Does Anyone Actually Work at this Store?

A weird experience at my local Aldi’s

Beth Bruno
4 min readMay 9, 2024
Photo by Philip Myrtorp on Unsplash

I ran into my local Aldi’s grocery store last week to pick up a few items. It was a quick in and out and I didn’t spend a lot of time loitering. Usually, I see one or two employees shelving items or working one of the registers. This time, I saw no one. The store seemed to be completely empty of employees.

When I took my items to the front of the store I thought I would see one checker at a cash register. There was none. There are several self-check stations, and they were all busy with people checking themselves out. No employee could be seen anywhere.

While I am perfectly happy to check myself out, I found this very weird and unsettling. The store seemed to be abandoned. Or maybe it was being managed that day by AI. I don’t know, but it gave me the creeps. Is this where we are headed? Stores that are not manned, but have some kind of all-seeing eye to make sure people aren’t stealing?

Going into a store and never seeing an employee is discombobulating. It’s an eerie feeling to walk in, get what I need, check myself out and walk out without anyone acknowledging my presence. I felt like I needed to let someone know I had paid and was taking only what I paid for. But that’s just me. Maybe everyone else is perfectly fine with a fully…

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Beth Bruno

Human learning to be human. Writing in hopes of getting there.