19 ms·

Aldi's Barcode Strategy

213 points by curtis 10y ago

anotheryou 10y ago
They are so fast, that I change strategies on which line to choose. Usually less stuff to be checked out in front of you is good, but at aldi I go for least people, no matter how much stuff they loaded. This might be even more significant in germany, where many pay cash and you get every cent back in change.
- nacho2sweet 10y ago
  Buying groceries Germany Aldi's and Lidos was the most stressful part of my time there.
  - skrebbel 10y ago
    Why?
    - germanier 10y ago
      Usually they scan items faster than you can bag them. The area after the scanner is very small and takes only few items so you have to move fast. I saw below that US Aldi cashiers put the items into a grocery cart. That doesn't happen in Germany as you are expected to do that yourself. Everyone has their own strategy of how to place items onto the line to slow down the cashier at just the right moment.
      - chronial 10y ago
        > Everyone has their own strategy of how to place items onto the line to slow down the cashier at just the right moment. I am German and and I've never heard of this ^^. You just put the items on the belt in the order that they should go in the bag, then you can pack very quickly.
        germanier 10y ago
        > in the order that they should go in the bag That's one of them. Even that is something that you don't usually do outside Germany. To get to the next level I recommend to put weighted produce to the end or just after items that are not straightforward to pack.
        athenot 10y ago
        I do that in the US even where they have an employee bagging my stuff. In fact, I do that to ensure optimal packetization—for an IP analogy. :) Otherwise I end up with 2 pieces of fruit in 1 bag, 1 bottle of soap by itself in another bag, followed by again more fruit in the 3rd bag… It's a fun fragmentation problem.
        ams6110 10y ago
        I always try that (grouping things I want bagged together) but usually the bagger just does his own thing anyway.
        softawre 10y ago
        Knapsack/binpacking
        wirrbel 10y ago
        As a german in the US, I suddenly felt as if I had a OCD about the way to bag stuff. Store employees were more or less dumping things kind of randomly in bags without sorting by weight and by robustnes of the product. On the other hand declinining help with bagging seemed to be kind of unusual. Other differences I noticed: Time at checkouts was at least 2-3 times longer than in Germany, even at the better german supermarkets cashiers are much faster. Also, in Germany I never encountered cashiers to comment on the goods I bought (I don't mind much, but it still felt a bit like an intrusion in privacy. I once bought a glass of Ghee - a common ingredient in southern german cuisine - and the cashier went on and on about how unusual it was that a white guy would buy it).
        10y ago
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
      - mrweasel 10y ago
        >The area after the scanner is very small and takes only few items so you have to move fast. What's the logic behind only having a very small space for scanned items. Aldi in Denmark normally have packing tables, but still, you can't even get your stuff in the basket quickly enough. Interestingly Lidl (another German supermarket), decided to go with normal longer areas after the scanner, because the Danes expect that. I don't feel like Aldi has ever properly justified the almost non-existing area for scanned items.
        germanier 10y ago
        It makes the customer pack faster. Once the next one is served you usually are almost gone. That doesn't happen if there is more space. It also saves floor space in the market. Except Aldi, Lidl and the like German supermarkets also have the long areas after the cashier. Your items often roll away and you can't reach them anymore.
      - nraynaud 10y ago
        Where i have been in Germany, there was no space after the barcode scanner, you directly put your cart there, and they dump everything in the cart after scanning (the cart is quite shallow, I guess it's to limit the drop height). Next to the exit, there is a table where you can sort your groceries into bags, and take as much time as you want doing so.
        germanier 10y ago
        Yes, I think the layout is exactly the same everywhere. There are two small spaces of around 15cm times 30cm if I had to guess and a small notch to hold a basket separating them. Especially in the more centrally located stores many people directly bag their items then and there.
        yuubi 10y ago
        The two US stores I've seen have kept one cart after the cashier. When done checking out, you take the newly full cart and leave your empty there for the next customer.
      - overcast 10y ago
        That sounds like hell. It's already awful waiting for some old woman to rifle through coupons, and pay by check. The fact that she now has to bag all her food would make me just leave the line.
        skrebbel 10y ago
        You'd be amazed how fast she goes with all the pressure.
        germanier 10y ago
        Well, they have no coupons and accept no checks. Plus, many old people that need a walking frame are actually better with moving stuff into the shopping cart then I am (not that I'm particularly slow).
        overcast 10y ago
        Well I guess that is 2/3 of the problem taken care of!
      - lorenzhs 10y ago
        The key is to just dump everything back into the cart and bag it later, on the table behind the cashiers. I sort my stuff by how well it can be stacked - pasta, cans, potatoes and the like go first, then milk, cheese, etc, and finally fruit, delicate vegetables, crisps, and other things you don't want crushed. You can just shove it all in the cart that way - I can match the cashier's speed.
        dzhiurgis 10y ago
        AldiSort!
        inanutshellus 10y ago
        What's an Aldi customer's incentive to do this? Is the cashier going to throw your groceries on the floor if you don't keep up? If not... why not take your time and bag your groceries safely?
        DanBC 10y ago
        > What's an Aldi customer's incentive to do this? Social pressure. You've just waited in a queue, and there are people behind you in that queue.
        StudyAnimal 10y ago
        Really, wow I never felt that. I always put them in my bag at the natural speed. The only social pressure I felt was when paying before finishing packing. This lead to the next persons groceries being mixed in with mine and accidentally packing their stuff etc. Now I take my time and finish packing before paying to avoid this issue and it is all good.
        brusch64 10y ago
        well you tactic doesn't work that well in Austria. The peer pressure for slow people is noticeable (especially during busy times). But that's one of the things I like about that. You take a cart - put everything in the cart and pack it into your boxes / bags afterwards and don't waste everybodies time. But this may be a very German thing to do.
      - wodenokoto 10y ago
        The reason why there is so little space is because there are supposed to be baggers. I guess they finally got rid of them to save money.
        systemfreund 10y ago
        I dont think this is true. In Germany there never has been a 'bagger-culture' :)
        wirrbel 10y ago
        They are so small, so that you just pass through the items into your shopping cart. Basically you don't have much of an option. If you shop without a shopping cart (like me buying just a few things that fit into my bagpack) the cassier might suggest that I take a cart next time. Then there is this side-board across the checkout that you can use to bag your purchase. What you also see a lot in Germany is people taking empty cardboard boxes from the shelves and use them instead of bags at the checkout. It is quick and convenient.
        wodenokoto 10y ago
        Then my marketing book lied to me.
        eru 10y ago
        When was Germany supposed to have had baggers according to the book?
        wodenokoto 10y ago
        When Aldi came to Denmark and didn't redesign the checkout for not having baggers.
        majewsky 10y ago
        Germany never had baggers. In fact, to me as a German, the job of a bagger appears about as nonsensical as that of a telephone sanitizer.
      - pingec 10y ago
        Well here in Slovenia I see this approach does not fly with old people. They will simply take their time to bag their stuff properly. What is the cashier going to do but wait? Throw stuff on the floor?
        dustin 10y ago
        This! +1 for not letting yourself be pressured by the queue.
      - anexprogrammer 10y ago
        Most UK supermarkets are shrinkng space after scan to near Aldi levels. A couple will ask if you want help packing (which unless you're elderly and infirm will slow things considerably) it's quite common to see a set of 4 trolley bags (£1 from pound shop, much more from TM holder) which are designed to fill a standard trolley and dump stuff in those to drop in car boot. Of course you'll barely be able to move the one with all the tins and bottles without ripping the handles off, but...
      - cwyers 10y ago
        ...you BAG your groceries at Aldis? I just normally grab a few of the empty boxes from the cereal section.
        ygra 10y ago
        Boxes are annoying to transport on a bike. So yes, I use my pannier or a bag.
      - kriro 10y ago
        The most common strategy of most Germans I know is to simply put everything into the cart after it's scanned, move the cart towards the car and dump everything into some sort of carry box in the trunk. Carry that box (or boxes) into the house at home and put the stuff you bought wherever it is stored. If I shop by bike I usually have a backpack that I brought for shopping open at the cashier and dump everything in it upon scan. One time use bags are sort of faded out. There's no more free bags (I think). Makes ecological sense imo.
    - MasterYoda 10y ago
      Have the same experience when shopping in Germany. Im very supriced how ineffective there system is, with an non excistent area after the cashier. You have to trash all stuff down fast and then pack/repack afterwords somewere else and you get stressed. The swedish system feels superior in my honest opinion. There is a big area afterword divided by a Y bar so 2 people can be served simultaneous. The 2 top Y boms are electrically controlled by the cashier so groceries goes to either left or right side. https://www.ica.se/imagevaultfiles/id_53554/cf_6099/kassan.jpg https://www.ica.se/imagevaultfiles/id_53554/cf_6099/kassan.j... So when one is finshed, that person can pack everything as he/she wants without hurry while the other persons groceries are served simultaneous by the cashier and that persons stuff goes to the other side. Useally you could pack your stuff without hurry while the 2nd person is served. But if both side temporary is not finish because two big shopper both Y boms could be closed so 3 people could be served simultiously. Two could pack and the 3rds groceries could still be handeled by the cashier. And not to forgett, everyone in sweden (almost) payes with card which speeds stuff up alot. You pay while the cashier scaning the groceries. When finished you just press "ok".
