Who knew there was shopping basket security

[Familyshopper]

Is it me or has this shopping basket etiquette always been in place 🤷‍♀️

I went shopping for a few bits on a local supermarket but as usual I forgot my bags but instead of wasting money & plastic I decided against buying a bag & didn’t fancy juggling my shopping to the car so I took a basket to my car, a security guard came charging after me telling me I wasn’t allowed to remove the basket, I told him I’m taking my shopping to my car & I would be returning it straight away.

I mean seriously I don’t want another plastic bag in the house let alone a big metal basket aibu to think this rule is crazy or is it an unspoken rule that I’ve never been informed of

@Fuss

In pre covid times I had a little collapsible picnic basket much like the ones in the picture. I'd take that in with me, use it to do my shopping then repack it at the checkout. I was never questioned about it at all and found it much easier than bags. Whether it was allowed or not I don't know but I always wondered why nobody else seemed to use their own baskets.

This is a great idea. I want one now.

A customer walking away with a trolley or trying to hoist it into the boot is going to be more noticeable.

True, but it does happen quite often. My local huge supermarket doesn't have its own car park. There is a large council car park right next to it, but you have to pay and, unlike many others, the supermarket doesn't see fit to refund parking charges for customers spending over £X, so a lot of customers park in adjacent streets a couple of minutes' walk away. There are always loads of trolleys in these streets that have been emptied into cars and then left for the trolley collectors to fetch (it's on their regular 'walk', every 15 minutes or more often), but they've all been removed some distance from the shop's boundaries without anybody thinking it odd - it would be extremely easy to just keep on walking to your home with the trolley and then never take it back.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll I wasn’t assuming that you owned Asda. The fact that your scenario even occurred to you makes me believe that you have internalised bias.

And they charge the £1 deposit to encourage people to return their trolley to the trolley bay, rather than just abandoning it in the middle of the car park where they need more staff to gather them all up and an unfortunate gust of wind could result in someone’s car being damaged. Let’s be honest here, if you want to steal a trolley, losing a pound probably isn’t going to deter you.

I wasn’t assuming that you owned Asda. The fact that your scenario even occurred to you makes me believe that you have internalised bias.

Fair enough, then, Sn0tnose, but do you believe that somebody has to have internalised bias themselves towards less privileged members of society in order to realise or strongly suspect that those people might be the victims of prejudice?

I'm not black, don't have a posh and/or new car and I don't drive in big cities, but I'm very conscious (and outraged) that black drivers get stopped by the police at a far higher proportion than white drivers in identical cars. I'm a UK national from birth, but my understanding and belief is that many people who come to the UK from poorer countries are appallingly exploited with illegally low wages and unsafe working conditions.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

I would never be so cheeky than to leave a supermarket with an item that I hadn't paid for. Not sure why you'd leave with a basket.

What, so do you also think it's extremely cheeky for people to leave the store with a trolley that they haven't paid a deposit for, unload their bought goods into their car and then return it to the store?

Quid deposit?

And also the trolleys are meant for that theres return points and staff

WOW...big difference there and here in the US. I don't know of any stores that don't expect you to take your baskets/carts to your car. There is one chain of discount stores that has carts that lock together. You insert a quarter in the handle to unlock it, and the quarter pops back out when you return it to the line.

Always been the case. Baskets are easier to pinch if they leave the store. Next time get a trolley.

OP........'is it just me'....... Entirety of MN 'yes'.......OP.........'but, but'.......

Quid deposit?

And also the trolleys are meant for that theres return points and staff

Most of the non-budget supermarkets near me don't charge you £1 to use a trolley. And it would be the easiest thing for them to add a basket-return section to the trolley bays - especially when they only have large, deep baskets with wheels and pull handles that are, effectively, more like small trolleys than actual baskets.

You insert a quarter in the handle to unlock it, and the quarter pops back out when you return it to the line

Is this for the trolleys rather than the baskets? (I assume trolleys are what you call carts?)
That's like us in the UK with our trolleys (carts?) - you have to put a pound coin in to release it, then on returning it pops out and you get your pound back.
Baskets you have to leave in the shop, not sure why, maybe they think you're more likely to zoom off with it on your back seat

I once asked an assistant who was spraying the trolleys down to spray my bag after shopping he looked at me gone out

Yes, because he’s not your servant hun. Spray your own bag - what makes you think anyone else wants to touch it?

Anyone putting shopping in carrier bags instead of a basket will arouse suspicion.

Do they? Pretty much all the major supermarkets have apps/handsets where you scan your items and immediately place them directly in your bag, later paying via the app/till without emptying your bag. I have exclusively used this system for a year and have never aroused suspicion.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

I would never be so cheeky than to leave a supermarket with an item that I hadn't paid for. Not sure why you'd leave with a basket.

What, so do you also think it's extremely cheeky for people to leave the store with a trolley that they haven't paid a deposit for, unload their bought goods into their car and then return it to the store?

No I don't think that because trolleys by their very nature are designed for those doing a large-ish shop that will then be unloaded into a car/a minicab etc. Baskets are not.

My local Sainsburys allows people to place their shopping in a tote bag whilst they shop. Said people then pay at checkout and use same tote to carry their shopping home. This seems a sensible approach, and can be done freely without fearing you may be accused of shoplifting. Leaving the supermarket with a basket however would not (rightly so imo) be allowed.

