You Need a Quarter to Use a Shopping Cart
While shopping carts at most grocers are free for the taking, Aldi requires a 25-cent deposit to use a cart. The cart rental system is simple: To release a cart for your use — the carts are chained together — insert a quarter in the coin slot on the cart and the locking mechanism will disengage. When you return the cart and reinsert the chain, the quarter is returned. (Watch this YouTube clip to see Aldi’s cart rental system in action.)
Why all the fuss over a quarter? Aldi says it saves money, which it passes along to shoppers in the form of lower prices, because it doesn’t have to pay employees to wrangle stray shopping carts from the parking lot. If you want to avoid the 25-cent deposit altogether, it’s OK to bring your own collapsible cart.
Next, what’s in a brand?…..