Nightmare shopping trip!

Your lost keys reminds me of the time my husband nearly brought Gatwick Airport to a standstill. When we went through security he kept setting the alarms off. Coat off, pockets searched, shoes off, went through it all several times, while the alarm kept going off and the queue behind us got longer. In the end he found his keys in a secret pocket in his coat. It was a new coat and he'd forgotten how many pockets it had.

The pound coin thing varies a lot.
My Waitrose and Tesco don't need one but Sainsbury's Lidl and Morrisons do.
I've been given tokens at both Sainsbury's and Lidl in the past.
Just ask at "customer services"

Not a good day though!
Poor you!

NotSpaghetti

The pound coin thing varies a lot.
My Waitrose and Tesco don't need one but Sainsbury's Lidl and Morrisons do.
I've been given tokens at both Sainsbury's and Lidl in the past.
Just ask at "customer services"

Not a good day though!
Poor you!

I did think of customer services, but there was nobody there, and someone else was waiting, so after a few minutes I just opted for two baskets.

Some days just seem to be like that, a sequence of minor catastrophes.

I don't think that most supermarket carparks were designed to accommodate the armoured tanks some people drive.

I shop at our huge Asda, a fairly large local Tesco and a medium sized local Waitrose and none of them need a pound coin these days. It's only our local Lidl that still does that.

Most supermarkets will lend you a coin or token if you haven't got one for the trolleys, Sainsbury's gave me a £1 coin yesterday and I returned it when I finished with the trolley 😊

No £1 needed at my local Waitrose?

the glass plate in our combi microwave broke Sunday before Christmas, tried to get to Lakeside costco to buy another, queue round the block so tried Currys, got one to take home after fighting for parking space. Glass plate on that one broke on Boxing day had to take it back to Lakeide Saturday after Christmas. More parking fighting BUT must says Currys just gave us an exchange without hassle but I will NEVER go to Lakeside again between November and January......

Not as much of a nightmare as having the Boiler pack up at Christmas, I'm just finding out how useless the British workman is.

Waitrose would have opened a trolley free of charge if you had asked them.

I feel your pain Witzend, but at least you didn’t lock your car keys inside the car as I once did. I won’t bore anyone with the details as I posted it when it happened. Didn’t your Waitrose have one of those plastic baskets on wheels which are very handy and no pound required.

In my local area only Tesco, Iceland and Lidl need a coin. I keep a blue Tesco token in my purse which fits like a trolley coin, but recently they have changed the size of the blue tokens. Some are a larger diameter and others, the smaller diameter but thicker so they don't fit. Ehankfully I still nave one that does, I often don't have a pound coin as I always pay by card.
I once had to ask at customer services as someone pinched my trolley while I was shopping! If they stole it for the £1 coin they would have been disappointed with the blue token!
Before I lost weight I sometimes was unable to get in my car due to someone's bad parking but it hasn't happened for a long time. I never thought of asking customer services to put out a call. It wouldn't help in some car parks anyway as the driver could be shopping elsewhere.
I shop little and often now and usually use a basket.

ferry23

I'm intrigued as to which supermarket you usually go to where you don't need a pound coin? I thought they all do.

Always keep a token on your keyring.

I leave a pound coin in my car! but then going shopping, even food shopping is so called entertainment for me,, being elderly and somewhat alone...
as for these Monster cars, I think they should pay more as I think the Government may have suggested... and I am no fan of this Government,,, just saying LOL and no I don`t understand how to do the emojis down below.. more LOLOLOL

We try to use the trolley coins or sometimes my son has a £1 coin in car for if petrol buying runs over by a few pence.But before xmas i went to go in supermarket first whilst my son collected me something from a different shop nearby..I didnt have a £1 or trolley coin- but a very kind lady who had just returned her trolley gave me her £1.I tried to refuse but she insisted.& i thanked her gratefully..we havent been out since christmas day but when i go supermarket again i will pass the kindness forward by donating it to the kind homeless man who usually sits outside our main Aldi in town.He has a trolley coin also and will cheerfully use it to help out anyone that finds themselves without a coin.

We use a blue badge (both me and my son have a badge each) but those big gas guzzlers are often overlapping the spaces..Also they hide the tiny cars behind them so you dont see and you think theres a parking space &see the tiny car hiding so no space available!🤨

I rarely go to supermarkets as I use Ocado but I have a trolley coin on my car key ring. Far easier than having to ensure I have a £1 coin.

Witzend

TBH I rarely do such a big shop any more - I usually buy little and often, and take the bus.
Having said that, for ages my local Asda’s trolleys didn’t need pound coins, only suddenly, they did!

So I asked why the change.
Answer, trolleys were being stolen by the dozen at night - presumably for the metal. Thieves were coming in lorries and stealing them.

I really can’t see how the pound coin would deter trolley thieves … I assume they lock together a la coin… but thieves with Lorries would surely bring chain cutting equipment if so.
Supermarkets should build a lockable extension for their trolliesbif this is happening!

The guy at one of the checkouts in Lidl gave me several plastic tokens for the trolly when I told him I hadn’t a pound coin. I always park as far away from other cars as the car park allows. A few years ago my passenger door was scratched by a trolley. It also means I get a bit of exercise!!!

We don't need a pound coin at our Waitrose, but do at all the others.

I shop at Tesco weekly and they have introduced £1 coin trolleys.
Blooming nuisance they are.
The reason being that as we are near a university, the students didn’t bother to bring them back.

I wouldn’t mind too much if they had replaced old trolleys with new ones. But no. Just the £1 coin slot fitted on to old trolleys.
I always carry a £1 coin in my bag for that sole purpose.

You're lucky to have a nearby Waitrose. For some reason, the owners don't see why those in our county deserve more than one, which is about 35 miles from us. I know some counties - Norfolk, for example - are very well blessed. The key thing must've been terrifying as I lost mine one day after shopping and couldn't find then anywhere, I was practically hysterical as it'd been one of those days...I forget where I found them now but it was the stupidest, most obvious place. As for Chelsea Tractors...!! Their drivers do think normal carpark rules don't apply to them. I can't understand why anyone not living somewhere with severely challenging road conditions would buy one purely to navigate the local supermarket car park and the school run. I see nobody on here has yet admitted to the challenges of parking such a beast in the local Waitrose car park at Christmas time.

Where can I get one of those special keys please

One of the joys of shopping at my local Waitrose is that it is the only one where all the trolleys are free! Plus the great car park sheltered from sun ( for the dogs) and the rain plus the great lift from car park to store.

Our new Lidl just has the blue plastic deep shopping trolley type, no baskets at all. I don't like dragging the monster around so don't use one, which means I buy less as I only pick up what I can carry.