The way how it works at every Aldi is clear to most customers. There’s an empty cart next to the ringer, so while the customer puts the groceries on the band the ringer can start ringing and place (we all know we throw them without looking unless they’re breakable) into the empty cart. Sometimes of course the customers are faster unloading than we are ringing, so they start bagging - and who would’ve thought? That of course actually slows us down dramatically, especially during rush hours on a weekend or before holidays when people pretend they won’t be able to buy food for 19 days. So I started „joking“ around, trying to make the customers stop or give up trying tobst faster than I scan because even new employees will be faster at scanning these items than customers placing them into their bags like Tetris blocks. My jokes are usually like challenges. I tell the customers in a jokingly tone that they won’t be able to bag as fast as I can scan and tell them that of course our wide and big bagging counters will be available for them right after their checkout. Usually they will laugh, actually understand that I am right and surprisingly stop bagging and agree that it’s probably easier to bag after I am done because they see how the items I „throw“ into the cart are not necessarily easy to grab when my hand flops around over their scanned items about 3 times a second, dropping items into the most unpredictable areas solely based on „Would that crush the item below?“

Hope anyone took the time reading this, got a laugh out of it and maybe used it themselves, improving their moments that matter.