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Aldi cashiers didn't type the prices but numbers for the products. The register would lookup the prices. Cashiers would quickly punch those numbers in without p
by stkdump 7y ago
Aldi cashiers didn't type the prices but numbers for the products. The register would lookup the prices. Cashiers would quickly punch those numbers in without picking up the items for many items and then swoop 5 to 10 items over the register part of the counter at once. I think Aldi held on to the system longer because it was indeed more efficient than scanning. But there is a limit on how fast one can bag the items, so I guess a little inefficiency can be tolerated.
- usr1106 7y ago> The register would lookup the prices. Not in the 1970s and early 80s. Do you know what computers costed back then? 1 KB of memory was as expensive as the whole cash register used by Aldi/Lidl. And there was no computer networking whatsoever, not even between multi-million super computers. When the German railways introduced computers at the ticket windows in the 80s all ticketing data was stored on 8 inch diskettes. And if you bought a not so common ticket the agent had to swap the diskette first. I don't think Aldi/Lidl used diskettes at their cash registers. Maybe when scanning started in the mid/late eighties, but they certainly didn't have to swap during the day.
- usr1106 7y ago> 8 inch diskettes Maybe floppies was the more common term. Obviously that part of my memory hasn't been refreshed for a couple of years...
- stjohnswarts 7y agoDon't copy that floppy!
- anticensor 7y agoIf they had an unique barcode for each instance of a product, inventory management could have been easier.