The Supermarket Paradox

Ever notice how life’s little inconveniences have a way of sneaking up on you? There you are, phone in hand, ready to tap-and-pay for your groceries with biometric verification when suddenly you’re patting your pockets for a coin to unlock a shopping trolley.

Coles and Woolies have been quietly bringing back coin-operated trolley locks across their stores. The same retailers who’ve invested millions in self-checkout technology and contactless payment systems now want us to carry around small pieces of metal currency that many of us haven’t used since 2019. Make it make sense.

Sure, they offer tokens as an alternative. Great idea in theory. Until you’ve experienced the unique frustration of watching your trolley token get permanently wedged in a mechanism clearly designed by someone who has never actually used it. That hollow “click” as it disappears forever is the sound of retail innovation failing spectacularly.

The real comedy unfolds at shopping centres hosting six different retailers, each with their own uniquely sized trolleys. You’ve finished your shop, packed the car, and now face a trolley bay clearly marked for two specific types neither of which matches the one you’re pushing. Do you abandon it and become part of the problem? Try to force it in? Or embark on a journey across the carpark to find its proper home?

I have an app that can tell me the exact nutritional breakdown of everything in my basket, another that calculates the most efficient route home based on real-time traffic patterns, and a digital wallet holding seventeen different loyalty cards but I still need to keep a special coin in my car’s cupholder just so I can transport my groceries from shelf to boot.

Next time you’re struggling to retrieve your gold coin from a trolley while balancing coffee and car keys, remember this is what progress looks like in 2025. Sometimes moving forward means going backward first. At least we can pay for our therapists with Apple Pay.