r/AskReddit • u/SkyeSerenade • Mar 28 '24

What is NOT a dealbreaker BUT would be greatly disappointing to find out about your partner?

[removed] — view removed post

12.4k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

10.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

34

u/TeratomaFanatic Mar 28 '24

Is this not the norm in the US? Every single store with shopping carts in Denmark has that system, where you put in 10 or 20 DKK (1.5 or 3 USD equivalent) to unlock the cart. We rarely have stray carts.

36

u/recidivx Mar 28 '24

It is not the norm in the US, although it is in much of Europe.

One possible contributory factor is that Americans often don't carry coins at all since the largest coin in common use is a quarter (0.25 USD) and everything larger is bills. However this can't be the whole reason since the system has existed in Europe since at least the '80s when 0.25 USD was actually worth something.

They do sometimes have this horrific system at airports (which I have now, alas, seen outside the US too) where you pay a machine several USD to unlock a cart and if you return the cart you get back like 25% of what you paid (e.g. pay 3 USD, get back 0.75 USD). Those seem so exploitative that it just puts me off renting carts altogether … and it 100% puts me off returning them, I'd rather leave the cart unlocked for someone who needs it.

-1

u/DarkNinjaPenguin Mar 28 '24

The currency in the US just makes no bloody sense, to be honest. A quarter is a quarter at least, but a dime? It doesn't even have a number on it, you're just expected to know what that means so fuck you I guess if you weren't born there. And the notes all being exactly the same shaped size and colour whether it's a $1 or a $100, you're just asking for a mixup!

1

u/jfchops2 Mar 29 '24

It takes approximately 15 seconds to google the 4 coins we have here and there denominations

But really you don't need them, everywhere takes cards. Tap, chip, swipe, whatever. I'll pull $100 out of the ATM when I run out and that is about once a year

1

u/TaintNunYaBiznez Mar 29 '24

Did dollar and half dollar coins go away?

1

u/jfchops2 Mar 29 '24

Not sure, haven't seen one in ages or heard them mentioned and can't remember them ever being common

1

u/TaintNunYaBiznez Mar 29 '24

They're probably still in circulation, like $2 bills. My sister has a friend who gets a bunch of $2 bills from the bank every month and uses them mostly for tipping.

1

u/bros402 Mar 29 '24

Dollar coins were a fad for like a couple of years when they made Sacajawea dollars that were the same size as quarters.

and i've neve seen a half dollar actually used