The trolley theory

A pound? Are you off your trolley?

Or: a Lidl philosophical conundrum.

A thought experiment:

Scene one:

You're at the supermarket. Just unloaded the shopping into the back of the car. The bloke in the next door parking bay is doing the same thing.

“I say” he says “here's a quid, take my trolley over there and stow it away with the others. There's a good chap.”

You'll probably put on bit of a Paul Merton voice before responding:

“I'm not your lackey. Shove your quid up our arse.”

So, without a doubt, taking your trolley back for a mere pound is demeaning and definitely not worthwhile.

Scene two:

You unpack our shopping, in the furtherest corner of the car park from the where the trollies are daisychained.

You think about saying “oh, sod it, only a pound”.

But it's your pound. Prepaid to release your trolley from its chains and make it useable.

There's no question.

You replace the trolley, and retrieve the pound.

So, without a doubt, taking your trolley back, even though there's only a pound deposit, is definitely worthwhile.

That is the Lidl Trolley Paradox, or the Aldi Anomaly.

The perfect timing trolley swap

There is also the case where, just as you empty your trolley, someone parks you, flips you a quid, and takes over.

This does not happen often enough, and there are too any number of near misses.

Posh nosh

Naturally, at places like Waitrose, Marks and Spencer, and suchlike, the customers are beyond reproach, trolley-wise, and, sadly, the interesting questions never arise.