Asked for receipt.

cymruchris

Dorrian said:

la531983 said:

Have you discussed your needs with the store at any point prior to this, or have you just been taking it upon yourself to remove their trolley from their property on each occasion without telling them?  If the latter, their reaction is somewhat understandable.

Thank you for your answer. On heavy items I always use a trolley & I have an understanding with the store that I can do. I normally check but the person I check with was busy & when he stopped me I gave him the phone to ring them which he refused.

Apologies I didn't pick up from your original post that there was someone in the store that had given permission, but on the day he was busy. Part of my point still stands though, in that the person that stopped you might have been coming back from break, saw you wandering along with a trolley belonging to the store and did what they thought was right in trying to retrieve it (It is the store's property - and you had gone beyond the normal realm of transferring goods to a vehicle in the car park). You did try to reason by giving the person's name you usually talk with, but it could be that the person standing in front of you wouldn't have the stores number in their head, and depending on the size of the store and number of staff may not have even heard of the person you were referring to, and so would be focused on ensuring they got their trolley back. Are there alternative options to get your stuff home without using the store trolley?

Dorrian

cymruchris said:

The trolley does belong to the shop, and they're not cheap - so you wandering off, although with very good intentions, might get alarm bells ringing if someone saw you leave the car park with it. Over the years, how many shopping trolleys have you seen dumped in rivers and the like? I know that you had every good intention to get the trolley back asap, but they don't really know that that was your plan, and not just dump it at the side of the road. 

It may be you've done it a dozen times before, and it's been fine, but probably nobody noticed. Maybe this time someone coming back from break might have seen you wheeling it through the streets and wanted the company property back. As has been said, it might be worth getting to know someone in the store, outline your intentions and hopefully they'll say that as long as you get the trolley back as soon as you've unloaded, they'll be ok with it.

I always take them back as I have had ongoing permission for years & still I ask but today the person who I ask was busy hence offering him the phone to ring & check which he would not do. I think if he had identified himself as an employee & just not grabbed the trolley in the street my calmness would have been better. 

Dorrian

cymruchris said:

Dorrian said:

la531983 said:

Have you discussed your needs with the store at any point prior to this, or have you just been taking it upon yourself to remove their trolley from their property on each occasion without telling them?  If the latter, their reaction is somewhat understandable.

Thank you for your answer. On heavy items I always use a trolley & I have an understanding with the store that I can do. I normally check but the person I check with was busy & when he stopped me I gave him the phone to ring them which he refused.

Apologies I didn't pick up from your original post that there was someone in the store that had given permission, but on the day he was busy. Part of my point still stands though, in that the person that stopped you might have been coming back from break, saw you wandering along with a trolley belonging to the store and did what they thought was right in trying to retrieve it (It is the store's property - and you had gone beyond the normal realm of transferring goods to a vehicle in the car park). You did try to reason by giving the person's name you usually talk with, but it could be that the person standing in front of you wouldn't have the stores number in their head, and depending on the size of the store and number of staff may not have even heard of the person you were referring to, and so would be focused on ensuring they got their trolley back. Are there alternative options to get your stuff home without using the store trolley?

Yes I could drive there but I do not as it is situated on a Public Bridleway & that is my choice,  it was his manager so he would know them.

ArbitraryRandom

Dorrian said:

cymruchris said:

The trolley does belong to the shop, and they're not cheap - so you wandering off, although with very good intentions, might get alarm bells ringing if someone saw you leave the car park with it. Over the years, how many shopping trolleys have you seen dumped in rivers and the like? I know that you had every good intention to get the trolley back asap, but they don't really know that that was your plan, and not just dump it at the side of the road. 

It may be you've done it a dozen times before, and it's been fine, but probably nobody noticed. Maybe this time someone coming back from break might have seen you wheeling it through the streets and wanted the company property back. As has been said, it might be worth getting to know someone in the store, outline your intentions and hopefully they'll say that as long as you get the trolley back as soon as you've unloaded, they'll be ok with it.

