The ALDI Cart 'N' Quarter Swap

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"You're under my cloud", he said--Get off mine!

Well, here is where the renting or hiring a cart for a quarter DIDN'T work for me:

 

A gentleman gave me his cart for me to shop with, but wanted the quarter for it, which I gave him (although why couldn't he be like this lady who let me keep the quarter--as I seemed to have mostly saved her the trouble of giving it back) and me only going into my corner Aldi grocery store was only going in just for a couple jugs of milk that I would've just carried in each hand--though with me being the impulse shopper that I am, would'a probably just filled that cart right up! (Even though I had to quickly stock up on milk & be out of there ASAP...)

 

Anyway, little did I know that quarter stuck in the cart had to be used to pay for my purchase...  The check-out gal would not let me hitch the cart up to one she had at her register... Or let me keep my cart up there until somehow the quarter I was giving her would get to her... (I wanted to carry the jugs of milk without the use of a cart... --After all, I didn't even need them to go in a bag or bags...)

 

But, she made me run the cart out side, retrieve the quarter that was in it & give it to her after she'd begun ringing up the next orders, and my milk sat on an adjacent counter--and I didn't even get a receipt... The drawer randomly open at the moment, she'd impersonally took the owed money from me & threw it there...

 

 

-- Dave

[this post was last edited: 1/27/2017-09:55]
 
To my utter shock and amazement Costco, of all places, introduced chained-up carts. Now, most people here don't use coins much and I've been caught out twice without an appropriate coin to release the cart. I had to go all the way up to their service counter (three flights and the elevators always take ages), to get small change. I was more than mildly annoyed and even played with thought of NOT shopping at Costco (god forbid). Apparently the local council had a lot of complaints about those huge Costco carts being left standing about in their neighborhood and they can cause some serious damage to passing cars. So they forced Costco to chain them up and there is no other store nearby from whence to source alternative carts - they'd be too small and the Costco door bitch probably wouldn't let me in with an alien cart anyway.

They should have a card tapping facility on them or something. One hardly sees people paying in cash and who still carries coins? Tapping and swiping are the norm not cash. That is how I pay for stuff 99% of the time - tap'n'go. Coins are annoying and they damage one's wallet.[this post was last edited: 1/27/2017-20:13]
 
if a quarter saves a bit of money at the register, I am all for it.....

I am also in favor of shopping carts returned to the front of the store....versus some jackass slamming a cart into the side of my car....

oddly enough, for visiting numerous ALDI's in the tri-state area......and don't know where they find them, but they have some of the most upbeat, friendliest cashiers around....

plus they can ring merchandise through those scanning registers like no ones business...

unlike any location of WalMart, those cashiers don't know the word speed, you could grow a beard standing in line....and that's the Express Lane!
 
One of the first Aldi stores around Atlanta opened in the suburb of Fayetteville back in '96.
I've been shopping at Aldis stores ever since.
I have never had a problem with a cart and over the years have passed off carts and quarters many times.
Martin, it's the same story here, the cashiers at Aldis are friendly and fast.
I have found the quality level of their products to be high. Their store "brand names " are certainly different, so don't look for familiar brands.
I understand they are owned or share the same parent company as Trader Joes another of my favorite places to shop, although there isn't one here in Roanoke, there is an Aldis.
We only have a Sams, nearest Costco about an hour away.
Given the choice if there were a Costco here I would never step foot in Sams again except for the Pharmacy and maybe fuel.
 
Yogi/Martin....Everything you said, cubed!   I love Aldi and always have a good experience when I go to one.  Walmart, I dread going and really since I have been single for a good while, have not gone to a Walmart for anything in quite a while.

 

I laughed out loud about "growing a beard" in a Walmart "quick lane"....there is nothing "quick" about a Walmart, well maybe they are "quick" with bad attitude when you ask for assistance with something....

 

I assume the usual poor service and attitude comes from the "top"...likewise the decent conditions and attitude at Aldi come from decent management as well.
 
one fun thing of ALDI.....

there may be school kids out front, offering to push your cart, help load your groceries in to the car, and return your cart......in exchange for the quarter, as a way of fund raising for their school activities.....

I will even offer a dollar or more...at least they make an effort to offer some sort of service!

UNLIKE WalMart.....where you have 6 or 7 little kiddies standing at the exit doors, texting on their phone with one hand, and a tin can in the other...BEGGING for money for their school functions.....CHECK THAT, shoving that can in your face, expecting money....

my thoughts: what sets that from panhandling?

well, I do understand why some animals eat their young, or at least swallowed while they had the chance!
 
