When grocery shopping, customers usually expect the same thing every time: Walk in, grab what you need, and check out.
But sometimes, things don’t go as planned. Maybe someone removes the divider on the belt so your items mix together. Maybe you’re holding one carton of milk, and the person in front of you “with 100 items” won’t let you go first.
Recently, another grocery shopper shared what can go wrong at checkout—and it’s definitely one of the more unusual stories we’ve heard.
What happened to her at the Aldi checkout line?
TikTok user Samantha (@samantha99xxx) posted a video that’s now been viewed more than 643,400 times, explaining how a stranger at Aldi asked if she could put her groceries in Samantha’s cart while they stood in line.
At first, Samantha agreed. In the caption overlay, she wrote, “I came to Aldi and the line is long and this lady asked to put her stuff in my cart bc she didn’t wanna hold it and I’m choosing kindness this Lent season so I said yes…”
But that’s not where it ended.
“…but now she’s literally shopping around as I’m waiting in line??”
In the video, Samantha films her own unimpressed reaction before flipping the camera to show the other woman’s groceries sitting in her cart—without the woman anywhere in sight.
“Choosing kindness but also what the heck lol,” she wrote in the video’s caption.
Is this grocery line request common?
Situations like this don’t happen often, but they’re not completely unheard of either.
On Reddit, some shoppers have shared similar run-ins—like someone putting items in their cart without asking, or even walking off with a cart someone had already started filling.
According to the Kitchn, checkout etiquette isn’t hard to figure out.
One former cashier told the publication that carts full of trash, shared items, or random clutter only make things harder for cashiers.
According to them, it’s basic etiquette to keep your personal items and distractions (like phone calls or conversations) to a minimum during checkout. Grocery employees work fast to get customers through the line—but they can’t do that if they’re sorting through someone else’s stuff.
Viewers weigh in
In the comments, viewers had mixed feelings. Some encouraged Samantha to keep choosing kindness, even if people take advantage of it.
“Keep choosing kindness even if people take advantage of,” one user advised.
Others shared their own cautionary tales. “It’s not unkind to say no,” someone said. “A guy asked me once to hold open a towel for him in an aisle & I did, but I didn’t know it was to cover him so he could steal something else—and now on camera, I was his accomplice.”
Another viewer said they once let a woman with just one item go ahead of them in line. “She then yells for her husband who comes with a cart full 10x my size,” they wrote. “My jaw and ‘oh!’ had no effect on her & she never said thanks… lol.”
@samantha99xxx Choosing kindness but also what the heck lol #aldi #shoppingstory #aldifinds #aldistory #storytime #shopping #kindness #lent #fyp ♬ Welp, Didn’t Expect That – Yu-Peng Chen & HOYO-MiX
The Daily Dot has reached out to Samantha and Aldi via email for comment.
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