this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2024
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It's surprising to me US carts don't have to be unlocked by a coin (which you get back when you lock your cart again), it's like that in every supermarket I know in France and Germany and probably many other European countries.
You can misbehave but it costs you a little bit, and if you do someone has the opportunity to make a buck off you by cleaning after you.
In fairness, that's been phased out in many places.
I suspect less out of faith in humanity and more out of the reality that many people don't carry cash, much less change, anymore and they kept annoying the cashiers.
Yeah it's hard to justify carrying coins around, they're not worth much, whereas euro coins still carry some value (1€/2€).
When I arrived in NYC a few years ago, I got cash from the ATM and then tried to take a bus to our airbnb in Brooklyn, it was $2.75 per ticket, only payable in coins... like we'd have 44 quarters in our pockets :-)
I keep a few quarters in my car for ALDI specifically. If I forget: I don't get a cart and put the groceries in my reusable bags. Or nab those giant cardboard containers ALDI employees stock with and leave around.
The busses don't take metro card? I've only ever ridden the subway in NYC.
They do now, that whole OMNY system
They probably do (it was 10 years ago) but we had just arrived from the airport and had no idea how it all worked
I think it's because Americans don't have dollar coins.
The USA has like 26 various prints of dollar coins. Only two of witch are not a standard weight and size. Those two also being the oldest and more rare of all the versions. We could absolutely start using them as they are still minted on a regular bases. For the life of me I still don't understand why they are so rarely used.
I had never seen that before in my entire life until an Aldi opened here.
Stores have tried it. Customers hate it. Chiefly because many people simply don't carry any coins on them. You can't have all of your store's registers set to card only mode (yes this is very common for some reason) and then expect people to have a coin on them at all times, so they don't bother.
It also seems trivially easy to circumvent. Easier than remembering to bring a quarter with you when you go to the store.
Yeah in a cashless society things like that can't work well. In Germany cash is king, you can't go out without. In France it is mandated that shops accept at least 2 means of payments (among cash, card, check or wire transfer), and only cash and cards have enough safety and speed that shops and restaurants want to use it.