Now that’s a term I’ve just invented but I really think that it’s quite apt as a replacement for “out of the box thinking” and other hackneyed phrases meaning to think a bit differently.

So where does it come from?

Well, you probably know how that upstart Aldi is giving the supermarket giants, Coles and Woolworths, a bit of a thrashing, don’t you? And Aldi tend to do that by looking for innovative ways to save costs and reduce prices. Like only having 5 staff working smarter in a store rather than 33 staff doing lots of little things slowly.

And where does my “trolley thinking” come from?

Well, when you use an Aldi trolley with the coin release, typical of all supermarket trolleys now, there is only one place you can take it back to and get your money back… and that’s right outside the Aldi store.

Compare that to what the big boys do… they have spots all over the car park where you can leave your trolley and then they pay for a contractor to come and collect the trolleys and take them back to the store. An extra added cost Aldi doesn’t have to wear.

Of course, Aldi has to sell stuff that people want to do the extra trolley work for… and obviously they do.

So trolley thinking is out of the box thinking. Oops I’ve used one of those hackneyed phrases!

But my point is simply are you, could you, apply trolley thinking to your business to make your business more efficient and extra profitable?