A shopper is going viral after sharing a clever trick for getting a store’s shopping cart—no loose change required.
TikTok user Tenille (@prettybullyyog) posted a video from outside a supermarket chain, showing off what she says is a simple “hack” to score a grocery cart without having to drop a quarter.
For the unfamiliar, some stores requires shoppers to insert a quarter into a locking cart system to use a cart—a cost-saving measure the chain says helps keep prices low by minimizing the need for staff to wrangle stray carts. One such store, for example, is Aldi.
“Grocery cart hack,” Tenille wrote in the text overlay of her post. As of Sunday, her video had already racked up over 343,500 views, with commenters chiming in about whether the hack is genius—or just old news.
What’s the hack?
According to Tenille, shoppers who find themselves without a quarter can still snag a cart at grocery stores that require them—if they happen to have a tin of corned beef on hand.
For anyone confused by that sentence, don’t worry—she explained.
“Someone told me you can use the key from the corned beef tin to unlock grocery carts when you don’t have a coin,” she said in the video.
It’s unclear where Tenille bought her corned beef, but she brought viewers along as she put the hack to the test—and sure enough, it worked. The little metal key slid right into the coin slot and released the cart, no quarter needed.
“Unlimited free carts,” she declared with a grin before paying it forward and freeing up a second cart for the next customer.
How does this work at Aldi?
Tenille isn’t the first content creator to point out that the key from a tin of corned beef can double as a trolley key.
In March 2022, one TikTok user tested this trick and discovered that the little metal key could unlock shopping carts at both Aldi and Woolies, an Australian supermarket chain.
It’s unclear who exactly first brought this grocery store revelation to the internet, but the hack works because the key fits snugly into the slot of the cart lock, allowing customers to release a cart without dropping in a coin.
Corned beef tins are traditionally rectangular and tapered, with a built-in key used to roll back one end of the can so the contents can slide out in one solid block. That key just happens to be the right size and shape to mimic the coin usually required to unlock a shopping cart.
Shoppers have discovered they can unlock grocery carts using any similar small, flat piece of metal—not just corned beef can keys.
@prettybullyyog Grocery cart hack
♬ original sound – prettybully TENILLE
Viewers are amazed by the hack—but shocked that customers pay for carts
In the comments section of Tenille’s video, several users quipped that her hack would have more and more customers running to Aldi—both to test the theory and to stock up on a can or two of tinned corned beef.
“But who eats corned beef?” one woman questioned.
Another, meanwhile, predicted that corned beef sales would skyrocket after Tenille’s video, using a chart increasing emoji to prove their point.
“I can see lots of cans of corned beef missing [their] keys now,” a third user joked.
“Watch ppl start taking the key off the cans in the store,” a fourth commenter said.
Others, however—particularly international viewers—were baffled by the concept altogether, questioning why some Americans had to pay for grocery carts in the first place.
“In America, they make you pay for carts?” one woman questioned.
“The fact that you have to pay to use a cart is wrong,” another added.
“I’m saying this again, America is so 3rd world,” a third user said.
And some chimed in to reveal that other household trinkets—besides tinned corned beef keys—can also unlock grocery carts.
“I just use my house key,” one commenter wrote.
“You can also use your actual house key so you don’t even need to add anything to your key ring,” a second one echoed.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Tenille via TikTok comment and to Aldi through email.
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