Aldi customer gives ultimate packing hack for cashiers who scan at 'insane speeds'
We've all been there, we've just about managed to unload our shopping trolley in Aldi and all of a sudden, the items are flying out of the other end.
Supermarket giant Aldi are renowned for their fast cashiers, but you needn't fluster any longer. One customer, who went viral for sharing his till tactics, has spoken about how you can get through the "insanely speedy" cashiers.
Leroy Lupton from Lancaster started posting videos of himself racing against cashiers and posting them on TikTok, the PA News Agency reports. The 33-year-old boasts videos with views of more than one million, as people comment on his tactics saying: "Using the Old El Paso box to prime the second bag is an unbelievable play."
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Leroy, a music teacher and producer, has created six videos so far and now recognises some of the Aldi cashiers. He has even dubbed one as the "final boss" who he is yet to beat as he sends items "absolutely flying" through the till.
Before taking him on, Leroy perfects his technique against other cashiers and carefully chooses the packing order. “For example, the Old El Paso Taco kit, in the little rectangular box, is the perfect foundation for a bag, so that should go at the bottom,” Leroy told PA Real Life.
“That gives your bag good structural integrity and then you can put something awkward on top of that, like an item I’ve struggled with many times is a four-pack of beers. Then your thinner items, like a steak or something, can neatly go down the side of your cans, again reinforcing the structural integrity of your bag.
“And then I would say any items with a bit of strength and your softer stuff, like perishables that can get bruised or squashed, they have to go on top.”
After Aldi opened a branch of its supermarket on Aldcliffe Road in Lancaster in 2020, Leroy started doing his weekly shop there. “It’s on point with the pricing for one thing. You just can’t beat that crazy middle aisle,” he said.
“Sometimes I’ll dip into Sainsbury’s if I’m feeling lush, but I usually shop there (at Aldi).” Over time, Leroy said he noticed “how insanely speedy” the cashiers were at scanning his items.
“I would just pop in there now and again to do my shopping and yeah, I just became aware of the athleticism,” he said. All of the items were flying at me and piling up, and I’m thinking this ain’t normal.”
Initially, Leroy thought one of the cashiers who served him had “juiced up on energy drinks” or had a “few too many coffees”, but noticed they were all as quick as each other. “I’m thinking these guys are something else, they’re on a mission,” he said.
He then discovered he wasn't the only one struggling to keep up after speaking to his friends about the cashiers’ “athleticism”. Then he noticed one of the faster cashiers one week. “I was like, I know this person is uber fast, they are relentless, they don’t let up,” he said.
Filming himself, Leroy started his first video and uploaded the "crude" version to his Instagram story. “All of my friends were just messaging me on Instagram telling me how bad my technique was and everything I was doing wrong,” he said.
“They were saying ‘you should be using bags with flat bottoms’ and ‘you never bag the toilet roll, that goes under the arm’, that kind of stuff. From how many people reacted to that (video), I thought there’s something in this, people are as passionate about this as I am.”
Leroy's TikTok, @me.vs.aldi.cashier, sees him getting advice from followers on how to improve technique. One said: “Horsing the cans of beer in that late in the first bag was madness, they need to be first.”
Another posted: “She sensed your inexperience. My local cashiers have no mercy for anyone, they fire goods at you like an industrial wood chipper.”
Leroy now knows some of the cashiers at the store and has identified one of them as “the boss” to beat. “There’s a particular guy, he must be in his mid-50s,” said Leroy.
“He’s the nicest guy ever and always holds a conversation but oh my god, he is the final boss. I think it adds to the intimidation that he’s so friendly and will be talking whilst absolutely flying these items at you. I’ve never come close.”
“I’ve got this rivalry with one of the cashiers who I’ve had three times and god bless her, she’s as quick as the rest of them,” he added.
Leroy had expected the “big tattooed bald guys” to be the toughest, but said women tend to be quicker. “I’m still meeting the characters because I’ve only done six videos,” he added.
“I absolutely thought this was just going to be a collection of videos for me to show someone in the pub. It wasn’t until the most recent video that I posted – I just finished my shopping and uploaded it when I got home.
“Within an hour it was on like 30,000 views and then I just left it and went to bed, and when I woke up it was on a quarter of a million.”
Leroy, who used to be in a videogame cover band, decided to add a soundtrack from the video game Street Fighters to his videos. He said: “It instantly sells the idea that this is a battle, it’s me versus them and there’s only going to be one winner at the end of it.”
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