16 February 2017

Pay for bags, scan my own shopping – now pay for a trolley!?

| Rachel Ziv
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trolleys

I’ve been seeing them around for a while now – token slots on Woolworths and Coles shopping trolleys that require a $1 or $2 coin to release the chain. Up until this week I have remained blissfully ignorant of their purpose, having never walked into a store and found them chained up.

Until this week!

As I walked into Woolworths hoping to grab a few things in a hurry there they were – rows of chained trolleys. Not being one to carry around coins (I’m definitely an EFTPOS kind of gal) I rummaged through my bag trying to find one. I found a ton of silver, and then tried in vain to shove 10 and 20 cent coins into the slot while my two year old looked on bemused.

After a few minutes I gave up, threw my arms in the air and exclaimed, “This is ridiculous!”

I grabbed my son’s hand and a basket and walked a few metres before he started complaining of being tired and wanting to sit in the trolley. I explained I couldn’t get a trolley and he got even more upset, at which point I picked him up and attempted to juggle the basket in one arm and him in the other.

Realising this also wasn’t going to work, I became increasingly angry.

I stormed over to the first Woolworths staff member I could see and asked rudely if they planned to hand out $1 and $2 coins so people who live in the 21st Century and use cards instead of cash could access the sacred trolleys. I raved on for a while (and she was very patient), before she finally said, “Please don’t blame us, it’s not our fault.”

Having been a checkout operator many moons ago, my face softened and I said, “I know. They make you do it from head office.”

To which she replied, “No, I mean it’s really not our fault. It’s the ACT Government. They make us pay every time someone dumps a trolley from our store. This is the only solution we had – make people pay and then give their money back when they return it.”

I was shocked. I hadn’t heard anything about it. And after first being asked to pay for my own shopping bags, then (and this infuriates me) contribute to a lack of future generation’s jobs by scanning my own shopping, I am now required to pay for a trolley.

Apparently Aldi has been doing it for ages. They have a token system, where you buy a number of tokens that are also attachable to your keychain so you never forget them. I don’t mind that idea. I certainly wouldn’t have lost the plot if I saw a $5 pack of tokens (worthy of an EFTPOS transaction) instead of being asked to rummage around for a single gold coin.

It makes me sad that this is the way of the future. If (apparently) we can only walk as slow as our slowest community members, then we must all find a dollar in our pockets to compensate for slackos that dump them in the park.

And lots of people stand to lose with this new invention. The lovely Woolworths staff member ended up finding me a trolley and showed me how to chain it up when I was finished. When I did, I saw a $1 coin still sitting in the slot in the trolley in front of mine. Being the first into the collection bay, its driver had nothing to snap it into to release the coin (thereby having to go in search of another trolley, or leave it behind).

The weekly shop is now umpteen more difficult than it ever was when you just had to worry about how to handle your kids and remember everything on your shopping list.

That’s my pout – what are your thoughts on Woolies and Coles’s response to the new shopping trolley legislation? Is there a better solution?

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Instead of whinging about it, there is a simple solution:

“One Green Shopping Trolley Unlocking Key
Works with Coles, Woolworths, Costco, Aldi trolleys and majority of front coin slot trolleys that accept $2 coins.
Unlike other tokens, you don’t have to remove it from your keys or leave it in the trolley lock.
Unlock as many trolleys as you wish, simply insert it into the slot and pop it out as soon as the trolley unlocks!
Saves time, no hassle of coins or needing to return the trolley!”

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Green-Removable-Shopping-Trolley-Token-Key-Coin-Unlocker/322369793464?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20140106155344%26meid%3Da812891625fd4b52a1416f2bd02a607e%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D4%26mehot%3Dag%26sd%3D132030087841#ht_599wt_1362

