Lots of progression opportunities if you're willing to sweat for it.
Aldi stores are run with incredibly high-efficiency business models which means a lot of employee productivity monitoring and targets. This isn't an issue if you enjoy working up a sweat and enjoy really pushing yourself physically at work. Aldi's 'flexible skill' approach to employee training also means that you will be kept very busy for the first 6months experiencing a lot of new tasks and being steadily trained in all the stations of the store. Unfortunately, once the training is done, like any shop-floor work in businesses this streamlined, it becomes repetitive and monotonous, more physical work out than mentally stimulating. Customers are incredibly diverse in scope, I found this to be a huge upside.
Workplace culture differs from store to store but I was fortunate enough to be part of an incredibly hard-working, friendly and motivating team. I made friends I still keep in contact with that I probably wouldn't have met otherwise and my entire work philosophy is different for the better. This isn't necessarily the case, but Aldi's approach does weed out the half-in/half-out staff and leaves you with a team that more often than not care about the work and appreciate the financial reward and promotion track.
SUMMARY (TL/DR)
Pros:
- The promotion track is real;
if you really want it and work for it, you WILL be a store manager at some point in your career with Aldi. They're constantly expanding and as a result promotion opportunities are seemingly endless
Extremely difficult and stressful job. You get paid more then other retailers but does it worth at the end? NO, it does not! Every one I know working in Aldi has developed back pain after a year or less. Huge staff turnaround and no wonder they struggle to attract new hirers. They recently launched new campaign in order to attract new hires, if a current employee refer someone else, it gets paid 500 after a year, yet still can't find people, that is why they hire literally just any one. That is why you see people on the tills barely speak English. People are leaving because of the stress and constant pressure. If you are lady you will get more privileges like doing easier job, seating on the tills most of time etc. But if you are man, you are done...you will carry all the physical work in a shift, you will be the donkey for the day! You will sign up for a 25 hours per week contract and you will usually get 30 hours, sometimes more on a busy periods, but if they decide they will send you home anytime thru out your shift, that is why they keep every one on 25 hours contract. If you "know too much" then you will get your basic 25 hours in favor of someone else (there are always a pets) who will get up to 40 hours per week, even though you will have same 25 hours contract. What I have learned? I have learned to hate retail. Management? Like I mentioned earlier, because of the high staff turnover Aldi hires literary everything and every one, interview just exist as a formality, s
I blame myself for not listening to the bad reviews. This company is a joke, i have no idea how they do well. All management and payroll act like they have just left school and have no idea about anything. The staff were rude and bullying, my so called “Training” was horrible. I didn’t mind the physical hard work, it was purely the staffs behaviour that i hated. A quick description of my “training” , i would be told i had to complete a pallet in 30mins, i completed them in 20 mins each, i would then ask every member of staff what i can do and they all said ask someone else, so i would eventually try and do other pallets or back stock, at the end of my shift, the manager shouts at me for taking longer than 30mins a pallet. I tried to explain i had and i was continually told off and bulled. I was told that they dont care if i have finished my shift and not getting paid i must still stay and finish what i started. (I had finished everything) This happened all the time. I was so angry because i finished my work early all the time and no one would want to give me anything else to do because they thought all the jobs were to important for any new person to do. Also i was not even allowed a box cutter (which i have used everyday my whole life) so i had to open boxes with my fingers and nails, obviously resulting in bleeding all the time. The staff walk around with thier noses glued to the ceilings, they need to bring themselves back to the ground and not act so stuck up and believe
An excellent opportunity for an experienced retail worker
The benefits and opportunities with Aldi are excellent but the expectations are very high. There is no formal training, just a training time period, which can be challenging because you rely on word of mouth regularly to fully comprehend what way things are done upto the Aldi standards. The management can depend on who you get, some staff members can be very supportive, while others can leave you feeling lost, while trying to find your feet in the job. If you are new to the retail sector, then you are in for a rude awakening with Aldi, as they have tight time periods for offloading pallets and expect you to be quick on your feet for 8-10 hours straight. The hardest part of the job is learning where everything is and the individual different types of the same product or keeping up with the pace of the work. The most rewarding part of the job is the friends you make with staff members and customers during your employment. If you enjoy that fast paced work rate then you will love the company as the career progression opportunities are there and your pay goes up every year that you are with Aldi. The store can have poor staff retention too which means more of chance of you being called in during your day off and affecting your already poor work-life balance. Lastly you get your roster 4 weeks in advance but it can be changed upto a week before your workday due to staff sickness, retention, etc.
