MILTON, Pa. — Editor's note: The above video is from July 19, 2023.
Weis Markets customers will no longer need to carry change with them as they head to the grocery store.
Back in July, the grocery store chain introduced a shopping cart system test requiring shoppers to dispense a quarter into newly installed devices on the carts in order to use them. Shoppers would then get their quarters back once they returned the cart.
The test included locations across Pennsylvania, including four locations in Williamsport, Milton, Bloomsburg, and Mount Pocono.
Newswatch 16 spoke with shoppers at a Weis Markets location in Milton at the start of the trial who had mixed opinions on the system.
"Any place that has shopping carts, people leave them in the parking lot, and you have to worry about hitting them or it hitting your car, and that gets expensive," said Nancy Parker of Milton.
"It is just a job cutter. Other stores are doing it. I think Aldi started it, and now they are doing it in Milton," said Jay Oden.
Dennis Curtin, Director of Public Relations for Weis Markets, explained the end of the shopping cart test, saying, "This was a brief test in a few of our stores, that test has ended, and we’re still exploring, but not planning to implement it chain-wide anytime soon."
Weis Markets' test model was similar to ALDI's, which has had a quarter-based system for decades, saying on its website, "This 25-cent deposit ultimately saves our customers money because we don’t have to hire extra staff to collect grocery carts."