Supermarket trolleys: Impose $10 deposit

While public education on the responsible use of supermarket trolleys will take some time to have any effect, supermarkets should not waste their resources by deploying staff to push back the carts ("Going the distance for missing trolleys"; Sunday).

They should, instead, impose a $10 refundable deposit for each cart taken. Genuine users would have no problem with this arrangement.

Wayward consumers who do not return trolleys may not realise that they are directly or indirectly contributing to the increased cost of their groceries, as supermarkets will factor this component into their operating costs.

With a higher deposit on the use of trolleys, over time, even if the problem is not completely eradicated, supermarkets will have considerably fewer abandoned trolleys.

Andrew Seow Chwee Guan

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 06, 2016, with the headline Supermarket trolleys: Impose $10 deposit. Subscribe