      - germanier 10y ago
        The system is very efficient if you measure throughput. It does not feel as nice and you are pressured to pack very fast which is why the more upmarket stores use the Y-layout or at least a long surface after the cashier (never seen the closing bar in Germany though). Customers stopped caring as it is used for decades now. FWIW I usually pack while the items are scanned which means I can leave as soon as I paid which one can't do with the other layout. But why card payment is so hideously slow in Germany is something I can't understand. After they gave you the final sum you need to tell the cashier that you want to pay with card, wait for the terminal to light up, insert the card (finally, up until recently you needed to hand the card to the cashier for them to insert it – technically you can insert earlier and it still works but many cashiers don't know and stop the process), wait once more, enter your PIN, wait once more, remove the card, wait again for the receipt to print (otherwise the cashier tells you stay as they can't verify payment before that). In the time it takes you can pay with the same card five times in Sweden – and didn't need to speak a word (great for me as my Swedish is only rudimental).
- bluedino 10y ago
  >> where many pay cash and you get every cent back in change. Aldi just started accepting cards in the US a short while ago
  - mhurron 10y ago
    *Credit Cards. They have accepted Debit Cards for several years at least.
  - lorenzhs 10y ago
    They accept both credit (Visa and MasterCard, by far the most common in Germany) and debit (EC)in Germany. Credit was a recent addition
    - yitchelle 10y ago
      Aldi accepting credit cards in Germany? The 5 or 6 Aldi stores around me (around Leverkusen) are still cash or EC card only.
      - germanier 10y ago
        Both Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd started to accept MasterCard and Visa last fall in all stores. https://www.aldi-sued.de/de/aldi-sued-a-bis-z/aldi-sued-a-bis-z/k/kartenzahlung/ https://www.aldi-sued.de/de/aldi-sued-a-bis-z/aldi-sued-a-bi... http://www.aldi-nord.de/aldi_bargeldlos_bezahlen_321.html http://www.aldi-nord.de/aldi_bargeldlos_bezahlen_321.html
- draw_down 10y ago
  I always go for least people. The bottleneck is not the cashier, it is the dolts who seemingly have no idea how to pay at the grocery store, despite ostensibly having done it their whole lives.
- mdip 10y ago
  Up until a few weeks ago Aldi in the United States only accepted cash, EBT or Debit. Your strategy, especially at Aldi, is the way to go. I read an article about a decade ago that was challenging grocery store "express lane" speed. Since groceries have been using the same kinds of scanning mechanisms at every chain for a very long time, the barcodes are usually optimally placed to allow for the "scan/bag" to happen quickly[1]. The article identified that the bottleneck was more often the transaction times and not the time to ring up an order meaning that an express lane with three people in it would take longer than a lane with one person and a cart full. Granted, this was a decade ago and many things have changed since then, including the "super store" which includes a lot of products not optimised for scanning in the first try. [1] Cashier experience plays a roll here, as anyone who's shopped at Walmart can attest. At Aldi, though, solves this by having the barcode occupy almost the entire length of one side of the package, making it harder to miss the scanner than hit it.
  - seanp2k2 10y ago
    I also look for older people who are more likely to spend a few minutes filling out a cheque. I also notice how slowly most people interact with CC terminals, as if they've never used one before and have to figure out every single interaction.
noipv4 10y ago
I wonder if this system can introduce miscounting or double-counting of an item? Maybe that is why the cashier at Aldi moves through items so quickly.
- germanier 10y ago
  I've never heard that happening. Usually those systems prevent scanning the same barcode in short succession and cashiers have to manually enter the amount if more than one is bought.
- joshvm 10y ago
  Given the way that barcode scanners work, as the sibling comment points out, there is almost certainly some kind of 'debouncing' going on. The system is acquiring data fast enough that it probably has enough time to repeatedly read the code tens or even hundreds of times before you move it out of the field of view. So I'd guess it triggers on the first detection and you get a short dead time to move the product away.
  - Slartie 10y ago
    This is exactly how it typically works. There's a time that needs to pass before the scanner accepts the same barcode again, and any other barcode scanned resets the lock for the previous barcode (so you could scan two different items over and over in very quick succession, but this doesn't work with just one item). The time is configurable on the scanner and typically in the 1-2 second range. As I work in cash register software development and sometimes wanted to perform performance tests on real hardware and without mocking the scanner away I have developed a few tricks around this rescan prevention delay. One involves a wheel with different barcodes printed on the side that is attached to a battery-powered screwdriver machine. The more sophisticated one is a belt made of paper with different barcodes on it that is always being rotated around using wheels in a little machine built using LEGO Technic parts. It is pretty awesome how mind-boggingly fast those bigger laser barcode scanners can scan barcodes when they are presented to them by the LEGO scan robot :D
- mdip 10y ago
jankassens 10y ago
They used to type in short (3 or 4 digits) codes for the products at Aldi in Germany maybe 10 years ago. I assume they did this because the scanner technology was not as fast. The cashiers memorized the codes and were crazy fast.
- germanier 10y ago
  Aldi Süd cashiers learned the prices. They actually choose prices that were easier to type and as few different prices as possible. Barcode scanners were installed in 2000 in anticipation of the Euro introduction. Aldi Nord cashiers learned three digit codes (around 800 ones). Scanners were only introduced in 2003 because they started to sell loose produce which is weighted at the checkout. Additionally, that allowed them to get away with less training. The checkout speed dramatically decreased since then. Before they had to pick up each and every item they often entered the numbers faster than you could load the items onto the checkout line. 6000 items per hour was the target before. Now it's around half which would have gotten you fired back in the days.
  - markokrajnc 10y ago
    And they ordered the POS software from two companies - at the same time. When the two companies finished the development, they paid both of them but choosed the better one which is now in production...
    - germanier 10y ago
      At least for the last incarnation in 2013 Aldi Süd took offers from 14 companies, chose 8 which delivered a proof of concept, then chose 3 to fully implement the software which was then field tested for three months. They also have full rights to the source code and in-house developers to do small changes. The hardware is supplied by a different company that also has software on offer. But apparently that is not good enough.
      - noir_lord 10y ago
gumby 10y ago
Thanks for footnoting Dallas. Aldi being German I thought of a different example: that approach is how we ended up with France, Germany and Lorraine (of the famous Alsace-Lorraine fights between F & G). It was the three sons of Charlemagne...still very visible today!
- zeveb 10y ago
  Oh shoot, that means that when the local Sinclair station sell gas for less that at a nearby Chevron, Trader Joe's & Aldi are going to engage in a price war which will somehow end up bankrupting Safeway, ultimately resulting in a nationwide A&P hegemony. Or something.
- tricolon 10y ago
  It was the three sons of the son of Charlemagne, Louis the Pious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Verdun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Verdun
  - gumby 10y ago
    Thanks, memory can be a bit leaky at times.
herge 10y ago
Do Aldis in the U.S. bag your groceries? In Ireland, you would have to bring your own bags, or buy their thick plastic ones. And then the cashier would tut-tut you if you took too long bagging your own groceries.
- donjh 10y ago
  You have to bring your own bags over here too - not sure if they sell them, I haven't been to an Aldi in a while.
  - joezydeco 10y ago
    They do sell bags, from cheap plastic ones to sturdier paper ones for $0.10. You can also buy reusable bags right there as well.
- sdtransier 10y ago
  It's the same here in the U.S, bring your own or buy their plastic reusable ones. The locations I've been too sometimes had spare boxes you could use, but that was pretty rare.
  - joezydeco 10y ago
    Finding empty boxes is an artform. Aldi has no problem with you reshuffling the stock on the shelf to create an 'empty' box out of two partially filled ones. I've gotten really good at this. When you think about it, it also keeps the shelves a bit more organized when people are walking away with the cardboard that would normally have to be recovered and packed up by the employees.
- PeanutNore 10y ago
  You bag your own. Generally the cashier puts the scanned items in an empty cart sitting there for that purpose, then you swap your empty cart for the one with your purchases in it and wheel it over to a counter against the wall to bag or box them up - at the counter there is a stockpile of empty boxes that you can take.
- 10y ago
dandermotj 10y ago
Aldi and Lidl are blasting through other super market chains with their low cost, high quality goods. If there were ever perfect case studies for usurping incumbents in a sharply competitive market Aldi and Lidl are it.
- s_dev 10y ago
