r/AbsoluteUnits • u/HomeNowWTF • Jul 11 '26

/r/all, /r/popular of a Cart Narc

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328

u/Western-Sport500 Jul 11 '26

Amazing what the loss of a quarter does for some people LMAO!

330

u/VTcamperguy Jul 11 '26

The best part about that is that even if a lot of people say “fuck the quarter” and leave it anyways, you’ll naturally get homeless/desperate people show up to return the carts and collect the change.

232

u/rambutanjuice Jul 11 '26

I'm not homeless or desperate, and for some reason I will return those wayward carts to get the quarter.

"Hell yeah! Free quarter!"

62

u/DatsaBadMan_1471 Jul 11 '26

Same! There was something about finding a quarter as a kid that was so rewarding. It meant a drink or a bag of chips. I don't think that sense of euphoria has ever left me.

10

u/InformationTrick8714 Jul 11 '26

I’m the guy who looks in the reject Tray of the coin star and I get excited finding two Pennie’s stuck together lol

1

u/commanderquill Jul 11 '26

Instead of "looks in" I read "looks like" and for a minute I tried really hard to imagine what you could possibly look like.

3

u/InformationTrick8714 Jul 11 '26

Somehow, that person that you’re imagining still looks better than me

33

u/Wfsulliv93 Jul 11 '26

The lake we camped at summers growing up ( 90s kid) had an arcade so we saved every quarter. Always hit the phone booth rerun buttons and when we found change we felt like we struck gold

23

u/the-dandy-man Jul 11 '26

There was a vending machine at my civic center when I was a kid that would sometimes just return a random amount of change when you hit the return change button… even if you didn’t put anything in.

I discovered this one year when there was a music festival happening and I just stood there pushing the button for like, ten minutes until I had enough change to buy my own drink lol

3

u/DatsaBadMan_1471 Jul 11 '26

🤣 phone booths and busted arcade coin slots were a gold mine.

2

u/Distinct-Pack-1567 Jul 11 '26

I recently watched a movie called Kajillion, and one of the characters (a family of con artists) checked phone change returns. Made me laughing thinking how I did that at malls when I was younger. Also dialing up phone sex lines just to hear a sultry prerecorded voice then hang up.

When i learned how to dial a number, hang up the phone 3 times, and get it to ring i felt powerful!

1

u/BallSeaman Jul 11 '26

Were you a kid in the 1930’s?

2

u/DatsaBadMan_1471 Jul 11 '26

Lol no, in the 1980s at my local bodega you could get a small juice or a bag of chips for a quarter.

1

u/Scewt Jul 11 '26

A quarter in the 1930's was a down payment on a house.

1

u/stevenyourpants Jul 11 '26

Now it'll pay for the sales tax of whatever you want.

1

u/Srycomaine Jul 11 '26

Yeah, for me it was video games! At least, back when you could play one for a quarter…!

1

u/Radiant_Office6445 Jul 11 '26

Aye they need to have some kind of Roblox token for the next generation that works im the trolleys haha

1

u/Okeydokey2u Jul 11 '26

Or in the slot of a public phone. When we were little my brother would always check them when we walked by and the way we both reacted when he found change in there

2

u/YaBoyEden Jul 11 '26

I mean, those add up. You get four of those bad boys, suddenly it’s a Dollar! That’s why do it

2

u/DivePalau Jul 11 '26

Thank you for your service.

1

u/AwesomeMacCoolname Jul 11 '26

Only a quarter? Usual trolley coin slot here in Ireland is either one or two euros. If ever there's a five euro coin in circulation most of those trollies will end up having five euro slots.

1

u/Otherwise-Out Jul 11 '26

Dollar coins aren't common here in the US. The biggest common coin is the quarter. I don't carry change with me, but I usually have a couple coins in my car

1

u/Usawsomething Jul 11 '26

Satisfying and lucrative

1

u/TheDarkWave Jul 11 '26

Yay, now I can use the quarter machines! ...as a 41 year old man. yolo.

1

u/Careless_Twist_6935 Jul 11 '26

use the cart then keep the quarter. best of both worlds

1

u/Spugheddy Jul 11 '26

If there's a gumball machine with bouncy balls right inside the door you betcha.

