In a recent post shared to Reddit’s r/CasualUK, site user u/tqmirza shared a picture of what looked like an innocuous shelf label in an Aldi store.
But on closer inspection, they say, they realised the labels were different to the ones they expected to see.
“Just realised today that these price labels in Aldi are all E-ink displays,” the Redditor wrote.
What’s E-ink, and how do the labels work?
It seems that this Redditor’s Aldi uses digital, rather than paper, shelf labels.
A promotional video of electronic shelf labels (ESLs) shared on TikTok said the tech is lower-waste than paper options, is less likely to fall foul of mistakes, and can update promotions and price changes in real time.
According to a The Grocer article written in April 2023, both Aldi and Lidl trialled the new tech ― at the time, Lidl was trying the labels out in 2023, while Aldi told the publication they’d “started to gradually roll out ESLs across its estate.”
They first tested the modern addition in some stores in 2021, The Grocer adds.
They also shared that while Tesco and Sainsbury’s had trialled the labels, they hadn’t implemented them as of the time of writing; Asda had them in one Stevenage store back in 2023.
HuffPost UK reached out to Aldi to ask how common the ESLs are in their UK stores but have not yet received a reply.
People seemed to approve of the tech
Redditor u/Coldazures says they “Worked as a supermarket assistant a long time ago watching the EPOS lady run round like a loon on the promo change over days.
“As an IT student, I sort of assumed one day maybe someone would find a way a computer could do it.”
Meanwhile, u/Just-Lavishness895 claims they “saw [the labels] flicker on and off the other week always thought those were cardboard labels or something.”
The original poster, u/tqmirza, said “That’s literally what caught my attention. Thought I was finally losing my mind for a second.”
Once you see it. you can’t unsee it.
