• $1 coins from the current coins series will also remain useable

Singapore’s largest supermarket chain, NTUC FairPrice, announced today that customers can use the new 50-cent coins when it is in circulation to loan its trolleys from all FairPrice outlets and that there is no change to the trolley mechanism. This announcement was made in view of the impeding introduction of Singapore Third Series coins by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

NTUC FairPrice is the first supermarket chain to introduce the $1 coin trolley mechanism in 1994 and this mechanism is still widely used today. The rationale behind the implementation of this mechanism was to encourage customers to return the trolleys after use. As the new Third Series 50-cent coins are of the same dimensions as the current Second Series $1 coins, FairPrice decided there was no need to change the existing mechanism on its fleet of close to 8,000 trolleys.

Mr Jonas Kor, Director Communications, NTUC FairPrice said, “The trolleys loaned out by FairPrice are provided for the convenience of customers and hence we want to make this transition phase as convenient as possible too. We take this opportunity to encourage customers to exercise consideration and return trolleys after use to allow other customers the same convenience of using the trolleys too.”