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.
Our current Aldi’s is next door to Publix.
They are opening a new one in a closed Winn-Dixie store that’s practically next to WalMart.................
I’ve never seen a BOGO, or any kind of sale at all, at an Aldi’s. They have comparatively low prices all the time through efficiency and limitations, as described above.
I was referring to Publix which has BOGO ‘sales’ all the time. But they don’t really save you anything. They just figured out a way to get you to buy two items.................
Hilarious. I actually sold 2 successful companies I helped start. How does pointing out correctly that by European laws, cashiers must have chairs, show I’ve never run a business?
This is kind of fun. You seem really upset that I simply pointed that fact out. In all my years on FR this is the strangest exchanges I have had. Someone attacking me because I merely pointed out the fact that where they are based requires chairs, so they probably look for consistency in operations.
When they first came to town, I heard that their products were from lowest the lowest bidders.... they can keep them. Have not been in their store yet.
I don’t “seem really upset” at all — hahahhahahahaha. You just don’t like being called out for your stubborn insistence on a pet theory with no citation to back it up.
It’s inconceivable that Aldi would not test the metrics of its business decisions not only in the American marketplace, but also regionally, locally, and by each store, to find out what delivers the most efficiency.
Style ,or nostalgia for Europe are most definitely not in evidence in any part of their operation.
Everybody’s products are from the lowest bidder.........
How convenient! My Publix is 5 min drive.
Publix doesn’t make you buy two though, you can purchase just one of the item and it will ring up half price. Unlike Winn-Dixie and Kroger who require you to buy two items.
Sad, but I have no doubt you are correct. It is why some areas become “food deserts”; it becomes impossible to make a reasonable profit for the expense of keeping the location open.
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