  They also get rid of a lot of "frills" that other grocery stores are accustomed to performing that add to cost e.g. items are still in their transport cardboard boxes on the shelves so employees spend less time stocking shelves, they allow people to take these cardboard boxes home instead of shopping bags and this reduces waste cost. They dramatically reduce their range which cuts inventory storage. You'll never seem more than one or two instances of the same item. i.e. theres only one type of can of baked beans. You're expected to pack bags away from the cashier so they can get to billing the next customer and not wasting time packing bags. They ensure theres always a little bit of a queue so the cashiers are constantly scanning if not they close the till.
  - res0nat0r 10y ago
    Also the shopping cards have a small chain that attaches to the cart in front of it. You unlock the cart by sliding in a quarter so you can use it while shopping. Since people want their quarter back they have to return the cart to the store. Great solution to eliminate a bag boy sweeping up carts from the lot all day IMO. Also way back when ALDI didn't even have barcode scanners to save money. There was a person typing all of the items manually into the computer with some 4-6 digit code when you checked out. It was crazy as they were incredibly fast.
    - morley 10y ago
      The ShopRite my parents used to go to when I was 10 (which would be in the mid 90s) had this, so it's not exactly a big strategic play on Aldi's part.
      - germanier 10y ago
makomk 10y ago
Occasionally they incorporate the barcode into the artwork a little too, like on this hair shampoo: http://imgur.com/jx5COyD http://imgur.com/jx5COyD (There's another longer barcode segment on the other side as well.)
- schoen 10y ago
  Kind of akin to https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/eurion.pdf https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/eurion.pdf (representing a machine-readable pattern as a graphic element in artwork). Edit: more details at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation
- colinbartlett 10y ago
  If you enjoy this sort of curiosity, checkout https://reddit.com/r/barcodeporn https://reddit.com/r/barcodeporn
elchief 10y ago
I noticed at line in Costco the cashier's assistant rearranged by stuff on the belt to have the barcodes facing up and in the same direction. Costco could probably save some money by putting barcodes on every side of everything.
- jonknee 10y ago
  > Costco could probably save some money by putting barcodes on every side of everything. That's easier said than done because Costco doesn't sell only private label items like Aldi.
  - germanier 10y ago
    In Germany Aldi has such a market power that even for the few name-brand item they stock[1] they can demand different packaging from the manufactures. That includes not only barcodes but sometimes even more explicit ingredient lists. [1]: Recently they started to stock more name-brand items due to a strategy shift. The other chains are not very amused.
  - nedwin 10y ago
    They have enough buying power - they could probably mandate it
  - DrScump 10y ago
    They have their own Item Number system. Even general-retailer items sold elsewhere often have the (Costco) Item Number on their packaging.
  - choward 10y ago
    Costco could just print their own and add it to the packaging.
    - germanier 10y ago
      I'm not sure that the time needed to affix the label to every product is less than the saved time due to faster scanning.
return0 10y ago
Off topic, but private labels are in many ways reminiscent of the state-controlled labels in former communist countries.
- atomwaffel 10y ago
  Interesting, is that a common connotation? I grew up with Aldi and Lidl in Germany and I've never made that association, but I suppose I can see why you might if you're used to branded products.
  - pluma 10y ago
    Well, I can see how drinking some Ja![0] branded beer after eating some Ja! branded crisps feels a bit like drinking BEER branded beer and CRISPS branded crisps... But luckily Aldi and Lidl generally have less bland packaging than that. ;) [0]: http://www.freshcom.de/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/JA_2.jpg http://www.freshcom.de/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/...
kw71 10y ago
The "Price First" house brand at Walmart has many items with huge barcodes on all surfaces. I wonder how this experiment will work out given that these ugly packages compete right next to pretty ones.
ams6110 10y ago
I'm inspired to visit Aldi's again. It's been years. I remember them as being a rather depressing very low budget ambiance, dimly lit by a few flourescent tubes with an awful color spectrum, and populated by a sad bunch of customers who looked like their next option was the local community kitchen. Kind of like the typical older Kmart that's about to go out of business.
- fapjacks 10y ago
  We have one in my hometown, and that's exactly what I remember. But on my most recent visit home, my wife needed something and the nearest place was Aldi. They definitely changed. It wasn't anything like I remember.
- kingnothing 10y ago
  I was in one a month ago out of curiosity and that's exactly how I would describe my experience.
- goda90 10y ago
  I remember about 8 years ago when Aldi first appeared in my hometown and my parents would occasionally shop there. I hated their self branded foods. Now my wife and I shop there all the time and their own branded stuff is actually pretty good. Lots of people agree it's become much better. Occasionally produce is under-ripe and their selection is definitely smaller than other stores, but it's great for a lot of things.
- mdip 10y ago
  I started shopping at Aldi because I have four children and our grocery bill was becoming unwieldy unless I spent a lot of time preparing for the visit. The local grocery stores play a game where they mark down a bunch of things "with card", but their regular prices are well over the average price at places like Walmart/Meijer. Aldi is consistently cheap and has resulted in me no longer wasting my time couponing or checking ads to make sure I'm not paying $5.00 for salad dressing that's normally $2.50 and often on sale for $1.50. I was bugged by having to bag my own groceries, put a quarter in the cart (nearly unheard of outside of Aldi where I live) and having to pay cash (they take credit cards now). But a few things happened: about 80% of what I purchased as "store brands" were superior or dead on par with the name brand (a few were misses, a few were dramatically better). The total spend on produce and meat was significantly lower than I typically paid and I noticed when I was purchasing the produce that the quality was very consistent. My green grapes, the kids favorites, were much smaller than I typically bought but it turned out that makes them sweeter and there were fewer brown buggers in the bag. As to the bagging, I am beginning to prefer it. They always have empty cardboard boxes and a large counter to organize things and because we intentionally grocery shop no more than once per month, I end up with a huge amount of things (we do joke, however, that it's impossible to get a combination of things at Aldi that fills the cart and results in a bill greater than $220 -- my current record highest). Organizing it in boxes according to what fridge/freezer/cupboard it will end up in makes that part of the process a lot easier (easy enough for the kids to do it without our help). And for the quarters, this tiny little deposit results in the carts being put back in the bay. It saves them money, sure, but it has two other benefits. The bay always has carts -- I don't have to surf the parking lot during the holiday season because all are in use or scattered through the lot. And unlike every other store where more than half of the carts have problems, Aldi's are always in perfect working condition. No stuck or crooked wheel forcing me to push the thing sideways to make it go straight and I'd imagine that has cut down on damage to parked cars, too.
jernfrost 10y ago
Visited Aldi and Lidl in Germany and I am sorry but I can't help hating those stores. It all looks so cheap and barebones that I get depressed just being there. And then the whole experience with the cashier is hyper stressful and they are so blinding fast at scanning the groceries. It is like you are subject to some German Blitzkrieg or something. Interesting with the article that they explained why it was so fast. I actually just thought Germans were super fast at everything in general. I could't figure out how to pack my groceries as fast as they scanned them and get time to pay without holding up the line.
- Zpalmtree 10y ago
  I agree they are sometimes too fast for you, but when you're a student the savings are well worth it, often half the price of a normal supermarket
  - VLM 10y ago
    > often half the price How's the food inflation nowadays? A couple years back it seemed like all the frozen items were huge boxes with lots of empty air in there. So I eat junk food occasionally, usually end up regretting it ... unlike the local supermarket at an expensive $3.33 for a bag of 40 name brand pizza rolls, I could buy a large box of generic pizza rolls at Aldi for only $2.50 ... woo hoo sounds awesome ... containing 17 rolls. Oh maybe not so good of a deal. It was funny to look at frozen appetizers where there would be this big box of breaded mushrooms and in tiny print "qty 5" and so on. I seem to recall a big box with 3 mozzarella cheese sticks. BTW I don't photographic memorize prices, the above prices were verified via google. Much as I'm not rich enough to shop at walmart, I'm not rich enough to shop at Aldi. Admittedly, the produce had little selection (food desert style) but what little was there, was good quality and cheap, so its not all bad.
- atomwaffel 10y ago
  > It all looks so cheap and barebones that I get depressed just being there. Can I ask which part of Germany you've been to – or rather which Aldi (Nord or Süd)? There's a surprising amount of difference between the two and I've always found one of them far nicer than the other.
greenspot 10y ago
Known as employing Germany's fastest typing cashiers Aldi introduced this quite late compared to other grocery stores. They experimented for many years to get the same speed and the result where these huge and multiple barcodes per package.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
tuna-piano 10y ago