wildturkeycanoe3:27 pm 04 Mar 17

OMG what a mess this scheme has caused!
I went to the mall today for something I can’t get anywhere else [ie. Something Woolies doesn’t stock anymore] and being both wet weather and a Saturday, it was the usual chaos. But, it wasn’t the parking that drove people crazy, it was the trolleys.
With the different types of trolleys and different locking mechanisms, people were having problems getting their coin or token back. The trolleys with the higher baskets do not accept the larger trolleys, unless you place them back to back. This leaves the remaining space in the trolley bay unusable as there won’t be a trolley receptacle within reach for the next one. So, a shopper has to travel to another trolley bay, of which there is usually only one directly opposite. You can’t push it through the gaps between the parked cars to get to the next parking bay, without going all the way to the end and back again. So, people were starting to leave trolleys outside the trolley bay, in empty car spaces and on the end of the parking bays too. There were different brands and types of trolleys connected in all manner of ways, leaving a jumbled mess the trolley collectors would have a great time undoing.
As I went into the shops, an older shopper was trying to work out how to retrieve their $2. None of the stacks of interconnected trolleys would accept his, so he went across to the other side and ended up doing the back-to-back method. Upon leaving the mall, there were another couple of people shuffling trolleys around in the middle of the road, trying to find somewhere to plug in to.
The whole system is a total failure. Sure the trolleys aren’t going walkies all the way to people’s homes, but they are now crowding the car park in twisted masses. For the sake of one or two dollars, people seem to prefer leaving it in the car park rather than walk it all the way back to the store. I’m sure that even the effort of working out the compatibility issues is more efficient than the several hundred meter walk inside and back again. It isn’t the coin or token they mind wasting, it is their time which is much more valuable, so they go for the quickest option which means a center full of trolley chaos.
Incidentally, I saw a couple of trolleys on my way home far removed from the confines of the mall, so the system obviously hasn’t prevented the issue it was supposed to remedy. Maybe they need to try something else, or at least make all the trolleys have a standardized lock and the ability to shunt correctly with any other brand.

Bonkers said :

But I’ve also got an anecdote about a trick I saw when doing a shop. I’m not endorsing it, as frankly with my little free plastic substitute I don’t have a problem with having a trolley return system as it means they don’t end up in the lake/waterways/my front yard. So I won’t provide details, but will give some hints.

Searching some key words on eBay will yield a result for about $3.99, including postage. Handy for wandering around the carpark and earning some money from the ones that people have decided it’s worth a gold coin not to walk back to the trolley corral.

I will return my trolleys to the corral, and the circumstances with which I return them (I’m not saying leave your trolleys lying about – that’s a dick move – but I think these locks infantilise us.)

I needed to do a bit of a party run at one of the local booze places (1st Choice I think, but it was a while ago, so don’t quote me). They gave me a plastic token, free of charge, same size as a $1 coin, but about 1/3 the thickness and weighs three parts of nothing which permanently lives in my wallet for shopping occasions.

But I’ve also got an anecdote about a trick I saw when doing a shop. I’m not endorsing it, as frankly with my little free plastic substitute I don’t have a problem with having a trolley return system as it means they don’t end up in the lake/waterways/my front yard. So I won’t provide details, but will give some hints.

Several years ago I was looking to get a baby seat trolley which was buried deep within the pile of trolleys and didn’t have change (and was pre plastic substitute). I went to the help desk and explained that I needed help getting to the trolley in question, as it was pretty difficult trying to juggle coins, move multiple trolleys, etc while wrangling a 12 month old, and they came to the rescue.

The helper in question pulled out “a device” (possibly from Officeworks or somewhere similar, and possibly used for holding bulky amount of paper together. That’s all I’m going to say). With a very quick movement, he was able to detach the trolley (and remove “the device”) just before the baby carrier and move the other trolleys out. Using the same quick movement, he detached the baby trolley (again retaining “the device”) and got it out for me, before shoving the original trolleys back in and re-attaching.

Dead set legend. I should point out that the device in question is far bulkier than any coin, let alone a plastic token, but I got the impression that it wasn’t the first time he had to do it, and it was easier to pull “the device” from a drawer to do the job rather than having to wait for an open till to give me a hand.

bruce_lord said :

Am I the only one who feels sorry for the Carp in Lake Tuggeranong?

Many years of evolution has the carp treating the submerged shopping trolleys near McDonald’s just like a Clown Fish does the great barrier reef.

Actually there was a half submerged trolley in Lake Tuggeranong about 50 meters from shore. That gave me an inkling of just how shallow certain parts of that Lake is.

I went out to one of the islands once in Lake Tuggeranong and I was able to walk about halfway there before I needed to swim. Yes, it is shallow.

There’d be no need for people to put a deposit in the trolly before using it, if so many of them were not taken from the shop where they are to be used, but taken home like they were someone else’s personal property.

I’m fully in favour of this way of stopping the suburbs being littered with trollies.

There is, by the way, no cost in a fully refundable deposit.

Am I the only one who feels sorry for the Carp in Lake Tuggeranong?

