Why (Most) Aldis Don't Have Self-Checkout

In today's world, it's hard to understand why any retailer wouldn't embrace self-checkout lanes. According to data from The Payments Association, 77% of consumers prefer scanning their own items. And why not? Self-checkout reduces wait times, moves transactions along 30% faster, and allows customers to make shopping trips without uncomfortable cashier chit-chat. Accordingly, 96% of grocers have embraced the technology.

Aldi, however, has been slow to embrace self-checkout lanes. It doesn't make a lot of sense at first glance, but when delving into Aldi employees' social media discussions, it becomes clear that Aldi has resisted investing in self-checkout stations for the same reasons that its shopping carts require a quarter to use and there's a lack of brand names on its shelves: Aldi is all about streamlining costs to save customers money, and self-checkout ultimately costs Aldi more money than manning grocery registers or using cutting-edge payment options like checkout-free shopping.

In a Reddit discussion entitled "Why no self-checkout?" the top-voted comment laid the answer out quite simply: "The employees there are way faster than anyone I've ever seen use a self checkout." Aldi cashiers are reportedly timed and scored on how fast they can scan your groceries, with the end result being transactions that are 40% faster than in other stores, according to The Mirror. You've probably figured out the best and worst products to buy at Aldi, but it doesn't matter what's in your cart — the workers will get you out of the store post-haste. Time is money in the retail world, and self-checkout lanes may actually slow the process down.

There's also the fact that Aldi's cashiers are, per Reddit, "doing everything, from cleaning up shelves to putting out pallets, all while keeping an eye on the registers to check people out." When you add self-checkout into the equation, you need a dedicated paid employee to babysit the machines and help customers with those annoying scanning errors while also keeping a watchful eye for mistakes and theft. This means that employee can't multi-task in other areas of the store.

Aldi does have some self-checkouts these days, but the chain is also moving in a different direction. Some locations are implementing payment stations that are integrated with the store's app, and these allow customers to scan items as they shop or use A.I. assistance to tally up their total, avoiding checkout lanes altogether.