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The same as it is now, just no barcode scanner. With one hand the cashier moved products from the band to the other side for you to pick up, while they typed codes into a 9-digit number pad with the other hand.
And interestingly they were not any slower.
But I think Aldi had a smaller varierty of products back in those days too.
I noticed these giant barcodes, but I never thought they could be somehow useful. I mean, the average speed of cashiers here in Germany is "normal". That's fine, I don't care if they take 10 seconds instead of 5, nor I care if they take 1 minute instead of 40 seconds.
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> What's an Aldi customer's incentive to do this? Social pressure. You've just waited in a queue, and there are people behind you in that queue.
Really, wow I never felt that. I always put them in my bag at the natural speed. The only social pressure I felt was when paying before finishing packing. This lead to the next persons groceries being mixed in with mine and accidentally packing their stuff etc. Now I take my time and finish packing before paying to avoid this issue and it is all good.
But that's one of the things I like about that. You take a cart - put everything in the cart and pack it into your boxes / bags afterwards and don't waste everybodies time. But this may be a very German thing to do.
I noticed at line in Costco the cashier's assistant rearranged by stuff on the belt to have the barcodes facing up and in the same direction. Costco could probably save some money by putting barcodes on every side of everything.
> Costco could probably save some money by putting barcodes on every side of everything. That's easier said than done because Costco doesn't sell only private label items like Aldi.
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They also get rid of a lot of "frills" that other grocery stores are accustomed to performing that add to cost e.g. items are still in their transport cardboard boxes on the shelves so employees spend less time stocking shelves, they allow people to take these cardboard boxes home instead of shopping bags and this reduces waste cost. They dramatically reduce their range which cuts inventory storage. You'll never seem…
I come from a country where there are always plenty of open cashiers and no lines. If I saw a queue there I would leave and not go shopping because its either overloaded or some system was down. When I first came to Germany I kept seeing the queue and thinking "oh, I will come back later when it isn't so busy". But I have noticed the reverse occurs too. If there is an idle cashier no one goes to them. They assume, du…
And the reverse happens as well, when the line reduces another announcement will state that the checkout is closing and customers should not approach that checkout.
I'm always amazed at the little things Aldi does to make their process even more efficient.
Perhaps set up the bags in a clever way so everything other than eggs falls into a new bag.
Also, it can't be long before you just scan stuff using an app as you're taking it off the shelf, connected to a payment method so you don't even have to pull out your wallet.
I wonder if this system can introduce miscounting or double-counting of an item? Maybe that is why the cashier at Aldi moves through items so quickly.
She just pressed a button on the register and continued. I think she used the same functionality for scanning one item while you really bought 12 of them.
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The sitting thing is common in England (and perhaps elsewhere in Europe). It definitely stood out to me when I was visiting.
It's so rare here I can't think of another time I've seen it. I've always wondered why: comfortable people tend to be less grumpy and the typical cashier job involves "not leaving a very small space for a long period of time". This small space is about the size of ... a chair. I think the perception of people standing in line is more likely to make them feel that the cashier is working slower because they're sitting[…
If scanning the barcode is the critical step, why do it with an ordinary barcode scanner? Just make a conveyor belt that has multiple cameras. One of them will definitely catch one of the barcodes. I've done barcode scanning with ZXing lib myself on a phone, it's super easy even with one camera. Perhaps set up the bags in a clever way so everything other than eggs falls into a new bag. Also, it can't be long before y…
I think they do random "bag checks" as well every now and then. And you might need to have the stores credit/debit card (but I am not sure because I never used this system myself).
Here are some pictures https://www.google.co.th/search?q=ica+bar+kod+skanner&source...
* In the main brand supermarkets at least.