Many years of evolution has the carp treating the submerged shopping trolleys near McDonald’s just like a Clown Fish does the great barrier reef.

Actually there was a half submerged trolley in Lake Tuggeranong about 50 meters from shore. That gave me an inkling of just how shallow certain parts of that Lake is.

Rollersk8r said :

This is not a new thing. There was another post about the inconsistency of this system – and there definitely does seem to be loopholes. Coles seem to be largely immune to these rules, with no coin required at Kaleen, Belco or Gungahlin. In fact – we usually grab a Coles trolley to do our Aldi shop at Belc/Gung. Otherwise, the Aldi key tag works on all trolleys that require a coin.

Furthermore, in the last few years I’ve probably made $20 from people too lazy to return the trolley to the collection bay.

I’m guessing you haven’t been to any of these three shops this week? They ALL have them

Im not here to burst your bubble, but there are countries where they are just trying to survive , we are blessed. regardless of our situation

sometimes its just nice to be a part of the ‘lower south’

octagonalman10:15 pm 17 Feb 17

Maya123 said :

Fairdinkum said :

Unfortunately though, a few people don’t have credit cards for that to be acceptable.

Hmm I don’t think there’s any inherent right to use a shopping trolley. People get chased for not returning baskets upon leaving the store. The goalposts for acceptable behaviour can be moved. People can dump their own shopping jeeps in the stormwater drain… I mean majestic Yarralumla Creek.

Himeno said :

Maya123 said :

If the supermarkets introduced an incentive for people to report stolen trolleys; whether they are on someone’s front lawn, or in a creek, there would still be work for some trolley collectors to go retrieve the trolleys. Perhaps for each trolley reported, the person reporting where the trolley is, could go into a draw each month for free groceries.

Funny you say that.
http://trolleytracker.com.au/

I guess you haven’t seen the posters about it at the fronts of many supermarkets?

No I haven’t. I should give them a challenge and report the trolley or multiple trolleys in the storm water drain under Manuka. I’m not sure by the mess though that they would be keen to go and get them.

Maya123 said :

If the supermarkets introduced an incentive for people to report stolen trolleys; whether they are on someone’s front lawn, or in a creek, there would still be work for some trolley collectors to go retrieve the trolleys. Perhaps for each trolley reported, the person reporting where the trolley is, could go into a draw each month for free groceries.

Funny you say that.
http://trolleytracker.com.au/

I guess you haven’t seen the posters about it at the fronts of many supermarkets?

Cleob said :

Not sure where in Canberra you are shopping but we have been paying for trolleys at Kippax for a couple of years now. Both Aldi and Woolworths trolleys need coins or tokens. Not really any more inconvenient than bringing your own bags. I have an aldi token and make a habit of leaving a couple of coins in the car’s ashtray.

In cases like that, the installation of the locks to the Coles/Woolworths trolleys was due to Aldi having always had trolley locks and people going to the neighboring Coles/Woolworths and taking one of theirs instead of using the Aldi trolley.

GCS14 said :

Himeno said :

Now, the government is fining the store. Any trolley the government finds outside the shopping center carpark. results in a $7,500 fine if it has a lock and $45,000 if it doesn’t. Per trolley.

That’s pretty steep. Got a source for that?

The memo read out by the store manager at work on Monday morning when the instruction came through that we had to start locking the trolleys.

Anyway, people have already started destroying trolleys over this. The collectors bought back 2 to the store today to show the manager. 1 had had the lock box snapped off, bottom half still attached with the push bar bent. Another had the bar snapped.

The Lanyon shops have a Woolworths and an Aldi, about 100 metres apart. The Aldi has had coin-deposit trolleys since forever as part of its cost-cutting model. It’s been common to see people bringing Woolworths trolleys into the Aldi store – if you see someone wheeling around a half-depth trolley in Aldi, it’s from Woolworths, because Aldi don’t have them. Now it might be easier to get a half-depth trolley at Woolworths if people can’t bring one over to Aldi and leave it in the Aldi car park without cost.

While at the Lanyon shops today, I saw few trolleys around where I was parked towards the McDonalds end of the car park. Maybe people are returning the trolleys at Woolworths’ entrance and carrying their groceries in bags to their cars.

Holden Caulfield12:25 pm 17 Feb 17

650+ words for an all-purpose whinge to explain that something that’s not the supermarkets’ fault when it is actually their fault.

