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Child Item

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.

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BettePorter

R.D. aka MR.D wrote:

(they have an express lane in my local Lidl)

What's this now???? I thought all lidls and aldis were supposed to be the same!

Why do you have an express lane and I don't!? This is outrageous!

MrDiyFan

Why do they have Loud speakers Barking out announcements non stop about the tills.

And some of their food suxbigtime

SterlingArcher

MrDiyFan wrote: »

Why do they have Loud speakers Barking out announcements non stop about the tills.

And some of their food suxbigtime

Ha yeah they don't even have the quality horse meat.

extra gravy

Not everyone does a big shop and has a trolley. I might have 7 or 8 items at most so is it more efficient to make 2 or 3 trips carrying stuff to the bloody shelf when I can just pack them as they're being scanned? A bigger issue is those monstrosities of baskets they introduced. As someone who has regular back trouble bending up and down to put stuff into them is an absolute pain so I've started avoiding them altogether.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Clampdown wrote: »

Exactly. Irish people, especially the older ones, have to dither about and talk sh!te at tills, when they're getting on and of buses, etc. The Germans realized if they want to take us all away from Tesco and Dunnes they would have to allow us to inform the cashier that it was indeed raining or what ever the time wasting eejits talk about up there, and not rush us along.

You forgot to add the mother diddering with her 3 kids instead of packing or paying, or the endless queue of 30 something's who have to finish their phone calls while loading the conveyor and then their bags, with one hand up to their ear.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

extra gravy wrote: »

Not everyone does a big shop and has a trolley. I might have 7 or 8 items at most so is it more efficient to make 2 or 3 trips carrying stuff to the bloody shelf when I can just pack them as they're being scanned? A bigger issue is those monstrosities of baskets they introduced. As someone who has regular back trouble bending up and down to put stuff into them is an absolute pain so I've started avoiding them altogether.

I just use my bags rather than those ridiculous pull along baskets. Who came up with that bright idea?

whatdoicare

oh sweet jeebus, the amount of times I've internally screamed at an old doddery eedjit slowly placing each item carefully into their bag at a snails pace. It used to be only in Dunnes but it's happening now in Aldi! Do the till operators still get in trouble if their tills go too slow?

I've often seen those infamous middle aged women who we all know and hate just pretty much not even try to pack anything away, instead they'll let the whole till spill over and wait for the till operator to pack their bags- they do this all the time in Dunnes and Tesco and seem genuinely shocked that they can't pull that ****e in Aldi and Lidl.

I like the system that Aldi/Lidl has, you throw things into the trolly and if you have the skillz you can sort the stuff as you go into corners that go together so that when you pack it's all there in one area. Then you can take as much time as you like packing it away, I do it at the boot of the car, pack the bags straight into the car. Easy peasy.

freshpopcorn

extra gravy wrote: »

Not everyone does a big shop and has a trolley. I might have 7 or 8 items at most so is it more efficient to make 2 or 3 trips carrying stuff to the bloody shelf when I can just pack them as they're being scanned? A bigger issue is those monstrosities of baskets they introduced. As someone who has regular back trouble bending up and down to put stuff into them is an absolute pain so I've started avoiding them altogether.

I know those baskets are too deep and award to award to carry. We generally fill our large shopping bag in the basket and lift it out onto the checkout and empty it then instead of bending down to empty the basket!

P. Breathnach

Jeremias Brave Rower wrote: »

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

Efficiency for me. I don't like having to wait longer in the line because people are wasting time - sometimes quite a lot of it.

And efficiency for the shop. Aldi and Lidl's low prices are predicated on low costs. This includes achieving a high throughput per operator at checkouts. If that is not achieved, costs rise, and you can expect a knock-on effect on prices.

The_Valeyard

I pack at the till.

Carefully place your items on the conveyer belt.

Have bags wide open.

Gets to your turn.

GAME ON.

freshpopcorn

P. Breathnach wrote: »

Efficiency for me. I don't like having to wait longer in the line because people are wasting time - sometimes quite a lot of it.

And efficiency for the shop. Aldi and Lidl's low prices are predicated on low costs. This includes achieving a high throughput per operator at checkouts. If that is not achieved, costs rise, and you can expect a knock-on effect on prices.

People are slower than ever in Lidl/Aldi now and their doing better than ever!

Fluffy Cat 88

spurious wrote: »

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

That's why I pack my shopping into bags in the boot of my car. I never use that shelf. Their blasted "parents" would probably sue Aldi/Lidl if their precious spawnlings fell off the shelf too.

take everything

maximum12 wrote: »

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

If you get your stuff packed (heavy stuff first, light stuff last) leaving plenty time for a switcheroo of the passive aggressive "whenever you're ready" to the cashier, you get to leave like a boss.

Pac1Man

I look at the sill people with disdain. So weak. Goods should be bagged as soon as they are scanned apart from the last two items. Those can be bagged while the card is being processed.

How can we hope to advance while carrying these sillians? Blegh! Even mentioning their name makes me retch.

sdanseo

maximum12 wrote: »

Accountability for the cash in the till.

