Channel NewsAsia - Thursday, February 11
FairPrice urges customers to return trolleys after
losing 200 a month
SINGAPORE: Return the trolley once you are done shopping — is a
message that has been heard for years. But are shoppers listening?
Apparently not, going by the scale of the problem that supermarket
chain NTUC FairPrice has to grapple with.
Everyday, FairPrice has more than 10 retail assistants going
around to collect trolleys dumped by inconsiderate shoppers. Some
were even left them about two kilometres away.
Yeo Teck Lye, retail assistant, NTUC FairPrice, said: "The
furthest I’ve gone is Bishan Park. Someone complained of an
abandoned trolley there. So I took the bus and wheeled it back by
foot. It took me 25 minutes."
Leaving the trolleys in all the wrong places may be a convenient
habit for some, but it is hard work retrieving them.
It is a problem that will not go away despite measures like the
S$1 coin—deposit system and public awareness campaigns.
FairPrice lost 2,403 trolleys last year — that is S$150,000 in
replacement and repair costs. Two main reasons among shoppers are
laziness and inconvenience.
Ironically, a survey done by the supermarket found that nine out
of ten culprits know they have to return the trolleys.
Seah Kian Peng, managing director, Group Business, NTUC
FairPrice, said: "What we really hope is a change in behaviour. We
want to tell all shoppers who are not doing the right behaviour to
be considerate and think of other shoppers.
"It’s not just one trolley. For one trolley that’s not around,
you inconvenience many other shoppers who, as a result, are unable
to use the trolley when they need it, especially during this
festive season."
In the last Lunar New Year, about 300 trolleys went missing —
100 more than the average 200 a month.
FairPrice said now is the best time to rev up on the awareness.
It is working with the Singapore Kindness Movement to educate
shoppers to reverse this trend. — CNA/vm
