retail sales associate

cashier/stocker

assistant store manager

warehouse associate

district manager

Aldi

I worked as a Full Time Store Associate at Aldi. The store itself was manageable, and the store manager genuinely tried her best to be a good leader, but it was obvious she was stretched thin by company expectations and staffing demands, and sometimes things would slip through the cracks.


The biggest issue is how much work is expected from such a small crew. Even when management says the store is “fully staffed,” it constantly feels understaffed. There are usually about 3 people running the store at a time, and employees are expected to move extremely fast, handle multiple responsibilities at once, and deal with heavy physical labor for pay that doesn’t really match the workload or stress level.


The scheduling was also rough. There was an option to submit your availability, but for full-time employees anything less than “available all day” would automatically get rejected by the system. It was common to work late closing shifts and then have to come back early the next morning. The company talks a lot about work-life balance, but managers frequently texted employees on their days off asking them to come in or cover shifts. It was not unheard of to work six days in a row. It felt like the only way to consistently get more hours was to always be available and sacrifice your personal time.


Another frustrating issue was the scheduling system itself. Aldi relies heavily on an auto-scheduler, and if the schedule wasn’t carefully reviewed and corrected by the store manager, it would create obvious staffing problems. A lot of shifts felt overlooked or poorly balanced, which made stores feel even more understaffed than they already were.


There also seemed to be favoritism at times. Certain employees would get longer or more frequent breaks, or consistently be assigned easier or preferred areas of the store, while others were expected to handle the harder or more demanding tasks. That uneven treatment hurt morale and made the workplace feel less fair.


In addition, not everyone consistently pulled their weight. At times, employees had to take on tasks outside of their job expectations just to keep things running, since certain responsibilities still needed to be completed regardless of who was assigned them. This added extra pressure on the people who were already doing a large share of the work.


The equipment also wasn’t always in great condition, which made daily tasks more difficult. On top of that, the air conditioning in the store was often subpar, making physically demanding shifts even more uncomfortable, especially during busy periods.


There were also issues with micromanagement at times, with certain employees or supervisors stepping in and directing work that wasn’t really within their role, which added unnecessary frustration and confusion during shifts.


The warehouse and delivery system also created unnecessary stress. Pallets were often packed carelessly, and drivers would sometimes dump pallets during deliveries, creating extra work during already busy shifts. This led to damaged products, messy backrooms, and frequent out-of-stocks that store employees had no control over, but customers would still take their frustration out on staff.


Customers often destroy the store and it’s your job every night to clean everything back up. During busy periods especially, the store would be left in a heavily disorganized state, and closing staff were responsible for fully recovering and resetting it.


Third-party delivery services like DoorDash and Instacart added another layer of difficulty. There was often an expectation from shoppers that employees would be able to troubleshoot their apps or explain processes in detail, even though these services are not directly run by Aldi, which made interactions frustrating at times. I wish they would have just made the decision to not put Aldi on those platforms at all. 


The curbside pickup program was also extremely stressful and often understaffed, with typically only one person assigned to handle it at a time. When someone called out, it would significantly disrupt the entire day and put even more pressure on already stretched staff.


Customer behavior in this location was also a major downside. At times, especially during weekends and holidays, the store would become extremely busy and chaotic, and customers could be very rude and disrespectful toward employees. In some instances, interactions escalated to customers throwing items or money onto the counter in frustration, which made the environment stressful and difficult to manage. It often felt like staff were treated poorly or spoken to aggressively over issues outside of their control. And, my store was considered one of the “better” ones. 


Customers also often do not respect store closing times. Closing duties cannot begin until all customers have left the building, and customers will often push the doors open and begin shopping even after closing time, which makes it difficult to start closing procedures. This regularly leads to late clock-outs, especially since it is often discouraged to actively push customers out at closing time.


Breaks were not always reliably guaranteed. While break times were scheduled and written on the whiteboard, in practice they often depended on whether someone had time to cover you. In some cases, breaks would be delayed significantly or even pushed right up against the end of a shift, which made them feel inconsistent and unpredictable.


There is also no on-site HR, and most issues are handled through an online portal or escalated through the store manager or district manager. This made it feel difficult at times to address concerns quickly or directly, since responses were often delayed or filtered through multiple layers of management.


Vacation time also accrued very slowly, and while sick time was available, there was a general feeling that using it was discouraged or frowned upon in practice.


Raises are only given once a year. Pay isn’t something that is normally discussed or negotiated with. And the raises that do occur are minimal and don’t keep up with inflation.


Everything employees do is also tracked and scored through performance metrics and efficiency “report cards.” These are used by management to evaluate performance, but they don’t always reflect real-world conditions or the full scope of what someone is dealing with on a given shift.


Employee turnover was somewhat high. I saw many people come and go in a short time during my time here, either due to “injuries” or because they couldn’t physically handle the job.


There were occasional performance reviews and “1 to 1” meetings where employees could discuss things that needed improvement. Unfortunately, they felt very forced and scripted, often following a set sheet the manager would read from. No real significant changes ever seemed to come from them.


There is not much room to move up in the company. Many people have been there for years, and unless someone leaves or gets fired, there isn’t really anywhere you can go.


The atmosphere in the store wasn’t always great either. Some of my coworkers were really moody or rude themselves, which made the environment feel tense and unfriendly at times. On top of that, the district manager seemed really disconnected from our store employees and rarely communicated with staff directly.


