Aldi Süd continues to rely on self-checkouts also in Germany. Contrary to media reports stating the opposite, the discounter is equipping newly opened and renovated stores with an average of three Diebold Nixdorf systems each. Some media had wrongly reported the end of the deployment of self-checkouts at Aldi Süd, as one store in Cologne had dismantled the newly installed systems. However, this single decision had been based on demographics and specifics of the location.
Aldi Süd currently equips around 50 stores per week with self-service checkouts. About half of those are in the USA. There, 500 stores are supposed to be deployed with SCOs by the end of the year. The remaining installations are spread across Australia, Great Britain, Switzerland and Germany. Here, the discounter recently opened a 1,270 square metre shop in the city centre of Erlangen with seven checkouts, three of which are self-checkouts. Soon, a first German Aldi store will even be equipped with nine SCOs.
In a next step, Aldi Süd plans to bring self-checkouts to other European countries, including Italy and the Republic of Ireland. Aldi Nord is also considering implementing self-checkouts, but its decision-making process is lacking behind its sister company.
SCO supports modernisation of Aldi stores
The growing deployment of self-checkout systems at Aldi Süd goes hand in hand with a redesign of the checkout zone and development of the stores towards supermarkets. In many of the discounter’s stores, especially in urban areas, shoppers are increasingly covering their daily needs for fresh produce. The retailer wishes to rectify possible queues in the till area and enable shoppers to complete their checkout without lengthier waiting times.
As reported by Retail Optimiser, the discounter is successively equipping its stores with at least one double checkout. Here, one cashier can serve two customers at the same time. These cash registers have a double chute and separate PIN pads and receipt printers. With this and the option of cashless payment at the Diebold Nixdorf self- checkouts, customers shall be able to shop faster and more conveniently; staff can be deployed more efficiently at the same time.