Pros30mins paid break, free uniform, high retailer discounts
ConsHigh pressure and expectations, No formal training, Poor staff retention.
If you only starting to work, that is a good choice. Money is good and you are learning what is mean hard work. But then after few years you are realized that Aldi wants more and more from you but doesn't want to give more from itself. Apparently Aldi do not believe in rule that happy staff means happy customers and happy customers will come back. Aldi want's to be cheaper than every one else so the customers will come back.
If you get promoted to deputy manager you gonna have to hour rates, one for the regular staff and second higher for deputy but you will get second one only when you are running the store so usually when the store manager or store manager assistants are not there. When they are in the shop you get same hour rate as regular staff but you need to work faster and better to give good example for the staff and you still need to do stuff that only managers do but you are not getting paid for that.
Then there is Store manager assistant. He is getting a little bit more money from deputy and health insurance benefits but need to work a lot more, because if you are staff or deputy you work 25 to maximum 40 hours per week and when you are store manager assistant you need to work 45 hours every week. That gives you 3 extra months of work in the year comparing to staff and deputy's.
Store manager is probably the only well paid position in Aldi if you can handle with stress and pressure.
ProsTime in work fly's very quickly
ConsNo life work balance. Very poor rewards for long service.
A typical day in the Coolock branch of ALDI would depend on your shift times. But it would generally involve packing out pallets of stock, working the tills, "facing off" or "carding" the shop, cleaning the store, helping customers with enquiries etc. I have been working in ALDI for over a year now, and although it is a hard job with little room for rest, you get paid well for it. ALDI also pushes you to reach targets in regards to time to complete each pallet (varies) and till speeds must be over 1000 items an hour! It sounds insane, but you get used to it. This is how ALDI keeps prices low and wages high. My colleagues are great support, and they make the job a lot easier. The management are pretty good too, although sometimes can feel hard to talk to. They are very fair if you want time off, and usually have no problem giving it to you (although usullay need a month's notice). I'm able to balance my student life with this job part-time on weekends, 9(ish) hours each day. The hours can vary though, and depending how busy the store is, you may be asked to come in earlier or stay back later. The shifts generally are moring (6am-3pm) or late (12.30pm-9.30pm on weekends or 1.30pm-10.30pm on weekdays). I would definitely recommend the job to students who need a good paying job with flexibility.
ProsPaid break, living wage, competitions, flexibility
ConsHard work, long hours, strict targets, must be over 18
It's a great place!!! If you are into slavery,that is
So, after my first week as a shop assistant I got my answer on why they keep on hiring people all the time, I am sure this applies for the other big German brand in this retail segment, and it's because many come attracted to the good-sounding starting wage and (my guess is ) they leave for the mad amount of work you have to put in as a main reason and other small issues besides....a rota that doesn't allow for any plans, maybe personal issues with managers/colleagues.
Management and colleagues are great in my case but sadly they are also just pawns who have to play this neverending game of stocking, tills, etc all against the time pressure. Be ready to be worked like a prisoner on death row , MIND YOUR BACK and if you have back problems I would highly recommend to stay away from this , to have to work in a week maybe two days in the morning and two till late so yeah...if you NEED a job, you'll get it...but be prepared to be amazed in a not very pleasant I'd say
I would categorize it as a (relatively good paid)German Sweatshop
ProsIn my case, very nice management and colleagues.