There are some positives — the shifts go by quickly, and you definitely learn how to work hard and multitask. But overall, the constant pressure, difficult scheduling, lack of support, favoritism, uneven workload distribution, equipment issues, poor climate control, inconsistent breaks, micromanagement, and unrealistic expectations made it a difficult job to sustain long term.


Overall, it wasn’t horrible, and certainly not the worst job I’ve had, but I would not recommend it for any long-term employment or as a career. It helped me get back on my feet during a low point in my life. When the days ran smoothly it could actually be a decent place to work. There were certainly some good times with laughs and enjoyment - but  unfortunately those became less common. If I had to give this job an overall rating, it would probably be around a 70%.

The scheduling at Aldi was inconsistent because of the retail environment and the work was physically demanding every single day. Opening shifts on the weekdays start at 6:30 AM, but at weekends you are scheduled to come in at 6 AM because there are more and larger pallets to work.
You're expected to work all the pallets for your assigned zone within 2.5 hours before the store opens with a powered pallet jack. This means full pallets need to be done in under 45 minutes each. But it's not just putting new products on the shelves, you also must pull out and consolidate all the existing and new inventory at the same time. There are also unexpected hurdles all the time. For example, a manager/key holder showing up late after the scheduled time, so you are also consequently late with clocking in and now have less time to work on your assignments. The freezer door completely breaks so you must get another associate to assist you with holding the rolling door open while you move the pallets and inventory you need out of the freezer. The delivery drivers for the inventory mishandle and damage the pallets all the time so you must deal with the damage that is caused by them. This includes discarding the damaged products and rummaging through finding the remaining sellable but slightly damaged inventory to display. There are 4 people scheduled for an opening shift and that requires 1 person to use a manual pallet jack because there are only 3 powered ones, this requires the person doing freezer to use the manual one because they “have the lightest pallets.” You will also have to go through the inventory that is sitting where it’s not supposed to be and put it back where it belongs or throw it away. You are also responsible for discarding all the packaging that was created from stocking by using a bale. All these hurdles happen on a consistent basis and even the fastest workers at our location, people who'd been there over a year, struggled to meet these expectations consistently. I had personally grown tired of being berated for not meeting expectations.
On my last day, I completed everything assigned to me: two pallets of freezer items and bread, two full backstock carts of frozen sausages, meat, pizzas, dessert and bread plus all the new frozen Aldi Finds items. I also had to remove all the merchandise that is not where it’s supposed to be. At the same time as stocking, I also had to date every product that is perishable. Remove expired goods and discount anything that is expiring the next day. I put backstock back in the broken freezer by myself. This requires pushing the cart into the rolling door to hold it open as you push the cart through at the same time. I also had to clean my area and discard all the packaging materials and boxes that were created from stocking. I even took the time to relabel items with incorrect price tags, including ones that were already on the shelves. I finished all of this within 2.5 hours before we opened.
After that, I was assigned to be the main cashier. I worked 2.5 hours on the floor, then another 2.5 hours as cashier before I asked about break times. At this point, I was already over halfway through my 8.5-hour shift and hadn't had a break yet.
I was told I shouldn't be asking for my break because I didn't finish everything I was supposed to that morning. Another associate even commented sarcastically and said, “not him asking for a break.” When I asked what the assistant manager meant—because I had finished everything assigned to me—she said I should have worked on an additional grocery pallet before 9 AM. This has never been communicated to me in my three months there. She told me I'd have to wait for my break until they finished doing the work I was "supposed to do." Even if that were true, why was it 11:30 AM, 2.5 hours after we had opened and these supposed additional pallets haven’t been run yet. If adhering to the 45 mins per pallet metric applies here. This made me angry because I had already felt defeated by everything I was expected to do and had done all morning. I'd worked 5 straight hours of work without a break.
I didn’t get my break until another 40 mins after that conversation, more than 5.5 hours into my shift. When I was relieved, the assistant manager told me I was "this close," implying I was about to be fired or get written up. I said, "I could also just quit." She replied, "You could, buddy." I was already feeling upset from the conversation we had before, so this made me feel disrespected. I did not feel like I deserved that treatment when at the end of the day this was just a job at a grocery store. I left during my lunch break and didn't come back after about 3 months of working there. 
People assume that because the cashiers get to sit down, it's an easy job. It's not. You're expected to ring up 1,000 items per hour while keeping your customers’ tender time low to be quick in between customers while keeping your void rate low because they assume that if you have a lot of voids, you are stealing cash. You are also expected to be the main person responsible for customer service issues that arise as you are usually the first employee a customer sees. Your average items per hour and minute are also weighed down by customer returns as you process them. You are essentially responsible for all front-end duties even right after working 2.5 straight hours of hard physical labor, you aren’t allowed to just sit at the register or be on your phone, you will get criticized for doing so. 
There are usually only three people scheduled during opening shifts, which puts a huge burden on everyone. The rule is when you’re on cashier, you're supposed to call for backup when there are three customers waiting in line. On my last day, I had over eight customers with full carts waiting even after asking for backup multiple times with no response. After I cleared the line, my coworkers even saw me with another 5 people that had just lined up but kept working their pallets instead.
This whole situation could be avoided if Aldi didn't insist that we finish all the daily pallets within 2.5-3 hours. The timeline is unrealistic, which is why there is usually only one cashier at an Aldi as the other scheduled employees are expected to work the pallets no later than when shift change happens at 2 pm. 
During my onboarding, the manager complained about how much turnover they'd had recently and how it was a pain to train all the new people. But when you're overworking every single employee, it's obvious why people leave.
You're expected to bring your A-game every single day, even if you've already worked hard for four days straight. Instead of looking at why the workload is unreasonable, management just blames employees for not working hard enough. It's not a healthy work environment.
I would not recommend this job at all. The job makes grocery work harder than it needs to be, and the stress is constant and unnecessary. If you value your mental health and wellbeing, this isn't the place for you. Aldi will push you to your limit and then tell you it's not good enough. They wonder why they can't keep people, but they refuse to understand that the workload expectations are unrealistic. Looking back on my three months there, I'm glad I left. No job is worth that level of daily stress and disrespect.


