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Original poster

Who owns a pound left in supermarket trolley?

500 replies

Zippyzoppy · 03/07/2023 21:15

My son has a part-time job at weekends with one of the major supermarkets. One of his tasks is to round up any stray trolleys and put them back in the trolley park.

Apparently, from time to time ( maybe one/twice per day) people can’t be arsed to put their own trolleys back and so leave the £1 coins in the trolley. If this happens, he keeps the pound and puts the trolley back as required. When he first told me about this, I was quite pleased for him and thought it was a nice way for him to make a few extra quid.

However, when I mentioned this to a friend, she was aghast as she thought that he was cheating /stealing from his employer as the money is rightfully theirs.

Who is right?

OP posts:
burnoutbabe · 04/07/2023 15:17

sunglassesonthetable · 04/07/2023 15:15

A member of staff who had finished her shift saw a customer return a trolly to the supermarket bay. She had left a cheap bunch of flowers in the seat bit. The staff member decided ‘finders keepers’ and took them. She was sacked. Lost her job after nearly 20 years service, benefits, shares, staff discount, the lot.

Wow.

What lovely supermarket was that?

I assume she was in uniform?

If any customer saw her doing that they would think badly if the store - look at staff taking things for own use rather than helpfully returning it to the customer service desk in case the customer returns.

IWillNoLie · 04/07/2023 15:19

If he is working then he is coming across these coins as an employee and collecting them would be on behalf of his employer. I cannot see how ‘legally’ they could be his. Whether the supermarket cares is a different matter.

Yesiamtiredactually · 04/07/2023 15:20

WoopWoopThisIsTheSoundOfThePolice · 04/07/2023 15:13

It would be a sackable offence at the supermarket I worked in.

A member of staff who had finished her shift saw a customer return a trolly to the supermarket bay. She had left a cheap bunch of flowers in the seat bit. The staff member decided ‘finders keepers’ and took them. She was sacked. Lost her job after nearly 20 years service, benefits, shares, staff discount, the lot.

Employee’s aren’t even allowed to carry cash in their pockets so they can’t be misunderstood to be stealing. Taking a £1 left in a trolley would be seen as theft, regardless of how you wish to look at it. Our trolley lads used to put the coin in the charity box at the customer service desk.

Show quote history

Exactly.. she saw the owner of the flowers and so taking them was dishonest. Especially as an employee of the place that they were purchased from. All in all, a coin left with no known owner in sight, not theft, but like others have said, probably gross misconduct which you’d get dragged into a disciplinary and could be dismissed for even as a first offence.

Blossomtoes · 04/07/2023 15:23

sunglassesonthetable · 04/07/2023 15:15

A member of staff who had finished her shift saw a customer return a trolly to the supermarket bay. She had left a cheap bunch of flowers in the seat bit. The staff member decided ‘finders keepers’ and took them. She was sacked. Lost her job after nearly 20 years service, benefits, shares, staff discount, the lot.

Wow.

What lovely supermarket was that?

Yes I’d like to know so I never give them my business.

sunglassesonthetable · 04/07/2023 15:23

Exactly.. she saw the owner of the flowers and so taking them was dishonest. Especially as an employee of the place that they were purchased from. All in all, a coin left with no known owner in sight, not theft, but like others have said, probably gross misconduct which you’d get dragged into a disciplinary and could be dismissed for even as a first offence.

Hadn't thought of that.

It is weird not to call over to the person who left the trolley if you did see them.

I was picturing the flowers just left there.

sunglassesonthetable · 04/07/2023 15:24

Still extremely harsh after 20 years service.
Especially the paragons of virtue that supermarkets are.

Spidey66 · 04/07/2023 15:26

Where we used to live, and before we got a car, we used to take the trolley home and then give it to one of the kids on our estate to return it and collect the £. There was never any shortages of kids to do it. My opinion is it belongs to whoever returns the trolley.

But as others have said, there maybe an issue with his employer if he had cash on him on the shop floor. I had a Saturday job in Woolies back in the day, and purses, bags etc were locked in the cloakroom and we were only allowed access during lunch breaks.

Blinkblank · 04/07/2023 15:43

Blossomtoes · 04/07/2023 15:23

Yes I’d like to know so I never give them my business.

Show quote history

Agreed! I hope the staff member was in the union!

YDBear · 04/07/2023 16:00

So hang on, your friend think that the supermarket needs a couple of pound coins a day and your son should hand them over? I guess that’s because supermarkets these days have cut prices so low that those few pounds make the difference between solvency and catastrophe. Not.

