A former Aldi worker reveals why employees who scan items are so fast

Aldi shoppers may have wondered why the cashier staff checked their stuff so quickly and now a former employee has given the reason.

The express service method is very popular in Germany where customers are expected to throw their shopping into the trolley and put it on the seat along the wall after payment.

But some shoppers would prefer employees to feel more comfortable when they go to pay, rather than feel like they’re in a race.

So why is the Aldi team running as fast as they do?

Well, he took a former Aldi worker to reddit to explain, Daily Star Reports.

They wrote: « Ex-Aldi cashier is here. You should hit 83% or higher on the item per minute scanned. »

“They will get upset if you don’t get 95% or more. Some of the money changers I’ve worked with will get up to 110%. Less than 5% are on blanks and you had to hit the hold key at least once to pause the transaction.

« It should have been 100%, but I’ll get 150% because I’ll pause the transaction if the person is putting things in too slowly. »

They added, « Also, you should have had less than three seconds to start a new transaction. If you ever notice, they always put the item to be scanned by the scanner, and then unsuspend it. »

« You get 0 seconds between clients. »

When someone asked for clarification on percentages, he continued: “The method I took was: 60 seconds per minute. If you scan 60 items per minute, that should be 100%.

83% what Aldi wants. My shop wanted 95%. If you didn’t achieve the 83%, you went to a training class. Then they can fire you. That’s why they go fast. It was literally timed.

« After every shift, there was a sheet with all the totals. Almost every time, ‘it got to 91%, but it was supposed to get to 95%’. »

The employee added, « Okay, sorry the card machine won’t work unless you hang it up so they can use it and then they take three minutes to put the PIN and whatever else. »

People in the comments argued that the system might not always work for people.

Someone said: I mean people with disabilities, pensioners with special health and mobility needs exist.

« There should be some sort of consideration for these customers and an exemption for the employees who serve them. »

While another added: « I’d prefer Aldi add 1p to the cost of everything and allow cashiers to work like humans rather than machines. »

Another employee replied, « I’ve been an Aldi cashier previously, and realize I can scan items faster than some people can pack/put in their cart. Seniors especially.

“And the barcodes are so big that I just need to push the items past the scanner in any direction and you’ll usually get them.

“By the way, the actual advice to pros when we are too fast is to simply ask us to slow down. Some people have asked me to slow down, and I was glad customer service/customer experience of course takes precedence over efficiency.”