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?

Of course he should keep it. Why on earth would he hand it over to the supermarket?

I worked in a big supermarket for 4 years during college and a couple of the lads would be sometimes be assigned to collecting trolleys in the evenings when the main carpark guy was off. They loved being asked to do it for this reason. I live in Ireland though where a 20c coin usually works in place of a €1 coin in trolleys so it probably wasn't as profitable for them!

Because his contract (which includes the latest staff handbook) probably says he should.

A couple of quid is not worth risking his job over and having to declare on future applications he left his last job due to theft. He needs to read his paperwork and if it’s not clear, ask a manager.

My cousin used to be a road sweeper. He made lots of money from dropped coins. He found lots round bus shelters on Sunday mornings after the Saturday night drunks had dropped them. Not sure he ever declared his “income”

I very much doubt they have an accounting line for ‘pounds left in the trolley’

We have always encouraged our children to put any money that they find into a charity box if it isn’t possible to find the owner and we do the same. It sends an awful message to let them keep anything that they find. It’s £1 today but if they find more will they keep that too without thought for the owner? It seems a shabby way to behave; how would you feel if the boot was on the other foot?

I know a trolley man who lost his job for this reason.

Trolley money was meant to be handed in to supervisors, it was then donated to charity if not claimed.

They will have a “miscellaneous income” line. I can assure you based on thirty years accountancy knowledge in multinationals, that this will not be a challenge to any accountancy team. And if they want to add a line into their chart of accounts for “money left in trolleys” that is easily done too.

You're both wrong, legally it belongs to the person who left it there. If they did it intentionally I'd assume they left it for whomever puts the trolley away which is your son.

S*tealing from his employer
*
Please 🤣🤣🤣🤣

If someone leaves the coin then alls fair in whoever finds it!

Plus having heard how the supermarket have cashed in on the war in Ukraine with record profits I have even less sympathy for them not getting an extra £1 left by someone who couldn't be arsed to walk back to the trolley shed!

I couldn't lose sleep over customers who just leave their trollies lying.

I can’t imagine this is a problem for his employer. He should just carry on and say nowt.

I'm surprised he wasn't told what to do with left coins, as part of the job. It's hardly an unforeseen occurrence.

Thank you for the detailed explanation, interesting to know.

A laughing face emoji isn’t going to save him when he’s fired for gross misconduct for breaching their cash handling policy.

How is it stealing from his employer, it was never theirs in the first place, it was the customers

I think finders keepers but i also think it's worth checking with the store to see what the policy is

If it was a huge deal to the supermarket, surely they'd have made it explicitly clear what to do with a rogue pound that's left in the trolley. It's not like it's never happened before!
If its an integral part of their income, then surely this would come up in their training/briefing

....if you find a pound in a trolley, leave all the other trolleys, come indoors , log said pound with appropriate member of staff , then go back to resume duties...repeat each time....🤷‍♀️

I say this from a place of working for a major supermarket in a senior HR capacity for years previously and having dealt with similar situations including keeping money found on the floor of the store and staff using vouchers handed over or left by customers. You can face a disciplinary and you can be dismissed for it. It sounds absolutely ridiculous, I don't agree but it can and has happened. Just tell him to be careful.

A laughing face emoji isn’t going to save him when he’s fired for gross misconduct for breaching their cash handling policy.

Please please sell the story to the Daily Mail if he gets fired for " Gross Misconduct ". 😉

And to think it's taken this long to get rid of Boris Johnson.

His employers are fully aware that £1 s get left. They don't seem to have made him aware of their 'policy' on it. There probably is one.

But as it stands, if I leave a £1 in the trolley I'm pleased he gets it.

I can believe this, but, at the same time, it seems unfair not to specify what the correct procedure is, (for a fairly innocuous and minor "crime" ) if there is a risk of being fired for it!!

Morally I could not care less whether someone keeps the £1 they find in an abandoned trolley but if your son is at work and on company time then it's very unlikely that they will have a policy that allows him to keep the money he finds.

I work in a supermarket and am a union rep and I have been in so many disciplinary meetings where colleagues have lost their jobs (or been very close to) for seemingly minor things because they were classed as gross misconduct. "I didn't know the policy" is not a defence as you will be given initial training when you start, including all policies relevant to your job role, and all policies are available for colleagues to read at any time on our intranet portal. If you don't know what the policy is then it is your responsibility to find out either from the intranet or by asking a supervisor to clarify.

In my store no colleague is allowed to keep any "found money" ... Whether it's a shelf stacker finding a £5 on the shop floor in an empty aisle; a self scan attendant pocketing the £1.35 change someone left behind in the self scan machine; a checkout colleague being told to "keep the change" by someone who doesn't want the 6p back from their £20 note or a porter finding a £1 coin in an abandoned trolley. Any money found is handed in to the customer service desk where it is logged on a form as lost property and secured in a money bag in the till. If it isn't claimed by the end of the day it goes to the cash office and if it is then not claimed within a specific time frame it is donated to the company's charity partner. Where I work the porters are in and out of the store anyway so it takes a second for them to hand any money/lost property to the staff on the CSD for them to log it properly.

Cash handling policies are usually pretty clear - no staff member should have any money on them, for any reason when they are on the shop floor. If you do have money for a specific reason then you are expected to disclose this fact to security/your supervisor immediately and take it off the shop floor asap. For example I once got a lift to work from a friend and dropped my purse in her car, she noticed and brought it in to me during my shift, as soon as she gave it to me I radio'ed my supervisor to tell her I had my purse in my pocket with cash and she then sent someone to cover me so I could take it upstairs to put it in my locker.

It keeps staff safe from accusations of theft - where I work the porters who cover the car park also do duties inside the store such as collecting the rubbish from the checkouts to take them to the warehouse which means they are in and around the till areas. So if they were to be found with money on them then it's not "a £1 left in a trolley" it's "a £1 that could be from a trolley but also could be from the tills"

Also, where I work colleagues are not technically allowed to accept "tips" from customers - whether that's someone buying a bar of chocolate to break a large banknote and then telling you to keep it or someone giving the porter a £5 for loading up their car with heavy bags of compost. Most managers will use their discretion to turn a blind eye to small "gifts" like this but officially a £1 left in a trolley would be classed as a tip and if caught the staff member could get in trouble.

Jesus wept. Have supermarkets nothing better to do? It must cost more than £1 to go through all that malarkey.

@sunglassesonthetable @Fizbosshoes The policy will be in his employee handbook which he will have been told to read. That is his responsibility to do so, so if it’s in there he’ll be expected to know it and follow it.

Ignorance is no excuse.

Perk of the job.
Lazy shoppers are basically saying they can't be bothered to put trolley back whoever does can keep the pound.
Tell your son to crack on.
Best to keep things to yourself other people blow things out of proportion and she will be telling other's your son is a thief.

I always leave my trolley with a pound in so someone else can use it, I didn’t think of the person who collects them taking it 😂