I wonder why a large retailer like Walmart doesn't start incentivizing their suppliers to do this as well? Some math. -Assume a fixed 120 customers an hour -Assume each customer buys 20 items -1 minute for customer to pay + 1 minute total scanning time for all items = 30 customers / cashier / hour (4 cashiers needed) -Assuming additional barcodes double the scanning time (seems reasonable to me from my experiences at Aldi): -1 minute for customer to pay + 30 seconds scanning time = 40 customers / cashier / hour (3 cashiers needed) Savings of $12 an hour ($8/hr + taxes, training, insurance, etc) 120 customers * 20 items per customer = 2400 items total in the hour $12 savings / 2400 items = $0.005 per item savings Obviously the assumptions were a bit simplistic, but couldn't Walmart offer their suppliers, say 10% of the estimated savings, $0.0005, per item to add a few more barcodes?
- IneffablePigeon 10y ago
  The benefits only get really apparent when almost everything has easy to scan barcodes. Also, presumably these suppliers will be supplying to competitors of Walmart, so it doesn't make sense for Walmart to fund their shared efficiency gains. Everyone would end up making the same gain, and Walmart wouldn't end up any further ahead of the competition.
- nickpsecurity 10y ago
  The suppliers consider the packaging to be a form of marketing/branding. They want it to look a certain way with key information, regulated or marketing, on various parts of it. The goods at my local grocer are packed with all kinds of info and graphics. Store brands often do the same thing. Customers love it much like they love variety on the shelves, symmetrical presentation, and interesting displays. Aldi, like Costco, aims for a "no frills" segment that basically doesn't care how they place looks. They want to go in there, fine exactly what they need, get it cheap, and get it fast. This lets them do things like just drop boxes instead of neatly arrange products or cut beauty/info out of packaging in favor of barcodes. Ugly stuff that gets other segments to stop shopping at a place. So, there's a few tradeoffs that apply before we even think about a company pushing vendors to do it. Note: "Walmart offers their suppliers." They're same suppliers in many, but not all, cases. There's one or more companies that literally do nothing but put different names on the same stuff to make it look otherwise. Dirty, industry secret. ;)
mdip 10y ago
I've been an Aldi fan for more than a decade, buying almost all of my family's groceries there (four kids, it's cheap and doesn't require figuring out what is really on sale this week vs. what is really over-priced this week, or messing with Coupons). The quality of most of their products meets or exceeds that of the name brands[1] except in a few circumstances (their equivalents to Cheerios and Frosted Mini Wheats are very sub-par, but in the case of the Cheerios, they're about half the price for a much larger box, so we mix 'em). I actually get a little stressed when I arrive with a cart full of groceries and an empty line -- they ring them up at about twice the speed I can pull them off the cart. The Aldi process is very well thought out. They're the only cashiers I've seen that sit in a chair while ringing things up. They needn't move, nearly at all, beyond swiping things past the register to read those giant barcodes (on anything store branded, which is most things). I remarked to the cashier about their ridiculous speed and was informed they are also tracked, directly, on their speed and have targets to meet (and incentives if they're "the fastest"). [1] Their produce is consistently good (love the sweet, small, green grapes) and their Frozen Chicken Nuggets are better tasting than any I've purchased, including the organic ones at Costco.
- shostack 10y ago
  The sitting thing is common in England (and perhaps elsewhere in Europe). It definitely stood out to me when I was visiting.
  - agentdrtran 10y ago
    It's the standard in Germany as well, at least for grocery stores.
  - mdip 10y ago
    It's so rare here I can't think of another time I've seen it. I've always wondered why: comfortable people tend to be less grumpy and the typical cashier job involves "not leaving a very small space for a long period of time". This small space is about the size of ... a chair. I think the perception of people standing in line is more likely to make them feel that the cashier is working slower because they're sitting[1]. Aldi's lightning quick cashiers would prove that wrong, but perception tends to be all that matters in these scenarios. [1] People routinely over-estimate their waiting times in situations like this. This became apparent to me when talking to the helpdesk manager at my old company. He would get an e-mail from time to time from a person complaining that they were on hold for "20 minutes". The call stats for the day indicated a maximum hold time of 5 minutes.
cm3 10y ago
I've heard that in the UK there are bag boys who even carry it to your car. Is that true and are you then supposed to tip?
- IneffablePigeon 10y ago
  That's not true in any of the Aldis I've been in here. If it were true, I doubt anybody would tip them. In the UK it would be considered very odd to tip anybody you're not already paying directly.
- peteretep 10y ago
  No, that's the least British thing I've heard of.
  - eru 10y ago
    Not to mind the least Aldi thing, too.
vierja 10y ago
I look forward to the day RFID tags become so cheap you can just scan the bags/cart and be done with it.
- spdy 10y ago
  Waiting for this too. The day 75% of all cashiers in big chains lose their jobs
Rzah 10y ago
I believe the reason for the tiny shelf you have to quickly empty is twofold, it means the tills take up less space, which means more shop space for stuff they can sell, and it speeds up the flow through the tills because peer pressure makes most people just pile it straight back into their empty trolley and sort it out after they've paid. My strategy is to load everything onto the belt (heavy stuff at the front, fragile at the back), and line the now empty trolly with two or three of those strong reusable bags they sell, I can keep up with the cashier and end up with well packed bags that are easy^h^h^h^h possible to lift straight into the car, but then I'm a bit nutty when it comes to packing things, bags, cars, dishwashers.
pingec 10y ago
This thread shows how different the shopping culture is in various countries. I love it :). Seems like something Zizek would use when talking about ideology :)
jglauche 10y ago
I remember the pre-barcode times at Aldi in the late 1980s in Germany. The cashiers would type in numbers into the cash register like crazy. They knew every price of every product and had to put it into the machine. It was at least thrice as fast as every other shop at that time. It felt like barcodes didn't make it that much faster, but Aldi ones are still around the fastest ones. While the speed is impressive, it also adds a lot to stress because the cashiers require you to get away as fast as possible.
spinchange 10y ago
Aldi checkers used to key everything in, from memory, at lightning speed.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
numanuma123 10y ago
Seems like they need something like the Digimarc barcode?
tikumo 10y ago
I've never noticed that their products had more than one barcode. In the Netherlands the skill of fast "bleeping" is lost nowadays, stores tend to hire young girls as they are cheaper, and only if you go to the store on a weekday in the morning you will encounter an older woman, but they are not so fast as in the past. The small checkout counter makes the difference in my opinion, fast in the cart speeds up the whole process. Lots of times i'm stunned by people who wait by the cash register to pay and let the products stack up, so the next person has to wait till they put everything back in their cart. This is not a problem with Aldi / Lidl. The only thing that would make it faster is a cart thats lower on one side so that they can make a slide for your products..
mk89 10y ago
Amazing! Now I finally understand the reasons behind that :D I noticed these giant barcodes, but I never thought they could be somehow useful. I mean, the average speed of cashiers here in Germany is "normal". That's fine, I don't care if they take 10 seconds instead of 5, nor I care if they take 1 minute instead of 40 seconds.
lordnacho 10y ago
If scanning the barcode is the critical step, why do it with an ordinary barcode scanner? Just make a conveyor belt that has multiple cameras. One of them will definitely catch one of the barcodes. I've done barcode scanning with ZXing lib myself on a phone, it's super easy even with one camera. Perhaps set up the bags in a clever way so everything other than eggs falls into a new bag. Also, it can't be long before you just scan stuff using an app as you're taking it off the shelf, connected to a payment method so you don't even have to pull out your wallet.
- wingerlang 10y ago
  In Sweden* (and surely other places) you borrow a portable barcode scanner when you enter the store and scan your own products. At the end the cashiers take the scanner and do something and you're done. I think they do random "bag checks" as well every now and then. And you might need to have the stores credit/debit card (but I am not sure because I never used this system myself). Here are some pictures https://www.google.co.th/search?q=ica+bar+kod+skanner&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGzby82KnNAhVGVZQKHRcMCgMQ_AUICCgB&biw=1280&bih=796#tbm=isch&q=ica+supermarket+bar+kod+skanner https://www.google.co.th/search?q=ica+bar+kod+skanner&source... * In the main brand supermarkets at least.
  - Broken_Hippo 10y ago
    I know of one chain here in Norway that does this, but only in a few of their larger stores. I believe you have to set up a card with them that is connected to your bank account. They have regular lines as well for the folks that don't do this. I somewhat assume that when this becomes cheap enough, some version of it will be in all the places, probably in conjunction with something that weighs the cart or basket to see if it matches up to what you have scanned.
- stereo 10y ago
  Because you couldn’t easily tell if a bag of crisps has already been scanned, or if I bought two.
  - 10y ago
jgalt212 10y ago
If a regular cashier is $10 an hour and an Aldi super cashier is $20 an hour, is there any net benefit to Aldi other than the extra floor space freed up by less check out counters?
kwhitefoot 10y ago
Upvoted for the cat serving suggestion!
nfriedly 10y ago
I love Adi. I once got a $40 chainsaw there that I still use. (And, of course, tons of inexpensive food.) For the longest time, they didn't accept credit cards here in the US, and I may be the only one, but I totally respected that. I suspect the recent change is related to the fact that US laws now allow for the credit card fees to be added to the bill separately.

