The smaller trolleys have just made the car park escape more complicated. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
It keeps happening.
Ever since the smaller, more manoeuverable shopping trolley was introduced, no doubt to get you through the self-checking gauntlet, along with locking devices, what should be a simple car park return has become complicated.
Too many times, it degenerates into a frantic hunt all over the car park to find a bay with a similar trolley to dock with so you can get your coin or token back.
I’ve even seen a small and large trolley back to back rather than the user finding a match.
Just the other day a quick dash to the local shops – that’s you, Cooleman Court – to replenish after a weekend away turned dark when all the Woolies bays were filled with the smaller variety.
And for some reason that eludes me, the key chains usually attached to the bay bars, had gone missing. Do dog owners steal them?
After exhausting all options across the car park – the Aldi trolley bay was available, but mixing is aesthetically and neurologically challenging, and you have to stand on principle somewhere. I ended up pushing my trolley all the way back to Woolies to retrieve my token, rehearsing lines to waste on the service desk.
The person on the desk didn’t know it, but I took pity on them. They are not really interested in customer feedback.
Of course, in the grand scheme of things, it was a minor inconvenience for an able-bodied bloke to navigate, despite the frustration that it happens so often whether it’s Cooleman or Westfield.
But what if you’re a parent with a newborn in the pouch and another in tow, and after negotiating what passes for service these days, emptying the account to feed the family, and unloading said children, you can’t find a home for your trolley and it looks like you’ve just donated a dollar to God knows who unless you abandon the kids in the car to race back to the supermarket, potentially exposing them to abduction and/or heat stroke or yourself being reported to social services?
If supermarkets are going to provide different-sized trolleys – Aldi being the exception so far – then the least they can do is to provide a sufficient number of car park bays to cater for them.
It’s not as if the Big Two are struggling.
If it’s not the supermarket’s responsibility, then the shopping centre owner should invest in some minor infrastructure that would remove one source of frustration from the weekly hunting and gathering.
Scentre Group, the multinational that’s taken over Westfield, isn’t exactly poor either. And that goes for all the other shopping centre owners across the country.
Of course, there’s no guarantee people would park their trolleys in the appropriate bay anyway, but here’s hoping. Or let’s forget about locking them up.
Self-checking tech, fewer staff, shrinking brand lines, reduced checkouts, docket shock and trolley rage.
It’s not a great experience.
But I’m told there is a hack to the trolley situation – on eBay, of course, for a reasonable price.
Loading ...
