Local Walmart transitions to coin-operated shopping carts

Residents hoping to use a shopping cart at Walmart will need to remember to bring a loonie with them from now on.

The department store recently switched over to coin-operated shopping carts, which will require shoppers to insert a loonie into the cart in order to use it.

Working like a key system, the loonie will pop back out when the cart is returned to a drop-off station and plugged into another cart.

This isn’t a new system in the Sault as No Frills has had quarter-operated shopping carts for a number of years.

However, Walmart’s move is being met with some criticism on social media.

“One more reason to boycott Walmart,” one woman wrote.

“Who goes around carrying a loonie? I mostly use debit,” another man posted.

But shoppers at No Frills aren’t fazed by the switch.

“Maybe it’s a slight inconvenience, but will it stop me from coming? Absolutely not,” says Kaillie Fagan. “It’s really not that big of a deal. If this is our biggest problem, I’m laughing.”

“People need to bring their carts back. This is just ensuring that they do. If you’re going to complain about it, then shop somewhere else.”

No Frills shopper Helen Williams notes that fewer people may be carrying change, but it’s a habit she feels locals will get accustomed to quickly.

“I don’t really think it matters how much it is because you get it back and it keeps people from leaving their cart out in the middle of the parking lot,” she says. “As long as you remember to carry some change with you going to the grocery store, it’s just something you have to get used to like anything else.”

Since September 2021, the City of Sault Ste. Marie has had a shopping cart by-law in place, which outlines a comprehensive system for the regulation of shopping carts in town.

According to the City’s website, “business owners who provide shopping carts to their customers are required to develop and file a plan with the City’s Director of Public Works and Engineering Services identifying which measures it will take to keep the carts on their property or to retrieve them.”

The by-law also states that businesses can be fined for having shopping carts left on sidewalks, boulevards, and paths around town.

Meanwhile, a Grade 12 student at White Pines is looking to make it easier for shoppers who may forget to bring change with them to the store.

Oliver Beckett, a 17-year-old business owner of Purple Platypus 3D Printing, began creating and selling quarter and loonie slugs for $2 a piece earlier this month.

“We heard about how Walmart would be doing their thing, and we received a couple messages asking to make them,” he explains. “It began as a convenience thing for a couple people and it sort of snowballed from there.”

Beckett prints the coins in batches of 20, and they also include a key chain attachment.

“That way, you’re never going to forget it because it’ll always be with you,” he says.

Operating out of a workshop in his basement, Beckett has sold just over 100 coin slugs in the past couple of weeks.

Beckett’s business is helping him save up for school, where he’s planning to take the Mechatronics program at Sault College in the Fall.