Let me start by saying, I had heard relatively positive things about working for Aldi prior to my employment. I have a full time job and wanted to pick up a part time for extra $$$ for the holidays and a few trips. I was not prepared for all that happened. 

I applied several times for a few local stores in my area. I got a few interviews, however I was out of town for one of the dates and instead of rescheduling for a later date, they pass on and encourage you to look for other opportunities. I finally got an interview, only to learn it’s a group interview session. During the process, they call you in one by one to discuss basics like why you want to work for Aldi, and availability. After a week or so, I was brought in for a final interview, where I was essentially asked the same questions and hired on the spot for the Riverview, FL location (8613 S US Highway 301.) After completing the usual formalities, I was given a start date. My training was supposed to be at the Sarasota, FL training facility as my local stores were full. The day before my interview, I was asked to find another store to train at due to power issues. 

Thankfully, Aldi does payout for mileage when traveling. And they payout “worked time” of your drive is an hour to or from the store you’re heading to, however I did not qualify for that. I met with my trainer Alexandra who was very nice. I missed the first day orientation due to work so I essentially had two days of training shoved into one. Which was very overwhelming because it mainly consisted of nonstop online training modules. My first day, I only practiced as a cashier for MAYBE 10 minutes during a 6 hour shift. Alex was able to answer any questions I had. 

My second day is where I started to feel iffy about working for Aldi. I had to return to finish my online training modules, as well as learn produce codes. Which, for someone who hadn’t worked at a grocery store before, was a little difficult. However, Alex was very patient with me as I learned and gave me a few tips and tricks to remember. After finishing all of the ridiculous amount of training modules, I shadowed Alex for a few costumers on the register and then took over myself. Which I only rang 4 or 5 customers out for about 25 minutes and then we were done for the day.

The following day, I started in-store. I was apprehensive however wanted to give it a while before making a decision on my employment. The first 30 minutes or so consisted of the usual formalities (getting me set up on the system, etc.) After that, I was made Cashier 1 which basically I held down the fort by myself, and called for back up when needed. I was thrown in and then as made to feel stupid when I asked a fellow co-worker “Jake” for help. He seemed quite annoyed with my questions or asking for help. The Aldi registers are equipped with a buzzer to ask for help. However, they have the “Line rule” to where you can only have 3 customers in your line at a time, and if there is a 4th, you pause your current transaction and get out of your seat and personally escort that register and call for back up. I was unaware of this, and the Assistant manager Jewels, was VERY condescending and told me I need to follow the line rule.

The customers were non-stop which was expected for a Friday night. However I was told in between EACH transaction, I need to be up cleaning (wiping things down, sweeping, etc) there should never be ANY down time. Again, first full day in store and was not aware of any of this, and was still talk to very condescendingly and made to feel stupid because I wasn’t aware. Around the 2 hour mark of my shift, I to use the bathroom and take my 15 minute break. I announced it over the radio, and I was once again met with a bit of hostility. I was told to make my bathroom break but management determines when we take our break. Which finding out this would have fine, if I wasn’t told with the hostility I was met with. In the middle of my bathroom break, I was told to come to the office for a chat.

Jewels the assistant manager sat me down and gave the rundown of how things work at Aldi. She talked to me very condescendingly and talked to me as I was stupid. Told me the things I need to be doing in between customers, about breaks, etc. I was told that “we are here to help you, but if you aren’t gonna help yourself, we aren’t gonna help you” and then was allowed to take my break. The last 2 hours of my shift seemed to go by INCREDIBLY slow. I have worked a few customer service jobs, however the customers at this store were extremely rude:. It also doesn’t help that Aldi cares more about the speed at which you ring things up. You’re essentially trained to throw everything in the customers cart as quick as possible minus bread, eggs and chips. 

At store closing, the store was closed and u started my cleaning tasks. The manager pulled me aside and gave me run down of everything I had to clean. I had to wipe all 6 registers down (scanners, belt, keypads, credit card terminals) sweep and mop all 6 cashier booths. Then wipe down the bagging counter. Sweep the cash lanes. To the bathrooms, and clean everything in those (toilets, baby changing tables, sink, mirror, sweep and mop) go to the break room and clean (tables, countertop, sweep and mop) then head to the office and clean all of that (wipe everything down, sweep and mop) and finally mop the cash lane area. Jewels the manager said I had to do that all myself, and if we are there past my scheduled out time of 9:00pm, we will be there until all tasks had been taken care of. She once again repeated “we are here to help you, but if you aren’t going to help yourself, we aren’t going to help you.” 