ConsCrazy amount of work and huge nonstop time pressure
Worst place I have ever worked in. The work is absolutely backbreaking especially if your a lad and have to do produce (fruit and veg). I've worked in construction before and wasn't as physically demanding as this place. You are timed on everything for your first few weeks by the managers and no word of a lie you do not have a second to breath since your always given things to do. That's how they save money, by understaffing each store. 5 people usually start a shift a 6am which is just insane for how much work has to be done in the morning before 9am when the store opens. Only positive is your day goes by fast but are absolutely wrecked at the end of your shift. Even staff members that have been there a few years absolutely hate it. Everyone I worked with was really nice bar some managers. You have to calculate change in your head since the tills don't tell you, which is just unnecessary. Everything is done to make staffs lives harder. I've been told that not all Aldi's are like this so you just have to find out about your local one.
I start working early in the morning, I enjoy that I can come earlier to work. My job is to drive the electric pallet truck, to pick boxes from the slots using voice command computer and provide the pallets with products to the stores. I have learned to manage my pallets so I can stack them high, but also to keep them efficient and stable. I have learned to manage my time, to work under pressure and on my own. I am responsible for my stores.
Management is very friendly, supportive and awarding. Co-workers are exceptionally friendly and helpful. The hardest part of the job is to achieve the picking rate, which with experience gets easy enough. The most enjoyable part of the job is the awards for my performance e.g. extra work, extra hours and bigger pay rate on Sundays. I like that I can get experience in training, supervising and management with Aldi, because it is a large company.
I worked at Aldi for 10 months as a store assistant,at first I didnt like it,most of the staff were polish and barely even said "hello" to you.
The training was awful!!the staff were too busy to assist you and when they did one told you do a task a certain way and then another a different way!the store manager was a nice guy but the assistant manager wasnt!!you were basically timed on everything you did,you were expected to pack a huge pallett of stock in 20 minutes and whether you were there a wk or a 5 years that wasnt taken into consideration!
It wasnt too bad tho,the days flew in cos you were always busy but there was no proper communication among management and staff!!
ProsGood salary
ConsYour werent guarenteed a 35 hour shift, some wks might only be 25 which is just not enough for a single person, also after the morning shift I was dripping in sweat!
An sich scheint die Stelle bei Aldi besonders als Student attraktiv da der Lohn recht hoch ist. Aber die Firma nutzt diesen hohen Lohn als Ausrede für kompletten Terror. Schon von dem Anfang an wird sehr viel von einem erwartet, und man wird enorm gestresst. Man wird konstant unter Druck gesetzt und alles muss schnell gehen. Fehler dürfen nicht passieren, und wenn man mal einen Fehler macht, wird man zusammengeschrien. Keiner hatte so richtig Lust mir was beizubringen, und stattdessen wurden mir alte Videos gezeigt, die veraltet waren und wo viele Sachen gar nicht mehr so gemacht werden. Wenn ich dann etwas falsch gemacht hab, weil es mir im Video so erklärt wurde, war die Leitung dann direkt sauer. Aber wie schon gesagt, es wollte mir auch keiner so richtig helfen. Als es zur Kasse kam, hatte ich zwei Tage wo mir die Kasse "beigebracht wurde". Danach durfte ich nie wieder an die Kasse, und man hat mich immer die harte Arbeit machen lassen.
Als Student fühlt man sich bei Aldi direkt von allen verurteilt. Meine Mitarbeiter hatten eine herabschauende Art und Weise mir gegenüber. Ich musste mir oft höhnende Kommentare anhören wie " man merkt dir an, dass du nicht viel Erfahrung hast". Anstatt wie versprochen in einer Freundlichen Umgebung seine ersten Schritte in die Arbeitswelt zu machen, wird man terrorisiert. Es ist klar, dass ich als Student nicht viel Erfahrung in der Arbeitswelt habe, aber wenn man nach Studenten werbt und bereit ist diese einzustellen, sollte man auch a
ProsKostenloses Wasser, Früchte, Kleine Snacks und hoher Lohn
ConsStress, Gigantische Erwartungen, Man darf praktisch keine Fehler machen, Alles muss schnell sein, keiner will helfen
Fix the check-out process at your company; it is the root of so many unnecessary problems!
