Secrets From The Middle Aisle (RTE One)

Say Your Number

Documentary on Lidl/Aldi just started a few minutes ago.

HeidiHeidi

Good? Bad? Interesting?

Or just on?

Atlantic Dawn

Watchable so far.

Remember the first time I went in to LIDL, first thing I noticed was no music, back then I don't think they had any proper shelves, they pretty much used stacked packaging to display what they were selling.

Say Your Number

That fella sounds very like Alan Quinlan

Atlantic Dawn

All the delicious alcohol before MUP.

Atlantic Dawn

Jaysus, Moore Street branch doesn't look like a safe work environment.

Say Your Number

F*cking hell, what she has to put up with is very grim.

Hurrache

Poor form that the company doesn't organise transport for those finishing late shifts, every retailer I worked in as a student in the early 90s did anyway.

Say Your Number

Are these good quality tools or cheap for a reason.

Say Your Number

Awful flowery language on this show.

Atlantic Dawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913436#Comment_118913436

I find them good for day to day use, probably not up there for professional use but fine around the house. I've not yet bought any tools there that failed.

Man Vs ManUre

Why is it there has been no Batts organic ketchup in the shop for past few weeks now?? This is the one with the green lid and it is delicious, but the white lid one is not good.

Say Your Number

I've noticed Tesco have reduced the amount of self-service machines taking cash, will the rest follow them.

Atlantic Dawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913490#Comment_118913490

Yes it's rather irritating, they should split the self-service area in 2, let those dealing in cash only go in to a seperate Q.

Say Your Number

Every time I go into a supermarket Christmas week, you'd swear they were closing for good with how busy it is.

Your man getting 350 worth of stuff for free, some going!

Wheety

Was going to laugh at how bad that woman's trolley dash was but then heard she's in sheltered accommodation and would have no where to put a lot of food.

Atlantic Dawn

Moore Street is an eye opener, open sales of drugs and smuggled cigarettes, gang masters with their slaves, rather disturbing what goes on in open view day in day out.

Wheety

That woman saying she can buy 1 lamb shank in Lidl when the others sell 2 together "But I don't want 2, I only want 1". And you could see 2 of them in her basket 😂

Atlantic Dawn

Is the Moore Street branch the only one with self-service, I've not seen it in any other store.

freshpopcorn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913558#Comment_118913558

Somebody told me it was in one of the ones in Cork City but I never ventured into it!

Wheety

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913558#Comment_118913558

Cherry Orchard and Aungier Street have them anyway. I'd imagine they're in most. Anything where they can reduce the amount of staff required.

Jinglejangle69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913525#Comment_118913525

Nappies, wipes, tissues, shampoo, soap etc etc??

Say Your Number

Mad how she left college to stay in Lidl, I worked in a supermarket for a while and hated it.

Atlantic Dawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913572#Comment_118913572

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913566#Comment_118913566

Yes I sometimes feel guilty if I only have 2 or 3 items and going to the checkout, a self-service would be nice. I suppose it comes down to self-service needing a staff member to supervise any issues so likely better use of staff in a non mega busy shop if there's just checkouts.

freshpopcorn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913608#Comment_118913608

I've been in the new Lidls in Tipperary, Clonmel, Fermoy, Youghal and Mitchelstown and none of them have self service.

I always feel they could do with it but I suppose Lidl might only put them in stores with higher footfall.

freshpopcorn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913581#Comment_118913581

I don't think she even sold it well.

I can see people writing to Lidl HQ about how she spoke and how she felt at work.

sam t smith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913527#Comment_118913527

Drugs are for mugs and smokers are jokers.

Wheety

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913581#Comment_118913581

I loved working in retail. Liked my co-workers and could have a laugh with most customers. Obviously it had it's bad points too, like most jobs. The customer is not always right.

Minnie Snuggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913534#Comment_118913534

Maybe the box with 2 shanks are packed together so when she wants 1 she has a certain amount of time to use the 2nd.

lukewarm06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913630#Comment_118913630

I thought she painted a very bad picture tbh..

Wheety

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913818#Comment_118913818

Ah yeah, a few reasons why she might have done it, was just funny how she was saying that while still buying 2.

Think the reason for self service in certain stores is that they are smaller and don’t have room for trollies!

AMKC

Jeez your one Gemma I think her name was who worked on the late shift saying someone threatened to rape her. That is just not on. Is it any wonder why men are then hated by Women. Why lots of Women want nothing to do with men. I just hope she carries a pepper spray with her now.

AMKC

How does that trolley dash work in Lidl? Do you have to win something first then you get to do it?

freshpopcorn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118915354#Comment_118915354

You buy a ticket for €1 for charity!

Atlantic Dawn

Yes was first time I saw the trolley dash, is there rules to it like only 1 of each item or item type, perhaps restrictions to not take any of the middle aisle specials?

Found the rules, the major ones that you need to know, strict enough. You would need a few training sessions in the week leading in to it, lol...

21. The Contestant may take a maximum of 1 of any particular item.

22. Designated non-food middle aisle promotional products are excluded from the trolley dash. Alcohol is also excluded, however the trolley dash prize will be supplemented by one bottle of wine. The Promoter may exclude some additional products from the event in its discretion.

23. The Contestant must start the trolley dash from Aisle 1, just inside the entrance to the store, and finish at any checkout once the two minutes have elapsed.

25. If a Contestant fills a trolley within the two minutes, he/she may return to the starting point with the full trolley and get a second/empty one.

26. Any items that are broken or damaged by the Contestant during the trolley dash will not be substituted for undamaged items.

27. Products obtained during the trolley dash cannot be exchanged for replacement products or for cash and the Promoter’s usual returns policy will not apply.

https://www.lidl.ie/information/terms-and-conditions/christmas-trolley-dash

AMKC

Jeez you would be doing well to fill the trolley whitin 2minutes and to start another one.