At this point, I realized that this job was way to much than what I was being paid and I had decently better standards for myself. So I went to clock out, put my keys in the office. And left. And it was the best decision I made. I understand that every job has tasks to do. I have mainly worked customer service jobs however not one of them had this high of expectations and things to do. I was hired as a seasonal part time cashier and NOT a janitor. If I am going to doing janitorial duties, the pay scale should be a bit higher. Or higher a cleaning staff to come in, ALDI can CERTAINLY afford it. Also, in any new job I have had, I haven’t ever been treated or talked to the way I was during this shift. I used to be a corporate trainer for one of my jobs and ensured that all new hires felt comfortable and secure in their job before releasing them on their own. I was informed that this store was going through a complete employment overhaul. Firing all employees and hiring brand new ones. Even the general manager of that store had only been in the position for a month or two. However, if THAT is how they are going to treat new hires, they are going to be constantly hiring new people, because anyone with standards and self respect will continue to walk out just like I did. 0 out of 10, do NOT recommend ALDI. 

Staffing of an entire store is limited. If even just one person calls in it can affect the store for the entire day. However everyone is expected to put in the work 100% at all times. Depending on the flow of sales and how often you are restocking and going up to the registers for assistance your team can easily fall behind if someone starts to slack or get discouraged. You are on your feet the majority or your shift unless you’re main cashier otherwise expect up down up down. I averaged 20,000 to 30,000 steps a shift. 

There are no departments. If you are hired on you are expected to do it all. This involves opening which has you stocking shelves with the daily trailer that’s brought in. Average is one pallet per 35 minutes. If you don’t stick to the time then you end up having to do stocking while the store is open and moving the machines around with pallets of inventory with customers around becomes tricky. If you work at it you can get good at your timing and get pallets done quickly. It’s rewarding when you turn around and realize you have knocked out 3 pallets in an hour. You unload straight from the pallet and take the machine right to the shelving unit you are stocking to use your time wisely and put less strain on your body. They are good at making sure you know the best procedure to not get injured or strain yourself but at the end of the day your body does have wear and tear. 

If you’re on closing shift it depends on the store and the closing manager. Often times in order to close the store the way it is expected and to have it prepared for closing shift, you will be expected to stay until the floors are clean and the shelves have no empty boxes and look neat. If you had a busy day running back and forth to help ring, you’re most likely staying late unless someone was able to keep up with scrapping the boxes. This is where the metrics come in. If the lead cashier is hitting the goal on speed and accuracy it allows for the other workers to be on the floor completing their tasks that support the store. When you first start it is understood it will take time to get these metrics up so don’t stress out. Some people learn “tricks” to beat the computer. Others put in the work and are fast as lightening. You get a daily report of your cash handling and your scanning metrics so you can see where you need improvement and can celebrate when you hit your personal goals. 

Moving up to management was easy but stressful. It is still management. So you are adding responsibility on top of the stress of being an associate. You are also never really allowed to be sick. Seriously. When I left the company I had a ton of sick time saved up. I thought it was pointless. I couldn’t use it as management and when I left I was only paid out vacation days not sick days. With management you get the normal duties that come with running a store. Lunches are somewhat of a working lunch. If you are needed for customer assistance, a return, or any manager duty you have to stop your lunch clock back in and do your duty. If something is going to take you awhile(usually checking inventory at another store) then your break is going to have to wait. Some breaks you were good and got the full 30 undisturbed. Others you were called up every 2 minutes.

If you are training a new manager or store manager for another site they get to have their own “run phases” where your store manager is essentially doesn’t exist. They get sent elsewhere so the trainee gets the full experience. Those transitions are always difficult. Some did good. Others pushed your staff to a brinking point and customers would start asking when the store would return to normal. It can also be confusing if the trainee adopts a different way of doing anything other than the standard operating procedures all locations follow. Everything is done for a reason and associates get confused when they know what the consequence will be not following them. More work and more stress. 

Another thing to mention is for anything less than 6 hours you get a 15 minute paid break. Anything over you get 2 15s paid and 30 unpaid. I often worked at sister stores to help cover short staffing or vacations(not mandatory but if you want them to loan someone to your store in the future you do it.) I worked maybe 10 different stores and not a single one took all 3 breaks for over 6 hours. It was universally understood that you take your two 15s back to back(total of 30 minutes) and don’t even take your 30 non paid. It was always an option but the legality of it was grey. You could take it. It wasn’t part of the daily schedule and you would be reminded that means you’re off the floor for an entire hour. Meaning you likely would put us behind for closing and have to stay late anyways. “Clock out for your 15 minutes then you get paid! If you take your unpaid then you’re not on the floor getting paid and may end up having to stay past closing.” My experience is only based on the webberville division(Michigan) and other state laws may be different. 

As you could tell I could write a book on working there. You have good days and bad days but that comes with any job. The company took Covid very seriously and understood we were giving up our lives and safety to keep the store stocked for the public. The only time you were pressured for the vaccine was when the nation was looking at enforcing them for companies with 100 or more employees. As far as I know it is not required just recommended. 

The pay is good. It’s how they get you hooked in. But with more pay comes more responsibility. They took the time to develop you and expect more out of you. Nice thing is this is known in multiple industries so having Aldi in your work history is almost an automatic in when applying for other jobs. If you can survive(yes SURVIVE) Aldi then it speaks volumes for the hard worker you are. Companies love it. Best way I can describe it is I had Covid and thought it was just me being exhausted from working. Found out few days later it was Covid. Not fatigue from work. You won’t make it long if you can’t do heavy labor, be on your feet for 8-12 hours(depending on if you’re an associate or management)

