Trolleys banned from self-serve checkout areas in select Coles stores including Fountain Gate

THEY’VE taken away plastic bags, and now supermarket giant Coles is about to ban another important part of your grocery shopping experience.

TROLLEYS are the latest victims in the supermarket banning bonanza.

Select Coles locations around the country, including Melbourne’s Fountain Gate, have put the brakes on shopping trolleys entering self-serve checkout areas.

Customers were told by supermarket employees it was an attempt to stop the millions the stores lose in theft through the area.

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Do you take your trolley through the self serve checkouts at Coles? You won’t be able to at Fountain Gate. Picture: Carla Gottgens

Shoppers have expressed upset at the move that could see parents juggling kids, groceries and a mountain of reusable bags at the checkout.

A Coles spokeswoman would not disclose where else the ban was being trailed but said the move was designed to improve flow and had nothing to do with theft.

“To improve service to customers and ease congestion, in some stores we are accepting baskets only through the assisted check-outs,” a spokeswoman told the Herald Sun.

The trial trolley ban comes on the heels of the plastic bag debacle that left shoppers frustrated and confused.

The supermarket giant insisted it would open extra registers if people asked.

“Team members are available to serve customers with trolleys in the main lane registers,” the spokeswoman said.

“If there is not one vacant the store can open a register to assist customers with their shopping.”

But Craig Norrish, 58, felt frustrated and inconvenienced when he was shopping at Coles Fountain Gate with his 15-month-old grandson in the trolley last week.

He was stopped at the entrance to the self-serve checkout area and told he could not come in.

The assistant directed him to one of the regular check-outs, of which there were only two in action and both had long lines.

“There was a queue a mile long,” the Narre Warren North man said.

“I only had four items. It was ridiculous. I had a baby with me.

“They are making it a nightmare for them when they are trying to check out.”

A new checkout being opened was never offered to him.

Staff members told him they were trying to reduce losses to thieves stealing in the self-service area.

Shopping trolleys outside a Coles supermarket. Picture:AAP/Paul Miller

Mr Norrish was disappointed the public was not being consulted and does not want to see the trial expanded.

“They’ve already been whingeing about the plastic bags and here they are inconveniencing customers even more,” he said.

“There’s been no notice to customers or involvement as to whether customers would accept something like this.

“They would rather inconvenience their customers rather than spend extra money on staff there.”

@tamsinroses