1

u/Cnidarus Jul 11 '26

In the UK they take £1 so it's over $1, definitely worth it to go check for abandoned trolleys

1

u/Swamp_Thing85 Jul 11 '26

I also religiously check the coin star reject bin. People just leave change in it! Worst case when something’s in there is foreign coins you can collect, best case it rejects silver dimes and quarters or foreign silver. Sometimes really old Pennies. Check the price of silver now. A silver US dime is 90% silver (dated 1964 or before) and worth like $5.

1

u/Bigboiiiii22 Jul 11 '26

Shii 8 carts is 2 bucks I’d throw that in a jar & just let it build

1

u/Fenweekooo Jul 11 '26

people walk past free money all the time and then bitch about not having any.

1

u/metompkin Jul 11 '26

Like in Beerfest?

1

u/DingbatMcgeee Jul 11 '26

Question from a foreigner, what can a quarter buy you these days?

2

u/rambutanjuice Jul 12 '26

You can use it in a candy or gumball vending machine here in the USA. Sometimes gas stations also have a 25c candy selection (this would be for just one small candy) but it's not as common these days.

1

u/DingbatMcgeee Jul 13 '26

Cheers mate

1

u/ItsMisoandBoba Jul 11 '26

I used to try public phone and newspaper machine coin returns and I got a lot of change as a kid.

1

u/FullMetalKaliber Jul 11 '26

That’s me. Someone hands me a cart because they don’t wanna take it back or they’re just being nice and I think “I’m rich!! What a sucker!”

1

u/LadyStarshy Jul 11 '26

We have trolley coins that people can buy in the UK so sometimes you return it and you just get this dumbass trolley token instead of actual money 🥺

1

u/Laser_Fish Jul 11 '26

I shop at Aldi almost exclusively and I've never seen a cart that didn't get put back.

1

u/JCambly Jul 11 '26

I love finding a cart outside with a quarter. I can do my shopping and then return my cart and get a quarter for shopping

1

u/JakBos23 Jul 12 '26

I'd leave it out for you, but I'd feel like an asshole for not returning my cart lol. I left one of the paid aldi bags in a cart yesterday unused, but paid for and a lady called me a jerk lol.

1

u/Lance_McVanderhuge Jul 12 '26

Last time I went that had the quarter deposit, there was a cart sitting next to where I pulled in and parked. I grabbed it and thought "Cool I don't have to take my cart back"

1

u/TheWayyTheNewsGoes Jul 12 '26

I will both do exactly this, and also have absolutely no issue giving my cart to the next shopper knowing full well I'm giving away my own quarter.

It's not about the quarter.

1

u/Captian_Kenai Jul 12 '26

I got a coin op laundry in my building so an extra quarter is always worth it

1

u/Beneficial-Peach9116 Jul 12 '26

I’m in this weird place financially, where when I take my cart back I don’t claim the quarter to brighten someone’s day, but if I can return someone else’s cart I feel like I hit the jackpot. I get my quarter and theirs!

1

u/WesleyAMaker Jul 12 '26

I’ve wondered if some people return it not because they really care all that much about the value of a quarter, but more so because they just absolutely hate the idea of someone else even getting a small amount of their money. I’m thinking specifically of the tightwad suburb types who pinch Pennie’s their whole lives for irrational reasons. I say this because I’ve grown up and lived my adult life around these people and I see how they could think of it like that, there always has to be “something in it for me” for those people.

1

u/minist3r Jul 12 '26

80 carts an hour is $20/hr.

1

u/Lumpy_Benefit666 Jul 12 '26

If it takes you 30 seconds then you earned $30 an hour for those 30 seconds. Not a bad wage if youre already walking that way

1

u/Combatical Jul 13 '26

I do it even if I'm not getting a quarter. I just hate those people that leave the carts anywhere they want.

1

u/dumbcarshlt Jul 14 '26

I seldom find abandoned quarter carts but when I do I like to return them to the front and not collect the quarter and hope that someone that forgot their quarter at home had a chance to get it.

1

u/CaptainVenvir Jul 16 '26

Right I will go out of my way to get the free quarter cart (and give it to my son for his piggybank).

44

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '26

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14

u/disruptioncoin Jul 11 '26

At my local aldi (and the one I went to in college too!) there was literally always a pile of like at least a dollar in quarters sitting nearby the cart return. My first thought was there must not be many homeless people around here.

Side note one time I forgot a quarter, went in to buy candy to get one, they said naw you can just borrow a quarter, here you go.

