Love ALDI self-serve? Or the rush of the self-pack?

So. Funny.

Personally, I've never met an ALDI cashier I didn't like.

They are universally efficient, polite and just doing their job by pushing those items through as quickly as possible.

Nevertheless, we all know the self-pack at ALDI is not for the faint-hearted.

When you do manage to shove all the items into bags by the time the cashier has finished, you feel like you've achieved SOMETHING BIG.

Alternatively, if the cashier has finished and your groceries are piled up in tower formation at the end of the conveyor belt while you mutter "sorry, sorry, sorry" as the other shoppers tut-tut at your utter incompetence...Well, that's an EPIC FAIL.

But is the frantic/adrenalin rush of the self-pack at ALDI about to become a thing of the past?

Self-service counters have been gradually introduced into ALDI since 2021 and in the Canberra region since late last year.

ALDI says as well as the Queanbeyan store, there are now "self-checkouts" at four Canberra stores, in Macquarie, Weston, Belconnen and the big new ALDI which opened this week at Gungahlin.

ALDI plans to roll out more self check-outs at select stores across Australia over the next two years.

It seems like a kind of capitulation by ALDI, which always prided itself as an outlier in the supermarket game.

ALDI Australia store operations director Robert Eichfeld said it took its time to introduce self-service.

"We are well known for taking our time to make carefully considered business decisions to ensure we never compromise on our low-cost business model," he said.

Mr Eichfeld said self-service was better for smaller shops and suggested it was not about cutting staff.

"This technology will require store employees to assist, support and monitor customers' use of self-checkouts and assist with any issues, rather than working on the register," he said.

Not all the customers were buying that at the ALDI store in Belconnen this week.

Sid Ferns, 70, of Bruce said he never used the card-only self-checkouts as "a protest".

"We like to think that we're keeping people in jobs by actually going through the checkouts, rather than the self-serve," he said.

Mr Ferns said he was "old-school" and his wife liked to use cash - and objected to being charged a surcharge at the self-checkouts.

(ALDI says a 0.5 per cent surcharge is included on all credit card and contactless card purchases at it stores.

"Customers who process payment by inserting their card and selecting savings will avoid this fee," it says.)

Janet and Willy Thomsen, from Belconnen, also avoided the self-serve counters when they could.

"We prefer to be served by someone to create employment," he said.

Other shoppers were fans of the self-serve, including Katie Pratt, 50, of Spence, who said it was "really useful".

"You often get queues here and you can just go through - as long as you don't carry alcohol you can get through - and it's just so much better and easier," he said.

Jason Groarke, 45, of Kaleen was happy to do the self-pack and use the self-serve.

"If I'm doing a big shop, I'll use the main till but for small things I'll use the self-service," he said.

Mr Groarke was also a whizz at the self-pack.

"I try to pack all the cold stuff together in one and, obviously, all the heavy stuff at the bottom and, yeah, try to get it done as quick as possible," he said, with a laugh.