The German supermarket chain has just opened a shop in London Road, where the old Sainsbury's used to be. There are good bargains to be had and a range of delicatessen which is usually hard to come by. It ought to be a great success. But if it continues as it is, the shop is not going to last long. There are hardly any customers. Why?
There aren't any baskets! There are only big trolleys and you have to find a £1 deposit when you come into the shop. So most people don't and just buy as much as they can hold in their hands. And since this is a fag and most people can't be bothered, they don't come back.
I asked the manager where the baskets were and was told that there weren't any and wouldn't be as it was not company policy. I pointed to the short queue of people, hardly any of whom were using the trolleys. The manager did not want to see them.
The point about this shop is that there is nowhere to park a car and so most of the customers are on foot. They would not want to buy a whole trolley-full of anything.
I suppose the reason is that Aldi is a German company. They are rule bound. I had trouble with Deutsche Bahn over a mistake they made with some train tickets. Perhaps little changes. The Reichsbahn would not allow anyone to travel to a concentration camp unless they had a valid ticket! These had to be purchased by the SS, but they got a special group travel rate as the passengers were travelling in freight vehicles. Actually, this was not always the case. Some passengers went to Treblinka in Pullman cars, presumably to lull them into a false sense of security.
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