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 e
ConsThe check-out process at this company is unnecessarily stressful.
Quit after 3rd day, they treat workers like robots
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 trai
ProsNone
ConsEverything I would not recommend you working here unless you are a robot, bodybuilder, or have no life outside a job or super desperate for a job
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
ProsPay higher than other companies in the area
ConsPay still trash because you barely get hours, Terrible management
My experience working for Aldi was at the store in musselburgh(yes the one that was on TV for terrible managment). Although I was meant to be going to the store in Tranent I never got the chance, the time limits are ridiculous, the managment is terrible whilst I was working there the other staff or atleast A large portion of them would sit on there phones in the warehouse whilst I was expected to do ridiculous amounts of work. I sometimes due to the extreme time limits (30 seconds per case) was not able to complete these so there was a time or 2 when i failed a "test" given to me on the picklist, although I have been told by 3! members off staff that the pick lists dont matter and that no one does them properly and to add to this i actually had one of the staff members infront of me speaking to a manager telling him that apprently "he dosent do picklists" in a manner that he was expecting the manager to not care. The managers literally have no idea what they are doing or how to train staff properly although I had been complimented several times on my work and received multiple good feedback forms from the store manager, I still never got kept on past my probation period( just after christmas), they used me for the extra graft that they needed and I bet they are devastated that now that im gone they are actually going to have to do some work no really that must be soul destroying. I could go on and on and on and on but the point is its not a good place to work its a graft whi
Prosgood pay(1/5 chance you get paid correct though)
ConsVERY! poor management, lazy staff and ridiculous time limits, bad shift pattern and terrible work atmosphere.
1.0
Retail Sales Associate | Chicago, IL | 18 Jul 2019
Understaffed, too physical & stressful (UNBIASED REVIEW)
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 n
Schlechte Einarbeitung, sehr stressig und anstrengend, Vergütung ist okay
Die Einarbeitung war leider alles andere als gut, was später zu vielen Problemen geführt hat. Alles wurde nur sehr hektisch und nicht vollständig erklärt, da die Mitarbeiter unter ständigem, sehr hohen Leistungsdruck stehen und sich nicht genügend Zeit für einen nehmen konnten. Für das fehlende Wissen oder Fehler, die andere Mitarbeiter gemacht haben (selbstverständlich hat sich aber nie ein Schuldiger gefunden, also muss es der/die neue gewesen sein), hagelte es später dann immer wieder Kritik.
Die Filiale war ständig unterbesetzt, was die Arbeit nur umso stressiger gemacht hat. Phasenweise war es „normal“, jeden Tag 1-3 Stunden länger bleiben zu müssen, teilweise sogar, ohne überhaupt gefragt zu werden, ob das in Ordnung sei. Gleichzeitig kannte die Filialleitung aber kein anderes Thema als „Wir müssen unbedingt Stunden sparen!“
Das Arbeitsklima war bescheiden. Einigen langjährigen Mitarbeitern hat man eine gewisse Arroganz und Herablassung gegenüber den neuen angemerkt. Die Filialleitung wirkte auf mich sehr oft nicht ihrer Aufgabe gewachsen. Die ständig wechselnden Nachwuchsführungskräfte waren leider genauso wenig hilfreich. Am Anfang musste ich einen Monat auf Arbeitskleidung warten, weil ein Fehler bei der Bestellung gemacht wurde, sodass eine der wenigen netten Kolleginnen mir zwei ihrer T-Shirts ausgeliehen hat, bis meine geliefert wurden. Meiner Meinung nach ein Armutszeugnis.
