Posted on 04/29/2025 7:41:31 AM PDT by Red Badger
If you've ever stepped foot in an Aldi supermarket, it probably didn't take you very long to realize why it's recognized as one of the most affordable grocery chains both in the United States and overseas. From fancy cheese to bakery staples to a range of healthy snacks, the retailer's shelves are stocked with plenty of high-quality grocery items at impressively wallet-friendly prices.
To keep overheads (and therefore, prices) low, Aldi employs a number of unique strategies. For one thing, you'll never hear music playing in an Aldi store, as it saves money by avoiding licensing fees. It costs a quarter to rent a shopping cart, which shoppers get back once they return it — a method that reduces the need for employees to spend time rounding them up. You might also notice that, unlike at most other grocery chains, Aldi cashiers get to sit down while ringing up customers.
The reason for that is not simply a way to make workers happy by giving them a chance to rest. Additionally, allowing cashiers to have a seat while they work helps with the overall efficiency of the business. As one Aldi cashier told Mental Floss, the company's own testing shows that sitting down at the register allows cashiers to ring up items faster. This keeps lines moving and customers satisfied while also cutting labor costs in the long run. Checkout speed and efficiency are so important to the company, in fact, that workers are given reports documenting their ringing statistics at the end of every shift.
Aldi's philosophy? Efficiency is key
As a purported Aldi employee mentioned in one Reddit thread, cashiers can be expected to ring up to 1,200 items per hour. That, in addition to being required to make the rounds unboxing items, stocking shelves, and keeping aisles tidy, can make the job quite physically demanding and strenuous. (A worker shared with Mental Floss that she probably clocked more than 25,000 steps per shift.) So, when it comes to manning the registers, the fact that it could be done off one's feet is something to be taken advantage of.
Speaking as someone who once worked as a standing supermarket cashier at another grocery chain (with all the same additional responsibilities), I can definitely see why sitting down could help employees work faster. By the end of the day, being physically spent is always just going to make the employee — and lines — move slower.
Beyond having its cashiers take a seat, Aldi makes use of other quick and efficient checkout methods. Those include large barcodes on items to make them easier to scan and encouraging customers to pre-insert their credit cards so that they're ready to pay by the time items are completely rung up. Perhaps most notably, shoppers bag their own items. While Aldi employees will help load up your cart with your processed groceries, customers do their own bagging in a separate area to keep things moving along. And considering the savings they're getting by doing so, fans of the brand certainly aren't complaining.
Only complaint it that their produce doesn't keep as well. Usually just buy what we need and use immediately. Just like shopping in Europe, where that's also the practice.
As a Publix cashier, I will go against any sitting cashier and beat the output every time. Euro weenies can never compete with me.
Bring ALDI to the Pacific Northwest.
You must be “down South”, like me.
LIDI
And a lot hotter than the ghettos here.
Nor is law in Europe the subject of your post; it was there to support your errant conclusion.
However, I understand your projection, and there we are.
Buh-bye!
Hemeriods?-)
Love it! Publix is the best.
My wife and I were there this morning, and while she was checking out the seafood, I took out my cell, opened up Free Republic and saw THIS TOPIC! Just got done reading it. Now I understand how that place works. Pretty cool. The eggs have dropped down to $4.64 doz. They’ve got a decent selection of wines, now that I don’t drink anymore. Over the years we have amassed QUITE a quantity of Aldi bags, lol.
I buy their lactose free milk cheaper than anywhere else for the same price- $3.19 for a half gallon.
Best chocolate and coffee and spaetzle noodles year round. At Christmas we can get marzipan stollen. In our area the only store that beats their prices is the Amish salvage/day old grocery.
I don’t know if Aldi is selling products from Europe, but I do know that many Aldi brand items have far fewer additives than comparable American brands.
I shop at both Aldi and Publix. I love both of those stores for different reasons. Publix motto is “where it is a pleasure to shop” and it is. Aldi ,on the other hand, has great prices. I appreciate efficiency. In both stores, the employees are very nice.
“ Love ALDI—prices are a lot lower than traditional grocery stores.”
A huge savings for Aldi is that they do not stock their shelves by the individual item. Instead, they cut off the top and most of the front of a box and put the whole box on the shelf with the few items remaining from the previous box in the front.
I think that restocking and putting the oldest things in the front happens more often at Aldi than when many individual cans or boxes have to be moved in order to get the newest ones to the back of a shelf behind the older items.
Odd.
I always go to Aldi first, but they don’t always have all items I need, so then I head to Publix for remaining items.
In store help in publix stores is outstanding. if you ask an employee stacking shelves where to find a certain item, they will walk with you to the isle and point out actual item.
You've never run a business, have you?
Surely Aldi tests its policies not only for the American market, but also for individual stores. There are three Aldis on my regular route and another two on my occasional route. The ones that have installed self-checkout are even faster for the customer, but self-checkout is only in the most Republican areas, and I’ll let you infer the demographics. It’s about which stores have less “shrink” (loss by theft, fraudulent returns or vandalism).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.