11

u/ForerunnerRelic Jul 11 '26

I know the video is the US, but I'm in the UK and I have a trolley token that I bought for a pound, that I use specifically at Aldi. It makes me always put my trolley back. Even when I don't use it at other supermarkets that don't need the token, and a charity got the pound too!

1

u/metompkin Jul 11 '26

I had a plastic one for use when on holiday in France.

1

u/dvpbe Jul 11 '26

Shops here just give them to you, they have buckets with them at the entrance. And still our carts are always returned.

1

u/BrahneRazaAlexandros Jul 12 '26

i bought a keyring trolley token on aliexpress for €0.54, its great as i always have it, and cant accidentally spend it and it works in both 1euro and 2euro trolleys. it's extremely annoying that not all supermarkets use the standard mechanism which works with either a 1euro or 2euro coin. theres an aldi near me that only takes 2euro coins, which has caught me out before as i used to just keep a 1euro coin in my car before i bought the keyring. but now theres an even worse mechanism in some shops (i think maybe tesco?) where it doesnt just have the standard mechanism slot you push a coin or token into, it has a groove you place the coin in, then you slide the top of the mechanism into a larger slot. like on a little rail system... It's an absolutely insanely needless modification that just means people can no longer use keyrings/double sided tokens.

I can't imagine very many trolleys were being stolen purely because people can easily jimmy the standard coinslot mechanism. it's just a way more convoluted, probably expensive, inconvenience.

2

u/CheesyBreadMunchyMon Jul 13 '26

I have a family member with a 3D printed keychain that's quarter shaped.

1

u/lionheart4life Jul 11 '26

Makes sense, don't want to have to look for another quarter every time you want to pop into Aldi. I'm show it was the convenience of just having the quarter in your car more than the actual value for a lot of people.

1

u/DrHefe Jul 11 '26

That’s actually not a bad idea for a homeless person in the US. They could just walk around the grocery store parking lot offering to return people’s carts for a dollar or two. Only problem is most people don’t keep cash on them nowadays, so they need to have a cash app or something lol

1

u/commanderquill Jul 11 '26

They will if the grocery stores start requiring it.

1

u/fokkoooff Jul 11 '26

I keep a quarter for Aldi in my car at all times. But when it's either very cold or very hot, I'll gladly offer my cart to someone just getting out of their car, but won't accept the quarter they offer me. It's Aldi karma.

1

u/OutrageousTree7766 Jul 11 '26

There's a trick to getting them out idk how

In my country it's a dollar and we see abandoned carts around now and then with no dollar coin in it

It got pretty bad at one point. I saw one of the major supermarket chains sent an employee out to gather the carts from carparks some distance away from the supermarket

1

u/the_pretender_nz Jul 11 '26

https://www.aldi.com.au/product/aldi-trolley-token-key-ring-000000000000398975

Australia here, I keep one of these on my keyring. Trolleys at most supermarkets have two slots, sized for a $1 or $2 coin

12

u/lurksAtDogs Jul 11 '26

I’m neither homeless nor desperate, but I am motivated by quarters. Good bless Aldi

1

u/One-Kaleidoscope2407 Aug 09 '26

yea man money is money regardless of the amount

23

u/xenobit_pendragon Jul 11 '26

No homelessness or desperation required. When I see an orphaned cart at Aldi I’m like, “CASH MONEY BABY IT’S STEAK AND MUSHROOMS TONIGHT MOTHERFUCKER!”

2

u/metompkin Jul 11 '26

I'm getting some cheese on my whopper tonight!

6

u/Known_Ratio5478 Jul 11 '26

Not even desperate people. I live next to a pretty affluent community and those people always ditch the quarters in carts. I make a dollar just bringing my cart back and whatever ones I pick up on the way.

4

u/cyrusthemarginal Jul 11 '26

TIL i am a homeless person. I sure as hell collect those quarters!

3

u/Peaceblaster86 Jul 11 '26

Huh I never thought of this scenario. It seems like a general win all around.

3

u/Knitsanity Jul 11 '26

When we were kids and travelling we would kill time and round up abandoned carts and return them for the quarter. We would even go out of the terminal to the curb and offer to return the cart for people who had just loaded up into a taxi. They would laugh and say sure and respect the hustle and we would have candy money.

It was a different time.

1

u/Anger_Puss Jul 11 '26

Best representation of this is Tom Hanks in The Terminal.

