This Aldi Self-Checkout Behavior Ruins The Store's Flow, According To An Employee

Are you team self-checkout or would you prefer a staff member scan your items for you? Regardless of which side of the debate you fall on, it's inevitable that you will have to use the self-checkout sometimes, especially at Aldi. The grocer is notorious for having very few employees, so if you only have a few items, you can get in and out of there pretty fast using the self-checkout. However, if you make this one mistake while doing self-checkout, you could hold up the entire store. 

According to an alleged Aldi employee on Reddit, Aldi customers should always hit the help button if they need assistance at self-checkout, rather than walking over to another register and trying to ask for assistance. "If you need help, please do not walk up to the cashier while they are checking out someone trying to explain your problem, or search the store for an employee. Press the help button, make it ring, and let us come to you," they said. They go on to explain that if the bell rings and the screen clears, the employee has either fixed the issue already or will come to help you after they finish what they're doing.

There are numerous reasons why trying to track down an employee, rather than just hitting the call button, is inefficient. For one, it means you have to abandon your self-checkout, which can delay other customers and cause confusion. If the employee is checking out another customer, it also means that you're holding up that line, too. 

On the same Reddit thread, alleged employees shared other self-checkout tips worth trying. For one, employees recommend that if you are paying with an EBT card, a split payment, Aldi gift cards, or merchandise cards, to go right to the normal checkout line rather than a self-checkout. Moreover, if you are buying alcohol at Aldi, you will need to provide ID at checkout, which requires a staff member to come over. If you're picking up your favorite bottle of Aldi Winking Owl wine, you may be better off just going to the regular ol' checkout in the first place, as it will prevent bottlenecks and allow other customers to get through the self-checkout line faster. 

Besides these special circumstances, Aldi employees also share that returns should be made as separate transactions at the regular check-out lines. "I always prefer people just get in line because a return is a separate transaction and the cashier can't stop in the middle of a transaction to do another, and it's rude to try to cut people already waiting," said one person on Reddit.