• GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        51
        ·
        2 months ago

        Only office workers and managers are allowed to sit. If you’re in a customer-facing position with a chair, you’re supposed to stand up when helping a customer.

        • prole
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          11
          ·
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          And as we all know, middle management does so much work and therefore deserve that right over everyone else.

          (sorry I vomited in my mouth a little bit)

        • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          2 months ago

          When I worked retail, at one of the stores you weren’t allowed to drink water where customers could see you. I chose to ignore that rule and only got chewed out when the store owner happened to be nearby

      • JakenVeina@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        40
        ·
        2 months ago

        Cashier stations with chairs are VERY rare, yes. The general trope is that managers/owners think it makes workers appear lazy.

      • Jimmyeatsausage@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        24
        ·
        2 months ago

        Not at most places. At some point, someone told all the MBAs that it makes the customers mad if the employees look lazy or some shit.

        • thesystemisdown@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          16
          ·
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          They also tend to make them stand at the beginning of their lane when they don’t have customers. Apparently a light signaling that they are available just isn’t enough.

          Edit: My bad. I’ve never seen this at Aldi or Lidl. Just other US chains like Food Lion.

          • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            2 months ago

            Hereabouts*, the lanes each have a sign with their number. Glows red = closed, glows green = open. Super convenient, and I’ve seen it across multiple store chains, so it’s not like it’s only one store doing it.

            *Southern Germany, observed across different cities, though I can’t vouch that it is universal

        • prole
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          Well, turns out I do have PTSD from a decade of working retail and food service. So thanks for that lol

      • zephorah@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        2 months ago

        It’s this bizarre thing. Management want them to “look busy” or some bullshit. Aldi looks busy.

        You’ll see this on some factory floors too. No chairs even for the management or QA logging numbers on computers. Chairs are for break time or some such.

        • Thisiswritteningerman@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 months ago

          Depends on the company and plant. Not to brag on my Corporate overloads as they’ve gaslit employees and poisoned the global water supply, but they do a good job of making production’s life tolerable enough (above average pay for the area, regular Kaizens for them to voice their opinions, good safety culture, keeping up 5s) that people want to work for them.

      • KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        2 months ago

        In California, companies are required by law to provide them seating and let them sit down, but most everywhere else they are expected to stand.

      • prole
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        Corporations make that decision. And our country allows (if not encourages) it.

        Yes, seriously. Same goes with drinking water behind the counter.

      • littlecolt@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        2 months ago

        Aldi is the only place I’ve seen. However, Aldi recently started installing self checkout, which I despise.

        • dubyakay@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          2 months ago

          I love good self checkouts. I hate bad self checkouts.

          Bad self checkouts are those that alert the sole employee running around between twenty terminals of some discrepancy for every fucking thing. Weight discrepancy! Remove duplicate item! They didn’t select number of bags! Check their receit!

          Just leave me be and let me scan my flatbread and leave already. Or open another cashier. Or just don’t implement self-checkout if it’s not really self-checkout.

          • Fiona@discuss.tchncs.de
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 months ago

            Yeah, a good self-checkout is amazing and a competely different category from the garbage you see elsewhere.

            In the Netherlands at Albert Heijn the only verification consists pretty much of occasional random checks and in the one closes to me they replaced two of the manual counters with eight self-checkouts, meaning that the queues are pretty much gone. You can also self-scan while shopping, if you want with your own phone in which case payment is 90% of the time just scanning a barcode and paying at a debit-card terminal.

            And while you are not supposed to, nobody ever cares if you use your own backpack instead of a shopping basket/car, in which case you don’t even have to pack up your stuff. If you do get a random check with it, you just open it up wide and let the employee pick a few random items to scan and they won’t even say a word.

            The only other delay is age-verification if you buy alcohol, which in my case means that an employee looks over from across the room and sadly decides that I’m an old enough fuck to not need my ID inspected. (Then again, being trans without legal stuff having happened yet (soon though!), it does make things easier.)

            Could you steal? Of course, but you can do the same with regular counters!

      • JakenVeina@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        2 months ago

        Cashier stations with chairs are VERY rare, yes. The general trope is that managers/owners think it makes workers appear lazy.

      • JakenVeina@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 months ago

        Cashier stations with chairs are VERY rare, yes. The general trope is that managers/owners think it makes workers appear lazy.

  • tenchiken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    57
    ·
    2 months ago

    “up to $23 an hour”… Doing a whole lotta heavy lifting in this headline.

    How is it sane to list the maximum you can make, vs what to expect day 1?!

    • frank@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      31
      ·
      2 months ago

      It reads like the minimum went from $18 to $23. So the minimum is up from $18, to $23.

      • Norah - She/They
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        17
        ·
        2 months ago

        Aldi announced that it it looking to hire thousands of new workers, as well as increasing their minimum wage to $18 and $23 an hour.

        My read on this, is that they are discussing the minimum for two separate positions. Potentially cashier and team leader. Would make sense as they don’t have many employees on shift at a time.

      • tenchiken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        I hope so. It would be a nice change compared to… Well… Everything.