I get that paying for trolleys is a drag, but seeing washed up trolleys dumped all over the place is also a drag. Rightly or wrongly it’s been decided that the supermarkets should be responsible for their trolleys when dumped off-site and given that nothing else has worked to date we need to see if this cash-for-trolley concept works. The fact it has been so widely implemented elsewhere tends to suggest it will.

When I was in Adelaide a few weeks back, the trolleys are free to use (Coles was the only supermarket there) but a GPS-type system attached to each trolley makes the wheels lock up if customers try to take them beyond the shopping centre car-park perimeter.

Wonder if the OP was at Woolworths Woden the other day as I saw an assistant trying to explain this new procedure to a loud, overwrought customer…

Fairdinkum said :

Wonder if this will make shopping trolley collectors loose their job as their work will now become redundant.

There will still be those who will think nothing of wasting a dollar coin and still dump the trolley, so still work for trolley collectors. After all, some people waste money on fags and the like, so what’s an extra dollar to them! Octagonalman’s $50 suggestion would likely work; though it probably wouldn’t need to be that high to work. I bet $10 would work; maybe even $5. Unfortunately though, a few people don’t have credit cards for that to be acceptable. But one day we may have a $5 coin. If you return the trolley it won’t cost you anything.

If the supermarkets introduced an incentive for people to report stolen trolleys; whether they are on someone’s front lawn, or in a creek, there would still be work for some trolley collectors to go retrieve the trolleys. Perhaps for each trolley reported, the person reporting where the trolley is, could go into a draw each month for free groceries.

I am surprised that there aren’t people offering to return trolleys in exchange for the dollar coin. Overseas I have had this happen to me. A nuisance though, being approached.

octagonalman said :

Perhaps it’d be better to have a system where it takes a $50 deposit (like Melbourne Bike Share) on your payment card. That way there’d be real incentive to return the trolley and you don’t need coins.

🙂

Wonder if this will make shopping trolley collectors loose their job as their work will now become redundant.

Not sure where in Canberra you are shopping but we have been paying for trolleys at Kippax for a couple of years now. Both Aldi and Woolworths trolleys need coins or tokens. Not really any more inconvenient than bringing your own bags. I have an aldi token and make a habit of leaving a couple of coins in the car’s ashtray.

storming over and speaking rudely to a person doing their job is not cool.

what do i think??? it’s really a first world problem. i agree with the others – you are not paying for the trolley. and again, if you’d seen the token slots for ages… well you probably should’ve realised it was coming

octagonalman11:33 pm 16 Feb 17

Perhaps it’d be better to have a system where it takes a $50 deposit (like Melbourne Bike Share) on your payment card. That way there’d be real incentive to return the trolley and you don’t need coins.

GCS14 said :

Himeno said :

Now, the government is fining the store. Any trolley the government finds outside the shopping center carpark. results in a $7,500 fine if it has a lock and $45,000 if it doesn’t. Per trolley.

That’s pretty steep. Got a source for that?

http://www.tccs.act.gov.au/territory-services/city_rangers/changes_to_shopping_trolley_legislation_litter_act_2004 failure to ensure trolleys remain in shopping centre precentor results in a fine equivalent to 60 units where one unit is $550 so that’s $33,000. However if a containment system exists (lock boxes) this does not apply

Rachel Ziv wrote, “Pay for bags”
! ! ! !
Only if you don’t take bags with you. I have never paid for a bag.

The ACT gov causing more inconvenience to your day . No doubt the pollies get Woolies/Coles home shopping and never get to experience the shortfalls of the stupid idea. Then we need too pay a committee to experience it for them and report back in 6 months ,

I wonder if the bureaucrats are under estimating the Bogans resolve to be Bogans I,m sure they are not beyond busting open a lock. But I can’t help feeling there is another lost opportunity for employing our kids along with the self serve checkouts and with all these cost saving measures I,m pretty sure the price of my groceries are’nt any cheaper but I guess the shareholders are happy.

