i've never been to an Aldi, so i have no experience here. i can't remember the last time that i carried change in my pockets leaving the house. i only have change on my for as long as it takes me to get home from receiving said change to put it away in the "someday i'll cash this in jar". walking up to an Aldi to see this as a first time customer would definitely sour me. it's not like a laundromat where you know well in advance you are better off showing up with change rather than expecting the change machine to be in working order.

You don't keep change in your car? What if you have to go through an unexpected toll? Or is that not a thing anymore (I haven't driven in a long time)?

you don't even need to keep change. aldi will spot you the quarter and never ask to be repaid. the point is you have to ask, which involves cooperation rather than entitlement.

the whole process is about selecting for clientele who are willing to recognize that they have some obligations as a customer to work with the model on an individual level if they want to maximize its effectiveness on a group level.

its just the same group psychology behind coupon clipping in a different disguise.

Around here you don't keep ANYTHING in your car unless you want your car broken into. Not even small change.

A) I don't own a car

B) If I owned a car, I'd have a toll tag, and we haven't used change for tolls in close to 2 decades.

I went there first time this spring. Like you, I do not carry change, and they wouldn't break a dollar unless I purchased something. Prices were not all that great and there was a laughable selection of anything. They had one cashier who couldn't be troubled to move quickly, and she was seated.

There were a few of the stores here and there and I noticed the parking lots were always empty. I guess pissing people off before they buy something is bad for business.

Why is a cashier being seated framed negatively in your comment?

I really appreciate how succinctly you’ve identified it. A soft filter is exactly what it is and right off the bat they’ve relieved themselves, and the customers they desire, of the type of people they’d rather not have to deal with.

Around here (Germany, Hamburg, inner city and western outskirts, have no other recent experience) it's often unnecessary, since the chainlocks are mostly 'cracked', broken nowadays. Just grab one. They lock up anyways, if you try to move them off of the premises via some mechanism embedded in a bulge above one frontwheel, triggerd by induction wires embedded in the ground of the parking space. Regardless of Aldi, Lidl, Edeka, Rewe, Penny, Netto, whomever...

I keep a single quarter in my car for Aldi.