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Supermarket trolleys Monday 21 Feb 2005 From the esteemed Mr Brian Barratt, Perhaps it's time you started one of your campaigns, to persuade people to be more thoughtful, considerate and honest with their supermarket trolleys. Do you have the same problem as we have in sunny Australia? People don't bother to take their trolleys back to the places provided for them. Instead, they abandon them in car-parks, along footpaths, in the main road, and even deposit them in parks, reserves and unoccupied land. In the leafy suburb of Melbourne where it's my privilege to live (albeit at subsistence level), I do get tired of having to negotiate the hurdle track, steeple-chase, of abandoned trolleys when I walk back to my car from the supermarket. Or am I just an old grump? In short - yes, we do have this problem, and no, you're not an old grump. Unless I am too. NCOTAASD hq is about 10 minutes walk from a major supermarket, and we do find ourselves tripping over the trolleys on a daily basis. I think the only solution is for all supermarkets to charge a small returnable fee for use of the trolley. Then they wouldn't be abandonned so quickly. Colin Dear Wifey, Not ALL supermarkets in the north-east require a pound to be inserted before you can steal, er, use them.  I have almost a dozen trolleys at the bottom of my garden,  (Asda, Aldi, Lidl, Netto, even top-of-the-range Sainbury's and a classic Waitrose one).   When I have a 20 or so I take them to the nearest beck (that's a stream for southerners etc), and dump them - tastefully though ! I used to dump prams, but you can't get hold of 'em so easily these days, and a buggy doesn't look as good. I have to go now - they're checking my ASBO, (I'm a 66 year-old pensioner but can still be a nuisance, if given time !). Colin PS - My wife tells me that I prefer Asda's own teabags.    Wifey replies: Ahh, so it's all down to you then is it?? My next-door neighbours have a skip at the minute. Nicey and I are taking bets as to how long it will be before a mattress or old sofa gets put in. So far 23 hours and counting. Joel Egerton Not all places In Northern Ireland have this feature, but the Tesco’s beside my house had the genius idea of fitting a complex magnetic device, which causes trolleys to lock in place once they pass a yellow line outside the store, similar to the Christopher Lambert film, fortress, although instead of exploding stomachs, this causes confused looks, and general shouting and kicking of trolleys… Brilliant, Wifey replies: Probably just the Bangor Tesco's (where Joan was talking about) have it then - Probably 'cause Bangor is such a rough place.. I like the idea of exploding stomachs though.. Joan Dales Wifey you should be aware that In Northern Ireland all trolleys require a one pound coin (also refundable) but unlike the North East we can buy a substitute "coin" for one pound - no upmarket pricing in our supermarkets! Why not start lobbying your local markets (and the council) to introduce a similar system and hopefully, at the same time, cut down on the items clogging your canals and rivers? Chris Rayment I have a canal at the bottom of the garden which is currently being drained to have a new sluice gate fitted (in case the canal springs a leak and floods the estate on the other side). We are MILES from a supermarket, but there are a couple of trolleys embedded in the sludge just by the bridge - perhaps they have been taken there by a current? The last time the canal was drained about ten years ago there were dozens of the blighters, so either trolley drowning is on the decrease, or trolleys have learned to swim! Wifey replies: Are there any old bicycles in there too? I think that's compulsory for canals isn't it? Nicky The trolleys in the North East of England almost ALL have to have a (refundable) pound inserted before you can use them.  This has become endemic to the extent that you can now buy little pound-coin-substitutes (for £1.50) that clip onto your key ring so that you are never short of trolley-money.  Maybe it’s because we in the North East are notorious trolley thieves.  Or maybe we are the guinea pigs for the rest of the country, and sooner or later you’ll all be clipping pound-coin-substitutes to your key rings or scrabbling – as many here do - in fury down the sides of the car/bus seat for a pound coin\to stick in the trolley. All the best to you and Nicey,  Wifey replies: Some of our trolleys down here in East Anglia are like that, but not all of them. Maybe my local one doesn't because it is just outside the city limits, and we are supposed to be immune to inner-city problems and thieves?? I like the idea of the pound-substitute key ring, but you can guarantee as soon as I'd buy one they'd put the price up to two pounds..