Alles in allem war meine Erfahrung sehr negativ. Die Arbeit ist körperlich extrem anst
Here is what they won't tell you in the interview:
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 fudge
Prossome customers, some coworkers
Conseverything else: awful management, work injuries, no work/life balance, impossible job metrics
2.0
Customer Service Representative | Fenton, MO | 1 Oct 2019
My Experience as a Store Associate
I worked for Aldi's for over three years. I was happy working there for the first year. The benefits are very good at Aldi's and the raises are nice. You do work very hard and the work load was manageable in the beginning. When I started, I was happy with the District Manager and the Store Manager that I worked with. Unfortunately, the management staff gets moved around a lot within the company and we received a new Store Manager and District Manager. This, along with the store receiving a huge increase in the number of customers (Save-A-Lot closing), created a not so pleasant work experience.
I will start with the fact that the new store manager was not as committed in his concern and regard for the company. I went to him on a few occasions requesting different shifts because I was always closing, he did not take my concern seriously and never made any changes or effort in compromising with me in regards to the schedule. I am a single parent of three children and working nights and weekends all the time is very difficult. I also later asked the manager and district manager for a store transfer, and I was told they couldn't approve the transfer unless we were fully staffed at our store.
When the manager first started working at our store, he would close once a week. After a couple months he changed his hours to only working day shifts. Nearly every day he left early. For example, if he was scheduled till 5pm, he would usually leave by 2:00 or 3:00pm.
Also, rec
ProsGood benefits, nice raises the first two years
ConsExtremely overwhelming and chaotic work environment
I worked with Aldi's for a few months and it was terrible. You go in blind expected to know where everything is immediately. Was never told during the interview that I would be required to purchase steel toe shoes/boots. The "reimbursement" for purchasing the shoes/boots is a joke, you get an extra three dollars in your paycheck, pay is bi-weekly and it's spread out over the year.
Very fast pace as a cashier, they expect you to be fast. I've always been one of the fastest cashiers at any other grocery stores as I typically ring a minimum of 25-30 items per minute. Aldi's expects you to ring a minimum of 40-42 items per minute. The register is very sensitive and items would double scan pretty quickly and I would end up with a higher void count, especially when items would fall across the scanner. Not to mention when a customer needs to take an item off because of lack of funds whether it be because they are paying with cash or they have a limited amount on their food stamps card. Another problem with the food stamps card is that when the customer pays with the card and they only have a certain dollar amount on the card, for example if their total comes to eighty-five dollars and the ebt card only has forty dollars, the register will decline the card due to "Insufficient funds" and you'd have to pull up the receipt, find out how much is on the card, inform the customer and type in the amount on the card and then have the customer slide the card again. Very time consuming. Ald
ProsGood coworkers.
ConsShort breaks, lack of help. Expected to do the work of two to three people. Lack of communication.
Questions and answers about ALDI
How often do you get a pay rise at ALDI?
Asked 7 Nov 2022
Yearly
Answered 3 Jun 2023
Once a year
Answered 1 Jun 2023
What is ALDI holiday leave policy? How many holiday leave days do you get per year?
Asked 8 Nov 2022
2
Answered 2 Jun 2023
20
Answered 2 Jun 2023
What is the promotion process like at ALDI?
Asked 7 Nov 2022
Good if you get to Asisstant store manager. But getting there is tough. The position doesn't become available very often.
Answered 13 May 2023
less likely
Answered 27 Apr 2023
What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Asked 11 Nov 2022
Its consists of order picking for stores
Answered 30 May 2023
Stressful
Answered 26 Apr 2023
How are the working hours at ALDI?
Asked 12 Apr 2017
Most people start on a 25 hour contract. But you tend to work 5 days a week with 5 hour shifts.
Answered 10 Aug 2021
Depend on contract hours. I have 30 hour contract but in the last 10 years i worked 90% 40 hours in a week. In the past even more.
