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Aldi's Barcode Strategy

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Re: Aldi's Barcode Strategy

#231

Post by Udik »

Symbiote wrote: post #176
jads wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK, it's not the case. Most have carts that have no such feature, though a good proportion do. From my own anecdotal experience living in less desirable areas, the use of the coin system tends to be in areas that would be more likely to have carts taken/stolen.

I think most places used to have the coin system, but it's often been replaced with a wheel lock. There's a wire loop at the perimeter of the car park, which clamps a brake on the rear wheels if the trolley is passed over the loop.

The two systems clearly solve different problems. The coin system is to encourage people to put the cart back in place; the wheel lock to prevent people stealing a cart. A euro fir a cart is not a bad price, if you need one to take with you.

Re: Aldi's Barcode Strategy

#232

Post by majewsky »

DoubleGlazing wrote: post #215
StudyAnimal wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Aldi in Ireland (and I'm assuming the rest of Europe too) has a new system in place. If sensors above the checkouts detect the lines are too long an automated voice will announce "Checkout 2 will open soon, please start unloading your goods on to the belt". 30 seconds later another announcement will say "Operator to checkout 2 please" so the operator arrives to a checkout with a fully loaded belt. And the reverse hap…

I've seen these at Lidl in Germany, too. It's really great; when a new checkout opens, I see the green light coming up and can immediately take first place in that queue.

One trick that I find helpful: When in the queue, leave some space to the person before you, to make the queue appear longer and thus incentivize the cashier to open the next checkout.

Re: Aldi's Barcode Strategy

#233

Post by [deleted] »

wodenokoto wrote: post #88
germanier wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually they scan items faster than you can bag them. The area after the scanner is very small and takes only few items so you have to move fast. I saw below that US Aldi cashiers put the items into a grocery cart. That doesn't happen in Germany as you are expected to do that yourself. Everyone has their own strategy of how to place items onto the line to slow down the cashier at just the right moment.

The reason why there is so little space is because there are supposed to be baggers. I guess they finally got rid of them to save money.

[deleted]

Re: Aldi's Barcode Strategy

#235

Post by jgalt212 »

If a regular cashier is $10 an hour and an Aldi super cashier is $20 an hour, is there any net benefit to Aldi other than the extra floor space freed up by less check out counters?

Re: Aldi's Barcode Strategy

#236

Post by jgalt212 »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #219
mdip wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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[…

Standing still for long periods is associated with and/or causes some bad health problems.

so is sitting for long periods of time.

Re: Aldi's Barcode Strategy

#238

Post by kennydude »

DoubleGlazing wrote: post #215
StudyAnimal wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Aldi in Ireland (and I'm assuming the rest of Europe too) has a new system in place. If sensors above the checkouts detect the lines are too long an automated voice will announce "Checkout 2 will open soon, please start unloading your goods on to the belt". 30 seconds later another announcement will say "Operator to checkout 2 please" so the operator arrives to a checkout with a fully loaded belt. And the reverse hap…

Lidl UK and Aldi UK are rolling this out too

Re: Aldi's Barcode Strategy

#239

Post by majewsky »

jernfrost wrote: post #183
jschulenklopper wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... I can't help hating those stores. It all looks so cheap and barebones that I get depressed just being there. Then why go there? Normally, you enter most stores by choice, so after a couple of (negative) experiences, just stop visiting them. Can't speak for all Aldi and Lidl stores (not even in all of The Netherlands), but in my hometown a new Lidl store is actually better than just looking cheap and barebones.…

Sure, and I don't go there. But why can't I still hate them? Does me having a choice mean that I should like them. I hate opera too, and I don't go watching opera either. But am I required to like it because I am not forced to go there? Anyway in Germany there is not much of a choice whether to enter Lidl or Aldi as they are everywhere and there seems to be little else. I've lived several years in the Netherlands btw…

> Anyway in Germany there is not much of a choice whether to enter Lidl or Aldi as they are everywhere and there seems to be little else.

There is a lot else. Germany's supermarket market (heh) is divided between five corporations for the largest part: Aldi, Schwarz (Lidl/Kaufland), Edeka (Netto/Edeka/Marktkauf/Tengelmann), Metro (Real), Rewe (Penny/Rewe/Nahkauf).

I would like to have more competition on the market, but it's far from just Aldi and Lidl. Most corporations have at least one discounter brand (Aldi, Lidl, Netto, Penny) and one regular supermarket brand (Kaufland, Edeka, Real, Rewe etc.).

Re: Aldi's Barcode Strategy

#240

Post by seanp2k2 »

walterbell wrote: post #187
Obi_Juan_Kenobi wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So true it hurts. My go-to grocery recently downgraded to the CC chip customer-facing-POS. I used to be able to swipe my card ahead of time and generally be on my way within about 6 seconds of the last item being scanned. Now the system has no pre-swipe ability and far more lag. Like, the first few times I used it I messed up and hit wrong buttons because there was ~1000ms of lag. It works sorta-alright if you use th…

Yes, the new CC chip readers are so slow (must keep card in machine vs. quick swipe) and multi-step that it's faster to use cash.

The part that really upsets me about how the US is doing chip-and-pin is that they're missing the pin part. Someone can still steal my wallet or card and use it without anything else. It provides very little additional security while adding more complexity, expense to merchants (which they'll pass on to customers), and much worse UX.
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