Reugny · 04/07/2023 16:24

YDBear · 04/07/2023 16:00

So hang on, your friend think that the supermarket needs a couple of pound coins a day and your son should hand them over? I guess that’s because supermarkets these days have cut prices so low that those few pounds make the difference between solvency and catastrophe. Not.

They will probably shove the money in their charity collection so they don't have to do accounting for it plus it helps them with their claim they raised £xM for charitee.

ladyvivienne · 04/07/2023 16:25

I know someone who got sacked for exactly this.

You really really have to be careful working in retail. Cameras everywhere.

I also know people who've been sacked for eating sweets from a bag that was ripped open on the shelf and was being written off anyway (it was their job to record the write off) Sweets literally going into the bin.

Uokhon · 04/07/2023 16:34

I’d consider it a tip.

if he handed it in the supermarket would have no way of balancing it in the til so would probably put it in a charity box or something.

Noseylittlemoo · 04/07/2023 16:34

I've worked in retail my whole career. The shop I currently work in - not a supermarket - has the standard rule of not being allowed to have any cash on you. But if you find money it has to be taken to the cash office and put in the safe with a note of date and finder. If no one claims it after a month the finder can keep it. Occasionally a purse might get dropped and in those circumstances you would make efforts to contact the owner if any contact details are available.

Once a colleague found a purse with around £200 - there were no cards /ID just cash so no way to know who's it was. She had an extra pay day that month!
So in this instance the trolley collector would have to initially surrender the £1 but would get to keep it in the end.

The same rule applies with lost property and if the finder or anyone else doesn't claim the item it is donated to charity.

The only time this wasn't followed was when someone left perishable food on Christmas eve. We thought it unlikely that someone would come back after Christmas saying did I leave a cabbage here?!

Foundthestrength · 04/07/2023 16:35

YANBU
I think it's fair he keeps the coin having said that i would have him check what the policy on finding money is as I know someone who found a five pound note while working at a supermarket he picked it up put it in his pocket and ended up losing his job as the supermarket said it was theft.

MrsWombat · 04/07/2023 16:36

I'm sure when I worked for a major supermarket there was a policy for this because we wasn't allowed cash on us because this was gross misconduct. I'm sure we either had to do something noble with it like let a little old lady have that trolley or put the coin in the charity pot at customer service.

mewkins · 04/07/2023 16:54

Aprilx · 04/07/2023 04:56

It would be unbelievably easy to account for it, “miscellaneous income” maybe. No it isn’t subject to VAT.

Show quote history

When I worked in a shop a long time ago, excess money in the tills was as much as an issue as too little when balancing them at the end of the day. So any money that customers dropped or accidentally left behind (or said keep the change) was chucked into a charity box.

Ohpleeeease · 04/07/2023 17:00

The pound belongs to the person who left it in the trolley. It doesn’t belong to your son. But neither does it belong to the supermarket.

A better system would be for all the pound coins collected to be distributed between the trolley collectors. They’re all doing the same job, so it’s fairer that they benefit equally.

Lacucuracha · 04/07/2023 17:03

I think a trolley user loses the right to the coin as soon as they abandon the trolley, purely because it’s practically impossible to determine who left which coin in which trolley.

Also, the next person needs the trolley and the trolley only functions when released with a coin, so whoever has thr trolley in hand owns the coin.

MaybeSmaller · 04/07/2023 17:03

If the terms of his JD says he has to collect the trolleys and there is nothing there about the money they contain then I would say there is no legal barrier to him keeping the money. Otherwise he could rightly ask "what money?"

1mabon · 04/07/2023 17:07

Well, it certainly doesn't belong to your son that's for sure!

Monkeypopcorn · 04/07/2023 17:09

Personally that money would be going in the charity shop tin on the till. When I worked in a supermarket at uni we weren't allowed any money on our person while on shift. Not worth the risk of bein accused of stealing from the till for a couple of quid in my opinion.

Monkeypopcorn · 04/07/2023 17:16

He could ask what he's supposed to do with them? If they say keep it great he can continue doing it with permission. If they no then he knows where he stands. No point in loosing his wages and a good reference over a couple of quid a week.

Dinga591 · 04/07/2023 17:17

Just let him continue holding the money. It certainly is not the supermarkets. Up till the time they leave the trolley, it is the shoppers, but if left in the trolley it should belong to the person who redeems it.

Justaddalittlespice · 04/07/2023 17:22

I work in a supermarket and any small bits of change gets put in the charity tubs. I don't necessarily disagree with him keeping it however if the employer found out I feel he would be in trouble

MollysBrolly · 04/07/2023 17:49

Don't tell anyone anything