h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

... you could make a whole entry out of Shopping Trolley Tokens!



And of course, the Euro sized ones can be used in the Eurozone countries. Pre-Euro I always had to make sure that not only did I have Dutch and Belgian money on me as well as my usual German Marks and then I had to remember not to spend my 'Trolley Coin' too. Not easy

now I have a token on my keyring which is multinational.

My local supermarket (Sainsbury's) has (on the left, natch) two slots for coins on some of their trolleys. One is for Pound coins, the other, below it, is for Euros.

The token used to replace the pound coin is a very good idea. How often before I got my token did I arrive at the trolley park only to find I did not have a pound coin. You enter the supermarket and try to obtain the necessary coin only to find that you have to push into a line waiting to be served and beg that the cashier gives you change “the next time she opens her till” you are told while getting dirty looks from other shoppers. Try customer services “we don’t give out change” Then why lock up your trolleys?
I now have a token attached to my car keys, the good thing about it is that the one I purchased was a charity one, how many pounds would the charities make if we all purchased a token. I know that the British Heart Foundation and the PDSA do them and I am sure many more charities also supply tokens – come on then what’s stopping you.