Depends on the country, I guess. There are hardly any supermarkets here in Germany that don't require you to put in money. Mostly small independent ones with small carts. But every chain uses the deposit.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago

I know a famila which doesn't use deposit carts, and they happen to share a parking lot and cart pool with an Aldi which also don't use deposit, a famila employee does the corralling -- mostly re-distributing carts between isles as people do, in fact, return carts just unevenly so.

I don't really think it's about the deposit, culture-wise, Germans are as likely to understand a deposit as "that's mine now", see Christmas market mugs. It's signalling "please really do return carts it's important we don't want to hire someone to do it and bill you for it that would make our milk 1ct more expensive than the neighbouring store".

[–] Nahdahar@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

In my country literally every company that has shopping carts outside does this, but I always thought it's more against homeless people taking them on a whim.

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Do you mean Aldi? Aldi does this but none of the Lidls I’ve been to require a coin.

[–] Chadus_Maximus@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago

LMAO there are no ALDI where I'm at. I suppose that says a lot about eaten Europe.

[–] derpgon@programming.dev 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

No free Litmus test for us, sad.

[–] Aurora_TheFirstLight@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You can still get the test!! Hear me out if you have two keys you can press the buttons to disengage the locking mechanism as if it were a coin

This way the cart is now coin free, I do this all the time you just need the right key and a bit of practice

[–] Ironfacebuster@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Time to take this forbidden knowledge and leave a bunch of shopping carts in the Aldi parking lot

[–] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 3 points 9 months ago

Depends on the store. My local IKEA at least does not require a coin.

[–] doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Aldi used to do that in the US. Maybe they still do. I never carry coins on me, so for this reason (and the always extremely long lines at checkout) I never shopped there.

[–] Got_Bent@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I keep an Aldi quarter in my car. I don't shop there regularly, but I'm always prepared when I do.

[–] Lemmchen@feddit.de 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

There are plastic coins you can use instead.

[–] hexortor@lemmy.zip 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Wait this isn't standard practice in the rest of the world???¿???

[–] Fox@pawb.social 3 points 9 months ago

It is at Aldi (and maybe Lidl?) but uncommon in general in the US