The Unspoken Aldi Cart Etiquette That Sparks Debate On Reddit

Nothing dampens the serotonin boost of loading a nice loaf of bread and a bottle of affordable wine into the car like losing your Aldi quarter — or, more accurately, having it swiped. Returning empty shopping carts to the corral is a common (or, not-so-common) grocery store courtesy. To increase its likelihood, Aldi charges its customers 25 cents to use a cart. The carts are chained together, and equipped with a mechanism that only "unlocks" a cart once a quarter is inserted into a slot. However, this ingenious device has inadvertently developed its own set of etiquette rules — and shoppers have taken to social media to sound off their impassioned opinions about the social phenomenon.

One Reddit thread asks, "[Am I the a*****e] for not giving someone my cart at ALDI b/c they didn't have a quarter?" The poster expounds, "Finished my Shopping at Aldi and loaded the car – I can see a family waiting for me to bring my cart back so they can go in [...] I say, I need a quarter if I am going to hand it over. Mom looks at me in total disgust and says something unpleasant because I won't just hand it over [...] Not even a 'Sorry we don't have any change' or some other excuse, they just expected me to hand over the cart." The top comment (with a whopping 3.4K upvotes) rules, "[Not the a*****e], might not be much money but no one should feel entitled to it."

Another Reddit thread in r/PetPeeves notes that it's a common practice for fellow shoppers in the Aldi parking lot to "offer" to take a cart back, without offering a quarter in return, thereby framing the quarter-swiping maneuver as a charitable, convenient favor. As the poster elaborates, "I hate it when I am leaving and putting away my cart and someone else is coming in and they are like 'oh I've got that' and reach for the cart [...] they need to offer a quarter replacement. But no, they look dumbly at me like they have no idea what I am asking for, when I know they know how the system works." On the flip side, other Redditors share testimonials of leaving their Aldi quarters behind, still-wedged in carts as a random act of kindness. 

It's worth noting that the modern consumer lives in an increasingly cashless world. As cash-based transactions decrease, many folks are handling loose change less and less often (unless they work in a tip-based industry, or their apartment building doesn't have a laundry machine). If you don't have a quarter on you at all times, you probably aren't alone. But, the Aldi shopping cart debacle speaks less to the purchasing power of 25 cents than to the price of inconvenience and entitlement, and the reward of intentional preparedness. Multiple Etsy sellers even make designated "Aldi quarter" keychains designed to hold that used (and used again) coin. Swiper, no swiping.