Our favorite discount grocery chain is known for many things. The first, and most important, is ALDI’s wide variety of products—many of them better-for-you options, and a good handful being award-winners—at a bargain of a price. You may also think of the eclectic ALDI Finds aisle, where you can pick up the best products of the month, from home goods to porch furniture to clothing and seasonal pantry items, at a fraction of what you’d find in other big box stores. Then there are the ALDI quirks of bag-it-yourself, seated cashiers, and your special cart quarter. But have you ever wondered why the grocery store doesn’t have a deli counter?

Turns out, it might be more trouble (and time) than it’s worth.

Though you can pick up sliced cheeses and meats in the refrigerated section—you may want to grab some award-winning pickles, too—ALDI, unlike many of their competitors, notably does not have an area with an employee fresh-slicing deli products to order. Reader’s Digest spoke with Amrita Bhasin, CEO of Sotira (a company that works with food manufacturers and grocery stores on inventory planning), who shared that the decision just might be based on a counter’s relative inefficiency.

Nearly every ALDI decision, from cart quarters to seated cashiers, is made to help keep prices low and customers moving quickly through the store. A deli counter could keep that from happening, causing customers to form a line, needing to wait for service. This means that other shoppers navigating ALDI aisles would also have a slower experience trying to get through the store to find their favorite products. Multiply this by thousands of customers, and your “quick trip to ALDI” becomes just as long as trying to get in and out of the Costco parking lot on a Saturday.

“ALDI has likely decided that given its model of low cost, low option, small stores, operating a deli counter is just not worth the overhead and risks,” Bhasin told Reader’s Digest. “With a store like ALDI, people can be in and out quickly, and this makes people come purchase more frequently than they would at a bigger grocery or warehouse store like Costco, which is seen as such an ordeal.”

ALDI would also have to consider a significant staffing and training restructure, Bhasin added, as employees would need guidance on equipment, allergies, cross-contamination, and new customer service procedures. On top of that, a deli counter must have permits and compliance documents.

You may have noticed on your weekly ALDI run that there are just enough employees to stock shelves and ring up your groceries. To facilitate a counter, stores would have to add additional staff members. “People tend to come in to make deli purchases at certain times of day, and it is hard to run a deli counter only at certain times and match it up with that so there’s sufficient staff,” Bhasin said.

On the financial side, it’s incredibly costly to create adequate temperature control for a deli, including electricity that needs to stay on 24 hours a day. It can be a huge obstacle for grocers—especially in the heat of a Southern summer—to keep perishable items at the right temperature. With a rise in recalls (delis are often the most impacted) and the potential for dangerous bacteria, temperature control is a crucial need that comes at a high price.

All in all, it might not be the best customer experience to sacrifice the budget-friendly and consistent ALDI experience for some shaved deli turkey. (You can head to the Publix deli counter for that, and grab a Pub Sub while you’re at it.) Opt for ALDI’s prepackaged options instead—they’re still delicious on your favorite sandwich, and are backed by the brand’s Twice as Nice guarantee.