ALDI

"I had the pleasure of experiencing Reta's exceptional service, and I was exceedingly happy with the experience. Reta displayed not only friendliness and professionalism . Her kindness and enthusiasm were contagious. I'm grateful to have encountered someone as dedicated and skilled as Reta."

"I wanted to address this privately with aldi, but despite repeatedly trying to call aldi head office, I've been ignored. Sadly this is my local aldi that I used to enjoy going to, but I will never return to this one and am now considering boycotting the brand entirely. My last visit was so embarrassing that both my husband and I cringe at the thought of the store and really don't feel comfortable returning. We were there to do our weekly shop after I'd been at a medical appointment. All was fine until I got to the register. I have no issue with showing my shopping bags, however, when I am the only one asked to show her handbag (neither the woman ahead of me, nor the one after me were asked despite being told it was "policy"), I do have to question why. The girl at the register insisted on having me open my handbag in full view of everyone around me. Inside I had personal items (as a result of the aforementioned appointment) that I didn't want anyone else to see, but I was put in that position. I didn't refuse, but I was extremely uncomfortable doing so. And because I was the only that had been asked for my handbag to be opened, people were looking at me assuming that I may have stolen something. Aldi needs to be reminded and remind their staff that store policy does not trump law. Legally, an individual cannot be asked to open a handbag unless there is adequate reason to suspect that a person has tried to remove items from the store without paying. There was no such suspicion and therefore no cause to make this request. Especially when I was very obviously singled out. To say that I was embarrassed and humiliated as I tried to shove my personal items further down into my bag out of the view of your team member and all those around me is an understatement. If this is the way I'm going to be treated, then I don't need to be your customer. If I'd had any shopping bags, I would have had no issue showing those, even though you still can't request to see the contents of those bags without reasonable suspicion, but a personal handbag is an entirely different matter. Women carry many personal items in their bags such as medications, Feminine hygiene products and so much more that many are not comfortable showing to the world. Add to that, the items that I had and you may begin to understand why this felt like an absolute violation. Thank you, but I think I'll shop at Coles or Woolworths in future. I don't care if it costs more. I've never been disrespected the way I was at aldi a few weeks ago."

"The support I received from a staff member (Reta), she was thorough and timely, and my issue was addressed with a single interaction. Awesome! I also witness 2 rude customers in a row who were rude to her, but she handled both of them with a smile. Damn, I have never seen a staff member like an ice cube as Reta. I'm impressed!!"

"On a recent trip to pick something up from Craigieburn, I made a stop at the local ALDI store at Craigieburn Central. In their never-ending pursuit of being "Good Different" it seems ALDI Australia management have chosen this store to pilot a new scheme to reduce their costs which will then be passed onto us, the buying public, naturally! This clever little scheme forces you to take your trolley back to the store, so you can get your token or gold coin back. By doing this, ALDI will a) not have to employ staff to gather trolleys; b) may lose fewer trolleys due to theft and c) might even make extra money from trolleys left in the car park which people can't be bothered to return to the store to get their token/coin back. All resulting in big savings times multiple stores when fully implemented! What the ingenious ALDI management have done is mangle the key at each trolley bay so that it is impossible to fit in the slot to push your token/coin back out. Thus forcing you to take your trolley back to the store if you want it back. This scheme was bought to my attention by another shopper, who told me not to bother when I was taking my trolley to one of the trolley return bays in the car park. And apparently, ALDI has been testing this new system for quite some time, obviously in the interest of perfection! This piqued my interest and so decided to check all the trolley bays and found that it was the same at each one. And notably, there were no ALDI trolleys in any of the bays, so the system must be working. It certainly forced me to take my trolley back to the store. As did a pregnant woman with her 3 kids in tow, and a frail elderly woman. But then that's the price one has to pay to save money. I'm just thankful that there wasn't a storm! Most notably, ALDIs competition still has yet to cotton on to this clever scheme (scam). GOOD (well, not really) DIFFERENT (without a doubt)"