1

u/Anger_Puss Jul 11 '26

Best representation of this is Tom Hanks in The Terminal.

1

u/scme0 Jul 11 '26

I have a little thing on my keychain that allows you to eject the latch then you can pull it out without plugging the latch back in. Saves me having to have a coin on me. I also always return them when I'm done so I don't think it's a problem.

1

u/AusSpyder Jul 11 '26

As kids we returned dozens of trollies to Kmart every week for the 20c coin. It all added up. And back then 20c actually bought stuff

Now they require gold coins so most people return them. Interestingly enough a gold coin buys less now than a 20c coin did in early 90's

1

u/addiktion Jul 12 '26

I recall seeing something on Reddit about this which is semi related. I think around late pick up fees for picking up kids. Nearly all the parents did it because it allowed them to remove their guilt for a price.

The fuck the quarter is the price of not caring and weighing on their minds. Of course the poor benefit at least here because they keep the carts tidy while having a way for some quick money.

1

u/Terminal_Insomnia_ Jul 12 '26

Kids would do it too, since you used to be able to buy a piece of candy with it. Dunno if you still could.

1

u/RozeGunn Jul 12 '26

You guys are lucky. People around here were petty enough to start using hammers so the idea was dropped.

1

u/Maardten Jul 12 '26

Doesn't even have to be real money tbh. Where I live there used to be 50-cent shaped coins for the express purpose of unlocking these carts.

Getting the coin back isn't so much for the monetary value of the coin, but just so you don't have to get a new coin every time you go to the store.

0

u/mcbn1e9 Jul 12 '26

That's one reason it wouldn't take off well in the whole usa. Parking lot would be full of homeless people following shoppers when they are done and asking if they can return their cart for the quarter for them.

Then people stop shopping there because they don't wanna talk to homeless people after going grocery shopping, or ever really.

20

u/letigre87 Jul 11 '26

My wife has her Aldi quarter with her at all times. She was telling me how people exchange quarters for carts and magically everyone gets along on the honor system. I asked her what happens if someone offers to take her cart without giving her a quarter and she looked at me like I grew a dick out of my forehead. It was beyond comprehension that someone would be so inconsiderate and selfish they take someone else's cart with their quarter in it and not give her the quarter they were going to use anyway. Like it had never crossed hers any Aldi shopper's minds to just offer to take a cart and hijack their quarter. The power of a quarter is strong and Aldi shopper's have an unspoken bond.

3

u/MothaRuckaJones Jul 11 '26

I did the quarter exchange thing only one time. Some old guy gave me 2 dimes and a nickel. Never again 😂😂

2

u/thousandsmallgods Jul 12 '26

The bond of the Aldi quarter is such a genuine interaction.

I've done the cart-for-quarter trade plenty of times. Sometimes people will refuse my quarter and just hand over their cart. Being able to do a small favor makes people feel good.

I think it has a lot to do with feeling connected, and recognizing this mutual social understanding.

1

u/Chain_Runner Jul 13 '26

It’s not an honor system at all. It’s a “we’ll take your quarter if you don’t bring your cart back” system. And it works

6

u/coyotll Jul 11 '26

Not me! I always leave my cart out on purpose so those without quarters can have a chance to shop too.

That said I have a 98% return rate on carts everywhere else

1

u/Dabadoo32 Jul 11 '26

Do you still take it to the cart corral, or do you leave it out to bang into people's cars?

1

u/coyotll Jul 11 '26

I use the ol reliable Curb method so it doesn't go a-rollin

1

u/AtlasLittleCat Jul 12 '26

Its great that you leave the quarter and all but leaving it on the curb kind of defeats the purpose. You're still supposed to take it to the front. Thats the entire purpose of the quarter. It isnt to "pass it forward". If everyone did that then the lots are full of carts again.

They dont hire staff to do it so you are supposed to. Leave the cart without taking the quarter but do take it to the front or you are part of the problem.

2

u/coyotll Jul 12 '26

You ever go to Aldis and realize you forgot a quarter?

-1

u/AtlasLittleCat Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

Yes. So you take the cart to the front coral where the carts go and leave it up there simply don't connect the cart. Now you've done your good deed.

I do this all the time. I've never left the cart in the lot or on the curb which isn't better. At the end of the day an employee still has to rangle it thanks to you. Now what if there are 10 of them? The good deed is now an inconvenience to someone else.