Unfortunately, several negatives come to mind about working for this company. Virtually all of them center around Aldi's one biggest weakness as a company which it has failed to address.... for years and years: its highly stressful and just downright silly checkout process. As an employee, working on the cash register at Aldi is a monstrosity of a nightmare! It's dumb, it's inefficient, and just downright ridiculous if you want my brutally honest assessment of the situation. Because when you are assigned 'main cashier' duty at Aldi, you are basically required (and expected) to chuck, toss, slam, throw.... any way you can do it, other people's groceries.... which they just bought with their own money...... into the next shopping cart. Management doesn't care if you break or damage items in the process, as long as you keep that line moving at all costs! I literally have had customers scream at me in one ear for scanning way too fast during the checkout process and accidentally damaging their stuff as a result, simply because I'm literally scanning as fast as I can, only for management to then scream in my other ear (literally) about not ringing fast enough and not moving the line along fast enough. This "speedy" check-out process has been a systemic problem at this company for years, yet nothing is ever done to address the situation!! I've worked for this company for a very long time, and have worked in enough of their stores to tell you firsthand that it's a systemic problem everywhere! The company is essentially trying to squeeze the cashiering work of at least 3 or 4 separate cashiers out of one poor, stressed, overwhelmed, and over-worked cashier, simply because they refuse to hire enough people in their stores and/or adapt and change their ridiculous check-out process! Unfortunately, Aldi is too cheap to invest in self-service/self-checking registers, like virtually all other big retailers have in their stores right now (as we are well into the 21st century by the way.....) As a result, I totally feel that this company is all about profits over people, and the checkout process pretty much proves that point. Greedy corporate "executive managers" in Aldi's corporate and divisional offices who have never even set foot in any of their stores for one single minute to know what truly goes on there, do not care one bit about the customer who just had their eggs or bread or chips or fresh fruit smashed (literally) by their company cashiers who they require to scan/throw/smash thousands of items into each shopping cart (literally) each hour, by hand! Instead, Aldi executives only care about minimizing payroll and keeping operational costs down, but NOT the customer or their shopping experience which has just been ruined as a result of this ridiculous process. And by the way, I thought that the company had officially banned/discontinued its cart-to-cart transfer system which it's been using for decades and decades, in order to prevent the spread of germs and possible corona virus contagion? Sure fooled me though. Try telling that to some of Aldi's greedy store and district managers who are NOT adhering to this mandatory company policy right now, and simply because of the fact that they are instead more obsessed and preoccupied with how much they will be able to bonus off of their store's profit margins by reducing payroll expenses and increasing their "productivity" quotas. You would think that this wouldn't be happening though, that the company's managers wouldn't essentially be putting their own self-serving agendas and bonuses over their customers' and employees' SAFETY, especially in the midst of this global corona virus pandemic that we are in right now? Think again though. Because some of them certainly are..... But anyways, the biggest problem working for this company like I mentioned above, basically revolves around its outdated check-out process which is extremely stressful to everyone involved: both employees and customers. The entire checkout system is just totally stupid, if you ask me. When one overwhelmed, stressed out cashier is at their breaking point from a line wrapping all the way (literally) around the entire store, wouldn't it make much more sense to just be able to open up self-service/self-checking cash registers for customers, so they can then check out their own items? Yes, it certainly does! It's a win-win situation for everyone. The employees wouldn't be nearly as stressed out as we are right now with trying our hardest to keep the ridiculously long lines down, and customers would also then be able to shop/check-out at their own leisure when they are ready to, instead of having to wait in those absurdly long lines. You would think this would naturally be the logical solution to everything though, right? Especially, considering the fact that an average Aldi store has on average at least 4 or 5 check-lanes in each store. Nope! Think again. Aldi "senior" executive management here just doesn't want to invest in new technology which would allow customers to check-out their own items. To Aldi's "senior management" team (who clearly seems to know it all..... or at least some sure acts as though they do.....), they obviously don't want either happy employees working at their stores and/or happy customers shopping in their stores as well. Obviously and as evidenced by their categorical, stubborn refusal to change their completely stressful and ineffective check-out system which they've been using for years and years, Aldi would clearly prefer the alternative: long lines, wasted 'real estate' space in their stores in the way of averagely 3 entire unused/unoccupied check-out lanes with no customers in them, angry customers, frustrated and stressed out employees, and a perpetually vicious cycle of employee burnout and high turnover which is often the byproduct of their so-called "efficient" check-out process......

