Albert Heijn ends mandatory shopping cart coin system after decades
No more rummaging through the depths of your wallet, trouser pocket or handbag, no more having to pay for that stupid fifty cents at the checkout, and no longer feeling that a moral appeal is being made to you to simply return your cart: at Albert Heijn, the system requiring you to put a coin in the shopping cart is disappearing.
An entire generation knows no different than having to put a coin in such a cart: around 1985, this was introduced by supermarkets to reduce the number of carts left wandering around. But what happened during the coronavirus pandemic?
All perfectly decent people
During the most severe period of the coronavirus pandemic, supermarkets got rid of the coin system – according to spokesperson Anoesjka Aspeslagh, this was also intended to increase the speed of customers in the store. The less time you spent looking for a coin and then fiddling with one of those carts, the sooner you would be out of the store, of course. But, as Aspeslagh said on the NOS Radio 1 Journaal, customers turned out to return the carts properly anyway.
Far less plastic
Another advantage of abolishing this system is that it will save a great deal of plastic. Since carrying cash coins is becoming increasingly rare among customers, Albert Heijn has produced and distributed thousands of kilos of its own plastic coins. That will no longer be necessary. Branches can choose the exact moment when they stop using the coins, but Aspeslagh reported that this would be “sometime in the coming weeks.”
Read also:
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- Snackspert tests Albert Heijn’s new oven rolls/wraps and it’s not great
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Source: NOS