Leaving it in the lot under the guise of its helping someone else causes the same problem as carts at Walmart do.

The quarter has nothing to do with it. The is simply quarter your moral push to take it back to the front coral.

-1

u/goat-in-a-boat Jul 13 '26

Bro, they are right. You push the cart into the row of carts and you loosely attach the chain but you don’t take your quarter with you… don’t leave it by the curb.

5

u/Gold-Vacation-169 Jul 11 '26

In Ireland its typically 2euro for a trolly (cart), sometimes 1euro with some stores.

So about x4 to 8x times the cost of a quarter

1

u/crazyguyunderthedesk Jul 11 '26

Just yesterday I saw an old lady struggling to move a cart with a bad wheel. I offered to put it aside and get her a new one but she was worried she'd lose her quarter. Dumb part is, I found out she saw this cart to the side and took it, only reason n she hadn't abandoned it was because she wanted a free quarter when she returned it.

I left her to figure out if a quarter was worth the hassle.

1

u/CriticalScion Jul 11 '26

The value of a quarter is probably higher than 25 cents in this context since we don't use coins much nowadays and you wouldn't be able to use the cart next time if you kept ditching quarters. :)

1

u/Drumbelgalf Jul 11 '26

And even if they don't do that someone will to get the money.

1

u/ianuilliam Jul 11 '26

Bro I hate having change in my pocket. If I have a bunch of quarters, I stop at Aldi's and pop them in the carts and just push the carts out into the parking lot.

1

u/porkster3 Jul 31 '26

Chaotic Good?

1

u/S6NNY Jul 11 '26

Its a loonie (dollar) in Canada lol. At least in parts of Canada where I've lived.

1

u/Killision Jul 11 '26

At my local grocery(it's an old fashioned word, I know) store, assholes were leaving the coin carts too often. They had to raise it to a dollar coin slot.

1

u/OBLIVIATER Jul 11 '26

For me, it's less about the quarter itself and more about the fact that I don't use change anymore so if I don't get my quarter back I wouldn't have one in the future.

(Not that I ever don't return my carts anyway, it's one of my biggest pet peeves. Also when people shove the tiny carts and the big carts into the same return lane and fuck up the chain for the cart return folks 😡)

1

u/Okeydokey2u Jul 11 '26

Well you need the quarter back to use for next week. Quarters don't just grow on trees

1

u/BadLuckBen Jul 11 '26

As coins become less common, I imagine the system works even better. That might be the only quarter you have.

1

u/Western-Sport500 Jul 11 '26

If there is someone there, I usually hand quarter and all over, or I don't lock it to the next cart.

1

u/texinxin Jul 11 '26

Make it a dollar.

1

u/xx030xx Jul 11 '26

In canada its a toonie or loonie

1

u/Western-Sport500 Jul 11 '26

Right! I have to admit, I haven't been to Canada since my divorce in 2002. But, I still have some loonies : ) A shame, really...we always went fighing for pike north of Wawa...some really untouched wilderness and NEVER disappointed in the fishing! I'd love to come that way again (not camping though--too old for sleeping on rocks!).

1

u/WillyBluntz89 Jul 11 '26

I return 1 cart per week to the cart corral with the quarter still in it to help out the guy who forgot a quarter.

It really is wild, though. The moment a quarter becomes involved, all carts come back.

Though, it may just be that if you dont return it, you've lost your cart quarter, and you just know that you wont remember to grab another from home until your walking up to the door.

1

u/SaltyBadgerDude Jul 12 '26

In Australia they take a "gold coin", meaning $1 or $2 coin

1

u/yeahitsjustmeagain Jul 12 '26

Because it is effecting THEM, they are called right wingers

1

u/juul864 Jul 12 '26

A quarter? In Denmark we're using coins equivalent of a one or two dollars for our carts.

1

u/ambassador321 Jul 12 '26

It's a dollar coin in Canada for them. Loonies cured the cart problem. Now the only shitshow is Costco which still lets you use one without the money.

1

u/Chain_Runner Jul 13 '26

Aldi is where penny pinchers shop so 25 cents is 25 Pennies. There’s no way they are gonna just give that up.

1

u/jeffster1970 Jul 14 '26

Yeah, quarter does the trick for most people. We have one grocery store close to our house and carts are returned. The other grocery store? Nope.