Who owns a pound left in supermarket trolley?

[Zippyzoppy]

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?

My view of supermarkets after reading this thread is very much a moral judgement. I think their HR policies stink. I’m now trying to work out how I can avoid giving any of them my money.

Why?

All retailers who have chains have similar policies about staff pocketing left behind cash and accepting items from customers. It's done for a good reason.

I wonder if the temporary user of the trolley makes a contract with the supermarket to use their trolley and for it to be refunded on return? In which case the person who used the trolley is the legitimate owner of the coin so it will be the same as if he found it in the street If the owner of the coin can prove it's theirs he will have to return it.

It’s stealing retail workers don’t get tips unfortunately
all money is to be handed no matter what the amount

Finders Keepers

Why? Because I think their HR policies are disproportionate and harsh. I don’t want to support companies like this.

Workplace policies would overrule everything though.

Exactly!

Pretty much every company in the world has cash handling policies like this.

So unless you’re never going to shop anywhere again, and make your own clothes, buy your own food and live in the woods, you have no choice.

They have to have policies for these things and people who work for them will know this.

When you start working for this kind of company you are (or should be) made well aware of these policies.

It’s like the PP who said she was sacked for buying something for a colleague who didn’t have their own staff discount yet. I’ve worked for a company with staff discount cards and one of the main rules about those is you cannot buy things on behalf of someone else. You can buy someone a present using discount, but you can’t buy something and have them give you the money for it.

Therefore you don’t break the rules by mistake - it’s a choice. You may at the time think it’s insignificant but you do know (or should know) and therefore you have to be prepared for the consequences.

If staff working on the trollies were allowed to keep the £1s then you may pretty quickly find that some unscrupulous staff became very efficient in taking away empty trollies from behind people’s cars etc. If you got in quickly before customers realised you could easily make yourself an extra £50 a day!

Of course I have choice. I can buy food from small independent shops and markets, I can buy clothes from independent shops. Why would I have to live in the woods?

Those small independent shops also have cash handling policies.

How do you know?

Because they’re businesses. Every business needs a cash handling policy. They all get audited.

If staff working on the trollies were allowed to keep the £1s then you may pretty quickly find that some unscrupulous staff became very efficient in taking away empty trollies from behind people’s cars etc. If you got in quickly before customers realised you could easily make yourself an extra £50 a day

I've got a great money laundering idea.

you may pretty quickly find that some unscrupulous staff became very efficient in taking away empty trollies from behind people’s cars etc. If you got in quickly before customers realised you could easily make yourself an extra £50 a day

I'm going to suggest this as an alternative to 'take in some ironing' on the next thread about how to make extra cash.

There's a very big difference between cash/goods involved in transactions and money that has been deliberately left for anyone to take it.

They clearly didn't think a quid was worth their time or behaving respectfully by not leaving trollies scattered about the car park.

If businesses want to have unscrupulous policies, that's their look out. But taking money that's been dumped outside the shop because the customer didn't want it is something any sensible manager would turn a blind eye to. It is literally finders keepers no matter how indoctrinated by HR some people have become.

Every shop I have ever worked in, in every country I have lived in - from the corner shop when I was a teenager, the retail store I worked in through Uni, the independent shop I worked in to make a bit of extra cash when I first moved abroad to the supermarket I work on now - has had a policy for what to do with money/items left by customers.

Not one single policy has ever said "Just pocket it immediately".

Even the most lenient was a case of "Any money found or handed in would be kept for X time, after which it either was put towards a periodic staff treat (first round of drinks on a staff night out/pizza after the Sunda staff meeting/chocolates or sweets in the break room etc) or went into a tip jar to be split equally between all colleagues."

The point being, that this is not money that is part of any transaction on the part of the business. It's not the supermarket's cash.

In the real world, I'm sure plenty of people working as porters pocket the odd £1 , and nobody gives a shit about it.

Exactly.

And my issue isn’t with supermarket chains having cash handling policies but their HR pol

Posted too soon! 🙄

My issue is with their draconian HR policies which mean people get fired for misdemeanours involving cash or items that don’t even belong to them.

Again: irrelevant. It is cash. It doesn’t matter whose it is. There is a policy in what to do with it.

If you are in breach of that you will be fired for gross misconduct.

Nope, you won't, not everywhere because some people are, believe it or not, able to exercise a sense of proportion.

The supermarket I worked in as a student couldn't care less. Do you think Tesco are forcing all their porters to turn over any stray £1 coins at the end of every shift?

Answer: no, they aren't.

If you are in breach of that you will be fired for gross misconduct.

In the case of OP's lad this is where I disagree.

He might be wise to check policy if he has a handbook but I think you'd have to check with his supervisor first and see wether the above statement would routinely apply with anyone having a word first.

In the real world.