An honesty box, also known as an honour box, is a method of charging for a service such as admission or car parking, or for a product such as home-grown produce and flowers, which relies upon each visitor paying at a box using the

honor system An honor system, trust system or honesty system is a way of running a variety of endeavors based on trust, honor, and honesty. The honor system is also a system granting freedom from customary surveillance (as to students or prisoners) with ...

. Tickets are not issued and such sites are usually unattended. When used in camping sites and other

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

settings, they are sometimes referred to as an iron ranger as there is often an iron cash box instead of an actual

park ranger A ranger, park ranger, park warden, field ranger, or forest ranger is a person entrusted with protecting and preserving parklands and Protected area, protected areas – private, national, state, provincial, or local parks. Their duties include ( ...

. Some stores also use them for selling newspapers to avoid lines at a

cash register A cash register, sometimes called a till or automated money handling system, is a mechanical or electronic device for registering and calculating transactions at a point of sale. It is usually attached to a Cash register#Cash drawer, drawer fo ...

. Such boxes are typically used in

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

areas where the low number of customers and other visitors, along with the low quantity or value of the products on offer, means that an attendant would not bring a positive return on investment. Many are also domestically run operations where attendance is not feasible. The Cake Fridge, an honesty box cake fridge in Bixter, Shetland, Scotland, features in the TV adaptation of Anne Cleeves novels. The use of honesty boxes saw a resurgence during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, because purchases can be made without contact.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Honesty Box Honour Payment systems Rural culture Retail formats

See also

References