213 points by curtis 10y ago

They are so fast, that I change strategies on which line to choose. Usually less stuff to be checked out in front of you is good, but at aldi I go for least people, no matter how much stuff they loaded. This might be even more significant in germany, where many pay cash and you get every cent back in change.

nacho2sweet 10y ago
Buying groceries Germany Aldi's and Lidos was the most stressful part of my time there.
- skrebbel 10y ago
  Why?
  - germanier 10y ago
    Usually they scan items faster than you can bag them. The area after the scanner is very small and takes only few items so you have to move fast. I saw below that US Aldi cashiers put the items into a grocery cart. That doesn't happen in Germany as you are expected to do that yourself. Everyone has their own strategy of how to place items onto the line to slow down the cashier at just the right moment.
    - chronial 10y ago
      > Everyone has their own strategy of how to place items onto the line to slow down the cashier at just the right moment. I am German and and I've never heard of this ^^. You just put the items on the belt in the order that they should go in the bag, then you can pack very quickly.
      - germanier 10y ago
        > in the order that they should go in the bag That's one of them. Even that is something that you don't usually do outside Germany. To get to the next level I recommend to put weighted produce to the end or just after items that are not straightforward to pack.
        athenot 10y ago
        I do that in the US even where they have an employee bagging my stuff. In fact, I do that to ensure optimal packetization—for an IP analogy. :) Otherwise I end up with 2 pieces of fruit in 1 bag, 1 bottle of soap by itself in another bag, followed by again more fruit in the 3rd bag… It's a fun fragmentation problem.
        ams6110 10y ago
        I always try that (grouping things I want bagged together) but usually the bagger just does his own thing anyway.
        softawre 10y ago
        Knapsack/binpacking
        wirrbel 10y ago
        As a german in the US, I suddenly felt as if I had a OCD about the way to bag stuff. Store employees were more or less dumping things kind of randomly in bags without sorting by weight and by robustnes of the product. On the other hand declinining help with bagging seemed to be kind of unusual. Other differences I noticed: Time at checkouts was at least 2-3 times longer than in Germany, even at the better german supermarkets cashiers are much faster. Also, in Germany I never encountered cashiers to comment on the goods I bought (I don't mind much, but it still felt a bit like an intrusion in privacy. I once bought a glass of Ghee - a common ingredient in southern german cuisine - and the cashier went on and on about how unusual it was that a white guy would buy it).
        10y ago
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - mrweasel 10y ago
      >The area after the scanner is very small and takes only few items so you have to move fast. What's the logic behind only having a very small space for scanned items. Aldi in Denmark normally have packing tables, but still, you can't even get your stuff in the basket quickly enough. Interestingly Lidl (another German supermarket), decided to go with normal longer areas after the scanner, because the Danes expect that. I don't feel like Aldi has ever properly justified the almost non-existing area for scanned items.
      - germanier 10y ago
        It makes the customer pack faster. Once the next one is served you usually are almost gone. That doesn't happen if there is more space. It also saves floor space in the market. Except Aldi, Lidl and the like German supermarkets also have the long areas after the cashier. Your items often roll away and you can't reach them anymore.
    - nraynaud 10y ago
      Where i have been in Germany, there was no space after the barcode scanner, you directly put your cart there, and they dump everything in the cart after scanning (the cart is quite shallow, I guess it's to limit the drop height). Next to the exit, there is a table where you can sort your groceries into bags, and take as much time as you want doing so.
      - germanier 10y ago
        Yes, I think the layout is exactly the same everywhere. There are two small spaces of around 15cm times 30cm if I had to guess and a small notch to hold a basket separating them. Especially in the more centrally located stores many people directly bag their items then and there.
      - yuubi 10y ago
        The two US stores I've seen have kept one cart after the cashier. When done checking out, you take the newly full cart and leave your empty there for the next customer.
    - overcast 10y ago
      That sounds like hell. It's already awful waiting for some old woman to rifle through coupons, and pay by check. The fact that she now has to bag all her food would make me just leave the line.
      - skrebbel 10y ago
        You'd be amazed how fast she goes with all the pressure.
      - germanier 10y ago
        Well, they have no coupons and accept no checks. Plus, many old people that need a walking frame are actually better with moving stuff into the shopping cart then I am (not that I'm particularly slow).
        overcast 10y ago
        Well I guess that is 2/3 of the problem taken care of!
    - lorenzhs 10y ago
      The key is to just dump everything back into the cart and bag it later, on the table behind the cashiers. I sort my stuff by how well it can be stacked - pasta, cans, potatoes and the like go first, then milk, cheese, etc, and finally fruit, delicate vegetables, crisps, and other things you don't want crushed. You can just shove it all in the cart that way - I can match the cashier's speed.
      - dzhiurgis 10y ago
        AldiSort!
      - inanutshellus 10y ago
        What's an Aldi customer's incentive to do this? Is the cashier going to throw your groceries on the floor if you don't keep up? If not... why not take your time and bag your groceries safely?
        DanBC 10y ago
        > What's an Aldi customer's incentive to do this? Social pressure. You've just waited in a queue, and there are people behind you in that queue.
        StudyAnimal 10y ago
        Really, wow I never felt that. I always put them in my bag at the natural speed. The only social pressure I felt was when paying before finishing packing. This lead to the next persons groceries being mixed in with mine and accidentally packing their stuff etc. Now I take my time and finish packing before paying to avoid this issue and it is all good.
        brusch64 10y ago
        well you tactic doesn't work that well in Austria. The peer pressure for slow people is noticeable (especially during busy times). But that's one of the things I like about that. You take a cart - put everything in the cart and pack it into your boxes / bags afterwards and don't waste everybodies time. But this may be a very German thing to do.
    - wodenokoto 10y ago
      The reason why there is so little space is because there are supposed to be baggers. I guess they finally got rid of them to save money.
      - systemfreund 10y ago
        I dont think this is true. In Germany there never has been a 'bagger-culture' :)
        wirrbel 10y ago
        They are so small, so that you just pass through the items into your shopping cart. Basically you don't have much of an option. If you shop without a shopping cart (like me buying just a few things that fit into my bagpack) the cassier might suggest that I take a cart next time. Then there is this side-board across the checkout that you can use to bag your purchase. What you also see a lot in Germany is people taking empty cardboard boxes from the shelves and use them instead of bags at the checkout. It is quick and convenient.
        wodenokoto 10y ago
        Then my marketing book lied to me.
        eru 10y ago
        When was Germany supposed to have had baggers according to the book?
        wodenokoto 10y ago
        When Aldi came to Denmark and didn't redesign the checkout for not having baggers.
        majewsky 10y ago
        Germany never had baggers. In fact, to me as a German, the job of a bagger appears about as nonsensical as that of a telephone sanitizer.
    - pingec 10y ago
      Well here in Slovenia I see this approach does not fly with old people. They will simply take their time to bag their stuff properly. What is the cashier going to do but wait? Throw stuff on the floor?
      - dustin 10y ago
        This! +1 for not letting yourself be pressured by the queue.
    - anexprogrammer 10y ago
      Most UK supermarkets are shrinkng space after scan to near Aldi levels. A couple will ask if you want help packing (which unless you're elderly and infirm will slow things considerably) it's quite common to see a set of 4 trolley bags (£1 from pound shop, much more from TM holder) which are designed to fill a standard trolley and dump stuff in those to drop in car boot. Of course you'll barely be able to move the one with all the tins and bottles without ripping the handles off, but...
    - cwyers 10y ago
      ...you BAG your groceries at Aldis? I just normally grab a few of the empty boxes from the cereal section.
      - ygra 10y ago
        Boxes are annoying to transport on a bike. So yes, I use my pannier or a bag.
    - kriro 10y ago
      The most common strategy of most Germans I know is to simply put everything into the cart after it's scanned, move the cart towards the car and dump everything into some sort of carry box in the trunk. Carry that box (or boxes) into the house at home and put the stuff you bought wherever it is stored. If I shop by bike I usually have a backpack that I brought for shopping open at the cashier and dump everything in it upon scan. One time use bags are sort of faded out. There's no more free bags (I think). Makes ecological sense imo.
  - MasterYoda 10y ago
    Have the same experience when shopping in Germany. Im very supriced how ineffective there system is, with an non excistent area after the cashier. You have to trash all stuff down fast and then pack/repack afterwords somewere else and you get stressed. The swedish system feels superior in my honest opinion. There is a big area afterword divided by a Y bar so 2 people can be served simultaneous. The 2 top Y boms are electrically controlled by the cashier so groceries goes to either left or right side. https://www.ica.se/imagevaultfiles/id_53554/cf_6099/kassan.jpg https://www.ica.se/imagevaultfiles/id_53554/cf_6099/kassan.j... So when one is finshed, that person can pack everything as he/she wants without hurry while the other persons groceries are served simultaneous by the cashier and that persons stuff goes to the other side. Useally you could pack your stuff without hurry while the 2nd person is served. But if both side temporary is not finish because two big shopper both Y boms could be closed so 3 people could be served simultiously. Two could pack and the 3rds groceries could still be handeled by the cashier. And not to forgett, everyone in sweden (almost) payes with card which speeds stuff up alot. You pay while the cashier scaning the groceries. When finished you just press "ok".
    - germanier 10y ago
      The system is very efficient if you measure throughput. It does not feel as nice and you are pressured to pack very fast which is why the more upmarket stores use the Y-layout or at least a long surface after the cashier (never seen the closing bar in Germany though). Customers stopped caring as it is used for decades now. FWIW I usually pack while the items are scanned which means I can leave as soon as I paid which one can't do with the other layout. But why card payment is so hideously slow in Germany is something I can't understand. After they gave you the final sum you need to tell the cashier that you want to pay with card, wait for the terminal to light up, insert the card (finally, up until recently you needed to hand the card to the cashier for them to insert it – technically you can insert earlier and it still works but many cashiers don't know and stop the process), wait once more, enter your PIN, wait once more, remove the card, wait again for the receipt to print (otherwise the cashier tells you stay as they can't verify payment before that). In the time it takes you can pay with the same card five times in Sweden – and didn't need to speak a word (great for me as my Swedish is only rudimental).
bluedino 10y ago
>> where many pay cash and you get every cent back in change. Aldi just started accepting cards in the US a short while ago
- mhurron 10y ago
  *Credit Cards. They have accepted Debit Cards for several years at least.
- lorenzhs 10y ago
  They accept both credit (Visa and MasterCard, by far the most common in Germany) and debit (EC)in Germany. Credit was a recent addition
  - yitchelle 10y ago
    Aldi accepting credit cards in Germany? The 5 or 6 Aldi stores around me (around Leverkusen) are still cash or EC card only.
    - germanier 10y ago
      Both Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd started to accept MasterCard and Visa last fall in all stores. https://www.aldi-sued.de/de/aldi-sued-a-bis-z/aldi-sued-a-bis-z/k/kartenzahlung/ https://www.aldi-sued.de/de/aldi-sued-a-bis-z/aldi-sued-a-bi... http://www.aldi-nord.de/aldi_bargeldlos_bezahlen_321.html http://www.aldi-nord.de/aldi_bargeldlos_bezahlen_321.html
draw_down 10y ago
I always go for least people. The bottleneck is not the cashier, it is the dolts who seemingly have no idea how to pay at the grocery store, despite ostensibly having done it their whole lives.
mdip 10y ago
Up until a few weeks ago Aldi in the United States only accepted cash, EBT or Debit. Your strategy, especially at Aldi, is the way to go. I read an article about a decade ago that was challenging grocery store "express lane" speed. Since groceries have been using the same kinds of scanning mechanisms at every chain for a very long time, the barcodes are usually optimally placed to allow for the "scan/bag" to happen quickly[1]. The article identified that the bottleneck was more often the transaction times and not the time to ring up an order meaning that an express lane with three people in it would take longer than a lane with one person and a cart full. Granted, this was a decade ago and many things have changed since then, including the "super store" which includes a lot of products not optimised for scanning in the first try. [1] Cashier experience plays a roll here, as anyone who's shopped at Walmart can attest. At Aldi, though, solves this by having the barcode occupy almost the entire length of one side of the package, making it harder to miss the scanner than hit it.
- seanp2k2 10y ago
  I also look for older people who are more likely to spend a few minutes filling out a cheque. I also notice how slowly most people interact with CC terminals, as if they've never used one before and have to figure out every single interaction.

