ABU DHABI Every weekend Bangladeshi expat Ahmad spends hours at Marina Mall’s parking lot eyeing abandoned shopping trolleys. Every trolley he collects and puts back in a designated bay earns him a dirham.
“In six to seven hours, I can make up to Dh40,” said Ahmad, who works as a gardener for a private company in Abu Dhabi.
Shoppers have to insert a one dirham coin in a slot to unlock a trolley. To get the coin back they have to put the trolley back in its bay. The coin system was introduced a few years ago to discourage shoppers from abandoning or walking away with the trolleys.
Every penny counts
But not all shoppers retrieve the coin. And that gives people like Ahmad opportunity to make a few bucks. “This is not lot of money. But it will help me at least buy my groceries for the weekend,” said Ahmad.
An Indian cafeteria worker said there are days when he makes up to Dh50. “We help shoppers put their grocery bags into the car and sometimes they tip us,” he said.
Pakistani cleaner Raza said he has been collecting trolleys from outside Marina Mall to supplement his income. “I earn Dh1,400 but it’s not enough to support my family back home,” he said.
The dirham collectors are aware they can be arrested or fined if caught but they are willing to take the risk.
“I know what we are doing is illegal, but we are helping not just shoppers but also the hypermarkets by collecting their abandoned trolleys,” said Raza.
Scores of trolleys go missing from malls every month because of irresponsible shoppers who dump the carts on pavements and below building staircases.
Security officers at hypermarkets said before the coin system was introduced the problem was even worse and they had to despatch a team to round up abandoned trolleys.
Hardest hit
Malls located near residential areas suffer the most with some losing nearly 25 per cent of their trolley fleet every few months.
Shopping trolleys don’t come cheap and could cost anywhere between Dh500 and Dh1,000 apiece.
A hypermarket manager said he doesn’t approve of the practise of men making money from trolley collection but agreed it spared them the trouble of retrieving the carts as their loss cuts heavily into into business. However, not all shoppers are pleased by the unsolicited assistance offered by the dirham collectors. “I don’t feel comfortable when someone follows me to the car and offers to help with the shopping bags. If I need help, I will ask,” said Jordanian expat Sawsan Ayoub.
Indian expat Sreedharan Nair said some men lay claim to the one dirham as though it is their right. “I don’t encourage them. They are breaking the law,” he said.
YOUSPEAK: Are coin-locks on supermarket trolleys a bad idea?
