The Reason Aldi Charges 25 Cents For Shopping Carts — It's Actually Genius

Aldi fans are pretty diehard when it comes to the quality and price efficiency of the store's offerings, both on groceries and the beloved "Aisle of Shame" items. The German-origin grocery chain is consistently ranked among the cheapest and most affordable grocery stores, with more and more shoppers discovering its deals and the secrets of its color-coded price tags throughout the last few years. If you've never been to an Aldi before, you might be a bit baffled when you go for a shopping cart only to realize that you need to deposit a quarter first. So why does Aldi charge a quarter for carts?

Aldi requires shoppers to insert a quarter before taking a cart because it's an incentive for customers to return their carts to the corral after shopping. This saves Aldi both money and manpower on hiring employees to collect the carts and, in turn, saves you money on grocery prices. Think of it like the deposit you pay at a hotel, which is refunded after you check out (so long as there are no damages). At Aldi, you deposit a quarter while using the shopping cart and get your quarter back once you tuck the cart where it's meant to be.

Charging 25 cents to borrow a shopping cart is just one of the many methods that Aldi employs to ensure its prices remain low, a detail that makes it different from Lidl, another German grocer. At other stores, shopping carts are left haphazardly around parking lots and are sometimes lost or damaged in the chaos. Since Aldi offers a reward (your returned quarter) for replacing shopping carts, the number of damaged and lost carts is significantly lower. Plus, the store doesn't need to instruct employees to hunt for wild shopping carts in the parking lot, which allows the brand to translate those savings to customers.

If you drop by Aldi and forget a quarter, you're not necessarily out of luck. According to a Reddit post, you can ask an Aldi employee for a quarter, and they'll most likely give you one since they're allotted $5 per day in quarters for customers. You could also try telling another shopper finishing with their cart that you left your quarters at home, promising to pay it forward. And Aldi sells a pretty convenient keychain quarter holder that'll fit right beside your house key and car key, so you'll never forget that quarter deposit again.