Shoppers’ hack to ‘slow down’ notorious Aldi check out staff divides opinion

If you've ever headed to the budget supermarket Aldi, you'll know about the speed at which staff scan your items at the checkout.

Trying to keep pace with them as they scan you items while you rapidly pack your food for the week in your bags-for-life is an Olympic sport in itself.

Some Aldi shoppers have gone to extraordinary lengths to try and slow the staff down, with some even resorting to scrunching up the labels on certain items so that the workers cannot scan them. Seems a bit counter-intuitive, really.

However, this one hack thought of by a shopper in dealing with the checkout worker's fast hands is a lot easier and simpler.

Paula Solloway / Alamy Stock Photo

In a post shared to an Aldi Facebook group back in 2021, the customer simply placed the individual items on the belt but left a large gap between each item so that the scanner cannot fly through the items.

A picture of them doing this was captioned: "In your face Aldi. Just so we got time to pack." And it really divided opinion in the comments below, as people were torn over whether the tactic was 'genius' or 'infuriating'.

One angry Facebook user wrote: "People like you packing their bag at the register is so annoying and selfish. Try packing at the bench like everyone else."

Meanwhile, a second added: "If you can't handle it, go to Woolies or Coles OR actually use the bench supplied for packing which is away from the checkout."

However, not everyone was so critical, with some seeing it as a good hack.

As per the Mirror, one person wrote: "Ohhhh I love it! Packing at Aldi should be an Olympic sport!"

And another said: "Round of applause – this is genius."

Facebook

Another Facebook user suggested an alternative way of slowing the staff down — and it is less likely to annoy them — by just asking them to put the brakes on.

Posting in the Aldi Mums Facebook group, the shopper wrote: "You can ask them to slow down, I do. They don't mind. And never had a rude checkout operator either."

A second shopper replied saying: "I always ask the checkout workers at my local Aldi to slow down a bit, so I don't get overwhelmed."

"They always say yes and it's always very pleasant, never had a problem."

Speaking about checkout speed previously, an Aldi spokesperson said: "Our employees are trained to operate the checkout at the right pace for each individual person they serve."