Believe it or not, Aldi doesn’t promote laziness in their employees, but rather the opposite. The real reason why Aldi cashiers sit is that Aldi places a huge emphasis on efficiency. Research has shown that when a cashier is seated, they can ring up your goods faster and more efficiently than standing.
The majority of retailers in the USA have their cashiers standing, so when you look down at the seated cashier at Aldi, you might be tempted to think the cashier is taking a little “downtime”. However, within seconds of watching them scan your products, you soon realize that laziness doesn’t work at such high speeds.
In many parts of the world, especially in Europe, retailers have their cashiers seated so the familiarity is there for customers. However, in societies like America, the concept is new and is greeted with confusion when the cashier isn’t at your eye level when you greet them.
Why Do Aldi cashiers Scan So Fast?
Aldi monitors their cashiers’ “ringing up” speed and expects them to ring up 1200 items per hour. So there’s no tolerance for slacking on the job. Employees are regularly given performance reviews based on their personal recorded scan times. If you are not meeting the targets, you could be subjected to additional training or even sacked for poor performance. One difficulty for cashiers in this regard is that if a customer asks them to slow down their scanning because they want to arrange their products back into the cart, then they have to oblige.
How Do Aldi cashiers Scan So Fast?
The streamlined system at Aldi does lend itself to assisting the cashier with efficiency. The cashier follows a one-touch system where they only touch a product once. The item is picked up, scanned, and placed back into the customer’s cart. There is no bagging done by the cashier, and if a customer wants their items bagged, then they will need to do it themselves once moved away from the checkout area. Aldi also makes scanning easier for cashiers by placing barcodes on several sides of a product. This eliminates the need for the cashier to keep turning products over in search of the barcode.
The large conveyor belt before the scanner also allows for the customer to have unloaded several items, if not all, onto the belt and there should be a consistent flow of products to scan.
Before you think the cashiers have it easy by sitting all day, consider that they might only recently have sat down at the till after several hours on their feet doing other tasks. Staff is expected to stock shelves, return unwanted purchases to the shelves, clean the store and assist customers. Although still working at full steam, the seat at the checkout might be a welcome reprieve after unpacking pallets.
Obsession With Efficiency And Productivity
With Aldi’s core focus of their business around bringing the consumer lower product costs, the savings have to originate somewhere. One of the biggest ways Aldi manages this is through lower staff numbers. Most Aldi stores will only have 10 staff on duty at any given time. This means staff has to become multi-purpose in the store serving several different functions. Only one of these is cashier duty. With less staff at the tills, cashiers need to make sure they ring those goods up in record time to keep the queue from stacking.
There is other visual evidence of efficiency at Aldi stores. The first is the coin requirement for a cart at the store entrance. This, sometimes frustrating, system for customers, especially new customers unfamiliar with the system, does have its merit. The purpose of the cart system is to force customers to return their carts, eliminating the need for additional staff members to collect stray carts from the parking lot.
One might also not get the first impression of neatness and order when entering an Aldi store, and this is again due to an efficient-oriented system. Products are not removed from the bulk box packaging before being placed on the shelves, and sometimes entire pallets of product are placed between shelves. The amount of time saved but not unpacking all individual products, again allows for the necessity of less staff, and the saving is passed onto the customers through competitive prices.
How a customer views their Aldi checkout process will differ from person to person, as would the entire shopping experience. If your goal is to get good prices with a quick, efficient checkout then the store is for you. If you place customer service as a higher priority then your experience might not be as favorable. With a cashier that is trained for speed and efficiency and is not at the customer’s eye level, there shouldn’t be an expectation of friendly banter about the weather or current affairs. Followed by packing your bags and returning your cart to the store, some customers might not justify the savings.
There are many differing online reviews from current and ex Aldi employees regarding their job satisfaction. Which I suppose could be expected from employees of any company in any sector. However, the consensus was that the employees are definitely pushed to work hard and you certainly earn your salary. The positive is that the salary and employee benefits are generally good compared to other retailers. The personal decision would be what each individual is willing to do for their income.
So next time you hit an Aldi store for their weekly specials, take solace in knowing your cashier isn’t taking it easy in the chair and is working efficiently to save you money.
