Aldi start 'social conditioning' customers by refusing to serve anyone who doesn't prove bags are empty to checkout staff.
Supermarket Aldi is the latest Retail chain to adopt the practice of assuming everyone is a criminal, with new rules that require staff to check every customer's bags for stolen items.
Aldi staff have been told by senior management to refuse service to customers who won't put their shopping bags on checkout belts to prove they are empty - a practice they claim is to crackdown on shoplifters.
Aldi is reportedly refusing to serve customers who are unwilling to have their bags searched when shopping in the store. An Aldi shop worker told The Grocer magazine that the bag searching policy had been introduced last week, and the checks were on top of those carried out by store security guards.
Pretending it is all perfectly acceptable to treat every customer like a criminal Aldi claim:
'We are asking that they allow us to look in the bags to see if they are empty. We have been asking to look in the bags to make sure none of our items are in there.'
The Aldi worker claimed that those who do not comply with the search will be refused the sale. However, they added that this had not taken place in their particular store. The supermarket employee also said that shoppers walking out of the store could be stopped by security if they were suspected of theft.
Posting to an Aldi Facebook group, one worker said: 'New policy at Aldi, all empty shopping bags must be on the belt plus all shopping.' Another added that was an 'awful feeling' to have to ask customers to be searched. An Aldi spokesperson told MailOnline that it was not a 'national policy' and bag checks were only ever carried out 'with the consent of shoppers'.
They claimed the searches were only taking place in some stores as a 'short-term measure' and customers will not be stopped from making a purchase or leaving the store. This is almost identical to the claims made by Sainsbury's who demand that customers scan their receipt before barriers are opened to allow the customer to exit their store.
The offending supermarkets are claiming that the 'cost of living crisis' is the reason for all the new rules, yet nothing like this has ever been implemented during any previous inflationary period, with some saying that this is nothing to do with rising prices and everything to do with social conditioning for some change yet to come.
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