Aldi Employee Issues PSA About This Irksome Shopper Habit

Employees in customer-facing service roles have been known to get upset with certain things that customers do on a regular basis. For example, some restaurant servers can't stand the customer habit of snapping or clapping to get their attention because it can be degrading. Chipotle employees have said it's particularly frustrating when customers ask for more food after the worker finished making an item. Since the chain uses an assembly line, it's easiest if patrons ask for everything they want at once where it makes the most sense.

There are also customer behaviors that drive Aldi workers up the wall. An Aldi employee on Reddit posted a public service announcement about one of those habits this past weekend. Other employees of the grocery chain joined in to express their frustration, explaining that this particular irksome behavior not only makes their jobs more difficult but could also have wasteful repercussions.

The image that started the Reddit thread showed a box of peanut butter wafers left in the raw meat fridges next to chicken breasts and thighs. "If you're shopping at any store, and you decide you don't want something. PUT IT BACK WHERE YOU GOT IT FROM," user Outrageous_Banana396 wrote, emphasizing their frustration with all caps. "It's unbelievable what some shoppers do because they just don't care," another person commented.

Aldi is known for its low prices, partly because it doesn't often staff many employees at a time (via CNN). Misplaced food can easily become a nuisance since employees already have multiple responsibilities. "Retail workers have enough to do without picking up after you," Outrageous_Banana396 wrote. The outraged banana explained that not only was it frustrating to pick up after shoppers but, in this case, employees would throw the wafers away because they were placed near raw meat.

Other Redditors shared similar experiences with perishable food that's been left in the wrong place for too long before an employee notices. "I worked in grocery retail for 17 years and this is nothing," one person wrote Fearless-Judgment-33. "It's much, much worse when they leave the chicken on the shelf with the snack cakes... and you don't find it until hours later."

While leaving food in the wrong spot irritates Aldi employees, it could also have negative consequences for other shoppers. "I'm pretty sure I've bought meat a couple of times that sat in the wrong place in the store or a cart for a few hours. Well within best by dates, but literally rotten the next day," user stefanica wrote on Reddit. "Actions such as this raise prices for everyone," another person complained.

If a store has to consistently throw out significant amounts of stock, it could lose money, and in turn, raise the prices of goods overall. Food prices are already at a record high because of inflation (via The New York Times), so it's not surprising that misplaced food would be an especially unwelcome sight. If shoppers do see something left where it doesn't belong, the Redditors want them to tell an employee about it. While it may seem helpful to pick it up and put it back where it belongs, it's best to let the employees determine if the product can be returned without posing a safety risk. "There is no way to know how long a pack of yogurt was sitting on a pantry shelf, etc," one Redditor explained.