Seriously, I would not recommend working here unless you are a robot or absolutely desperate and can't find another job. Don't let the hourly rate and ok benefits rope you in. They are not transparent, not understanding, and expect too much. What should be a red flag is that this company is always hiring which means people are always leaving. The amount of pressure they put on you for what the job actually is and how much you are paid is unrealistic. You might apply for the associate, cashier or stock position but you will do literally every position in the store and then some. You will be stocking shelves doing register stocking the freezer and cooler doing the curbside orders and cleaning the entire store, constantly back and forth all in one shift. If only they had actual assigned positions like other companies the job wouldn't be so stressful. But they want 1 person to do the job of about 5 people, in order to "save money". This is how they're able to have such low prices on products. At the expense of their employees They seemed to be understaffed, and you will quickly understand why. Every single thing is timed from how much items you can scan in an hour or how quickly you can find and pack orders for the curbside pick up. How fast you clean the store and how fast you restock or box the shelves. If you're not fast enough they would constantly threaten you. They do not fully explain what the job actually is because they know it will turn people away. They didnt even train me properly. Management expected me to know everything right away from my first day. They showed me how to do something one time and then expected me to do it on my own there on out. Mind you this was not my 1st retail job I've worked in retail/customer service for over 6 years and never have I had such as bad experience with a company before. Management did not tolerate me making mistakes within my 1st few days of working there. They wanted me to be perfect as soon as I walked in. And if I made a mistake they tried to make me feel dumb instead of giving me credit for trying.  Not to mention they scheduled me out of my availability knowing I had a second job and no one wanted to fix it for me.  They never even asked me what days I was available they just put me on the schedule and. I was supposed to be part time and my scheduled hours for the week added up to 39 hours which seemed like they were trying to avoid giving me 40, they would have to compensate full time benefits. The shift lead and a few associates helped if I needed on my first day while the managers pretended to be nice when they wanted me to do something but they gave me such a bad attitude when I didn't understand what they were trying to show me or if I did it incorrectly. They tried to put me on register my 1st day of working there and when I didn't understand how to use the keys(their registers are analog and outdated) one of the managers would get mad at me and make me move to the side and type in the codes herself without explaining to me. You have to know about 20 codes for the produce at the top of your head. They aren't on the stickers like most other groceries. Along with knowing all those codes you have to be super quick you can't stop scanning items even if you have to throw stuff in the customer's cart that could be easily damaged like eggs or bread or bags of chips, otherwise your numbers would go down. Company is very big on efficiency. Do not be fooled by the fact that you get it to sit while ringing customers up. Cause sometimes you could be sitting there for an entire 8 hour shift as I've seen some associates do. And they play favourites. Managers are always chatting and laughing about things that have nothing to do with work. They would constantly talk bad about other employees. They have such hot heads and feel big and bold because they have a higher title for such a lame job. They cheat workers on their breaks. They never told me how the breaks worked. Got into an argument with one of the managers about me taking my alloted breaks, during my break.There were only 2 shifts which usually start from 5am to about 4pm or 2pm to 9 pm(close). The early morning shifts wasn't so bad because you got to just restock the shelves individually without customers asking you to help them find things but you still had to do them before the store opened. You would have to stock bread pallets meat pallets and cheese pallets within 2 hours before open. But even though you're scheduled for the afternoon shift at 9pm if the store is not wrapped up at the end of the day you will be forced to stay until everything is done. On the schedule I saw that there were some people who had to work at 2:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. shift and then was expected to come in the next day from 6:00 am to 3:00pm which is ridiculous. I was having trouble with using some of the warehouse machinery and one of the managers had the nerve to tell me that it's easy and I should have done better. It's easy to say its easy when you've been doing this job for years but for somebody's first time they need to be given some room for mistakes and motivation. But they do not tolerate mistakes you must be a 100% efficient and even if you are it's still not good enough. They want you to break your back for them and in return you don't even get praise for the good work that you actually do. I quit after my 3rd day. It was a horrible experience. I don't think I will ever shop here again knowing what they put their workers through and I will make sure my family doesn't either. It is way too physically and mentally demanding

Aldi presents themselves as a company that cares about their employees and efficiency but in reality all they care about is the efficiency and money. They treat you like robots and record your every move as a cashier from how many items per minute, how long it takes to scan each customers order, how long it takes in BETWEEN customers orders (when customer walks away and u start scanning the next one, how long it takes to complete Instacart orders, time it takes you to find each individual item, how long THE CUSTOMER takes to pay. Why are you being penalized for how slow the customer is? A Great question that they don’t have an answer to. And if your statistics aren’t up to their standards, even if it’s just slightly off, they will let you know that and keep pressing you about working more and faster. As if you’re a computer and not a human being.

Feeling sick? Need to care for a family member? Possibly have covid? Doesn’t matter, because if you’re not able to find someone to cover your shift they’re gonna force you to come into work anyways. Yes, illness and all.  The most they’ll offer to do is let you go home early but that’s maybe 1 to 2 hours before your shift ends, which is basically nothing. They also require you to call out 4 hours before your shift starts in order to not get written up, so if your shift starts at 6 am? You will somehow get in trouble for not calling out 4 hours before that…at 2 am…when the store is closed and literally no one is there. And they also do not want you personally contacting the managers outside of work so don’t think about calling or texting them to call out either, you must call the store regardless of the fact that no one is there. And sometimes when you call the store, even if there are employees on the clock, no one picks up the phone. They make it almost impossible to call out no matter your situation or reasoning. 

 If you’re not full time, they’re barely gonna give you hours. Don’t expect more than 20-something hours a week and that’s if they’re feeling generous. They also give you short shifts, sometimes 3 or 4 hours (rarely 8) so the 20-something hours you’re scheduled for is gonna be broken up into about 4 or 5 days of work. So basically you barely got any hours but somehow you still have to get up early and be at work 5 days a week, just to go back home shortly after. It’s a grand waste of time and you will be better off using that time at another job. Anywhere else that gives you 24 hours in a week would have simply given you 3 days of 8-hour shifts and you’d be free for the next 4 days, but Aldi thinks they are entitled to almost your entire week for barely any pay. As I’m typing this I’m realizing that it’s probably because they don’t want you to be available enough to find a second job, they only want you to be available for them to make scheduling easier for them. And if you ask for more hours, don’t expect to get any. They will say “I’ll get back to you on that” and give you the run around and never actually get back to you or give you more hours and judging by the fact that every manager did that same exact thing they probably TRAINED them to do that.

