappy seepage. I for one do not want my crusty cob contaminated.

I do wish they would have a basket/wheelie basket thing lane for those who only have a few things.

Wanderer78

Patww79 wrote: »

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'atomisation' is a possible term

Crazyteacher

Everyone packs at the till in my local lidl and we've never been instructed to do otherwise. It doesn't hold up the queue. In fact our local you'd barely have a queue they are that efficient. They open an extra till onnce there's more than two waiting. I went to Aldi for the 2nd time ever today , shelves were chaotic , inadequate signage for pricing, and because I asked the cashier a question about the price of an item I was getting "tutting" from the queue behind me.

bottlebrush

Patww79 wrote: »

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Ah yes, I've been there, several times, with Aldi . I pony up to Till 2 with my 4 items and the Cashier tells me it's closing and to go to till 7. I pony down to till 7 and join the queue and lo and behold there's an announcement over the intercom that Till 2 is now open. I go back to Till 2 and now there's four overflowing trolleys ahead of me.

Goodbye Aldi.

Tesco or Dunnes beckons from now on.

fergiesfolly

I have one of those shopping trolley bag systems.
4 bags designed to fit into the trolley with large handles to hold them in place.
Easy peasy.
I hate the Lidl/Also system and this is the best way around that I've found.

Moo Moo Land

Some of us have become very fast and efficient bag packers.

Others haven't.

Enjoy the windowsills Others. I hold you in contempt.

freshpopcorn

When Lidl/Aldi first opened in Ireland they were super efficient at the checkout and they basically pushed people through the checkout and fired their shopping into their trolley. They also had no baskets.
It took Lidl/Aldi a few years but they have really adapted to what Irish people want in a supermarket!

HeidiHeidi

Mister Vain wrote: »

They need to get with the times and bring in the self service machines.

Noooooooooo :eek:


Fecking things always disputing your age if you have the temerity to want to buy a bottle of wine, or having a million options for "a loaf of brown bread", or imagining an "unexpected item in the bagging area.... unexpected item in the bagging area...... unexpected item in the bagging area". NO THERE FKN ISN'T :mad:

And you have to put all the stuff loose onto the bagging area or it'll go into meltdown, meaning it takes twice as long as it should.

And that's when you actually get to the bloody till - having waited for all the foosterers and fumblers to spend half the day getting themselves sorted in their own sweet time (via all the above obstructions).

Some day the men in white coats will have to come and take me away from a self-service till.

OldMrBrennan83

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uck51js9zml2yt

I pack at the till.
I group my shopping on the belt so that all the same groups are being scanned which can then be thrown into a bag at a time.

All fruit & veg together, meats, bottles etc.

Why be inefficient and throw everything into a trolley only to have to repack it in bags...after all, its all about efficiency!!!

FrannoFan

I load the conveyor belt in the order i want to put them into the bags(heavier things first, eggs etc last) then i have all the bags ready to go and i just load directly into the bags. Never even heard of the idea of taking them to window sill. It is just as quick.

i also take it to another OCD level and group them by where they are going in my house (fridge items/ dry goods/ press specific) but i don't expect everyone to reach those levels of organisation.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

FrannoFan wrote: »

I load the conveyor belt in the order i want to put them into the bags(heavier things first, eggs etc last) then i have all the bags ready to go and i just load directly into the bags. Never even heard of the idea of taking them to window sill. It is just as quick.

i also take it to another OCD level and group them by where they are going in my house (fridge items/ dry goods/ press specific) but i don't expect everyone to reach those levels of organisation.

That's me to a tee.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Patww79 wrote: »

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Nothing really suits your grand world vision, does it?

maximum12

spurious wrote: »

I do wish they would have a basket/wheelie basket thing lane for those who only have a few things.

There's the unofficial system that seems to have evolved in aldi /lidl: "ahh do you only have two things? You can go in front of me as I'm preparing for nuclear holocaust"

OldMrBrennan83

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ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Patww79 wrote: »

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No but paying at a checkout where I promptly pack my bags does, yet you don't want that either.

Ted111

Why be inefficient and throw everything into a trolley only to have to repack it in bags...after all, its all about efficiency. I just throw everything straight from the shelves into the specially improvised, large, foil lined, inside pockets of my over coat and bypass the pesky shelf by running straight to my getaway car

OldMrBrennan83

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