Supermarkets: Tokens to be entered in carts, will expire soon!

We don’t stop technology! In the early 1990s, shopping cart tokens were on their way to disappearing. While the Carrefour brand is already in motion, is the generalized end of coin-operated carts imminent?

Supermarkets: The End of Tokens for Borrowing the Cart!

When we were kids, we loved putting a token or coin in the first order to borrow a cart from the supermarket. As adults, the process can sometimes get on our nerves when we’ve failed to provide us with the precious plastic sesame, or when we’ve only had a little change in our pockets…it really disappears. And so the Carrefour supermarket chain began the movement, popularizing the end of the coinage mechanism for carts, which appeared in France in the early 1990s.

Technology and the fight against theft of supermarkets

By the time contactless payment prevailed, entering a token or coin was outdated. But there is another reason to abolish the mechanisms of the currency: the fight against theft of wagons. To do this, Carrefour intends to set up connected anti-theft devices. Thanks to a wireless system, the wheels of the trolley will automatically lock when it moves outside the authorized perimeter. Currently, if 200 of the 230 Carrefour stores remove the famous coin mechanisms from their shopping carts, the large-scale retail chain Auchan is also preparing to generalize free access of its carts to all of its stores. But then, will other supermarket chains follow suit? Are cart tokens on the way to becoming a collector? case to follow!