Even on non-busy days, it's often hard to get a small trolley rather than one large enough to carry three sacks of coal, and these were just the right size. I took the first one.
It was brand new. It was the smoothest, most responsive shopping trolley I've ever used. It had never seen rain, frost or people who habitually steer into bricks.
Looking at the handle, I saw it was a hire trolley:
There must be some company that keeps a warehouse full of perfect shopping trolleys all year round, to release them at the one or two times of year when every single supermarket doesn't have enough shopping trolleys.
If ever I find myself in possession of a large warehouse and ten thousand shopping trolleys straight off the production line, that's a business I'd like to get into. They must be able to charge a fortune.