Easily fixed by Mary taking her till with her and Svetlana having a till to replace it with. If not, point a CCTV camera at every cash drawer - I worked in a company where they did this (with a comparable amount in each till and similar number of staff per store) but drawers were shared and never once heard of petty theft from a till.

foggy_lad

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.

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Staff are doing other jobs and when the till(s) that are open start to back up a bell rings and someone goes from stacking shelves etc to opening another till for a while, then once the queues are reduced the extra till is closed again.

It is all about having all members of staff working at something for every minute of their working day.

Tigger

maximum12 wrote: »

Accountability for the cash in the till.

the cash box lifts out

LordSutch

dfeo wrote: »

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.

Well said, I agree with you . . .

The only thing they're missing is a 'fast lane' for people with less than five items.

uck51js9zml2yt

I was in aldibin Portugal this year. Surprised me how slow the cashier was. Must have been the heat... anyway..I won

Autonomous Cowherd

I'm pretty good with pre-packing the conveyor belt at Lidl so that I can pack all into my pre-open bags in the trolley in order and on time. I did live in Germany though for a few years, yanno, so that probably explains my machine-like efficiency. BUT the Lidl conveyor belt is the one place and time in this whole world that I feel a certain creeping fear for what disasters and embarrassments might befall me when I get old...

snubbleste

Aldi have erected stickers on the windows stating "Please pack your bags here"

SuperS54

Last time I was in Lildi it was busy and there was a reasonable queue however 2 shoppers placed an empty trolley at the back of each queue and then proceeded to go on foraging runs into the aisles and back to their trolleys. A gentleman who skipped by one of the trolleys into the large gap that was opening up in front of it was harangued and branded a racist by one of the foragers before the trolley was rammed back in front of him...Perhaps they need that instructional video after all...

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

Its fairly straightforward to pack your stuff as it gets scanned down. Your always given enough time to get all your shopping onto the belt as there is a queue, then have your bags primed and ready to pack as the items arrive. I'd normally have one or two items left to pack as I'm paying, at which point I throw them into the trolley and move off.

Is the proper process to throw everything back into your trolley when they scan it, then move over to the window sill, and start packing? Sure you'd have all sorts of consternation if everyone was doing that. Seems like an awful waste of time as well while your standing there as they scan too.

somesoldiers

In Tesco in Maynooth shoppers can get a scan gun and are supposed to scan each item before packing it directly into your shopping bags in your trolley. Simply pay whatever balance is on the scanner before you leave....they do random checks to make sure it is working correctly ie. to prevent people putting the odd item in without scanning

http://www.tesco.com/scan-as-you-shop/

murpho999

The days of this scanning malrkey has to end. Hasn't advanced in 20 years.

Surely with RFID technology it could be possible to have your shopping already packed as you go along and then you just go to the till and the system automatically gives you your bill?

So no unpacking or scanning.

HeidiHeidi

somesoldiers wrote: »

In Tesco in Maynooth shoppers can get a scan gun and are supposed to scan each item before packing it directly into your shopping bags in your trolley. Simply pay whatever balance is on the scanner before you leave....they do random checks to prevent people putting the odd item in without scanning

http://www.tesco.com/scan-as-you-shop/

My local Supervalu has this as well.

It's really handy (except when half the store customers have chosen to do the same and the queue for the superscan till is three times longer than any of the ordinary tills

).

It's incredibly easy to get distracted and not scan something - I've caught myself accidentally nearly shoplifting a couple of times and live in fear that I'll wind up arrested some day!

I've also merrily gone around scanning all my own stuff and throwing it into the trolley, only to pitch up at the till and realise that I should have been throwing it into the bags - duh

And Supervalu, unlike Aldi/Lidl, do not provide a convenient shelf for bag-packing amnesiacs......

exaisle

"Why should people pack AT the till when there's a preparation are for that very purpose. It wastes time and hold up everyone."

Aldi & Lidl's checkout system is only there to suit Aldi and Lidl. It's inefficient for the shoppers to have to bring their shopping to a separate area to pack. I'm not going to pack and unpack my stuff twice when I'm at the till so I just make them wait until everything is packed before I pay....even if they want to jump up and down on the spot...I'm not going to waste some of my time so they can save some of theirs...

The new "two lane" system in Lidl which is in operation in other shops works fine and is the most efficient model...Aldi should follow suit.

Capet

I use the bog blue IKEA bags. Have two of them ready in the trolley and then divide groceries between them at they are scanned. Saves having to repack stuff after putting it all in trolley. IKEA bags are great, much easier to put things into than normal bag for life

somesoldiers

Capet wrote: »

I use the bog blue IKEA bags. Have two of them ready in the trolley and then divide groceries between them at they are scanned. Saves having to repack stuff after putting it all in trolley. IKEA bags are great, much easier to put things into than normal bag for life

there was a lad on Irish Dragons Den a few years ago with a similar system to this, always meant to buy them but never got around to it

http://www.homestoreandmore.ie/gadgets/trolley-bags-original/invt/065661

dutopia

If you can get your items into bags in your trolley as fast as they're being scanned through, you're not holding up the line.