The REAL reason why ALDI checkouts are so stressful
It’s probably happened to all of us at one point: you’re at the ALDI checkout, prepping your bags and groceries for the inevitable 60 seconds of stress where your goods fly into your direction by the cashier.
If you’re too slow and fail to keep up with the checkout person’s pace, you’ll be left flinging items into your shopping trolley to bag later on.
While you’re secretly hoping for the cashier to slow down their incessant scanning, it turns out they’re not trying to stress you out – according to one Quora user, who says they are an ALDI employee – they’re actually being timed.
The employee, who goes by Wattpad Author on Quora, claims she has been working at an American branch of the supermarket for the last two months.
“Let me tell you; everything you do at the register is timed,” she said.
Working part-time on weekends for the employer means she’s “almost always the primary or backup cashier because so much foot traffic is going on in the store”.
She claims ALDI only wants two seconds between transactions.
“They’ll let you get away with three seconds at the store I work for, but if you hit four seconds, you are failing the standards,” she explained.
The supermarket's expectations come from the fact each item apparently has multiple barcodes, so they can be scanned from any angle by the cashier.
The Quora user said the German-based grocery market expects a cashier to “be ale to ring up 1,200 items per hour”.
“If you can be faster, they’ll push you for it. For my part, being that I’m a part-timer, I’ve managed to ring only 1,000 items per hour,” she said.
“So, if it seems like the employees are rushing, trust me, they are. But it’s literally not their fault.”
The Quora user isn’t the only employee to share their stressful experience checking out grocery items at ALDI.
One person claiming to be an employee of the supermarket took to Reddit to say “every single thing” cashiers do it timed.
“We are also timed on how many seconds it takes us to get you to pay, whether it be cash or card,” the person, who goes by the name kakp92, said.
“We’re also timed on seconds between customers, which is how fast we start scanning the next person’s items.
“The reason this was so frustrating to me is because old people for some reason are allergic to coins.
“They have to pay exact or dig for the pennies, so they don’t get any back and it counts against an ALDI cashier's tender time.”
Interestingly enough, ALDI is commended in both forums for paying their employees well.
Do you get stressed out when you're at the checkout? Let us know in the comments below.