Covid safety? Not bad but can be improved. Fortunately You do have a plastic shield at the cashiers counter, There are wipes for customers to clean their carts but that’s if they *feel* like actually cleaning it. They don’t provide you with gloves so despite the fact that we’re in a pandemic prepare to come in direct physical contact with customers, the items they touched, whatever cash they hand you, or even just the raw meat juices and blood that are leaking and dripping from the raw meat products. Yay Salmonella and yay COVID-19! I actually got sick from working here and ended up getting my mother sick because if customers come in coughing, sneezing, and wheezing and don’t feel like wearing masks they simply did not have to despite the fact that were in a pandemic. That rule only recently changed in late august. Despite being sick and possibly having covid did I still have to come into work? Yes.

Some of the employees and most of the managers and store manager are quite fake and talk about each other behind each other’s back. Also Clear signs of favoritism. Once the store starts to get busy the Managers can become stressed out and start taking it out on you and become rude.  

Some good things are they do pay a little higher than other companies you might find in your area (15.20/hr) but your paycheck will still be skimp, like any other job the coworkers can make the atmosphere a little less toxic if they’re cool and fun to be around, they close fairly early so if you close you’ll be done by around 9 or 10 and the work isn’t back breaking. 

Bonus tip: the head Store manager gets a bonus at the end of the year if they’re able to efficiently run the store while giving the employees as little hours as possible so they don’t have to pay you much. 

This review covers both associates and management. Pay is good, better than average for the industry (in some cases much better), but you will work harder than anywhere else. Extremely high expectations and productivity requirements. It is physically exhausting, for management as well as associates. Every employee is trained in multiple tasks so there is literally no downtime. For example, someone on cashier duty who has a lull in customers must immediately get to work on another task such as stocking or cleaning until they are needed at the register again. You will even get reprimanded for walking too slow. Aldi is all about efficiency. Not a moment to be wasted. Get paid more, but get more done with a smaller staff. It is definitely not an atmosphere for the faint of heart. Aldi also stresses excellence in customer service, although it is a constant struggle to properly provide it when operational needs are so incredibly demanding. This is partly due to Americans not being used to the Aldi concept, which is a one-brand option (Aldi) for most items with lightning speed no-frills checkout. Visits are supposed to be quick and easy, and prices kept very low due to limited staff and ultra-efficient operating procedures. Americans tend to expect the same experience they get at the huge supermarkets, so dealing with demanding, frustrated, and/or disappointed customers is par for the course. Part of the challenge of working at Aldi is to "train" customers to understand how Aldi is supposed to work, i.e. you bag your groceries yourself at the separate bagging counter and not at the registers. One of the biggest misunderstandings is that requiring a quarter to use a shopping cart is not about making more money, but about helping to keep prices low by encouraging customers to return carts to the corral themselves. They get their quarter back and an employee doesn't need to be paid to collect the carts. Having patience and a thick skin with customers is essential. The truth is that for many, the overall stress of working at Aldi can become overwhelming. Aldi has very specific operating procedures that are supposed to be the same for every store, so technically there's not much room for "outside the box" thinking and executing. Aldi really wants cookie-cutter operating stores. This can be difficult for managers who like to adapt and adjust to their own best way of running things and can be boring for creative-type managers. Nevertheless, expectations can vary greatly between stores, generally due to quality of personnel. Unfortunately, this can result in better performing stores being pushed even harder to make up for the poorer performers, with no corresponding reward, while the poorer performers may seem to "get away" with lax behavior. Since management would be the ones to become aware of that disparity, the apparent unfairness can be bad for morale. I believe the biggest negative at Aldi is their attitude towards their workers. Despite the image they try so hard to project, employees are clearly just cogs in a machine. In some stores, the training received is far better than in other stores. Turnover is very high, and it is not only due to how hard the work is. District managers are always hired from outside, usually right out of college. I suspect there is a method to that madness. They don't form a camaraderie with everyone else and can be basically trained to be over-performing robots. It is a rare DM that doesn't consider everyone under them expendable. This tends to make a true team spirit very hard to develop since that feeling obviously trickles down. There is also obvious favoritism from and among management that is not discouraged or ever acknowledged. Aldi also has a well-deserved reputation of not hiring older workers. They feel they won't be as open to the Aldi way of doing things, be able to keep up the pace, or look the part. I am not inferring this, it was literally said to me. However, there are some people who truly love working for Aldi. If you like to keep busy so the day flies by, this more than fits the bill. However, you might not enjoy your free time as much because you'll probably be too exhausted. For management especially, there's not a great work-life balance. The schedules and hours can be brutal. In my experience, people who work at Aldi find themselves burned out quickly. It's a special person who finds long-term success at Aldi, but they do exist.

THE SECRET:
     The secret for the company to keep prices so low is because is understaffed all the time, and if one person call-off, everyone is screw because the company keeps a tight schedule so everyone has to work even faster than what we already have to, the company pay above minimum wage, but you have to work for 2 persons.

NO 3RD PARTY COMPANIES:
     Inventory is every 3 months, so we stay between 12 am to 2 am and we usually never get off on time. The company doesn't hire 3rd party companies to do the cleaning neither, so we have to do ALL cleaning too (cleaning washrooms, scrubbing, edging the areas that the scrubber machine doesn't reach, map, sweep, etc.).

REGISTER:
     We work the backstock and have to jump to the register quickly and go back to our project stacking up the floor and jump back to the register again and so on. We have to ring at least 40 items per minute, which is also very fast peace even in the register.

MORNING SHIFT:
     The morning shift is the most physical and painful shift because some stores open at 5 am and others at 6 am, so we only have 3 to 4 hours to finish ALL pallets IN LESS than 30 minutes each pallet. So, if you are in charge of groceries, for example, you have to do an average of 7 to 12 PALLETS BY YOURSELF or in some rare cases you and another person. If pallets are not done before the store opens, you will STILL have to work the pallets AND the register BACK AND FORWARD until is fully done, otherwise you will not go home, which results in a very stressful day because my store is a really busy store at all time.

