I guess that's why we have €1 and €2 coins (1 EUR ≈ 1.18 USD).

Well that, and Germans need the 1 Euro coin to unlock their shopping trolley.

(Or at least they used to; when I visited back recently many supermarkets had free trolleys! Can you imagine my shock?)

A US quarter will work just fine in those trolleys that take 1/2 euro coins. I hang onto one for just that purpose because I won't accidentally spend it.

Unlocking trolleys with a coin is normal in Britain too. I'd never considered that this might be unusual.

Is this not a thing in other countries? How do they get people to return their trolleys to the bays?

> How do they get people to return their trolleys to the bays?

There is no external force compelling US shoppers to do so. This has led to the (in)famous "shopping cart theory" [0], first posited like this:

The shopping cart is the ultimate litmus test as to whether a person is capable of self-governing.

To return the shopping cart is an easy, convenient task and one which we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do. To return the shopping cart is objectively right. There are no situations other than dire emergencies in which a person is not able to return their cart. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping cart. Therefore the shopping cart presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it. No one will punish you for not returning the shopping cart, no one will fine you or kill you for not returning the shopping cart, you gain nothing by returning the shopping cart. You must return the shopping cart out of the goodness of your own heart. You must return the shopping cart because it is the right thing to do. Because it is correct.

A person who is unable to do this is no better than an animal, an absolute savage who can only be made to do what is right by threatening them with the law and the force that stands behind it.

The shopping cart is what determines whether a person is a good or bad member of society.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopping_cart_theory

It's funny that Germany (and other countries) solved what's a social problem in the US with a simple piece of technology.

It's not a thing in most US cities. Since there's no incentive for individual people to return their trolleys it ends up being someone's job to collect the carts.

It's not a thing in the US, I think.

And did Britain have this before the invasion of Aldi and Lidl?

Yeah, we've had it for at least 30 years, probably longer