The Government does charge for trolleys off the environs of the supermarkets but there are far more effective ways of controlling trolleys being taken outside of an area. One is a lock wheel system. Simply what it does is lock a wheel if you go beyond a line around the area determined by the trolley owner.
There are two reasons the supermarkets won’t use this:
The first is cost. This system is not cheap but is far more effective than paying 35 cents to use a trolley if you don’t return it.
The second is they still have to have trolley collectors where as with the “return to get your token/money back” system the shopper does most of that work.
You can buy any number devices that can be pulled out after the chain is released online. As there is not intent to defraud (you get your money back anyway) they do not damage the coin system in any way (the system is very primitive and most devices are made of plastic) and the supermarkets will all tell you are not being charged to use the trolley there would seem to be no law broken in using them. Children or young adults may see these devices as a way to remove trolleys and take them off site.
Why bother when you can get a device for 35 cents from Woolworths and it may well stop your car from being damaged by trolleys that get left near your car by people who seem to think the instant they leave a car parking space it becomes a trolley collection point?
The one area of this that must be addressed by the supermarkets is properly convenient bays for the return of trolleys especially for older people who find pushing a trolley up a hill difficult.

wildturkeycanoe9:38 pm 16 Feb 17

bd84 said :

You can leave your kids in the car for the 1 minute it takes to walk your trolley to the trolley bays. They will not die in that time.

But they can be kidnapped? Also, it can take a lot longer than 1 minute to get your trolley all the way back to the store, as in the case of Kippax, which has no trolley bays in the car park. You first have to cross the street and go inside the store, so you now have lost sight of your kids, something you should never do. If the car has been out in the sun while you were shopping, it could be a nice 50 plus degrees in there. You can’t obviously leave the engine running to cool them either, so there isn’t another option but to drag them with you all the way back to the store. Some trolley bays in the car park would go a long way to making it a more pleasant experience.
Tonight I noticed that there were only about twenty trolleys left in the store at Kippax, what happened to them all?

wildturkeycanoe9:14 pm 16 Feb 17

I am all for the security measures but having to drag the trolley across the car park looking for somewhere to collect your $1 token is not worth the effort. As explained already, there is no standard, so without going back to the store your chances of finding a suitable key is not so good. More trolleys will end up left on traffic islands and footpaths, especially on hot or rainy days. I guess the beggars will just make their money returning abandoned trolleys to their owners.

Himeno said :

Now, the government is fining the store. Any trolley the government finds outside the shopping center carpark. results in a $7,500 fine if it has a lock and $45,000 if it doesn’t. Per trolley.

That’s pretty steep. Got a source for that?

I lost all sympathy the moment you admitted being rude to and ranting at a staff member. No matter how irritated you are that’s not ok.
I get it can be a bit annoying to not have coins, but seriously I think you need to relax a bit and just either carry a single coin or get a token.

It’s been coming for a while when they started installing the locks on the trolleys. When that started, no one had any idea why the locks had started appearing. Found out this last Monday what the deal was (after all the remaining trolleys without locks were removed from the store on Friday afternoon pending locks being installed).

It’s caused by the government with another update to the 2004 Litter Act. Before (under the 2011 amendments), every trolley had to have a sticker identifying which store owned it, so the store could be contacted to come remove it should any be found outside that shopping centers carpark.
Now, the government is fining the store. Any trolley the government finds outside the shopping center carpark. results in a $7,500 fine if it has a lock and $45,000 if it doesn’t. Per trolley.

Canberragirl17:07 pm 16 Feb 17

I feel your pain and frustration and completely sympathise with those who have young children, have additional needs or are elderly. I too have experienced discontent at the pay shopping trolley situation… out to do my week.y groceries at Belconnen, with no change on hand to get a trolley I went to an atm and withdrew cash, then had to break the notes to get coins… saying to myself “Oh well I guess I will have to ensure I have coins in the future.” However on completion of shopping, I went to return my trolley in a carpark bay, which had an Aldi trolley in it, so mine didn’t fit. Ok the next bay was for Coles trolleys, it would of been fine except the last Coles trolley in it was the smaller variety and mine was larger so it didn’t fit, the third bay had a Kmart trolley in it, again mine didn’t fit… yes 4th try lucky. Why didn’t I just forgo my gold coin? Well maybe once or twice that would be Ok, but I’m not the only one who can’t afford to ‘hire’ a trolley each time I shop? I did speak to the store manager who advised me to buy a device from the key cutting place which accesses all trolleys. Seriously though, if they are going to introduce this why can’t the stores get their act together and make all trolleys the same size so they can all be returned to any bay? Hmm local IGA is looking more appealing.