noipv4 10y ago

I wonder if this system can introduce miscounting or double-counting of an item? Maybe that is why the cashier at Aldi moves through items so quickly.

germanier 10y ago
I've never heard that happening. Usually those systems prevent scanning the same barcode in short succession and cashiers have to manually enter the amount if more than one is bought.
joshvm 10y ago
Given the way that barcode scanners work, as the sibling comment points out, there is almost certainly some kind of 'debouncing' going on. The system is acquiring data fast enough that it probably has enough time to repeatedly read the code tens or even hundreds of times before you move it out of the field of view. So I'd guess it triggers on the first detection and you get a short dead time to move the product away.
- Slartie 10y ago
  This is exactly how it typically works. There's a time that needs to pass before the scanner accepts the same barcode again, and any other barcode scanned resets the lock for the previous barcode (so you could scan two different items over and over in very quick succession, but this doesn't work with just one item). The time is configurable on the scanner and typically in the 1-2 second range. As I work in cash register software development and sometimes wanted to perform performance tests on real hardware and without mocking the scanner away I have developed a few tricks around this rescan prevention delay. One involves a wheel with different barcodes printed on the side that is attached to a battery-powered screwdriver machine. The more sophisticated one is a belt made of paper with different barcodes on it that is always being rotated around using wheels in a little machine built using LEGO Technic parts. It is pretty awesome how mind-boggingly fast those bigger laser barcode scanners can scan barcodes when they are presented to them by the LEGO scan robot :D
mdip 10y ago

jankassens 10y ago

They used to type in short (3 or 4 digits) codes for the products at Aldi in Germany maybe 10 years ago. I assume they did this because the scanner technology was not as fast. The cashiers memorized the codes and were crazy fast.

germanier 10y ago
Aldi Süd cashiers learned the prices. They actually choose prices that were easier to type and as few different prices as possible. Barcode scanners were installed in 2000 in anticipation of the Euro introduction. Aldi Nord cashiers learned three digit codes (around 800 ones). Scanners were only introduced in 2003 because they started to sell loose produce which is weighted at the checkout. Additionally, that allowed them to get away with less training. The checkout speed dramatically decreased since then. Before they had to pick up each and every item they often entered the numbers faster than you could load the items onto the checkout line. 6000 items per hour was the target before. Now it's around half which would have gotten you fired back in the days.
- markokrajnc 10y ago
  And they ordered the POS software from two companies - at the same time. When the two companies finished the development, they paid both of them but choosed the better one which is now in production...
  - germanier 10y ago
    At least for the last incarnation in 2013 Aldi Süd took offers from 14 companies, chose 8 which delivered a proof of concept, then chose 3 to fully implement the software which was then field tested for three months. They also have full rights to the source code and in-house developers to do small changes. The hardware is supplied by a different company that also has software on offer. But apparently that is not good enough.
    - noir_lord 10y ago

gumby 10y ago

Thanks for footnoting Dallas. Aldi being German I thought of a different example: that approach is how we ended up with France, Germany and Lorraine (of the famous Alsace-Lorraine fights between F & G). It was the three sons of Charlemagne...still very visible today!

zeveb 10y ago
Oh shoot, that means that when the local Sinclair station sell gas for less that at a nearby Chevron, Trader Joe's & Aldi are going to engage in a price war which will somehow end up bankrupting Safeway, ultimately resulting in a nationwide A&P hegemony. Or something.
tricolon 10y ago
It was the three sons of the son of Charlemagne, Louis the Pious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Verdun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Verdun
- gumby 10y ago
  Thanks, memory can be a bit leaky at times.

herge 10y ago

Do Aldis in the U.S. bag your groceries? In Ireland, you would have to bring your own bags, or buy their thick plastic ones. And then the cashier would tut-tut you if you took too long bagging your own groceries.

donjh 10y ago
You have to bring your own bags over here too - not sure if they sell them, I haven't been to an Aldi in a while.
- joezydeco 10y ago
  They do sell bags, from cheap plastic ones to sturdier paper ones for $0.10. You can also buy reusable bags right there as well.
sdtransier 10y ago
It's the same here in the U.S, bring your own or buy their plastic reusable ones. The locations I've been too sometimes had spare boxes you could use, but that was pretty rare.
- joezydeco 10y ago
  Finding empty boxes is an artform. Aldi has no problem with you reshuffling the stock on the shelf to create an 'empty' box out of two partially filled ones. I've gotten really good at this. When you think about it, it also keeps the shelves a bit more organized when people are walking away with the cardboard that would normally have to be recovered and packed up by the employees.
PeanutNore 10y ago
You bag your own. Generally the cashier puts the scanned items in an empty cart sitting there for that purpose, then you swap your empty cart for the one with your purchases in it and wheel it over to a counter against the wall to bag or box them up - at the counter there is a stockpile of empty boxes that you can take.
10y ago

dandermotj 10y ago

Aldi and Lidl are blasting through other super market chains with their low cost, high quality goods. If there were ever perfect case studies for usurping incumbents in a sharply competitive market Aldi and Lidl are it.

