PAGE 2
It Means Employees Spend Less Time Collecting Carts
At many supermarkets, employees regularly walk through the parking lot gathering carts.
That requires labor.
Someone has to retrieve carts from parking spaces, sidewalks, landscaped areas, and distant corners of the lot before bringing them back to the entrance.
Aldi’s deposit system encourages customers to perform that final step themselves.
That means employees can spend more of their working time on tasks inside the store, such as stocking shelves, checking customers out, cleaning, and maintaining inventory.
Reducing unnecessary labor is important to Aldi because the company has traditionally built its stores around a lean operating model.
The cart system is only one small part of that strategy.
Parking Lots Stay More Organized
Anyone who has parked at a busy supermarket has probably encountered a loose cart sitting in an empty parking space.
Sometimes carts roll across the lot.
Sometimes they block vehicles.
In windy conditions, they can even strike parked cars.
A refundable deposit gives shoppers a reason to return carts to one central location instead.
The result is generally a more organized parking area with fewer stray carts.
That benefits Aldi, but it also benefits customers.