I agree that supermarkets needed to do something to rid the ‘burbs of discarded trolleys, but they need to take one more step,
I have lost several dollars after trying to return large trolleys to the holding bay, only to find small trolleys in the bay making it impossible for my trolley chain to reach the coin return apparatus because I can’t push the trolley in far enough. Would a 2nd lane for smaller trolleys be possible?
I’ve resorted to online grocery shopping and it’s saving me money with fewer impulse buys.

Kippax have had this system in place for years now, and it’s great. No longer do you see an empty car park, go to pull in, only to realise that someone’s left a trolley sitting in the middle of it.

Here’s a pro tip for you though. If you’re short a dollar coin, just head into the self service registers, and do a $1 cash out. You don’t pay any fees, and although their default options are for larger amounts you can key in your own amount. I’ve done this a few times when I’ve been caught out, works brilliantly.

I regularly shop at Woolies in Dickson and always wonder about the beggars there… not just the ones that are talking on their mobiles while having a ciggie … but more the fact that a lot of people would probably be willing to ‘pay’ $1 or $2 to have someone help with their groceries and return the trolley – while I am occasionally a sucker for some beggars I would have thought many of them are missing out on a ‘business’ idea…

ChrisinTurner5:23 pm 16 Feb 17

No there isn’t another solution. The government has tried the gentle approach for years and it didn’t work. We get 10 to 15 trolleys per day abandoned in our street. The number is already dropping. It actually saves money as ALDI found years ago. That is one reason they are so cheap. They also don’t have self checkouts for the same reason. If you are so rich you can shop at Coles and Woolies the carrying a dollar coin wont cause a problem.

Serina Huang said :

100m or longer is a long way to go when you have little people who are tired and cranky and want to go home. Many shopping centres are not really designed with young families in mind, even though often (but not always) it the mother who does the shopping. I can see why online shopping has become so popular.

My former local shopping centre has coin slots. Pre kids I actually used to walk to the supermarket avoid driving, but logistically this is no longer so easy with two little people in tow as the distance is too far for them.

You can leave your kids in the car for the 1 minute it takes to walk your trolley to the trolley bays. They will not die in that time.

The lazy people who just dump their trolley in the middle of the car parks or think they’re entitled to walk they groceries all the way home in the trolley is exactly why we now have the coin/token system.

They’re probably the same self-entitled fools who used to demand a plastic bag for their one chocolate bar or loaf of bread.

Unfortunately we can’t legislate against idiot people, and legislate the object instead.

HiddenDragon4:42 pm 16 Feb 17

“It makes me sad that this is the way of the future. If (apparently) we can only walk as slow as our slowest community members, then we must all find a dollar in our pockets to compensate for slackos that dump them in the park.”

It’s also the way of the past, and the present – and this dismal reality explains quite a bit about the ever-growing size and cost of government. The fact that the resultant bureaucracy (not to mention associated consultancies etc. etc.) helps to keep so many people in the manner to which they have become accustomed, is one of the reasons why views along the lines you have expressed are usually not well-received in this town……

Serina Huang3:41 pm 16 Feb 17

100m or longer is a long way to go when you have little people who are tired and cranky and want to go home. Many shopping centres are not really designed with young families in mind, even though often (but not always) it the mother who does the shopping. I can see why online shopping has become so popular.

My former local shopping centre has coin slots. Pre kids I actually used to walk to the supermarket avoid driving, but logistically this is no longer so easy with two little people in tow as the distance is too far for them.

Ghettosmurf871:01 pm 16 Feb 17

Serina Huang said :

The really difficult bit, when juggling kids, is getting the trolley back so that you can get your coins returned. Most trolley collection are a long way from the car, so you have to go out to the car with kids in tow, but your groceries away, then put the kids back in the trolley (or make them walk) and return the trolley. These days I opt for small shops using a bag, and yes that is a challenge with two kids but easier than using a trolley.

So what did you previously do with your trolley when you were done with it? Leave it lying around in the middle of the carpark for someone else to navigate around and return to the trolley bay in the carpark? Most trolley bays are no more than 50-100m from any park at shopping centres.

Why do we as a society always expect that we should receive things for free? Especially when we do nothing to justify this convenience previously offered by stores, but instead make their lives harder for them in return by leaving trolleys all over the place, tossing our rubbish, berating checkout staff when they did pack your bags for you, etc

Best belly laugh I have had in a while. Thanks

FYI you are not paying a brass razoo to use the trolley. You are making a deposit that says you will return it to a collection point at which point you will get your money back. Oh and if you are the first trolley everyone I’ve ever seen either has an old trolley chained to the front of the pay or they have a chain connected to the bay to connect to to get your money back.