s_dev 10y ago
They also get rid of a lot of "frills" that other grocery stores are accustomed to performing that add to cost e.g. items are still in their transport cardboard boxes on the shelves so employees spend less time stocking shelves, they allow people to take these cardboard boxes home instead of shopping bags and this reduces waste cost. They dramatically reduce their range which cuts inventory storage. You'll never seem more than one or two instances of the same item. i.e. theres only one type of can of baked beans. You're expected to pack bags away from the cashier so they can get to billing the next customer and not wasting time packing bags. They ensure theres always a little bit of a queue so the cashiers are constantly scanning if not they close the till.
- res0nat0r 10y ago
  Also the shopping cards have a small chain that attaches to the cart in front of it. You unlock the cart by sliding in a quarter so you can use it while shopping. Since people want their quarter back they have to return the cart to the store. Great solution to eliminate a bag boy sweeping up carts from the lot all day IMO. Also way back when ALDI didn't even have barcode scanners to save money. There was a person typing all of the items manually into the computer with some 4-6 digit code when you checked out. It was crazy as they were incredibly fast.
  - morley 10y ago
    The ShopRite my parents used to go to when I was 10 (which would be in the mid 90s) had this, so it's not exactly a big strategic play on Aldi's part.
    - germanier 10y ago

makomk 10y ago

Occasionally they incorporate the barcode into the artwork a little too, like on this hair shampoo: http://imgur.com/jx5COyD http://imgur.com/jx5COyD (There's another longer barcode segment on the other side as well.)

schoen 10y ago
Kind of akin to https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/eurion.pdf https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/eurion.pdf (representing a machine-readable pattern as a graphic element in artwork). Edit: more details at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation
colinbartlett 10y ago
If you enjoy this sort of curiosity, checkout https://reddit.com/r/barcodeporn https://reddit.com/r/barcodeporn

elchief 10y ago

I noticed at line in Costco the cashier's assistant rearranged by stuff on the belt to have the barcodes facing up and in the same direction. Costco could probably save some money by putting barcodes on every side of everything.

jonknee 10y ago
> Costco could probably save some money by putting barcodes on every side of everything. That's easier said than done because Costco doesn't sell only private label items like Aldi.
- germanier 10y ago
  In Germany Aldi has such a market power that even for the few name-brand item they stock[1] they can demand different packaging from the manufactures. That includes not only barcodes but sometimes even more explicit ingredient lists. [1]: Recently they started to stock more name-brand items due to a strategy shift. The other chains are not very amused.
- nedwin 10y ago
  They have enough buying power - they could probably mandate it
- DrScump 10y ago
  They have their own Item Number system. Even general-retailer items sold elsewhere often have the (Costco) Item Number on their packaging.
- choward 10y ago
  Costco could just print their own and add it to the packaging.
  - germanier 10y ago
    I'm not sure that the time needed to affix the label to every product is less than the saved time due to faster scanning.

return0 10y ago

Off topic, but private labels are in many ways reminiscent of the state-controlled labels in former communist countries.

atomwaffel 10y ago
Interesting, is that a common connotation? I grew up with Aldi and Lidl in Germany and I've never made that association, but I suppose I can see why you might if you're used to branded products.
- pluma 10y ago
  Well, I can see how drinking some Ja![0] branded beer after eating some Ja! branded crisps feels a bit like drinking BEER branded beer and CRISPS branded crisps... But luckily Aldi and Lidl generally have less bland packaging than that. ;) [0]: http://www.freshcom.de/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/JA_2.jpg http://www.freshcom.de/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/...

kw71 10y ago

The "Price First" house brand at Walmart has many items with huge barcodes on all surfaces. I wonder how this experiment will work out given that these ugly packages compete right next to pretty ones.

ams6110 10y ago

I'm inspired to visit Aldi's again. It's been years. I remember them as being a rather depressing very low budget ambiance, dimly lit by a few flourescent tubes with an awful color spectrum, and populated by a sad bunch of customers who looked like their next option was the local community kitchen. Kind of like the typical older Kmart that's about to go out of business.

fapjacks 10y ago
We have one in my hometown, and that's exactly what I remember. But on my most recent visit home, my wife needed something and the nearest place was Aldi. They definitely changed. It wasn't anything like I remember.
kingnothing 10y ago
I was in one a month ago out of curiosity and that's exactly how I would describe my experience.
goda90 10y ago
I remember about 8 years ago when Aldi first appeared in my hometown and my parents would occasionally shop there. I hated their self branded foods. Now my wife and I shop there all the time and their own branded stuff is actually pretty good. Lots of people agree it's become much better. Occasionally produce is under-ripe and their selection is definitely smaller than other stores, but it's great for a lot of things.
mdip 10y ago
I started shopping at Aldi because I have four children and our grocery bill was becoming unwieldy unless I spent a lot of time preparing for the visit. The local grocery stores play a game where they mark down a bunch of things "with card", but their regular prices are well over the average price at places like Walmart/Meijer. Aldi is consistently cheap and has resulted in me no longer wasting my time couponing or checking ads to make sure I'm not paying $5.00 for salad dressing that's normally $2.50 and often on sale for $1.50. I was bugged by having to bag my own groceries, put a quarter in the cart (nearly unheard of outside of Aldi where I live) and having to pay cash (they take credit cards now). But a few things happened: about 80% of what I purchased as "store brands" were superior or dead on par with the name brand (a few were misses, a few were dramatically better). The total spend on produce and meat was significantly lower than I typically paid and I noticed when I was purchasing the produce that the quality was very consistent. My green grapes, the kids favorites, were much smaller than I typically bought but it turned out that makes them sweeter and there were fewer brown buggers in the bag. As to the bagging, I am beginning to prefer it. They always have empty cardboard boxes and a large counter to organize things and because we intentionally grocery shop no more than once per month, I end up with a huge amount of things (we do joke, however, that it's impossible to get a combination of things at Aldi that fills the cart and results in a bill greater than $220 -- my current record highest). Organizing it in boxes according to what fridge/freezer/cupboard it will end up in makes that part of the process a lot easier (easy enough for the kids to do it without our help). And for the quarters, this tiny little deposit results in the carts being put back in the bay. It saves them money, sure, but it has two other benefits. The bay always has carts -- I don't have to surf the parking lot during the holiday season because all are in use or scattered through the lot. And unlike every other store where more than half of the carts have problems, Aldi's are always in perfect working condition. No stuck or crooked wheel forcing me to push the thing sideways to make it go straight and I'd imagine that has cut down on damage to parked cars, too.

jernfrost 10y ago

Visited Aldi and Lidl in Germany and I am sorry but I can't help hating those stores. It all looks so cheap and barebones that I get depressed just being there. And then the whole experience with the cashier is hyper stressful and they are so blinding fast at scanning the groceries. It is like you are subject to some German Blitzkrieg or something. Interesting with the article that they explained why it was so fast. I actually just thought Germans were super fast at everything in general. I could't figure out how to pack my groceries as fast as they scanned them and get time to pay without holding up the line.

Zpalmtree 10y ago
I agree they are sometimes too fast for you, but when you're a student the savings are well worth it, often half the price of a normal supermarket
- VLM 10y ago
  > often half the price How's the food inflation nowadays? A couple years back it seemed like all the frozen items were huge boxes with lots of empty air in there. So I eat junk food occasionally, usually end up regretting it ... unlike the local supermarket at an expensive $3.33 for a bag of 40 name brand pizza rolls, I could buy a large box of generic pizza rolls at Aldi for only $2.50 ... woo hoo sounds awesome ... containing 17 rolls. Oh maybe not so good of a deal. It was funny to look at frozen appetizers where there would be this big box of breaded mushrooms and in tiny print "qty 5" and so on. I seem to recall a big box with 3 mozzarella cheese sticks. BTW I don't photographic memorize prices, the above prices were verified via google. Much as I'm not rich enough to shop at walmart, I'm not rich enough to shop at Aldi. Admittedly, the produce had little selection (food desert style) but what little was there, was good quality and cheap, so its not all bad.
atomwaffel 10y ago
> It all looks so cheap and barebones that I get depressed just being there. Can I ask which part of Germany you've been to – or rather which Aldi (Nord or Süd)? There's a surprising amount of difference between the two and I've always found one of them far nicer than the other.

greenspot 10y ago

Known as employing Germany's fastest typing cashiers Aldi introduced this quite late compared to other grocery stores. They experimented for many years to get the same speed and the result where these huge and multiple barcodes per package.

