ALDI announces major change in all of its stores nationwide — “Goodbye octopus arms!”
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ALDI has announced a major change in its stores starting Tuesday, 12 April.
ALDI shoppers will now be able to carry their items using baskets thanks to the company’s latest decision to roll out baskets in all of its stores nationwide.
It was said that the German retailer differentiated itself from its competitors, Woolworths and Coles, by encouraging its shoppers to bring their own bags and spare cardboard boxes to carry their groceries instead of offering them baskets.
Customers who failed to bring their own bags were forced to either make use of the supplied coin-operated trolleys or to carry their groceries by hand, popularising the term "octopus arms" amongst its shoppers.
ALDI announced the roll out of baskets in its stores nationwide. Credit: Facebook/ALDI.
Announcing the big change on its official Facebook page, an ALDI spokesperson said: "Customers that come into an ALDI store wanting 'just one thing', will know the feeling of wishing they had more hands. We recognise that these customers are looking for greater convenience when they visit our stores, as it's almost impossible not to pick up the excellent value products on offer."
"That's why we're introducing shopping baskets across all our locations, so our customers can more efficiently load up on goodies (on and off their intended lists) while doing smaller grocery shops."
The announcement captured the attention of shoppers, with many urging the company to also include smaller trolleys and express checkouts in the stores' aisles.
One person wrote: "Sounds great, now could we please have some smaller trolleys, short people have to fall into the trolley to get the stuff out at the checkout, I have spoken to head office about this ages ago but didn't get a reply."
"I always see seniors struggling with the big (sic) trollies as well," another added.
A third chimed in: "And about f****** time! I'm sick of pinching boxes to carry my stuff in."
ALDI’s unique positioning has seen shoppers popularising the term “octopus arms” as many of them opt to hand-carry their groceries while shopping in the retailer’s stores. Credit: Louise Kennerly.
For those of you who are curious whether ALDI took some of the recommendations into consideration, it was confirmed that the retailer is currently in the middle of a limited trial of self-serve checkouts in some stores in NSW.
ALDI is also trialling the "ALDI Corner Store" — a small-store format catering for commuters and riders — and "Pizzabot", a self-serving pizza vending machine.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think it's high time for ALDI to introduce this major change?