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?

Like the joy of finding that £1 coin left in the swimming lockers when you are a skint adult child. Oooh the thrill 😁

This.

If I leave a trolley with £1 in, I do so knowing the person who who takes it back will pocket it. That person could be a supermarket employee, an axe murderer, a millionaire or someone on the bones of their arse. It’s theirs for returning it.

This.

they still do this at some big stadia - charge you £1 for the plastic pint cup in the first place, then, at the end of the event, the kids run round collecting all the left behind cups and take them back for the deposit.
Lots of adults just give them to the kids - it's only £1 on the cost of their day, but it adds up for the kids collecting.

I’m surprised at so many people saying it’s rightfully his to keep. They obviously have never worked for large retail companies! As a PP said, there are security rules for EVERYTHING.

eg You are not allowed to have any money or valuables on the shop floor. Therefore any money you are caught with if searched can be assumed to be stolen from the shop (or a customer).

You are not allowed to accept tips from customers.

If shops allowed staff to do this and keep the trolley money, the next thing would be staff trying to get the trollies from people before they had got the money out, eg going round collecting them and hoping people forget they haven’t got their pound.

I don’t find it morally wrong- I found a pound in a trolley last week and kept it. It is undoubtedly a breach of the employment rules though.

at the supermarket close to where I used to live in Canada, their was a man with some mental challenges who , instead of walking down the streets begging, hung out at the supermarket every day and offered to take your cart back. Believe me.. pushing those bastard carts through the snow was not fun,, and it was a 25 cent piece. He used to work all morning then go to one of the fast food places for lunch. Then he would return from about 3 till 6 and make enough for his dinner. Much better than the panhandlers who just sat downtown all day with a cup. I always gave my cart to him.

If you put your trolley back where it belongs then you can get the £1 back.

If you are one of those annoying/idle people who leave your trolley in the car park to inconvenience others/ block spaces etc then you lose your £1.00.

However, trolley employees need to clarify this with the store.

He should keep it. It is not the supermarket's. It belongs to whoever left it there and they have lost it. Nobody will go to the police station asking if anybody has handed in their pound coin so he should keep it.

How would it come from a till when he doesn’t work on the check out? That’s the proof right there. Your friend’s bonkers @Zippyzoppy, of course it’s his money. You can bet everyone in the country with that job keeps the £ coins.

That’s a funny one isn’t it , never thought of this before, lol . If a customer lost a note or a coin in the store , the employee would definitely need to hand it in . If they didn’t that would be seen as theft . The customer lost it and may come back looking for it . It belongs to no one at this stage . The customer leaving the coin in the trolley is surrendering their coin . It’s not theft to keep it . It belongs to whoever finds it ,and I say good luck to your son for doing a great job and he surely can keep that as a tip !! Your friend is too stiff .

Morally he's not done anything wrong, but in his shoes I'd probably want to check what the work expectations were.

I hope your son doesn’t work in Barnstaple M&S, where I left my paid-for trolley in a corner while I went upstairs to the loo, and when I came back it had gone, with my £1 in it. I told an assistant who put one of those fake coins in another trolley for me, but told me I’d lost my £1, “sorry”.

But surely the supermarket has no more right to those £1 coins than your son does? They belong to shoppers, not the supermarket, and any coins left for whatever reason in the trolleys by shoppers should be put in the charity tin.

Was the trolley empty? Of course someone was going to nab it.

I know, I know, I was just so irritated. I deliberately didn’t hang my shopping bags on it in case someone nicked it and them, but it might have stopped someone walking off with their “free” trolley if it looked like it was already taken.

If the store wants the coins, they will have a spot for the workers to turn them in and will have included that in training. That the coins get left behind on occasion is not a secret. if there has been no such training, I would say your son is in the clear.

mavis It is irritating, I’ve also left a trolley for the loo, and was worried it would be taken. It’s annoying because you know you wouldn’t do the same to someone else.

And then you get the CFs who ask for your trolley after you leave the store but they don’t offer you a £1.

This. People who are too lazy or feel too time-pressed to return their trolley to claim their coin forfeit it to whoever - staff or public - do it for them.

Finders keepers. If that's another shopper or the person who collects the trolleys, I would much rather it went to a worker than the supermarket. I don't think the supermarket would even want it. How would they account in the books for the income and declare for tax the occasional money found in trolleys. It would be way more effort than it's worth and I expect if he handed it to his manager would either say you keep it, if they were decent sorts or pocket it themselves if they aren't.

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

Thank you, I was really curious.

I’m surprised a vague term like “miscellaneous income” is allowed though - what if they sold drugs and logged them as that?

All he has to do is ask his manager what the store policy is and then he’ll know definitively. That’s what I would suggest to my child as I wouldn’t want them to be fired over £1 if the store doesn’t agree that finders are keepers.

It doesn't work like that unfortunately.

If you encounter a situation in a job you aren't sure off and/or haven't been trained in you ask for advice.

Anyway as many PP have pointed out he could be in breach of cash handling policies.

My DD, who is 4, actually made some money from trolleys in one supermarket that had coin in them that had clearly been rounded up and put back by a member of staff.

I am baffled by all these comments on how difficult it would be to account for the money, so employees should just take it. 🤷‍♀️

DR bank
CR other income

Auditors: “What’s this?”
Accountant: “Left over £1 coins from supermarket trolleys.”

Choose-your-own-adventure #1

Auditors: “Sure, sounds legit. We’re done caring.”

Choose-your-own-adventure #2

Auditors: “Hmm, it’s a big number. We’re going to send one of our baby grads to your biggest store and have them follow around a trolley person to see if that checks out. We were going to send them there to count other things anyway to prove you have all these things you say you have.”

<2 days later>

Auditors: “Yeah, we sampled a store and extrapolated it and it does check out.”

It depends on the value of the miscellaneous income, and also there should be space to note where the money came from.

It belongs to whoever bothers to return the trolley to the trolley park. In this case, him.

Not if you are an employee.

Also a few retailers have charity collection boxes.