See if I'm not right . . .

Go to Yelp, read ALDI reviews and note how many environmentally enlightened Millennials (who drive to ALDI in mommy's gas-guzzling Fordillac Escascursion) piss 'n' moan the loudest about bringing your own shopping bags and the whole quarter-in-the-cart thing, as opposed to us planet-bashing Baby Boomers who happily load the Subaru with our reusable grocery bags brimming with ALDI comestibles.
 
Aldi is one of the best places to get quality groceries for a cut rate price. I personally think that the quarter to use the cart and then get it back when you put it back is a stroke of genius on someone's part! It give them the ability to hire less staff and be able to keep prices lower. They may not have much selection, but what they have is quite good. I shop there whenever I can. I have never had to bring my own bags, since there are always boxes that are almost empty I can pick up along the way. It is somewhat like shopping at Sam's or Costco.
 
ALDI Nord, ALDI SÜD and the ALDI Equator

Details are lacking about who wanted to do what but the Albrecht brothers Theo and Karl took over their mother's grocery store and introduced the concepts that made ALDI famous. ALDI is an acronym for ALbrecht DIskont. Sometime in the 1960s, the brothers disagreed over selling cigarettes and split the country of Germany north and south. Their line of demarcation was dubbed The ALDI Equator. To get the best prices from suppliers they combine their buying power but operate as independent companies.

In the 1970s ALDI Nord acquired Trader Joe's but always maintained a hands-off ownership. ALDI SÜD acquired Hofer in Europe and combined the Hofer name with the ALDI "A" icon.

The two ALDIs have similarly split the planet. Go to www.aldi.com and hover over each country name. If you're redirected to aldi.us, click "ALDI International" at the top of the page.

Oh, and, the correct spelling of either is ALDI, NOT Aldi, Aldi's or Aldis.
 
Aldis, shmaldis, everybody knows what I am saying. Thanks for all the information. It's interesting to see how each division connects. Not sure how much I care to remember.
 
Well, getting back to my case w/ the "need to be freed"-quarter, I simply stated: "I don't know what the misunderstanding was about!" as I paid up what was in the cart and what I would have left at the register, waiting for someone who wouldn't need a cart to unload his/her stuff into, as I didn't...

Seemed as though I was a notable offender to leave the cart there, hitched to the one there, that was waiting for a mega-order coming after mine, but, really? There should have not been any 'first' or 'last' time this sort'athing could'a happened!

I forgot to mention that I had to be at work in that hour that I was hard-pressed to get milk I like (Vitamin D/Whole) and stuff my daughter will drink (2%) that is also useful for puddings, mashed potatoes and other recipes--and either/both w/ syrup & soda water make a good egg cream when there is that minute amount left and nearing (or past) expiration date as was the case with my jugs I used up & had that rare amount of space in my refrigerator for--hence the juggling jugs & popping 'em in there just to have my remaining 1/2 hour to make it to my job on time...

End of story--...

-- Dave
 
the CASE of the BASKET, and all this added chaos over a Quarter!

if the guy offered you a buggy, and you didn't need it, you would just wave him along, and say, "Thanks, but I don't need a cart today!".....and move along....

it's respectful to offer the quarter, and their choice to accept it, or tell you to keep it......

I am sure you held up the line, creating chaos for the cashier to subtract that quarter from your order, for the cart you wanted to leave behind....first of all, WTH?....

its your choice to leave the cart in the store, and lose your quarter, or return it out front, LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, and retrieve your quarter.....

in your case, now the cashier, while waiting on the next customer, had to stop, and deal with you again, and then return to her customer.....I'm sure the customers waiting in line weren't annoyed.....they have lives too!

expecting the cashier to return your cart, to retrieve the quarter, so her drawer wont be short.....IS NOT HER JOB!......that's one of the ideas of passing on savings to the customer, is the quarter/cart exchange....

just sounds like you created a bunch of chaos for yourself...which could have been avoided from the start.....

then again, maybe ALDI is not for you.....give Walmart a try, the experience there might be better, doubt it, but it could happen....."you might rabbit, you might!"

then again, seeing all the short buses in the employee parking is not hopeful!
 
Well, I didn't expect to create chaos here w/ my post--I enjoy my Aldi, but in no ways is it a quick in & out place--well, seeing as how at least I'm not immune to the impulse & unplanned purchases, what grocery place is?!

