Genius!!

Every once in a while I'll see the simplest idea in the world and think it is complete genius. Every single time they are so easy to think of....and at the same time incredible to think about how they work. My most recent encounter was at Aldi.

Below is a picture of a little contraption (love that word) that is placed on every shopping buggy. If you look real hard you will notice three numbers in the picture (sorry, I realize they are hard to see). In the evening, Aldi connects all the buggies in a chain. The carts all jam together like you are used to see in the stores. The difference is, they are connected via the contraption. The first buggy goes against the wall and the second buggy jams up against it like normal. The first buggy's chain (number 3 in the diagram) then goes in the back of the second buggy (number 1 in the diagram). The only way to get buggy number two loose is to put a quarter in the contraption in buggy number two (number 2 in the diagram). When you do so, the chain from buggy number one releases.



The beauty of this is the only way to get your quarter back is to return the buggy exactly where you got it from. My first thought, however, was "who cares about a quarter". So, of course, I had to stand out front and see if people were returning them. Sure enough....they were. What people will do for a quarter.

Cheers to Aldi for thinking this one up. I always feel bad for the one sucker (usually some high school kid) who runs around getting all the carts left all over the place.