Shame on Aldi

Aldi: Wasting people's time

In scenes reminiscent of The Great Depression we see images of long queues for job interviews at Aldi discount supermarket.  Leon Donald, an area manager for the supermarket, told the press that a previous event attracted even more job hunters, with around 1,500 people flocking to the jobs fair.

Aldi means to say that it has such little regard for unemployed people that it is prepared to let a thousand or more people stand around in the cold, for long periods of time, when only forty jobs were on offer.  Aldi means to say that its human resources department is so inept that it cannot find forty local people in need of work on the internet - and interview them in a dignified setting that does not waste the time and raise the hopes of over a thousand people.

Such a colossal wheeze that it is to waste everyone's time in this fashion, they saw fit to do it again.  And will doubtlessly congratulate themselves for a job well done.

Of course, the Job Centre has its own role to play in this spectacle by adding ever more ridiculous targets and conditions to JSA, forcing people with no chance (for whatever reason) of getting a role at Aldi to apply anyway.  The Job Centre is wasting Aldi's time and the public's time, and Aldi seems happy to oblige.

Meanwhile the product of these events are these recession-porn stock photos, which surely serve somebody's political interests. As budgets begin to bite one might consider switching to a cheaper supermarket, but not one that has such obvious contempt for people in need of work.