I was invited by the store manager when I was grocery shopping to come in for a casual interview because they had a lot of positions to fill and I live close by. The store manager asked me to come in the morning and I let her know I’d be watching my son and if an afternoon time would work better. She told me to just bring him. Thinking it would just be a few minutes of showing my resume discussing metrics, store processes, availability and filling out an application I arrive to see 20+ people in line all waiting to be interviewed. I was last in line. With a 17 month old child. I put my best foot forward and I wanted to set an example in some way for my kid so I just made it a positive experience by talking to the staff members I knew and hanging out with the security officer I knew. Once I got “to the front of the line” I was introduced to the district manager who briefly talked to me. She took my name, phone number, and availability and told me to “send in my application online.” The worst part is that I had asked the store manager if she just wanted me to to send her an application online or do one in paper (every company is different) I did the application. I wasn’t hired. I have plenty of retail and management experience even in a warehouse/shipping setting. I have a degree, I have decent child care. I was told by an employee of the store that it was my “availability” that didn’t align. Why does any other employee know about my “availability” and my availability was extremely open, I’m a stay at home mom, I have fairly flexible scheduling. To go through all of that and not even get a call back and just a “denied” email was truly a heartbreaking experience from a company that gets ALL of my grocery money and more and has a decent business model that I believe in. I still have good opinions of Aldi as a whole and that store manager is not to blame at this level because working in corporate retail myself I know when a district manager steps in to do interviews for a store there is serious reconstruction going on internally. (I later found out that district manager was fired) that district manager or regional manager thought it would be okay to do a job fair in an ALDI. Not the SM. ALDI if you hire a store manager trust that they get to know their communities and who want to create a better environment for their teams and stores. It’s not just about availability. It’s about bringing people in that create a great team who know they can rely on each other.