As for buying $5 worth of tokens clearly you don’t understand the system. You use a coin or you buy one that you attach to your key ring and use again and again.

Kind of bad that the government has to legislate this kind of thing but you can thank the drop kicks who think it is their right to push their shopping home in a trolley. And I’ve seen them come from all walks of life. Druggies, students, oldies you name it. This at least gives them some incentive to either return the trolleys or a fiscal penalty for doing the wrong thing.

And of course nothing new what so ever. Aldi has been doing it for as long as I remember and Coles and Woolies in certain areas for years too.

GCS14 said :

Until you can convince people to stop dumping trolleys all over the place, this is the best solution we have for open air shopping centres.

Agreed. They can be found dumped in all sorts of places. Creeks, bushland, blatantly left outside houses; even blocking the storm-water tunnels under Manuka. The mind boggles on the effort to get them into that last place.

pink little birdie11:55 am 16 Feb 17

Woolworths have tokens for the trolley for 35c that go on the key chain.

I don’t see how this can come as a shock unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last 10 years. This has been introduced before by Colesworth and comes and goes like the tides. Buy a keyring token from Aldi or an trolley key on eBay.

And it’s not the government’s fault or the shop’s fault. It’s the slackers who dump trolleys everywhere. Once again the few ruin it for the many.

crackerpants11:31 am 16 Feb 17

Serina Huang said :

The really difficult bit, when juggling kids, is getting the trolley back so that you can get your coins returned. Most trolley collection are a long way from the car, so you have to go out to the car with kids in tow, but your groceries away, then put the kids back in the trolley (or make them walk) and return the trolley. These days I opt for small shops using a bag, and yes that is a challenge with two kids but easier than using a trolley.

If I haven’t been able to park close to a trolley bay, I put the kids in the car, leave the doors open, and do the bolt. (By the time I got to no. 3 they could no longer all fit in a trolley). It’s a fine art, but really only takes a few seconds. Returning trolleys to bays is a principle I hold dear 😉 and I hope that others make the effort as well, gold coin incentive or not.

That said, the carpark dash is the least of my worries when out shopping with 3 little terrors, so I avoid it where possible and order online.

Until you can convince people to stop dumping trolleys all over the place, this is the best solution we have for open air shopping centres.

crackerpants10:04 am 16 Feb 17

This isn’t really new – Aldi have done it in Canberra forever (but like everyone else, I would just grab a woolies trolley from downstairs if I needed to shop there). When I moved to Australia nearly 30 years ago, I remember mum grappling with the concept in Armidale, NSW – mind you, $1 and $2 coins were quite the novelty for us too 🙂

I noticed Woden Woolies had a staff member standing by the trollies to assist people, so perhaps your feedback was passed on.

As for coins in a cashless society, you will unfortunately be using coins again once your kids go to school…schools are really on board with apps and electronic payment systems, even for canteen orders, but once you hit walkathons/raffle tickets/school fetes, or if trying to get a 6 year old to decide what they want from the canteen hours in advance doesn’t work (it usually doesn’t), then you will be using coins 🙂

A simple solution is to shop online. It’s still fraught with problems, but I’d rather stab myself in the eye than take 3 kids grocery shopping!

This is not a new thing. There was another post about the inconsistency of this system – and there definitely does seem to be loopholes. Coles seem to be largely immune to these rules, with no coin required at Kaleen, Belco or Gungahlin. In fact – we usually grab a Coles trolley to do our Aldi shop at Belc/Gung. Otherwise, the Aldi key tag works on all trolleys that require a coin.

Furthermore, in the last few years I’ve probably made $20 from people too lazy to return the trolley to the collection bay.

What’s hilarious is that we are about 30 years behind on this – the UK and Europe have had this in place since the early 1990s. Tip: buy an Aldi token and attach it to your keychain. That’s exactly how I’ve been tackling it.

Serina Huang9:30 am 16 Feb 17

The really difficult bit, when juggling kids, is getting the trolley back so that you can get your coins returned. Most trolley collection are a long way from the car, so you have to go out to the car with kids in tow, but your groceries away, then put the kids back in the trolley (or make them walk) and return the trolley. These days I opt for small shops using a bag, and yes that is a challenge with two kids but easier than using a trolley.

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