"Most of the non-budget supermarkets near me don't charge you £1 to use a trolley. And it would be the easiest thing for them to add a basket-return section to the trolley bays - especially when they only have large, deep baskets with wheels and pull handles that are, effectively, more like small trolleys than actual baskets."

Those deep baskets with the handles are most likely to be stolen.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll I found your demographic profiling bizarre. Either you’re intending to be offensive or are completely tone deaf and simple minded. Newsflash - people that use trolleys are not mutually exclusive to those that use baskets! Very weird take.

When I was a student in 2015-8, there were plenty of trolleys floating around campus but no baskets. Sort of defeats your rhetoric there. As a broke student, I used trolleys. I am now a (well paid) financial analyst, and when popping into M&S during lunch or to grab a quick dinner, always use a basket.

Any retailer that is fussy about customers taking baskets out of the shop would feel the same about trolleys also being taken out of their standard boundary area. It has nothing to do with basket users apparently being thieving, untrustworthy foreigners as you suggest. How does that even cross your mind?

Vitaminsss - OK, I accept that my pondering doesn't correspond with the way that many see it. Maybe it was wide of the mark - but shops do undoubtedly profile customers according to their perceived 'threat' to the shop's profits - whether borne out of proven statistics or prejudices - in the same way they constantly analyse everybody's shopping habits and which position on which shelf in which aisle is the most lucrative for sales. When did you last see a sign in a corner shop saying 'No more than two middle-aged white-collar professionals at a time'? It's well attested-to that non-white customers - especially teens and young adults - are more likely to be followed and treated with suspicion by security guards.

I'm well aware that the same people who sometimes use trolleys will sometimes use baskets, depending on how much they're intending to buy (including myself); BUT people who have to walk or use the bus and/or not have ready funds to ever do big advance stock-up shops are surely less likely to ever use a trolley in the first place, wouldn't you think?

I'm sure you'll realise from my posts that offensive was the exact opposite of what I was intending to be. I was just wondering whether it might be yet another of the many areas of society where the privileged look down on less-privileged people with prejudice and suspicion; but I accept that MN finds it offensive and suspicious of me to have openly pondered on this possibility, so I hereby withdraw my pondering on that thought. I'm a white, British, middle-aged driver, so I'll just be glad that I'm alright and stop concerning myself about anybody else.

I can't say I've ever even noticed whether our Tesco allows people to take the horrid metal baskets. I find them extremely uncomfortable to carry even if only getting a very few items so would almost always use a trolley.

I too used to be very prone to forgetting to take my reusable bags. I have to make a point of taking them back out to the car after every shopping trip (our supermarket is not within walking distance).

You lot are lucky, I have to drive for almost an hour to the nearest canal to get rid of the shopping baskets I have brought home.
Hardly convience shopping for me.

The Victorians had a far superior canal system and that was over 100 years ago. We seem to be going backwards although ironically whilst they had the canals they had not developed the concept of supermarket shopping.

How do you know it has always been a thing where does it tell you this ?

Common sense - the baskets are small enough to fit into your car. Could you not guess that if people could leave the supermarket with them they would lose thousands of them every week?

@Quaagars
The quarter is for trolleys, not baskets.
Aldi in the US doesn't have baskets. It's a trolley or nothing.

Most supermarkets where I live in the US have wheels that lock if you try to take them further than the perimeter of the supermarket car park. They mostly have trolleys and baskets. Some have mini trolleys too.

@Mamanyt, a trolley in the UK is what a shopping cart is in the US.
A supermarket basket is a rectangular shaped wire basket, with two handles that fold down, that you carry through the supermarket. It doesn't have wheels. You could fit only a few items in a basket. You can pile a shopping cart/trolley high.

An overnight raid on a large supermarket (open 6am to 12 midnight) by a gang of 3 took all the trolleys, 100s of them. They only had to use a few £1 coins, but that didn't matter as the recycled materials from an ordinary shopping trolley is worth much more than quid. The gang went on to raid more of the same supermarket trolleys for over a year.
Back to you OP -they've been doing this since a 5p charge for plastic bags because.oeoole came shopping unprepared so just nicked the baskets.

It's always been a thing where I live, the baskets are tagged. Mainly because they get stolen, especially in summer, people use them as BBQs on the beach, they are expensive to replace.

[quote mathanxiety]@Quaagars
The quarter is for trolleys, not baskets.
Aldi in the US doesn't have baskets. It's a trolley or nothing.

Most supermarkets where I live in the US have wheels that lock if you try to take them further than the perimeter of the supermarket car park. They mostly have trolleys and baskets. Some have mini trolleys too.

@Mamanyt, a trolley in the UK is what a shopping cart is in the US.
A supermarket basket is a rectangular shaped wire basket, with two handles that fold down, that you carry through the supermarket. It doesn't have wheels. You could fit only a few items in a basket. You can pile a shopping cart/trolley high.[/quote]
Trolly, excellent, thank you. Our baskets are also yours, although ours are mostly plastic. Cheaper, by far. There is an inn behind my neighborhood grocers, and I frequently see baskets stacked outside of the doors. I think the grocery sends a stock person over to collect them every other day.

Actually, all the ones near me (US location) are plastic too. I meant to put 'plastic' but predictive text inserted wire. The handles are some sort of metal coated with plastic. You definitely can't leave a supermarket with a basket.

I know Lidl won’t let you take their pull along ones out the door.