I can think of a lot of what I would crap now but still doubt I would fill the trolley in 2 minutes.

Arghus

Gave it a watch, having done my time in that environment. I was interested to see how they'd portray the mayhem.

I thought it was a slightly disappointing documentary. About 70% was basically advertising for Lidl, I'd wonder did they have a big hand in getting the show commissioned in the first place.

Some parts rang true: self service checkouts is a tough gig, you'll meet all sorts in a day, 95% of customers are sound but then there's that other 5%... and that all sorts of people work in a supermarket. Some of the smartest - and some of the dumbest - people I've ever met worked alongside me at times over the years.

In flashes you were shown that you have to be able to deal with loads of unpredictable random shyte and to be able to think and move fast. That's what I would have liked to have seen more of: a fly on the wall showing the day to day on the floor, with all it's hustle and bustle and crap going wrong, but somehow being rescued.

Some of it was so obviously stage managed that I laughed. The big pep talk from the store manager before the Tipp Store opened, the oh-so nice regional manager telling people to ask for help if they needed it - something I never, ever, heard once in years - and little moments like the deputy manager laughing away at the two lads crashing the pallet trucks into each other on the floor: if the camera wasn't there 100% guarantee he would have been fcking them out of it for clogging up the aisle.

I appreciate I was probably watching it with a super forensic eye, given that was the world I came from too.

Some things didn't mesh with the general tone of soft focus whimsy: Conor Pope talking about the ethics of farmers being denied a basic income by the race to the bottom in food prices. And particularly the stories from that young girl from the Moore Street store about the hassle she receives, that can follow her outside of work too. That's unfortunately par for the course, to an equal or lesser extent, for most young women working on something like self service or customer service. They may not get threatened with rape, but they'll absolutely have a quota of pervs to deal with.

Her story of having dropped out to work in Lidl was also pretty familiar. It could have been that she simply hated college and wanted out, maybe she couldn't afford it and rent and Lidl was a source of income. I dunno, though I'm not sure I bought her reason of just "loving Lidl". Though she could love the people she works with, that's entirely possible.

freshpopcorn

I've known people who've done the trolley dash in the past and generally they just loads of meat or Christmas chocolates.

They weren't to strict if you had two of an item.

The lad working in the Tipperary did day you were only shown things once.

JP Liz V1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913558#Comment_118913558

I've seen them in none

It was an interesting show

icdg

I try to defend RTE and public service broadcasting, but I couldn’t get past the feeling watching this that it looked and felt like an hour long commercial for Lidl Ireland.

Now RTE takes commercial income, but if it was paid programming, it should have been marked as such. If it wasn’t, I would question why it was so fluffy, carried virtually no critical content, and concentrated only on one specific supermarket chain and barely mentioned their basically identical in format arch rival (who were here first).

frosty123

Is it store policy at checkout you're not allowed start a conversation with customers?? They never seem to make eye contact😑

Sleepy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118913581#Comment_118913581

I'd think it was fairly obvious she either failed out or dropped out for other reasons while working in Lidl part-time and moved to full time as a means to support herself. She clearly hates the job and from the description of her experience there, who could blame her!

fryup

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118938528#Comment_118938528

i don't think so, thought it showed the reality of working there warts n'all

btw - is this a one off or there other episodes to be shown?

Andy From Sligo

enjoyed it - but now they (the production company / RTE) should do a few more ones off's now "Secrets of Dunnes" and Secrets of Tesco and "Secrets of Penney's"

sam t smith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118942772#Comment_118942772

Slows down the transaction

thesandeman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118958568#Comment_118958568

It's amazing that after all these years the amount of people can't cop on to the Lidl/Aldi way of doing things.

I don't mean older people who would be used to the higher prices=personal service idea, but the 30-50 year olds who hang at the till with their extended family giving dirty looks at the operator because he/she are doing their job properly.

The only time I've ever packed my bag at the till is if I've a couple of items that are in my bag by the time the operator has my change ready.

Pussyhands

Only getting round to comment on this now but it was a terrible program and it was clearly one giant ad for Lidl.

There were only maybe 2 or 3 comments by contributors where it made Lidl look bad.

Even some comments by staff that were made to make Lidl sound good, makes them look bad. "There's only 6 staff in the whole shop, we do the work of 7 or 8". That's...not a good thing. You're understaffed and run off your feet.

Another comment "I'm almost afraid to ask a staff member for help because they look so busy"...yes they are run off their feet. Lidl pay their staff higher but they make that up by overworking them and understaffing shops. Didn't see any worker complain about the massive queues halfway down the shop with customers shouting up at them to open another till.

You'll also never see a 60 year old working in Lidl...think about why.

And please please, stop the circlejerk over the middle aisle. "people think it's all random but there's actually very clever thought process into it, they display items that you need at certain times of the year"...what a genius move, selling barbeque stuff in summer...

Tesco sold all these things before Lidl did it anyways.

Andy From Sligo

electronic and electrical things and tools are the goldmines in the middle aisle - not saying the items are quality by any long shot but they do seem cheaper than if you went into some other stores/shops to buy the equivalent product.

They did not mention (conveniently) that when they have 'specials' on in the middle aisle that 'when they are gone they are gone" that sometimes it seems from what some customers say that staff seem get first pickings and I have heard of people queuing up at 7am before the store opens to be told that a particular 'special item' has "all been sold!"

Ginger83

My OH was a deputy manager and left years ago. The breaking point was a fifteen and a quarter hour day without food and one toilet break.

One word.... KIP

Pussyhands

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118961788#Comment_118961788

Anything you'll get in Lidl you'll get on Amazon for just as cheap if not cheaper.