Ease of walking off without paying by accident at self checkouts?

[AlterEgo]

Aldi used to make staff memorise every price or product code and didn't use barcodes. It is such an insane memory of pure speed and furious typing at the checkout that I had to go and fact check this, and I have remembered properly.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Aldi used to make staff memorise every price or product code and didn't use barcodes. It is such an insane memory of pure speed and furious typing at the checkout that I had to go and fact check this, and I have remembered properly.

Yep, that's correct. They helped it by only having a small number of price points by "category" of product and would adjust things like pack sizes to allow that to work (as the pound shops still do). I don't know how many though, but you wouldn't have a tin of beans costing 12p and a tin of tomatoes costing 13p, both similar-looking products would be priced the same.

Aldi and Lidl have always been about "the system" - it is designed to minimise cost and maximise efficiency at every level and always has been.

 

[cool110]

Oddly, in my opinion, Morrisons have never introduced handsets despite Safeway (who Morrisons acquired in 2004) pioneering the technology in the late 1990s.

They're jumping ahead to AI trolleys, currently being trialed at Preston.

 

[saismee]

They even design the barcode into the label graphics so it's all the way round so it scans on the first pass every time.

In a Tesco near Royal Victoria, I remember grabbing a Yazoo and a can of Monster (weird combo, don't judge me). There was a queue at the manned till with people who looked like they wanted tobacco or similar, so I opted for the self-checkout. I just could not get that Yazoo to scan. I had a look and it turns out that the shrinkwrap plastic packaging had slightly folded over the barcode.

I am certain that some people wouldn't have thought to look closer at the barcode and would've blamed the till. I can't be too judgemental because I didn't think to grab another one and went to the queue instead, leaving the cashier to struggle to unfold it with her nails. After a few minutes I did offer to grab another but she was determined to sort it and managed to in the end. Quite a fun interaction actually.

I can't say that I have ever walked off without paying by accident (not that I have done it on purpose either!). Except that one time when I was about 5 and forgot to put my ripple on the counter in a Co-op. It's closed now, so that might have been the tipping point... sorry Co-op!

 

[BuhSnarf]

Aldi used to make staff memorise every price or product code and didn't use barcodes. It is such an insane memory of pure speed and furious typing at the checkout that I had to go and fact check this, and I have remembered properly.

They did, it was (one of the reasons) why they paid so much more than other stores at the time. They still pay higher as they expect a lot of their staff and store managers. It's a rewarding but TOUGH job.

They were able to do this by the fact that they would only stock a certain amount of Stock Keeping Units (SKUs.) I worked in another retailler pre-EPoS days and we also had to remember every price in the store and it wasn't too hard in fairness, usually by having block pricing where similar things are all the same price - for example all small chocolate bars were 45p etc.

In a Tesco near Royal Victoria, I remember grabbing a Yazoo and a can of Monster (weird combo, don't judge me). There was a queue at the manned till with people who looked like they wanted tobacco or similar, so I opted for the self-checkout. I just could not get that Yazoo to scan. I had a look and it turns out that the shrinkwrap plastic packaging had slightly folded over the barcode.

This is where you can spot the old retail workers at the self scan, they'd either know to check the barcode or they'd just enter the SKU (barcode number) directly (it's frustrating when some self service systems don't let you do that!) and this why I still now 50201600 and 50201969
.

 

[styles]

They did, it was (one of the reasons) why they paid so much more than other stores at the time. They still pay higher as they expect a lot of their staff and store managers. It's a rewarding but TOUGH job.

Funnily enough, my partner has been considering changing jobs from a senior research scientist to joining the management scheme at ALDI. The hours would be less, the pay would be quite a lot more, and they'd even give her a company car, not to mention the job security with her work not relying on indefinitely securing government research grants to know whether she'll still be in post next year. It may be hard work, but then her current job is hard work already and she's working above her pay grade. Area managers start on over £50k and get to just shy of £100k within 8 years.

This is where you can spot the old retail workers at the self scan, they'd either know to check the barcode or they'd just enter the SKU directly (it's frustrating when some self service systems don't let you do that!) and this why I still now 50201600 and 50201969

Not directly related to the post title, but I used an enterprise-licensed version of Windows XP on so many machines I fixed for family and friends when I was a teenager that I know that serial off by heart. I won't put it here for the obvious reason, but it is funny how some stuff sticks. I can remember the phone number, postcode, car number plate for every house I've lived in or car my family have had since I was 4 years old. So I can imagine how some people may be quite adept at memorising the SKUs to rapidly put stuff trough checkouts. I learnt the product code for a pack of salad tomatoes at Asda years ago because they'd been configured to require manual entry for some reason and I got bored waiting for staff to come over to the self-checkouts. I got pulled up by security for a receipt check on a later occasion because he thought it was unusual, but a brief amicable chat sorted that and it never happened again.

 

[BuhSnarf]

Funnily enough, my partner has been considering changing jobs from a senior research scientist to joining the management scheme at ALDI. The hours would be less, the pay would be quite a lot more, and they'd even give her a company car, not to mention the job security with her work not relying on indefinitely securing government research grants to know whether she'll still be in post next year. It may be hard work, but then her current job is hard work already and she's working above her pay grade. Area managers start on over £50k and get to just shy of £100k within 8 years.

