A little while ago I walked out of a store just in time to see a shopping cart roll out into the street and get hit by an SUV at around 40-50 mph. Luckily there was no accident, but the owner just got an early Christmas present from someone who was too lazy to take their cart back.

What's up with people like this?

Some think it's just too much trouble to take their carts to the cart corral. I don't get it either.

I live three long blocks from the market in a big complex and carts come here and end up in corner of parking. The market comes over and picks them up seems like once a month. Lots of carts. I just cannot imagine the nerve and sense of entitlement for $30 worth of groceries. Of course I normally have a car. I have been seeing this bad behavior forever, well over thirty years. I like the carts that lock up and spill all over.

Cops must crack down on homeless here in Napa using carts. Nothing like San Jose.

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Da Good Life

that's one of the reason the Aldi model works so well for that chain. you need a quarter to free a cart from the corral and if you want your quarter back, you return the cart when you're done. i NEVER see stray carts in their parking lots.

Aren't they called trolleys in England? British people are funny.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2007 10:00PM by blusubaru.

I chased down a cart two days ago that someone failed to secure - got to it just before it slammed into a car coming down the lot.

Or the people who walk away from their cart when they leave the register so you have to move their cart and yours when you leave. The new thing I see is to just leave the cart behind the car next to theirs when they leave. I once came out to see this happen to my car and I just moved it behind their car and watched as they backed into it. As they got out of their car to move it, I backed out and waved.

Good work slbett. Parking lot vigilantism!

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graylocks
that's one of the reason the Aldi model works so well for that chain. you need a quarter to free a cart from the corral and if you want your quarter back, you return the cart when you're done. i NEVER see stray carts in their parking lots.

Yeah, when I was in Italy, supermarkets did the same thing only it was with a 500 Lira coin. It works perfect.

yeap, the ALDI model works great. Also ALDI stores usually close at 8 PM, no midnight shopping. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but people tend to be more responsible during the day and probably a little more negligent at night. Some people would normally return the shopping cart to the proper place during the day but may fail to do so at 1 AM.

When I visit Germany on business trips, I find it frustrating that you cannot get any shopping done after 8 PM or on Sundays. It seems ALDI used the same model here in the US. Stores are closed on Sundays or after 8 PM M-S.

the Aldis in GA are now open on Sundays until 6pm.

Since when is that? in CT they were closed last year. here in NJ I don't have one close enough, so I don't shop there any more.

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space-time
Since when is that? in CT they were closed last year. here in NJ I don't have one close enough, so I don't shop there any more.

the Sunday thing started sometime this fall.

Uh oh! Old biddy thread.

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"In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion." (1987) -- Carl Sagan

At my local supermarket, every other aisle in the parking lot has stray carts, because the corrals are located in every other aisle. And there they're doubled up. So if you park in an odd numbered aisle, there's no corral; park in an even number, and there are two, right across from each other. And during the day, it's unlikely you could just cut across the parking lot, so you really have to go out of your way to return the bloody thing if you parked in the wrong aisle.

Me, I make a point of parking where the corral is. But that's also because I have a kid, so I want to park as close to a corral as possible. Unfortunately, that's not always possible and I have to carry him.

So if I see a mom with two or more kids take a cart to an empty parking spot, hook the wheels up in the planter so it won't roll away? And the corral's not nearby? I've got no problem with that. But the other 99% of shoppers have no excuse.

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freeradical
A little while ago I walked out of a store just in time to see a shopping cart roll out into the street and get hit by an SUV at around 40-50 mph.

Good work! Was there any damage to the SUV? Is it up on YouTube yet?

Link!!!!

We have a couple of supermarket chains here that don't have cart corrals at all. Maybe they think it's more customer service oriented to send their employees out every hour or so to collect carts, but it's high on the list of reasons why I don't shop there.

The Buggy return system Aldi's has is great, I don't see why others don't follow. You can
usually pass off the buggy to someone else just getting there and exchange quarters. Look
at the labor savings in not having employees rounding up buggys all day. The Aldi Food
stores here in NC have been open on Sunday for more than a year.

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Grateful11

as much as i like the Aldi model, i can see a potential for problems at larger stores like walmart. i can imagine shoppers, probably predominantly women, being intimidated in some manner by teen boys anxious to 'help' them by returning their cart. after all, given the volume of traffic at some stores, those quarters could add up. sure, the parking lot would be clean of carts and it's only a quarter but the atmosphere would be markedly different.

this actually used to happen at airports with those luggage carts until the carts went to a credit card purchase and no longer returned an actual quarter. apparently homeless individuals would stalk people taking a luggage cart out to their car. it's a bit unnerving.

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freeradical

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graylocks
that's one of the reason the Aldi model works so well for that chain. you need a quarter to free a cart from the corral and if you want your quarter back, you return the cart when you're done. i NEVER see stray carts in their parking lots.

Yeah, when I was in Italy, supermarkets did the same thing only it was with a 500 Lira coin. It works perfect.

We lived in the Netherlands (the Hague) from 1996 through 1998. The Konmar supermarket chain had the coin arrangement for carts, but I don't recall if the other chain, Albert Hijn, did or not. Apartments there were small with very little storage and refrigerators were barely larger than the small dorm kind we have here, requiring frequent shopping. When we first arrived both chains closed at 5 PM, which made it a bit difficult for working folks to buy groceries. After a while both stayed open until 8 PM. However most markets ran out of basics such as bread, milk and meat early in the afternoon so it didn't matter how late they stayed open.