Where I live, people bring their cart back whether there’s a coin in it or not. But the one thing you can count on is that few people carry coins around anymore. Therefore the locks are more of an inconvenience to everybody than a genuine help for the stores to keep their parking lots tidy.
In fact, the store are totally aware of this: I live way up north, and when it gets really cold, the stores unlock all the carts themselves and keep them loose so people don’t have to take their gloves off and manipulate freezing cold metallic disks, so they can grab a cart and get inside as fast as possible.
Depends on where you live.
Where I live, people bring their cart back whether there’s a coin in it or not. But the one thing you can count on is that few people carry coins around anymore. Therefore the locks are more of an inconvenience to everybody than a genuine help for the stores to keep their parking lots tidy.
In fact, the store are totally aware of this: I live way up north, and when it gets really cold, the stores unlock all the carts themselves and keep them loose so people don’t have to take their gloves off and manipulate freezing cold metallic disks, so they can grab a cart and get inside as fast as possible.