Only thing I'd consider is that store managers are often working in excess of 50+hrs a week to achieve and this was usually an expectation from area managers. Or at least this is the way it was 10 years ago, not sure if the culture has changed.

Not directly related to the post title, but I used an enterprise-licensed version of Windows XP on so many machines I fixed for family and friends when I was a teenager that I know that serial off by heart. I won't put it here for the obvious reason, but it is funny how some stuff sticks. I can remember the phone number, postcode, car number plate for every house I've lived in or car my family have had since I was 4 years old. So I can imagine how some people may be quite adept at memorising the SKUs to rapidly put stuff trough checkouts. I learnt the product code for a pack of salad tomatoes at Asda years ago because they'd been configured to require manual entry for some reason and I got bored waiting for staff to come over to the self-checkouts. I got pulled up by security for a receipt check on a later occasion because he thought it was unusual, but a brief amicable chat sorted that and it never happened again.

Absolutely, when you're regularly entering in things it does stick in the brain. I can remember my WinZip activation code still and oddly my ICQ number yet haven't used either for well over 20 years. Simiarly I can remember my parents and first girlfriends telephone numbers, but can't recall my current partner or mine!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Absolutely, when you're regularly entering in things it does stick in the brain. I can remember my WinZip activation code still and oddly my ICQ number yet haven't used either for well over 20 years. Simiarly I can remember my parents and first girlfriends telephone numbers, but can't recall my current partner or mine!

That's just down to usage. I used to remember my credit card number, expiry date and CVV but haven't for a while, purely because I don't need to type it in any more.

 

[Russel]

Not self checkout related, but I must admit I visited the Chasewater Railway earlier this year and paid for our tickets using contactless, the shop was quite busy and loud so I didn't pay any attention to the noise the card reader made and neither did the staff member when they handed me my tickets, it turned out it beeped to say I needed to enter my card and pin rather than to say transaction complete, fortunately, the staff member was able to find me on the platform to rectify.

All good in the end but somewhat embarrassing.

 

[styles]

Only thing I'd consider is that store managers are often working in excess of 50+hrs a week to achieve and this was usually an expectation from area managers. Or at least this is the way it was 10 years ago, not sure if the culture has changed.

But she's often working those hours at the moment. Not long ago her immediate line manager retired, and the company didn't replace him, so she's left picking up a lot of the slack. She's tried raising this problem but not had a great deal of luck. I know in theory she could just refuse to do the work, but I find the reality of standing this ground is often more complicated than that! It's quite a common thing in her field of work because plenty of people are working fixed-term contracts paid for by applying for grants, which aren't guaranteed. At least I think we could be confident that ALDI will still be here in 5 years' time.

 

[BuhSnarf]

But she's often working those hours at the moment. Not long ago her immediate line manager retired, and the company didn't replace him, so she's left picking up a lot of the slack. She's tried raising this problem but not had a great deal of luck. I know in theory she could just refuse to do the work, but I find the reality of standing this ground is often more complicated than that! It's quite a common thing in her field of work because plenty of people are working fixed-term contracts paid for by applying for grants, which aren't guaranteed. At least I think we could be confident that ALDI will still be here in 5 years' time.

Oh, seems like a good shout to move over then. Good luck to her!

 

[Egg Centric]

But she's often working those hours at the moment. Not long ago her immediate line manager retired, and the company didn't replace him, so she's left picking up a lot of the slack. She's tried raising this problem but not had a great deal of luck. I know in theory she could just refuse to do the work, but I find the reality of standing this ground is often more complicated than that! It's quite a common thing in her field of work because plenty of people are working fixed-term contracts paid for by applying for grants, which aren't guaranteed. At least I think we could be confident that ALDI will still be here in 5 years' time.

Depends on the field but in my circles a surprising number of scientists have been moving to Switzerland of all places, which will also be there in 5 years time and has much better pay and conditions and plenty of openings. Although I've no idea of your family circumstances and whether it would work for you. I'm just guessing that a career scientist is probably at least partly in it for the love of science and there won't be that at Aldi. Good luck anyway

 

[londonbridge]

This is where you can spot the old retail workers at the self scan, they'd either know to check the barcode or they'd just enter the SKU (barcode number) directly (it's frustrating when some self service systems don't let you do that!) and this why I still now 50201600 and 50201969
.

I can tell you what 50201600 is, not 100% sure on 1969

It’s a good few years since I last used it but I still know my online banking membership number for logging on through the website rather than by using Face ID on the phone app.

 

[BuhSnarf]

1969 is the caramel version

 

[londonbridge]

Yes of course, thanks for the reminder.

 

[D1537]

Only thing I'd consider is that store managers are often working in excess of 50+hrs a week to achieve and this was usually an expectation from area managers.

Most teachers work 50+ hours a week and are paid for 32, and there is no overtime involved. One of the reasons why we're horribly short of maths, science and computer science teachers*

*someone will mention holidays at this point. Teachers aren't paid for holidays, they're paid for 39 weeks per year (38 teaching weeks + 5 training days).

 

[BuhSnarf]

Most teachers work 50+ hours a week and are paid for 32, and there is no overtime involved. One of the reasons why we're horribly short of maths, science and computer science teachers*

*someone will mention holidays at this point. Teachers aren't paid for holidays, they're paid for 39 weeks per year (38 teaching weeks + 5 training days).

Of course, but styles' partner was a scientist, not a school teacher?