Many Brits love picking up bargains at Aldi, but for some the sheer panic at the checkout is enough to put them off shopping at the budget supermarket.
TikToker @ciaranelliottwalm featured his account in a now-viral video to show fans his “life hack” for shopping at Aldi, helping shoppers beat the supermarket’s infamously speedy checkouts.
In the six second long clampwhich has since risen to a whopping 630,000, Ciaran is packaging his food store in a unique way.
He urges shoppers to “Spread out all your shopping so you have time to pack it up so they don’t throw it at you.”
While some welcomed his advice, Ciaran’s video managed to spark a debate, with many vEveryone was concerned that the staff would be fired for slow speed.
The facade and brand logo of a branch of German discount retailer Aldi, taken in a local retail park in Wirral, UK on a sunny afternoon
Ciaran’s ‘life hack’ showed shoppers how to bypass the queue by simply separating items with large gaps in between
Ciaran’s hack was viewed no less than 630,000 times
With the simple caption ‘Life hack’, Ciaran zoomed in on the supermarket conveyor belt and showed viewers his grocery store – including toilet roll, juice and bleach, placed much further apart than normal.
By leaving more space between items, the Liverpool man wanted to give himself more time to pack, but this would lead to a longer queue.
While some were grateful for Ciaran’s tip, others felt his shopping habit came at the expense of Aldi staff, who are encouraged to be quick at the checkout.
One wrote: ‘Very good, I’ll use this next time’, and another said: ‘Aldi to employees are the worst’.
A more sympathetic Aldi shopper wished for a calmer shopping experience: ‘I understand they have objectives but there’s no common sense when there’s no space and they just start pushing things on the floor. Why is it so serious?’
And one customer even said he loved their supermarket’s fast checkout: ‘What’s the fun in that? I like to pack as quickly as they scan. It’s a game’.
But one employee wrote: ‘I work at Aldi and if someone does that, I just push all their groceries together, otherwise there will be more people at the end of the checkout.’
Another TikTok user claiming to work at Aldi said: ‘Hahaha people think this works, we just scan faster.’
Not everyone was so impressed with Ciaran’s hack, which they said would put Aldi staff at a disadvantage
Another user said: ‘It’s all well and good until the cashier is disciplined because their scanning efficiency is below company standards.’
Another user was also concerned about Aldi: ‘Please don’t. Cashiers there get into trouble if they are not fast enough. Don’t risk their jobs for your convenience’.
Another joked: ‘It’s funny because the reason behind fast scanning is to keep prices low. So the fact that you’re trying to slow down the cashiers is shameful.”