this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2024
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Work Reform

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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.

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[–] zephorah@lemm.ee 134 points 2 months ago (1 children)

And, the cashiers can sit down. Which makes sense.

[–] fuzzy_feeling@programming.dev 84 points 2 months ago (17 children)

cashiers aren't allowed to sit in usa?

[–] GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world 54 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Only office workers and managers are allowed to sit. If you're in a customer-facing position with a chair, you're supposed to stand up when helping a customer.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

And as we all know, middle management does so much work and therefore deserve that right over everyone else.

(sorry I vomited in my mouth a little bit)

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 7 points 2 months ago

When I worked retail, at one of the stores you weren't allowed to drink water where customers could see you. I chose to ignore that rule and only got chewed out when the store owner happened to be nearby

[–] JakenVeina@lemm.ee 40 points 2 months ago

Cashier stations with chairs are VERY rare, yes. The general trope is that managers/owners think it makes workers appear lazy.

[–] Jimmyeatsausage@lemmy.world 26 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not at most places. At some point, someone told all the MBAs that it makes the customers mad if the employees look lazy or some shit.

[–] thesystemisdown@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

They also tend to make them stand at the beginning of their lane when they don't have customers. Apparently a light signaling that they are available just isn't enough.

Edit: My bad. I've never seen this at Aldi or Lidl. Just other US chains like Food Lion.

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[–] Balooog 21 points 2 months ago (2 children)

No, and even worse "if you have time to lean, you have time to clean"

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Well, turns out I do have PTSD from a decade of working retail and food service. So thanks for that lol

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[–] KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

In California, companies are required by law to provide them seating and let them sit down, but most everywhere else they are expected to stand.

[–] zephorah@lemm.ee 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It’s this bizarre thing. Management want them to “look busy” or some bullshit. Aldi looks busy.

You’ll see this on some factory floors too. No chairs even for the management or QA logging numbers on computers. Chairs are for break time or some such.

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[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Corporations make that decision. And our country allows (if not encourages) it.

Yes, seriously. Same goes with drinking water behind the counter.

[–] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 9 points 2 months ago

Other than Aldi, pretty much no.

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[–] solsangraal@lemmy.zip 69 points 2 months ago (1 children)

good for them. that's how you get quality workers and reduce turnover

[–] somethingsnappy@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (7 children)

They're finally catching up with my local burger chain that offers health insurance, tuition, etc. Also in the US.

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[–] tenchiken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 51 points 2 months ago (3 children)

"up to $23 an hour".... Doing a whole lotta heavy lifting in this headline.

How is it sane to list the maximum you can make, vs what to expect day 1?!

[–] frank@sopuli.xyz 30 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It reads like the minimum went from $18 to $23. So the minimum is up from $18, to $23.

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Aldi announced that it it looking to hire thousands of new workers, as well as increasing their minimum wage to $18 and $23 an hour.

My read on this, is that they are discussing the minimum for two separate positions. Potentially cashier and team leader. Would make sense as they don't have many employees on shift at a time.

[–] frank@sopuli.xyz 8 points 2 months ago

Ah that could be. Either way, $23 isn't the max

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[–] tenchiken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I hope so. It would be a nice change compared to... Well... Everything.

Edit: ahhhh see it now. I read it as "up to" alone, but implied "increased to" instead.

English is hard sometimes.

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It really is. The fact "up to" can mean either a maximum value, or an increase to a value, is stupid.

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[–] damnedfurry@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

That's just being read wrong, it's not written like a "save up to $10" kind of line. The "up" just describes the change (i.e. 'the starting wage is going up; becoming $X'). Within the article, it's completely unambiguous:

The national average starting wages for Aldi workers will be set at $18 an hour and $23 an hour for warehouse workers.

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[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 36 points 2 months ago (4 children)

One opened in my city, only Aldi within 50 miles. It is always packed and both of the major regional grocers have raised their "now hiring" wages several dollars, run much more aggressive deals, and their parking lots are maybe 4/5ths as full as they were a month ago.