I always take them back as I have had ongoing permission for years & still I ask but today the person who I ask was busy hence offering him the phone to ring & check which he would not do. I think if he had identified himself as an employee & just not grabbed the trolley in the street my calmness would have been better. 

I would also suggest a little wheeled trolly would be a good investment for you. Maybe like this so it folds flat to be out of the way between shops (no idea about the quality and not recommending this specific product): https://www.diy.com/departments/waterproof-foldable-garden-trolley-with-4-easy-move-wheels/5034567873208_BQ.prd 

But if you don't want to do that then perhaps you could ask the person you normally check with to write a little note (maybe they have headed memo slips in the office) that you can keep in your wallet with their details at the store and that you have permission to take the trolly to (your address) to unload your shopping? Then you can show it to someone if they stop you in the future. 

eskbanker

(Removed by Forum Team)

To be fair, I don't see why OP was asked for the receipt at all - it was clearly a heated exchange but it seems more reasonable for the employee to assume that OP had nicked the trolley than to assume that there was any question about the purchases within it.  It would have to be a pretty brazen shoplifter to leave a store with a fully laden trolley of unpaid goods!

cymruchris

eskbanker said:

(Removed by Forum Team)

It would have to be a pretty brazen shoplifter to leave a store with a fully laden trolley of unpaid goods!

It's surprisingly common in recent times. Many of the big supermarkets experience it daily in a large number of branches...

photome

eskbanker said:

(Removed by Forum Team)

To be fair, I don't see why OP was asked for the receipt at all - it was clearly a heated exchange but it seems more reasonable for the employee to assume that OP had nicked the trolley than to assume that there was any question about the purchases within it.  It would have to be a pretty brazen shoplifter to leave a store with a fully laden trolley of unpaid goods!

I would guess that’s a common occurrence 

Jonboy_1984

Most of the supermarkets round here have induction loops at all exits to their land. These activate a lock on one of the trolley wheels to prevent it leaving their land due to excessive losses.

Prior to that there was a company driving round retrieving van loads of trolleys a day at something like £50 per trolley anywhere from randomly on a street to dumped in streams (my favourite finds when out walking was five in a copse with ploughed fields for half a mile all around, or the one perched on top of a zebra crossing yellow flashing beacon).

Our local Aldi also made an appeal for returns after losing 500 baskets in the course of two years, and now security tag them so they cannot leave the store.

eskbanker

cymruchris said:

eskbanker said:

It would have to be a pretty brazen shoplifter to leave a store with a fully laden trolley of unpaid goods!

It's surprisingly common in recent times. Many of the big supermarkets experience it daily in a large number of branches...

photome said:

I would guess that’s a common occurrence 

Fair enough, but my main point still stands, i.e. it would be self-evident to the employee that the trolley had been removed from the premises so it's not unreasonable to challenge OP on that, but on what grounds would the employee have had reasonable suspicion under which to demand proof of purchase for the shopping itself?

baser999

ArbitraryRandom said:

Dorrian said:

cymruchris said:

The trolley does belong to the shop, and they're not cheap - so you wandering off, although with very good intentions, might get alarm bells ringing if someone saw you leave the car park with it. Over the years, how many shopping trolleys have you seen dumped in rivers and the like? I know that you had every good intention to get the trolley back asap, but they don't really know that that was your plan, and not just dump it at the side of the road. 

It may be you've done it a dozen times before, and it's been fine, but probably nobody noticed. Maybe this time someone coming back from break might have seen you wheeling it through the streets and wanted the company property back. As has been said, it might be worth getting to know someone in the store, outline your intentions and hopefully they'll say that as long as you get the trolley back as soon as you've unloaded, they'll be ok with 

I would also suggest a little wheeled trolly would be a good investment for you. Maybe like this so it folds flat to be out of the way between shops (no idea about the quality and not recommending this specific product): https://www.diy.com/departments/waterproof-foldable-garden-trolley-with-4-easy-move-wheels/5034567873208_BQ.prd 

But don’t use their trolley to get it home 😏