[savoche]

The biggest problem I find at Aldi is that I am usually buying a very small number of items but I usually need to line up behind a couple of people with almost immovable trolley loads that take forever because of the quantity. Checkout often takes me rather longer than finding the stuff in the shop.

I have been to shops where they have a separate express checkout for people with less than X items. Very convenient.

[Racer X 69]

Aldi has the fastest checkouts I've seen. Each of their products has multiple bar codes so the clerk can scan things faster than you can get them from your cart. Bag your own, no waiting for a clerk or a bag person, I was at one today and thought of Rupert when I bought a bar of chocolate candy, but no shoe polish.

About 9 years ago I delivered an oversize load to a place in Providence, Rhode Island. Not having an immediate reload I left the trailer at the customer and bobtailed to the store for groceries. The store I went to had a place on the shopping carts to place a smrat phon. The customer downloads an app, provides credit card, debit card or bank information, scans each item, and loads their stuff into reusable canvas bags they brought with them, and bypasses the checkstand on the way out. They had a couple of lanes for guys like me who were still in the dark ages with a flip phone to check out and bag the groceries.

[Racer X 69]

I have been to shops where they have a separate express checkout for people with less than X items. Very convenient.

We have those here.

12 items or less.

Always some clown with a full cart, 57 items, trying to avoid the long lines where people have carts overflowing with groceries.

[tim60]

I have been to shops where they have a separate express checkout for people with less than X items. Very convenient.

Not at the Aldi I have seen in England.

More upmarket places do, routinely.

That works until someone who failed counting (not accounting) at school is in front of you.

[tim60]

We have those here.

12 items or less.

Always some clown with a full cart, 57 items, trying to avoid the long lines where people have carts overflowing with groceries.

57 items - a Heinz cart.

[Racer X 69]

Saturday at the Big Shed today. Starting at 3:30 this morning so I still have a day to work on my Z.

Time to drive to the city.

[Racer X 69]

Saturday at the Big Shed today. Starting at 3:30 this morning so I still have a day to work on my Z.

Time to drive to the city.

[robtcorl]

Saturday at the Big Shed today.

Saturday at the Big Shed today.

Double post for double time, eh?

[robtcorl]

At our Aldi stores the clerk sits at the end of the conveyor belt and places each scanned item in another cart (trolley). Your cart then becomes the receptacle for the next person and so on. You move over to a long counter for bagging.
One trick I've seen is to take a laundry basket along, the clerk puts your items in it, bagging is done.

[Racer X 69]

Double post for double time, eh?

I wish.

Saturday is time and a half.

Sunday is double time.

Not sure why the posts pop up double sometimes. Must be a rip in the time/space continuum.

[JimJohnson]

I checked out that link. Some good ideas for Pringle's containers. I like the loudspeaker hack...cut a line hole in your Pringle's can...stick in your cell phone, play music, much louder through the amplifying of the Pringle's cannister.

I met Dennis Gage, the model for the Pringle's mustachioed icon . He was an chemist I believe (could be wrong) and was quite involved in the development of the product. It was at an outdoor car show.

I went up to him and asked if my buddies and I could get a pix of him, with us...and at the time, I had two Pentax cameras hanging from my neck...a K10D and a K5. He replied 'Sure, but where are we going to find a camera."

Very nice fellow and has a quick wit and engaging manner.

My college roommate's father was the #2 packaging engineer for General Foods - he designed the Pringle's can as well as the equipment to stack the chips inside without breaking them. Nice guy with a sense of humor.

I first met my college roommate as he dejectedly dragged himself into our new living quarters. He had ridden his Honda Scrambler motorcycle from his home in the Minneapolis suburbs almost all the way to Michigan Technological University (375 miles) - he blew a piston about 25 miles out. When his parents arrived with the rest of his belongings the next day, his father had brought tools to take the engine back to Minnesota. His father repaired the engine, built a shipping crate and sent it back to his son with a note that all the screws in the crate went in really easy with his Yankee Screwdriver (a tool that used a spiral to turn the screw as the user pushed - a LONG time before cordless drill/drivers existed). My roommate cussed for over an hour uncrating his engine with a standard screwdriver.

[lesmore49]

My college roommate's father was the #2 packaging engineer for General Foods - he designed the Pringle's can as well as the equipment to stack the chips inside without breaking them. Nice guy with a sense of humor.

I first met my college roommate as he dejectedly dragged himself into our new living quarters. He had ridden his Honda Scrambler motorcycle from his home in the Minneapolis suburbs almost all the way to Michigan Technological University (375 miles) - he blew a piston about 25 miles out. When his parents arrived with the rest of his belongings the next day, his father had brought tools to take the engine back to Minnesota. His father repaired the engine, built a shipping crate and sent it back to his son with a note that all the screws in the crate went in really easy with his Yankee Screwdriver (a tool that used a spiral to turn the screw as the user pushed - a LONG time before cordless drill/drivers existed). My roommate cussed for over an hour uncrating his engine with a standard screwdriver.

An uncle of mine was a salesman, an excellent one who later had his own manufacturer's agent company. One of the products he sold, up here, was the Yankee Screwdriver. This would be back in the 1950's and '60's.

My dad had one and as you say, it was an excellent product. I don't know what became of ours, possibly lost during my parent's couple of house moves.

I have used the Yankee Screwdriver, many decades ago and it still sticks in my mind as one of the best tools I've used. I recall it was well built.

[lesmore49]

At our Aldi stores the clerk sits at the end of the conveyor belt and places each scanned item in another cart (trolley). Your cart then becomes the receptacle for the next person and so on. You move over to a long counter for bagging.
One trick I've seen is to take a laundry basket along, the clerk puts your items in it, bagging is done.

Good idea #1, always thinking outside the box, or in your case, the basket.

During Covid, we have been picking up groceries either via curbside at the store or had them delivered.

About a year ago, due to the fact that we had bought a certain amount (a lot) of groceries (we pick up groceries for my wife's mom) the super store threw in, for free, about 6 hard plastic, carrying boxes , that we started to use, to put the bags of groceries , etc. in, while placing in the cargo area of our SUV. Keeps everything together and is easier for me to carry into our house and the MIL's house. Good for sorting too and they stack up inside each other, and don't take up much room when not in use.

I put in a heavy duty, industrial quality cargo floor mat, in the cargo area of our SUV. The mat is heavily ribbed. I originally got for our Astro van back in the 90's and the boxes do not slide around while I'm driving, when sitting on this mat, due to the grippiness of this mat material.

Very handy.

[Parallax]

I have used the Yankee Screwdriver, many decades ago and it still sticks in my mind as one of the best tools I've used. I recall it was well built.

There was also a drill that worked the same way.

[lesmore49]

Big difference! But I find that a three-day stubble helps almost as much as a full-ish beard. So I never shave, I just use a clipper about once a week.

I generally am clean shaven. I use an old fashioned safety razor. My shaving equipment comes from different countries. Proraso shaving soap from Italy, Muhle safety razor from Germany, Feather brand razor blades from Japan, Shaving brush also from Italy and Fendrihan shaving mug from Canada.

It takes time, but I like the results and I've only been shaving this way since I've been retired. Didn't have the time when I was a working man.