Which is great for me because I've been to several Aldis and realized it just isn't for me. Being one guy with a pretty weak appetite, the actual dollar savings don't really come out to much for me (maybe -$10 versus a major grocer if I'm really stocking up), and the "Aldi Experience" doesn't really mesh with how I buy food. It's still great to have them in the market, though.

[–] return2ozma@lemmy.world 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Their produce is always super cheap. Same strawberries I'd get at Ralph's (Kroger) for $4.99 I can get at Aldi for around $1.70

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[–] Nougat@fedia.io 22 points 2 months ago

Aldi had me at "we let our cashiers sit down."

[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

And let me guess..."somehow", they haven't had to hack up their prices after raising wages, huh?

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago (8 children)

No but the CEO had to cut down to just one new AMG Merc per year. It's a doggy dog world out there

[–] svammy@lemm.ee 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] berryjam@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

I would much prefer to live in a doggy dog world than a dog eat dog one, but such is life

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[–] General_Effort@lemmy.world 34 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It is telling that Aldi is successfully expanding in the USA while keeping the same model that made it big in its home market of Germany and the rest of Europe.

When Walmart tried to gain a foothold in Germany, it hemorrhaged billions before giving up. The managers responsible covered their asses with bullshit about cultural differences or unions, but the truth is that they just couldn't offer competitive prices. Looks like, even in the US, shoppers favor low prices over wasteful frills like greeters.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 20 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Greeters are literally a charitable expense (that they've mostly replaced with security goons) the wasteful frills in Walmart are executive compensation and benefits.

[–] Unbecredible@lemm.ee 11 points 2 months ago

hahahah right? I was like 'uh...I don't think that's where all the money's disappearing to my guy...'

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[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Their biz must be booming during this era of price gouging clown corpos

[–] ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world 25 points 2 months ago (3 children)

We shop at Aldi a lot and, anecdotally, they seem to be the most reasonably priced by a pretty hefty margin.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

That's because ALDI doesn't cushion cost increases or sell loss leaders. If eggs shoot up in price 400% they immediately raise the price to match. Most grocery stores will try to eat at least some of that cost for some time hoping it will go down before they have to raise even further. That kind of pricing model means they need much larger margins on all their other products to afford that. Same way they sell milk and rotisserie chickens at a loss to get people in the store.

ALDI does not play those games and keeps their margins more consistent but their prices are more susceptible to spikes in costs.

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[–] sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al 18 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Did not know Aldi were in the States?

[–] Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip 22 points 2 months ago

Aldi Nord controlled stores in the US are Trader Joes, Aldi Sud stores in the US are just Aldi

[–] AnarchoSnowPlow@midwest.social 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

We have both Aldi here but they're differently named. One is just Aldi, the other is Trader Joe's.

It's our super low cost grocer, that has in recent years become more high quality. When I was a kid (80s-90s) it was like "never buy fresh anything there because it's all crap" but these days it's all pretty decent quality stuff. Not like farmstand good, but better than Walmart.

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[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

Got one in my redneck suburb. We almost exclusively shop there.

[–] GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, they've been in Texas at least 20 years. Looks like they are in most of the states in the eastern half of the continental US and the states along the southern border.

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[–] Zachariah@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago
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[–] rambling_lunatic@sh.itjust.works 18 points 2 months ago (2 children)

This is just in the USA, correct? Aldi in the EU is unaffected from what I can tell.

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I don’t mean this in an offensive way or a combative one, but the post title is using $ and the source is USA Today.

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[–] Yokozuna@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago

LONG LIVE ALDI

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Damn. What's next, quality fresh foods with less harmful ingredients?

[–] Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

I mean it is a german company, they might just standardize EU standards through out their company. At least this is a small pipe-dream I have had about them.

[–] Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Great, now that they have bought winn-dixie, and are moving in places, mostly, where there are failed/failing regional chains, we will have even less competition.

Remember, despite saying Aldi does not discriminate based on union/desire to unionize, A LOT of their ex-management say they were straight up told to fire anyone who mentions it, and they would rather get sued for it, than allow it.

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