To get really annoyed at supermarkets

[LordBrightside]

who still require a coin to get a trolley? I mean, who steals trolleys nowadays?

Does my nut in. Many supermarkets don't have this outdated practice anymore and so often I don't have any coins on me.

Does my head in.

The key ring fob doesn't help on its own because you still need to take it back to the trolleys, plug it in and get it back.

Not if you get one where you can just pull it straight out like mine.

Further note - I live in Scotland where the plastic bag charge was introduced a lot earlier. If you are not noticing dumped trolleys in your area in England, you probably soon will.

"who steals trolleys nowadays?"

Quite a few people, judging by the trolleys I see around the place.

I live on an estate right by a Tesco superstore. A lot of the residents around here use the trolleys to wheel their shopping home the short distance, and then they either take them back or you'll get some kid hanging about offering to do it for you! Toys R Us on the other hand, also very near, don't charge for their trolleys and I'm sick of seeing them left everywhere cluttering up the place. Every now and again a staff member has to walk around collecting them all.

people still steal trolleys all the time
bit confused by "in this day and age" - not sure what's happened that would make you think people don't steal them any more?

In our small town we have a Sainsburys, a Booths and a Co-op. We have never needed a coin for any of the trolleys and I've never seen an abandoned trolley anywhere.
Aldi have just built a store, and their trolleys require a coin. I can't articulate exactly why, but I felt a bit hurt when I saw that. I think it's that the Aldi bigwigs hadn't realised what a trustworthy lot we are .

I once spent a profitable 10 mins in an outer London Asda car park collecting and returning abandoned trolleys...

the main reason is to make people put the trolleys back. Where there's no charge, they just get dumped in parking spaces. Make a charge and they get returned, no need to employ someone to do it, no need to replace trolleys and hence lower prices.

and don't tell me all the trolley dumpers are people with kids that they can't leave in the car for the minute it takes to return the trolley. People are lazy, which is why so many are fat.

Years ago I used to live in a shared house about 10-15 min walk away from a Tesco that charged for trolleys. 3 out of 5 of my flatmates didn't have a car -they used to push the trolley home after doing a big shop and then (in theory) take it back the next time they went. Except often they didn't as they were walking past on the way home so we sometimes had four or five trolleys in the back yard. They would do a mass return and use the £1s to contribute to a round in the pub - they thought it was funny...
I was stuck without a coin outside Lidl once and one of their employees gave me a plastic token to use. On the way home I tried to give it back to one of them and they told me to keep it.
After that I kept a 'trolley' pound in my car ashtray (along with my bag of change of paying for parking which usually has a couple of pounds) and the plastic disc but now I also have a couple of tokens - Aldi sold the tokens a while ago - they were in their reduced section originally £1 now 29p -so I bought a few.
I no longer have the lidl disc and one of the Aldi tokens - I have given them away to people who have been asking for change for a trolley etc....one good turn etc.

Really annoyed . . . ?

Keep a pound coin in the car and get over yourself.

I like them. It stops people trashing the few sn trollies there are. One local supermarket doesn't do this and the new ones they got in were wrecked within weeks because of people messing about with them.

I can't say it bothers me. The Sainsburys and Lidl in my town have trolleys you need a coin for and their car parks are really tidy. Tesco trolleys are a free for all and there are abandoned trolleys all over the place. Sainsburys also have a staff member out in the car park bringing the trolleys back to the main trolley park near the entrance whereas Tesco don't (or at least I've never seen one) so I'm not even convinced that it is down to saving staff costs.

I somehow had the idea that supermarkets with coin trolleys only had them if the local council insisted on them (because the council didn't want to collect trolleys from canals and parks and other random places).

But anyway, regardless of why they have coin trolleys, it's not a major issue. Mildly annoying at times, perhaps, but I can't see why anyone would really get worked up about it.

How about car parks that not only only take cash, but then insist on it being in exact coinage. (To make matters worse, I have seen ones which don't take modern coins - they need old 10p/5p pieces).

Meanwhile, where I can, I park by phone at best, and card at worst.

I use a little token. But I always thought it was a way of getting people to put the trolley back rather than because it might get stolen.

It's not one of the (admittedly many ) things nowadays that annoys me though.

People do steal trolleys. When we evicted a lodger (non-payment of rent - he owed us thousands and after he'd gone we found he'd nicked stuff from our house too) we found, among other things, 6 supermarket wire baskets and two trolleys.

How about car parks that not only only take cash, but then insist on it being in exact coinage.

That really irritates me, especially the ones that price parking at something like £1.85 per hour and won't take 1p and 2p coins. They are so blatantly aiming to make a profit on all the people who will have no choice but to put £2 in.

yes a friend of mine had to go to her ex partner's house after her and her friends got pissed pinched a trolley and pushed her around town in it predictably she got stuck and ex dp had to get her out

unfortunately i don't drink and don't go out with her or i would have the pictures to prove it

Here in Germany, my local supermarket trolleys accept 50c, €1 and €2 coins which makes it a little easier as I've always got at least one of these in my purse.

People DO steal trolleys. Our local Sainsbury doesn't charge £1 and as a result the canal is full of them.

I used to work in a supermarket and worked there from when it was first opened.

On the first day we opened we had around 200 of those plastic baskets on wheels. By the end of the first week we had one left! I remember going home and walking through the car park and seeing a woman load three in the back of her car, she said (I quote) 'oh they're really handy for putting the laundry in'!

So when we bought our next lot they had security tags on. All things cost money, even to supermarkets. There are definitely people out there that take trolleys.

I have a ton of those keyring thongs with the token onthat I have gathered at events and stuff for free, we also have them at work for promo events, I fasten one round the handle of all my shopping bags so I am never without also one on my purse zip. I am never caught short

Aldi sell those £1.75 pound for life trolley tokens occasionally - same designs, even! - usually for well under £1. I wonder where the pound for life people buy them?

Lots of charity shops sell them for £1, which seems a fair exchange. Unless you ever go out without locking your door, you just need to keep one on your keyring