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tuna-piano 10y ago

I wonder why a large retailer like Walmart doesn't start incentivizing their suppliers to do this as well? Some math. -Assume a fixed 120 customers an hour -Assume each customer buys 20 items -1 minute for customer to pay + 1 minute total scanning time for all items = 30 customers / cashier / hour (4 cashiers needed) -Assuming additional barcodes double the scanning time (seems reasonable to me from my experiences at Aldi): -1 minute for customer to pay + 30 seconds scanning time = 40 customers / cashier / hour (3 cashiers needed) Savings of $12 an hour ($8/hr + taxes, training, insurance, etc) 120 customers * 20 items per customer = 2400 items total in the hour $12 savings / 2400 items = $0.005 per item savings Obviously the assumptions were a bit simplistic, but couldn't Walmart offer their suppliers, say 10% of the estimated savings, $0.0005, per item to add a few more barcodes?

IneffablePigeon 10y ago
The benefits only get really apparent when almost everything has easy to scan barcodes. Also, presumably these suppliers will be supplying to competitors of Walmart, so it doesn't make sense for Walmart to fund their shared efficiency gains. Everyone would end up making the same gain, and Walmart wouldn't end up any further ahead of the competition.
nickpsecurity 10y ago
The suppliers consider the packaging to be a form of marketing/branding. They want it to look a certain way with key information, regulated or marketing, on various parts of it. The goods at my local grocer are packed with all kinds of info and graphics. Store brands often do the same thing. Customers love it much like they love variety on the shelves, symmetrical presentation, and interesting displays. Aldi, like Costco, aims for a "no frills" segment that basically doesn't care how they place looks. They want to go in there, fine exactly what they need, get it cheap, and get it fast. This lets them do things like just drop boxes instead of neatly arrange products or cut beauty/info out of packaging in favor of barcodes. Ugly stuff that gets other segments to stop shopping at a place. So, there's a few tradeoffs that apply before we even think about a company pushing vendors to do it. Note: "Walmart offers their suppliers." They're same suppliers in many, but not all, cases. There's one or more companies that literally do nothing but put different names on the same stuff to make it look otherwise. Dirty, industry secret. ;)

mdip 10y ago

I've been an Aldi fan for more than a decade, buying almost all of my family's groceries there (four kids, it's cheap and doesn't require figuring out what is really on sale this week vs. what is really over-priced this week, or messing with Coupons). The quality of most of their products meets or exceeds that of the name brands[1] except in a few circumstances (their equivalents to Cheerios and Frosted Mini Wheats are very sub-par, but in the case of the Cheerios, they're about half the price for a much larger box, so we mix 'em). I actually get a little stressed when I arrive with a cart full of groceries and an empty line -- they ring them up at about twice the speed I can pull them off the cart. The Aldi process is very well thought out. They're the only cashiers I've seen that sit in a chair while ringing things up. They needn't move, nearly at all, beyond swiping things past the register to read those giant barcodes (on anything store branded, which is most things). I remarked to the cashier about their ridiculous speed and was informed they are also tracked, directly, on their speed and have targets to meet (and incentives if they're "the fastest"). [1] Their produce is consistently good (love the sweet, small, green grapes) and their Frozen Chicken Nuggets are better tasting than any I've purchased, including the organic ones at Costco.

shostack 10y ago
The sitting thing is common in England (and perhaps elsewhere in Europe). It definitely stood out to me when I was visiting.
- agentdrtran 10y ago
  It's the standard in Germany as well, at least for grocery stores.
- mdip 10y ago
  It's so rare here I can't think of another time I've seen it. I've always wondered why: comfortable people tend to be less grumpy and the typical cashier job involves "not leaving a very small space for a long period of time". This small space is about the size of ... a chair. I think the perception of people standing in line is more likely to make them feel that the cashier is working slower because they're sitting[1]. Aldi's lightning quick cashiers would prove that wrong, but perception tends to be all that matters in these scenarios. [1] People routinely over-estimate their waiting times in situations like this. This became apparent to me when talking to the helpdesk manager at my old company. He would get an e-mail from time to time from a person complaining that they were on hold for "20 minutes". The call stats for the day indicated a maximum hold time of 5 minutes.

cm3 10y ago

I've heard that in the UK there are bag boys who even carry it to your car. Is that true and are you then supposed to tip?

IneffablePigeon 10y ago
That's not true in any of the Aldis I've been in here. If it were true, I doubt anybody would tip them. In the UK it would be considered very odd to tip anybody you're not already paying directly.
peteretep 10y ago
No, that's the least British thing I've heard of.
- eru 10y ago
  Not to mind the least Aldi thing, too.

vierja 10y ago

I look forward to the day RFID tags become so cheap you can just scan the bags/cart and be done with it.

spdy 10y ago
Waiting for this too. The day 75% of all cashiers in big chains lose their jobs

Rzah 10y ago

I believe the reason for the tiny shelf you have to quickly empty is twofold, it means the tills take up less space, which means more shop space for stuff they can sell, and it speeds up the flow through the tills because peer pressure makes most people just pile it straight back into their empty trolley and sort it out after they've paid. My strategy is to load everything onto the belt (heavy stuff at the front, fragile at the back), and line the now empty trolly with two or three of those strong reusable bags they sell, I can keep up with the cashier and end up with well packed bags that are easy^h^h^h^h possible to lift straight into the car, but then I'm a bit nutty when it comes to packing things, bags, cars, dishwashers.

pingec 10y ago

This thread shows how different the shopping culture is in various countries. I love it :). Seems like something Zizek would use when talking about ideology :)

jglauche 10y ago

I remember the pre-barcode times at Aldi in the late 1980s in Germany. The cashiers would type in numbers into the cash register like crazy. They knew every price of every product and had to put it into the machine. It was at least thrice as fast as every other shop at that time. It felt like barcodes didn't make it that much faster, but Aldi ones are still around the fastest ones. While the speed is impressive, it also adds a lot to stress because the cashiers require you to get away as fast as possible.

spinchange 10y ago

Aldi checkers used to key everything in, from memory, at lightning speed.

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numanuma123 10y ago

Seems like they need something like the Digimarc barcode?

tikumo 10y ago

I've never noticed that their products had more than one barcode. In the Netherlands the skill of fast "bleeping" is lost nowadays, stores tend to hire young girls as they are cheaper, and only if you go to the store on a weekday in the morning you will encounter an older woman, but they are not so fast as in the past. The small checkout counter makes the difference in my opinion, fast in the cart speeds up the whole process. Lots of times i'm stunned by people who wait by the cash register to pay and let the products stack up, so the next person has to wait till they put everything back in their cart. This is not a problem with Aldi / Lidl. The only thing that would make it faster is a cart thats lower on one side so that they can make a slide for your products..

mk89 10y ago

Amazing! Now I finally understand the reasons behind that :D I noticed these giant barcodes, but I never thought they could be somehow useful. I mean, the average speed of cashiers here in Germany is "normal". That's fine, I don't care if they take 10 seconds instead of 5, nor I care if they take 1 minute instead of 40 seconds.

lordnacho 10y ago

If scanning the barcode is the critical step, why do it with an ordinary barcode scanner? Just make a conveyor belt that has multiple cameras. One of them will definitely catch one of the barcodes. I've done barcode scanning with ZXing lib myself on a phone, it's super easy even with one camera. Perhaps set up the bags in a clever way so everything other than eggs falls into a new bag. Also, it can't be long before you just scan stuff using an app as you're taking it off the shelf, connected to a payment method so you don't even have to pull out your wallet.

wingerlang 10y ago
In Sweden* (and surely other places) you borrow a portable barcode scanner when you enter the store and scan your own products. At the end the cashiers take the scanner and do something and you're done. I think they do random "bag checks" as well every now and then. And you might need to have the stores credit/debit card (but I am not sure because I never used this system myself). Here are some pictures https://www.google.co.th/search?q=ica+bar+kod+skanner&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGzby82KnNAhVGVZQKHRcMCgMQ_AUICCgB&biw=1280&bih=796#tbm=isch&q=ica+supermarket+bar+kod+skanner https://www.google.co.th/search?q=ica+bar+kod+skanner&source... * In the main brand supermarkets at least.
- Broken_Hippo 10y ago
  I know of one chain here in Norway that does this, but only in a few of their larger stores. I believe you have to set up a card with them that is connected to your bank account. They have regular lines as well for the folks that don't do this. I somewhat assume that when this becomes cheap enough, some version of it will be in all the places, probably in conjunction with something that weighs the cart or basket to see if it matches up to what you have scanned.
stereo 10y ago
Because you couldn’t easily tell if a bag of crisps has already been scanned, or if I bought two.
- 10y ago

jgalt212 10y ago

If a regular cashier is $10 an hour and an Aldi super cashier is $20 an hour, is there any net benefit to Aldi other than the extra floor space freed up by less check out counters?

kwhitefoot 10y ago

Upvoted for the cat serving suggestion!

nfriedly 10y ago

I love Adi. I once got a $40 chainsaw there that I still use. (And, of course, tons of inexpensive food.) For the longest time, they didn't accept credit cards here in the US, and I may be the only one, but I totally respected that. I suspect the recent change is related to the fact that US laws now allow for the credit card fees to be added to the bill separately.