        Edit: ahhhh see it now. I read it as “up to” alone, but implied “increased to” instead.

        English is hard sometimes.

        • Norah - She/They
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          2 months ago

          It really is. The fact “up to” can mean either a maximum value, or an increase to a value, is stupid.

          • Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            2 months ago

            Sale, up to 90% off!

            Where the 90% off is the triple clearance table that’s been inventory they genuinely can’t get rid of, while everything else is 10-15% off

    • Maeve@kbin.earth
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 months ago

      The article says that those are the starting wages, for store and warehouse, respectively.

  • General_Effort@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    35
    ·
    2 months ago

    It is telling that Aldi is successfully expanding in the USA while keeping the same model that made it big in its home market of Germany and the rest of Europe.

    When Walmart tried to gain a foothold in Germany, it hemorrhaged billions before giving up. The managers responsible covered their asses with bullshit about cultural differences or unions, but the truth is that they just couldn’t offer competitive prices. Looks like, even in the US, shoppers favor low prices over wasteful frills like greeters.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      2 months ago

      Greeters are literally a charitable expense (that they’ve mostly replaced with security goons) the wasteful frills in Walmart are executive compensation and benefits.

      • Unbecredible@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        2 months ago

        hahahah right? I was like ‘uh…I don’t think that’s where all the money’s disappearing to my guy…’

      • General_Effort@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        2 months ago

        You think the managers at Aldi work for the satisfying feeling of serving their community or what? Aldi cut costs in any way possible and greeters are simply a very visible way.

        Aldi isn’t really a direct competitor of Walmart. There are other more similar (hypermarket) chains in Germany that directly offered the same as Walmart. For its attempt to enter the german market, Walmart bought up a bankrupt chain of such hypermarkets. The stores were in worse locations than those of their competitors. Basically, it was unwanted left-overs. The Walmart, closest to me, was right next to its competitors but on the far side. It was just a little less convenient. If they had been able to offer better prices or quality, that might have made it worth it. But they couldn’t. There were only greeters and packagers.

    • Johnmannesca@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 months ago

      Yes please, we need more competition on groceries in rural Texas and also Arkansas as an extra special sort of fuck you to Walmart.

      • roofuskit@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        That’s because ALDI doesn’t cushion cost increases or sell loss leaders. If eggs shoot up in price 400% they immediately raise the price to match. Most grocery stores will try to eat at least some of that cost for some time hoping it will go down before they have to raise even further. That kind of pricing model means they need much larger margins on all their other products to afford that. Same way they sell milk and rotisserie chickens at a loss to get people in the store.

        ALDI does not play those games and keeps their margins more consistent but their prices are more susceptible to spikes in costs.

        • Fish [Indiana]@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          Then how do they keep their chocolate so cheap? Their chocolate bars are cheaper, larger, and better than most American chocolate.

    • Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      2 months ago

      Aldi Nord controlled stores in the US are Trader Joes, Aldi Sud stores in the US are just Aldi

    • AnarchoSnowPlow@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      2 months ago

      We have both Aldi here but they’re differently named. One is just Aldi, the other is Trader Joe’s.

      It’s our super low cost grocer, that has in recent years become more high quality. When I was a kid (80s-90s) it was like “never buy fresh anything there because it’s all crap” but these days it’s all pretty decent quality stuff. Not like farmstand good, but better than Walmart.

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 months ago

        I’ve noticed refrigerated stuff and produce from Aldi tends to go bad pretty fast, but as long as you use it up within a few days it’s fine

    • GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      2 months ago

      Yeah, they’ve been in Texas at least 20 years. Looks like they are in most of the states in the eastern half of the continental US and the states along the southern border.

    • NoDignity@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      2 months ago

      They have been here in the US for a long time, I think their first american store opened in the 70s. Personally I love Aldi I shop at my local one here in Missouri at least once a week. Their price on extra firm tofu just can’t be beat its at least 1/3 the price it is at my other local supermarkets.

    • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      Yes, they’re not the most common but they’re in most places here. Lidl too but there’s far less of them (apparently only in the northeast)

    • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      2 months ago

      I mean it is a german company, they might just standardize EU standards through out their company. At least this is a small pipe-dream I have had about them.

  • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    Great, now that they have bought winn-dixie, and are moving in places, mostly, where there are failed/failing regional chains, we will have even less competition.

    Remember, despite saying Aldi does not discriminate based on union/desire to unionize, A LOT of their ex-management say they were straight up told to fire anyone who mentions it, and they would rather get sued for it, than allow it.

    • auzy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      If workers like their job and feel appreciated, they work harder. The job also likely attracts better people.

      They might be able to hire less people as a result

      I did night fill at a supermarket here in Australia once. And there are so many useless people working at them. There was never any incentive to work beyond the minimum standard

      Here in Australia at least, supermarkets are making record profits, so it would simply be less money for shareholders

      • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        I’m not talking about the pay rate, I’m talking about rapidly expanding into a market and hiring thousands of people.

        This is exactly what companies like Google and Amazon due to keep a continuous cycle of growth and layoffs going for optics on share value.