Swiss Shopping Cart return system

January 5, 2011

An idea whose time has come. U.S. consumers pay thousands of dollars a year for the privilege of “borrowing” a shopping cart. Half the time they are left in the parking lot to rot in the sun, be hit by cars, be stolen, pushed into a ditch by vandals, or collected by a worker who is paid by the consumer complaining about food prices—the same consumer who just left a $400 cart sitting out in the rain.

In Switzerland, to “borrow” a shopping cart, you insert a franc, (like a quarter), into a slot to release the cart key. When you return the cart to the covered cart “parking” stall, you insert the key and your franc pops out. We could learn something here.