In message , Andy Hall writes
Well, coin release trolleys have worked wonders around here for reducing the number of trolleys left on the street (and canals and anywhere else they tend to end up)
I'm a recent convert to Aldi since picking up a few bargain lines. Got a chainsaw for £50 a couple of weeks back and a satellite receiver system for £75. I don't buy the food there only because I prefer organic where I can get it and if food is too cheap I wonder where the hell it came from. But if Aldi did do organic I'd be there down there in a shot. Must try out the alcohol one day.
Oh..and the plastic bag policy is good. People get too lazy (including myself sometimes) using free carrier bags - bloody things are littering the country.
I find M & S good for fruit. Expensive but edible, and if it isn't edible refunds are very forthcoming
In message , Paul Mc Cann writes
The only supermarket I've been utterly disappointed by the quality of the vegetables in has been the local Waitrose. Both potatoes & onions were squishy, and none of the apples were firm. :(
Fair enough, but it would be more customer friendly to employ somebody to round them up from drop areas in the car park and return them to the entrance, and to chain them up at the end of the day.
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
You kidding ? Why would B&Q need to use coins in their trolleys ? Never understood it anyway other than to stop the odd tramp setting up home in one.
It stops some people taking the trolley home and then dumping it onto the nearest railway embankment or highway verge, you must live in one sure quite utopia if you've never seen dumped trolleys !...
There was quite a famous one in the River Mersey under Stockport for about five years but the local B&Q is raised so high above the rest of the area it would be impossible to even get there without a car let alone head home with a trolley. I thought most other sheds used trolley collectors to stop people nicking them, though to me obvious solution for all these places is "no car - no entry". Would keep the thieving crap you see in the Trafford Centre out.
Why on earth anybody would want to take a supermarket trolley home I have no idea.
If they are untended in a car park, I can appreciate that in some areas, yobs might run off with them.and dump them.
The solution of putting coin deposits and inconveniencing customers is a poor substitute for doing the job properly and employing somebody to collect up the trollies and returning them to their rightful place.
Spread across the customer base, the cost of doing that is buttons, which returns me to my original point that it's indicative of a place selling on price and not quality or customer service.
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
The local Netto do this. I don't often shop there, but there is one particular product that happens to be difficult to find elsewhere.
The catchment area for that store is largely one of low-income families who don't have cars, and can't afford/don't have a bus service. Taking the trolley home is a good option in their case, especially when the journey is some distance.
But it isn't a substitute, you see. It complements it. Most trolleys either (a) don't leave the (small) car park, or they travel a long, long way. The coin deposit is not a major inconvenience. As it happens, if you *do* take a car, you also need a car park deposit as it's located in an area where the car park would otherwise be misused by others.
No, it's impractical....a large area for collection (of the order of square miles).
Then again - modify your customer base. Surely those nicking the trolleys don't contribute much to the bottom line of the quality places anyway - Sainsbury's, B&Q, M&S, etc so persaude them to go to Netto, Aldi and other grot-merchants by raising prices a little more if necessary.
But DON'T charge for car parks or trolleys. I never have the right change and don't want to shop at places that don't trust me anyway.
In message , Andy Hall writes
They don't, they take them to where their car is parked, or home, push it a few yards and away they go
That too
Naah. Ravening dogs are much more effective. Or maybe just a peon shoot.
Well, OK, then make a feature of it and charge those that do want to take them home a returnable deposit of a tenner or something that is enough to encourage return.
The neighbourhood store would be a good solution as well
So I don't see how a coin deposit helps.
I find it really annoying to go somewhere, park the car, walk over to the store, discover that the trollies are tethered with coin locking. I don't typically carry pound coins in my pocket.
Oh crikey....
Oh, well, by doing that, the store would not get my business.
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
There are other ways though such as magnetic brakes which activate if someone attempts to wheel the trolley out of the authorised area.
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
Did you never ride down a steep hill in one as a child? (Worth a pound of anybody's money IMO)
Quite fancy one of those garden centre trolleys... bit of a long trek home and it couldn't fit in the car either :-(
When I was a child, supermarket trollies were a little way (not too far) in the future.
Groceries came from the ... grocers; vegetables from the..... greengrocers, meat from the ...... butchers, and fish from the... fishmongers. They all delivered.....
You mean the flat bed deals?
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
In message , StealthUK wrote
Have you considered why other outlets are so expensive? The major stores make a big deal of rolling back their prices but they are at least 30 percent more expensive for comparable items than their 'down market' competitors.
Why does a bottle of Coke cost pounds whereas an own brand cost 15p a litre. Quality or just the customer paying for all the advertising?
I shop at Tescos, Aldi, Lidl and they all sell rubbish as well as having good quality goods at reasonable or cheap prices. Cherry pick the items you want from each store.
Round here (Norf Londin) they have to do both (chain and recover).
Locals often push the trolley the 1/4 a mile home (no parking / loads of traffic / no car) and *some* push them back again. Some allow kids to take them back which means they get 50 yards round the corner and smash up a +AKM-200 (?) trolley for the pound coin (I have often offered the 'kids' a pound and to let me take the trolley back as I can't bare to watch it and no-one else seems to care)?
I did ask one pair (who had the trolley upside down on the pavement outside their own house (with the parents indoors!) and were in the process of smashing it up) who they thought paid for the trolleys? "The government" was the reply from one?
I then briefly explained that it was in fact their parents and me and everyone else that buys their food there ... and if they carried on smashing them up they would simply stop providing them and they what would they play in .. ?
Personally I'd modify all the coin holders that when attacked would explosively release a indelible die and stun gas ...
T i m
In message , G&M writes
great - so disadvantage the disadvantaged a bit more!
As the ppl in Homebase told me when I protested at their new coin-slot policy - it isn't that much of an inconvenience to just keep a pound coin in the car at all times?
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