Anhonesty box, also known as anhonour box,[1] is a method of charging for a service such as admission to a facility or car parking, or for a product such as home-grown produce, baked goods and flowers, which relies upon each visitor paying at a box using thehonor system.[2] For services or admission, tickets are not issued and such sites are usually unattended.
When used incamping sites and otherpark settings, they are sometimes referred to as aniron ranger as there is often an iron cash box instead of an actualpark ranger.[3] Some stores also use them for selling newspapers to avoid lines at acash register.[4]
Such boxes are typically used inrural 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 positivereturn on investment.[4] Many are also domestically run operations where attendance is not feasible.
The Cake Fridge, an honesty box cake fridge inBixter, Shetland, Scotland,[5] features in the TV adaptation ofAnne Cleeves novels.[6]
The use of honesty boxes saw a resurgence during theCOVID-19 pandemic, because purchases can be made without contact.[7][8][9]