It can sometimes feel like a race when standing at the checkouts in Aldi as cashiers scam items at super-human speed.
Keeping up and packing away your food shop can be a challenge, but there is actually a reason why staff rush people throughout their checkouts.
According to one former Aldi employee, the speedy service is because of staff training and targets, with each store having its own targets to meet. And it means team members are tasked with scanning items as fast and as safely as possible, with ex-employee stating the expected 'transaction rate' was once item scanned per second.
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The supermarket giant tries to get customers through their checkouts as quickly as possible, with shoppers urger to bag up their items in the bagging area directly opposite tills to speed things up.
Revealing the reason why, one former employee took to Reddit: "You actually have to hit a percentage of 83 per cent or higher on item per minute scanned.
"They would get upset if you didn't get 95 per cent or above. Some cashiers I worked with would hit 110 per cent."
Speed is not the the only thing that employees face targets on. Aldi workers must also have less than five per cent on 'voids' and must press the 'suspend key' at least once to pause each transaction.
The ex-staff member continued: "[The suspend key rate] had to be 100 per cent, but I would get like 150 per cent because I would pause the transaction if the person was putting stuff too slow.
"You had to have less than three seconds when starting a new transaction. If you ever notice, they always put the item to be scanned by the scanner, then unsuspend it. You can get a 0 seconds between customers."
Cashiers may be sent to training classes if they fail to meet targets and risk being fired if their transaction rate does not improve, the former employee explained
"That’s why they go so fast. They’re literally being timed. 83 per cent is what Aldi wants. My store wanted 95 per cent. If you didn’t meet the 83 per cent, you went to a training class. After that they could fire you.
"The way I took it was: 60 seconds in a minute. If I scan 60 items in a minute, that should be 100 per cent.
"After every shift was a paper that had all the totals. And almost every time, 'You hit 91 per cent, but you should have hit 95 per cent'.
"Well sorry that the card machine wouldn’t work unless I unsuspend it so they can use it and then take three minutes putting their pin and whatever else."
In response the the Reddit post, shoppers shared their shock over the intense targets. However, some shared concerns.
One customer said: "People with disabilities, and pensioners with health and mobility issues exist. There must be some kind of consideration for those customers and dispensation for the staff serving them."
Another added "I'd rather Aldi added 1p to the cost of everything and allowed their cashiers to operate like human people instead of machines."
Another former staff member also got involved in the conversation, anonymously adding: "I've previously been an Aldi cashier, and I understand that I can scan items faster than some people can pack them/put them in their trolley, particularly older people.
"The barcodes are so big that I just need to push items past the scanner in any orientation and it will usually get it.
"By the way, the actual life pro tip for when we are too fast is to simply ask us to slow down. I got asked by some people to slow down, and I was happy to because of course customer service/experience takes precedence over efficiency."
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