Adjacent to Planet Fitness is an Aldi discount grocery store. They have a nice selection at low prices which attracts fiscally conservative types. The Aldi corporation is owned by a large German conglomerate and in stereotypical German fashion, they pass on the savings by making everything ruthlessly efficient. Unlike every other grocery store I have been in, employees are constantly on task and working as fast as possible. There are no bags provided. There is no public bathroom. All the items are placed in the most convenient locations to reduce dawdling. I can do a weeks worth of grocery shopping at an Aldi and have everything loaded in my car in about 10 minutes where as the local Walmart takes FOREVER to get anything done.
Aldi is so efficient that they cannot afford to waste any of their employees precious time. Other grocery stores are forced to employ a shopping cart wrangler to return the shopping carts to the store. At Aldi they came up with a simple elegant solution. They make the customers pay to use a shopping cart. Each shopping cart is locked to the next in a row with a little chain. The only way to release the cart is to insert a quarter. When you are done shopping you return your cart to the line in the store which will then release your quarter.
Is a quarter enough incentive to get the shopping carts back into the store? You bet. The type of people who shop at a discount grocery store generally will not leave that quarter behind. When they do, that is when I make my move.
As a willing participant in our new gig economy I become an extremely temporary employee of the Aldi corporation every time I go to the gym. When I drive up for a workout I diligently scan the parking lot for carts that have been left behind. If I see a stray cart I park next to it, grab my workout gear and push the cart into the Aldi on my way into the gym. By returning the cart I can claim the quarter left behind by the previous user netting my 100% profit. I repeat this process after my workout, doubling my potential income from each trip. Yesterday I put my small collection of quarters together took a trip to the do it yourself car wash. Thanks Aldi.
