A fool and his money…

[pne]

Here in Germany, you have to put a coin into a shopping trolley in order to release it from the chain that connects it to the next shopping trolley.

So this evening, I go shopping, put my coin into the shopping trolley, and head inside.

Then I notice that my hand sticking to my sleeve a bit; I look at it and see that the side of my hand has already pulled a little thread off my sleeve. I look closer and see that there’s glue on two of my fingers as well.

The glue seems to have come from the right-hand side of the shopping trolley handle, which looks a little wet. Odd.

I think no more of it and push the trolley mostly with my left hand.

When I’ve finished shopping, I discover what the point of the glue most likely was: when I put the little “tongue” of the chain of the shopping trolley in front into my own, the little “tray” with the coin pops out, but my coin is stuck firmly to the tray. I try to pry it off, but no dice.

Feh. What a dirty trick to play.

No doubt the swindler will be back later with some solvent to get hold of the coin.

Back home, I can’t get rid of the glue, either; I try some soap and some vegetable oil, which help a little, but there are still a couple of spots of skin that feel rough, where the glue has dried. At least it doesn’t seem sticky any more, and it doesn’t seem to have glued any of my skin together (though it was a close call at the side of my hand, where the glue nearly solidified over a fold in the hand).

Now I guess I’ll just wait for my skin to renew itself and slough off the old skin cells that are now on top and that have the glue on them.

Still annoying.

Comments

[dilate_andrea]

I'd put on some aloe vers.

[catyak]

You should have gone into the store to complain about it because had you put your hand to your face, the outcome could have been much worse, and they clearly need to police their trolley storage much better. They might even have given you a coin to replace the one on the trolley and gone to inspect the rest of their trolley fleet.

D

[pne]

You should have gone into the store to complain about it

You think so?

I had considered mentioning it to someone but I didn't because I thought they wouldn't be able to do much about it.

had you put your hand to your face, the outcome could have been much worse

True, especially at the eye.

They might even have given you a coin to replace the one on the trolley and gone to inspect the rest of their trolley fleet.

That's true, I suppose.

It was such a completely unexpected turn of events that I guess I wasn't thinking properly.

[ewx]

Is trolley theft particularly rampant on the continent? I remember the same coin system from holidays in France (years ago); while I can’t rule out that some UK supermarkets might do the same, I don’t recall having encountered it here.

[pne]

Is trolley theft particularly rampant on the continent?

Well, you’d have to compare it to the situation without coins, I suppose :)

But even so, you occasionally see shopping trolleys standing around on the road, often near high-rise blocks of flats.

Some supermarkets have even gone further and block trolley wheels if they cross a line at the edge of the parking area.

So I supose there are enough people who would take them away if there weren’t those disincentives.

[zombieallomorph]

My guess is, the problem isn't really people stealing trolleys, but leaving them all over the place, instead of putting them back neatly into the trolley line?

[schnurble]

I agree with you - if someone wants to steal a trolley, 1 Euro isn't that much of a price to pay. And they could even use one of those plastic coins that don't cost anything to get the trolley.