Aldi enjoys a robust online fanbase across a number of platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. Those fans are almost constantly sharing questions, concerns, advice, product thoughts, and plenty of other chatter.
That includes photos. If you’re an Aldi fanatic, chances are you’ve seen plenty of Aldi product photos out there. Some of them are products in use at home, like living room setups or dinner plates, while others are in-store. The latter category has become something of a recent trend, especially on Instagram: photographers will either photograph an item on the shelf or pick it up off the shelf, photograph it, and then share it. It’s a way to showcase what Aldi is selling, and possibly even solicit feedback on particular products before buying them.
We’ve done a fair number of those photos ourselves, most notably on Instagram, and we even snapped some in-store photos at the outset of the current grocery rush. However, a couple of weeks ago, we decided to change the way we handle photos. We no longer take photos in stores for any reason, and that will continue until the situation improves.
Why?
One, we try to minimize contact with products we might not buy. In the past, we have not always purchased everything we’ve photographed at Aldi. Now, if we know we’re not going to get a product, we’re not going to pick it up, in order to protect ourselves and also protect other customers in the event we have something and don’t know about it. Some people would point out that you can photograph items without touching them, but we also know that if a picture isn’t framed just right, it’s awfully hard to resist moving things around just a little to get that perfect shot.
Two, it makes it hard for us to practice social distancing. Taking pictures requires us to focus on taking pictures, which means our full attention has to go to there. Even if it’s only for a few moments (and it sometimes is more than that), it means we’re not aware of our surroundings, which we don’t feel is best for us right now.
Three, it adds to our shopping time. Our goal now is to get in and out of the store as quickly as we can. Time diverted scouting out, taking, and then reviewing photos is sneaky because it can take longer than we think, especially when we have to get our minds back on our shopping list afterward.
Four, it requires us to handle our phones. We’re still pretty old-school in that we use paper shopping lists, and so we rarely have to handle our phones when shopping. Photos would require us to handle our phones, which we’d then want to wipe down later. We prefer to leave our phones tucked securely away into a pocket or purse. For us, not taking pictures saves us a hassle and helps us focus on shopping.
We realize that not everyone will have the same view we do, but it’s how we’re trying to operate right now. We look forward to the day when things improve and life gets back to normal.
Stay safe, fellow Aldi shoppers.
I think that is a good choice.
Perfect and thanks for the heads up. I couldn’t agree more.