An Aldi manager has lifted the lid on what they claim is happening behind the scenes at the German supermarket giant, revealing why frustrated shoppers are facing long checkout queues, empty shelves and disappearing products.
uncertain
shoppers → lift → queues
Speaking out on social media, the employee claimed sweeping cost-cutting measures and staff shortages had left workers overwhelmed, with some stores struggling to keep shelves stocked while employees rush between checkouts and other duties.
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employees → speak → checkouts
The manager said conditions had deteriorated significantly over the past two years, leaving even long-serving staff questioning their future with the company.
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conditions → say → company
'Over the past year or two, stores have been put through a lot of changes coming from higher up.
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stores → put → changes
Most of us are burnt out and hating our jobs.'
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Most → burn → jobs
One of the biggest frustrations for shoppers is the closure of self-service checkouts, sometimes leaving customers waiting in a lengthy queue for a single staffed register.
But according to the manager, employees are just as frustrated, claiming stores simply aren't allocated enough staff hours to keep the machines operating throughout the day.
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stores → leave → day
We think its stupid too...
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We → think → ?
Whats the point in having them if they can't even be used half the time.
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they → s → them
Sadly we are not given enough hours in store to man the self checkout from open to close.
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we → give → close
An Aldi manager has urged customers not to take out their anger on supermarket workers.
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manager → urge → workers
The self checkout person has to close it off when its less busy to go do other work or we don't complete our jobs for the day and the store suffers.
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store → have → day
Even the self checkout person has a bunch of work they need to get done while also opening up the self checkouts when required.
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they → have → checkouts
We would love to keep it open all day but we just can't with the amount of hours we are given.
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we → love → hours
I won't even get started on the new self checkout scale problems.
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I → start → problems
And it's not just the checkouts causing headaches.
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it → cause → headaches
The manager claimed Aldi was quietly reducing the range of products available to customers, with popular items disappearing from shelves as the company prioritised stocking larger quantities of fewer products.
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company → claim → products
'Aldi is removing a lot of products from the shelves with the idea of having even less total products and just increasing the amount of facings/total stock of the other "core" items.
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Aldi → remove → items
'This is all in the name of making stock easier to fill up as there is less variety of items which is yet again, another justification they have to cut more hours.'
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they → make → hours
The employee also offered an explanation for another familiar frustration among shoppers: arriving at Aldi to discover empty spaces on the shelves.
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employee → offer → shelves
While some products were genuinely unavailable, the manager claimed others were sitting in storerooms because there weren't enough workers to put them out.
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others → claim → them
A manager of over five years urged customers to lodge complaints over a raft of changes they claimed have left staff, management and customers increasingly frustrated
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they → urge → staff
Some of these are due to stock being unavailable despite it being ordered, but half the time it's literally just due to a lack of hours,' they wrote.
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they → order → hours
'Quite often now, there's only two to four staff on at certain times of day and it's not uncommon for all of them to be on the registers and self-checkout.
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all → be → registers
That leaves nobody on the shop floor to fill gaps on the shelves even though we may have stock out in the back, nobody to help customers and limited time for managers to do their rushed stock take.'
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managers → leave → take
The manager claimed shoppers had also begun noticing a decline in the quality of some products, with staff regularly fielding complaints about once-popular items that had changed.
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that → claim → items
'Most of our staff has gotten feedback from a customer here and there about a product they loved, which has changed and become terrible,' they wrote.
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they → get → product
'We are powerless in this as not even the store manager has any say at all in this.'
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manager → have → this
The employee claimed their own store had been allocated more than 25 per cent fewer staff hours than it had just 18 months earlier, despite workers still being expected to complete their daily duties.
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workers → claim → duties
To put it simply, most staff and managers in stores are growing increasingly unhappy with the company and burning out.
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staff → put → company
Aussies have lashed out at changes to Aldi stores after an Aldi manager said self-checkout closures and staffing pressures were among several issues frustrating customers and burning out workers
The managerurged customers not to lash out at staff.
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closures → lash → staff
A lot of our customers are growing increasingly unhappy.
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lot → grow → customers
We deal with upset, frustrated and sometimes angry and abusive customers regularly.
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We → deal → customers
'If anything bothers you in store, please don't take it out on the staff, we're miserable enough as it is and we have no say in any business changes, not even the store manager.
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we → bother → changes
We would love to present a nice tidy store with full shelves and helpful staff but that is becoming less and less possible with the decrease in hours and extreme cutting of costs.'
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that → love → costs
The worker instead urged frustrated customers to lodge their complaints directly with the German supermarket chain through its website.
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worker → urge → website
'Its a s**t show in stores right now and this isn't even taking into account many behind the scenes changes in our work.'
The explosive claims struck a nerve with shoppers, with several Australians sharing similar experiences at their local Aldi stores.
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Australians → it → stores
'There have been times where I have stopped off at Aldi on the way home, walked in, saw the self-serve checkouts closed with only one staff checkout open with a huge line and walked out immediately,' one wrote.
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one → stop → line
'The whole self-checkout implementation has been a disaster for customers and I just hate going to Aldi now,' another wrote.
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another → hate → Aldi
Others said their biggest frustration wasn't the queues or staff shortages, but what they perceived as a decline in Aldi's quality of food.
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they → say → food
'To be honest the biggest disappointment is not the staff, checkouts, less products - but the sheer drop in quality, first meat, then vegetables, then dairy, electronics break after few weeks or a couple of months and the saving comparing to Coles and Co is absolutely minimal these days,' one Aussie said.
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Aussie → compare → Coles
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
