Psychology - and selling !

Recent price surveys of the three big supermarket chains in Australia - Woolworths, Coles and Aldi - left no doubt that Aldi was significantly cheaper than it's competitors. A family doing it's grocery shopping at Aldi could probably fuel the family car or run broadband Internet on the savings.

Many factors contribute to this advantage, but one glaring difference is worth noting. Shoppers at Woolworths and Coles have free access to shopping trolleys - and as a result they are abused - mishandled - stolen - and dumped in suburbs miles away.

Managing these shopping trolleys is a costly business. " Trolley minder " crews with a tractor and trailer collect them from the supermarket car park and return them to the store and a recovery programme offers a cash reward draw for shoppers who alert the company to trolleys left in public places.
Despite this, many trolleys end their days submerged in creeks, rusting in drains or broken apart to reappear as kid's billy carts.
Replacement costs per trolley run into hundreds of dollars.

This is not the case at Aldi. Trolleys are available - but require a $2 coin to be inserted to release them to the shopper.
This is where psychology makes it's grand entrance.
When the shopper has finished shopping there is an overwhelming urge to recover that $ 2 - and so the trolley is returned to the trolley rack at the store and the money returns to the shoppers pocket.

A simple test ? When did you last see an Aldi branded shopping trolley abandoned far away from the store ?
In the great majority of cases the answer will be - never !

It seems that psychology is lost on Woolworths and Coles. They simply add the cost of their trolley debacle onto the shelf prices of goods - and shrug their shoulders and ignore comparisons with a better managed supermarket.

Ultimately either shoppers will rebel at being slugged with higher prices or the government will get tough and implement laws requiring trolley reform - but in the interim many smart shoppers are saving money by patronising a store chain that employs leading edge thinking !