FREEZER:
     We also have to work the freezer from the inside out and keep the door close to keep fans on and is way too cold inside (around -50°F), and because we usually have 2 to 4 pallets to work INSIDE, we must finish them fast and then do bread and pastries outside, check expiration days and fill the region area as well. The freezer is one of several other reasons many people quit. One time was slippery inside (ice) and I did hurt myself.  The WORST thing (in some few cases), we work part of the groceries and then we have to go INSIDE the freezer which is a BIG NO for me because we all sweat doing groceries and going after inside the freezer can result in flu or hypothermia.

COOLER:
     The person in charge of the cooler (refrigerator), will have to fill the meat and check ALL expiration dates and meat temperature, also work the cooler from the inside out (which the temperature inside is not too bad, is about -32°F making it manageable to work the pallets), but is one of the most tedious tasks to work on.

BREAKS:
     Even if we work 8 to 10 hours, you only get ONE lunch break, NOT 15 min break at a later time, is either 1 lunch break or just a 15 min break, not two. There is no such thing of lunch now and a break later, no (is either one or the other). Sometimes our breaks don't start AFTER 5 hours of excruciating work (which is illegal because the 1st break has to be before the 5th hour). And managers have to pick your lunchtime, not you.

CUSTOMERS:
      And because customers see you seating ringing them up, some have the freaking nerve to tell you, you have an easy day, and I just think "you should apply" and I bet they won't last 6 months. This job has soo many turnovers so fast. More than 60% of my co-workers have less of a year working there. You see new people all the time and never get a chance to meet one because is too much to do that you have not enough change to establish a conversation in the least.

SHIFT MANAGER:
     Shifts managers usually do the same as store associates (regular associates) but a bit more when it comes to making orders and organizing people and planing the day. But shift managers are not always managers, sometimes, they are scheduled as regular associates (like us) with regular associate salary and other days as managers salary (I never saw that in other companies shifting their hourly wage)

CONCLUSION:
     I mean, I like to work and stay busy, but for heaven sake, THERE IS NO WAY someone can retire as a store associate. One can retire as a store manager because store managers can get away with a lot of physical work, but not the regular associates nor shift managers.

     And because the company is understaffed, it is why we must run in order to finish the work, making it by definition stressful and physical at the same time, resulting with many unexpected cuts and bruces.

Here's everything you need to know before applying here. Enter at your own risk. First off all you are timed on everything. If you cannot stock huge pallets of food into the loading shelves in 25 minutes or under you are subject to immediate discipline including termination. The same thing with ringing. If you cannot ring at least 2000 food items per hour you could also get written up or fired. This is what happened to me. I was written up so many times for basically refusing to throw and smash customers groceries into their shopping carts. Management didn't care though. They told me: ring faster or you are fired. So I just decided to quit instead of having this extra pressure. Plus it didn't seem right just throwing and smashing customers groceries around which is very rude. However if you don't ring this way you will be written up time after time then eventually fired. You also get injured a lot here. Every day huge pallets of food products are left on the floor for customers and workers to trip and fall over. Again this also happened to me at least a couple times. You think the company did the right legal thing by complying with workers compensation laws? Nope! Think again. The next thing you should know is the company won't follow labor laws either. For example they force you to skip your mandatory 15 minute rest breaks. Same thing with meal periods. There just won't be enough time in the day to take them. So management makes you forego them. Also your timecards get fudged and tampered with so the company can avoid paying overtime. The first couple times this happened I was a little suspicious and thought maybe it was just a "payroll error" which is what they explained. Then it kept happening over and over again. So from then I knew it was deliberate. That's stuff you should know too. Also you should know you will be left in the freezer at sub-zero temperatures (without gloves coats or hats provided to you which is also against the law). This is because they are always getting lost accidentally thrown out or put in the baler along with boxes. However you will still be forced to throw truck in the freezer in sub-zero temperatures for at least a couple hours while your skin and body is freezing. If you don't follow this illegal request you can also be written up. The district managers are clueless inexperienced young twenty something year olds with no life or career experience. They don't know how to manage subordinates led alone managing stores with 750000 plus average monthly sales. The directors and VPs above them aren't much better. You only see them like a couple times a month to hear about all the bad stuff in the store. They are not encouraging or motivating in their feedback or visits. You will cringe in fright and anxiety whenever you hear there is one of these dreaded visits planned to your store. The pay is just okay and the health insurance isn't all that great. It doesn't cover a lot of basic medical procedures or services. With all the injuries which workers sustain from having to work so fast at lightning breakneck speeds you would think the company would at least offer better medical insurance? Nope! If you get injured on their premises because of their crazy unreal job performance metrics well then you are pretty much out of luck. (My hands and forearms still have scars from all the grueling physical requirements of this job plus my permanent back pain and worsening spine injury from how fast we were required to lift and stock.) This company won't care though. The only good thing about working for Aldi is the exercise you get from burning up a sweat. Plus some of the customers were okay. Most of my direct coworkers were fun to work with. Everything else however is pretty awful. There is a reason why this company is always hosting hiring events. Turnover is off the charts and they can't hang onto people for longer than a couple months. Make your own decision for yourself of whether you still want to work here after reading this review. However if you do decide to pass on employment at this company I'd bet any amount of money that you will definitely be thanking yourself later.

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