“Between 29 and 32 items per minute”: But why do the cashiers at Lidl and Aldi scan the products so quickly?

This Lidl invention enables lightning-fast scanning of items. Why does the discount supermarket place such high value on speed?

IN BRIEF

🗓️Lidl has 1,500 stores, 30,000 employees, and a turnover of 8 billion euros.

⚡Lidl cashiers scan between 29 and 32 items per minute.

🔍Aldi uses the same technology as Lidl.

Ready, set, go! The checkout conveyor belt doesn’t wait for inattentive customers. For those who need their scanned items as quickly as possible, the checkout process is a race against time.

Groceries, fruits and vegetables, fresh produce, and meat glide past on the conveyor belt, each item scanned by highly efficient cashiers. But how do they manage to work so fast without making mistakes or damaging anything? Some stores are distinguished by the impressive efficiency of their employees. Unsurprisingly, discount stores are the fastest. At their checkouts, the process is completed in record time, almost like a relay race.

At Lidl, the checkout process is hectic.

Lidl’s cashier productivity puts many competitors in the supermarket sector to shame. Last September, the magazine “Cash Investigation” investigated the secrets of the German supermarket giant to find out how it maintains this high work pace.

Lidl operates 1,500 stores, employs 30,000 people, and generates a revenue of 8 billion euros. Élise Lucet and the camera crew from France 2 were given a tour of one of the numerous Lidl stores in France. They were welcomed by the store manager in Metz (Moselle).

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Lidl operates 1,500 stores, employs 30,000 people, and generates €8 billion in revenue. The German discount supermarket chain is known for the exceptional efficiency of its cashiers.

At Lidl, between 29 and 32 items are scanned every minute.

Throughout France, the store shelves are arranged almost identically. “The fruit and vegetable section, with flowers, bread, and other fresh produce, is located at the entrance,” explains the store manager. The journalist notes that “the colors are completely different now” and that it used to “feel like a warehouse, which is no longer the case at all.” Employees confirm: “It used to be blue and yellow everywhere. Now we use much more muted tones.”

The checkout area has also been modernized. The new checkouts are equipped with a triple-scan system—a Lidl development that allows for the simultaneous reading of barcodes on three sides of the product. Thanks to this technology, unnecessary hand movements are eliminated. The cashier can scan 29 to 32 items per minute.