It took me ages to get up to Sainsbury’s this morning, to do my weekly shop, as the current shortage of lorry drivers that is causing many petrol stations to run out of fuel, meant that the supermarket petrol station was the only one in the area that had any for sale. Consequently, there were huge queues there, up to ten o’clock last night and the same again at seven-thirty this morning. Queues that ran down the road in both directions.  I didn’t want any fuel – I have a quarter of a tank, which will probably last me a few weeks – but I did need to get food, so I had no choice but to sit in the queue.

On a positive note, I think many people had looked at the queue and just decided not to bother, so when I did get in there, the car park – and of course, the store itself – was more than half empty.

I picked a trolley from outside and rattled across the car park into the store. Annoyingly, now that I was on a smooth floor, I realised that the trolley had a dodgy wheel that went Rattle Rattle Clunk, Rattle Rattle Clunk… I couldn’t be arsed to go back out and swap it for another, so decided to put up with it.

After less than two minutes, I decided that I couldn’t put up with it.

As I headed back to the entrance though, I espyed a trolley just sitting alone in an aisle: no-one with it. It was full of plastic hangers and bits of cardboard and was obviously being used by a member of staff who was tidying the aisle.  As there was no-one there though, I hatched a plan to swap them over.

Now, both trolleys had one of them locks that you put a coin into to release it.  I never had a coin in mine, but rather a handy token that I carry on my keyring. I didn’t want to lose the token, so I pushed the two trolleys at right angles each other so the bit of chain on one would reach the lock on the other and release the coin or token. I plugged my chain into the lock of the spare trolley (it just about reached). To my horror, when the coin tray popped out, there was nothing in it.  And I had no change in my pockets.  I now had two trolleys locked together and no way of separating them!

And then the Sainsbury’s lady came over and grabbed her trolley, taking mine with it. “Oh dear”, she laughed, “What’s happened here. Oh dear, oh dear.”

I pleaded stupidity.

“Oh. What can we do? We need a coin. We’re not allowed to carry any money. Do you have any? “I shook my head.  She asked a passing customer if they had a pound coin we could borrow and the customer immediately started going through her purse and offered up a shiny coin.  I explained that the customer wouldn’t get her pound back as it would be stuck in the trolley lock, at which point she declined her offer.

“Oh dear, oh dear” said the member of staff. She was a little bit ditzy, and was now getting concerned. I told her not to worry and to wait whilst I went and got some change.

Eventually, I  managed to release the trolleys from each other, but it cost me a quid.

I decided to just put up with the rattle rattle clunk.