 

Seems as though, however, there's a unanimous impression--here on this forum & what happened over that incident, and even by my own immediate observation right now, looking back, that in short: 'I won't shop there anymore, ever again!!!!'... (Oh my gosh! What did I start?! I guess I cannot be seen in there ever again...)

 

By the same token--oh, there I go!--I feel reluctant to shop there, knowing I'll be short on the entire amount of money I owe, (even for just that 25¢) despite this being the cheapest place for milk, bread, and perhaps such a number of other staples, such as veg. Oil, cheese, and eggs my store I work at--yes, I work at Walmart, but let's spare ourselves a rant too dirty even for Dirty Laundry to do any mud & poop slinging there!

 

Such as the idea if we chained our carts together & sequestered peoples' shopping funds, I wouldn't have to go out in the cold, get damp in the wet, or get heat stroke in the hot!--that I bought last night as I was getting off, were probably over-priced! I will have to stop here, then... I have no intention of making any enemies here, and apologize for speaking too much of my mind, then...

 

You like "Aldi's"--sorry, that apostrophe-S makes me equate very openly with "Undies", so I won't detract from or take away anyone else's enjoyment! (But, yikes! Did I, just now?!)

 

If you enjoy shopping there, then I will shut up!

 

Sorry for being so overly-negative...

 

 

-- Dave

[this post was last edited: 1/29/2017-06:24]
 
Not worth a new thread but something I noticed on YouTube

 

 

 

In TV commercials for ALDI from both sides of the Pond and even farther away, Yanks say "ALL-dee", Brits and Aussies lean toward "ELL-dee".

 

Yeah, I know, too much time on one's hands.
 
ALDI seems to elicit  quite a dichotomy of opinions. I do maybe 50% of my shopping there now, like many of their products, some not so much, but all in all I find it a very good option.  I have a cousin who refuses to shop there.  She went through a rough patch employment wise and is now making much better money and her attitude is that she does not want to buy second rate stuff, she's done that - no more.  I'm perhaps more picky than her and find little to avoid there but we are dealing with people's perception and that is hard to change.

 

As to the 25 cent cart issue, what is the big deal?It's QUARTER!  If I can buy milk a gallon for $.95 and eggs for $.69 were they are easily double that anywhere else and I'm in a hurry I say screw the quarter.
 
The closer an ALDI is to a full-service supermarket . . .

 

 

 

. . . the more the negative Yelp reviews look like competitors' smear tactics, especially the "I didn't buy anything" reviews that then list off the same often outlandish bullet-points:

 

Quarter for the cart

Small dingy dirty store reminiscent of an Eastern Bloc food rationing center

Few nationally advertised brands, ergo, inferior quality house brands and/or short-dated overstock from failed chains

Meat and produce minutes away from rotting

Buy or bring bags (now statewide at ALL grocers in California, moot point)

Bag your own groceries
 
Missed this the first time around

I'm so glad you folks did this thread. I am a very happy Aldi shopper and I think they're shopping cart system is brilliant. I'm often struck how lazy people who shop at all the other supermarkets are, leaving their carts WHEREVER, to inconvenience other shopper-parkers even doing damage to peoples' cars. And many of these people are gym-bunnies who spend thousands of dollars to "work out" but they don't ever seem to have the time, energy or inclination to perform a little bit of effort to return the shopping cart, which is provided as a service by the store, to it's proper place. Give Americans the incentive of a freakin' quarter and they feel compelled! I've also played the swap game at Aldi; it's funny: people act as though they're doing something almost naughty.
 
ALDI has definitely hit the right chord with Southern California shoppers, possibly due in part to the checkout process. At Save-A-Lot, a dwindling presence here, you have to quickly pile your stuff on the belt then push your empty cart to the end of the checkout lane and put it all back in before proceeding to the communal bagging table. Sometimes it's a race and you lose if the next customer has fewer items and has to wait until you clear the area.

Food4Less uses the gate, splitting the bagging area at the end of the checkout between the two most recent customers who are all too often a chatty pair who stop what they're doing to laugh at each other's anecdotes.

ALDI piles your groceries into a waiting empty cart, immediately freeing up the line after you pay. Oh, and, they really smile when you drag your empty cart into position as you walk away. Your only worry is if the customer ahead starts to play credit/debit card roulette with a deck of overbalanced and underfunded plastic.
 

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