A Simple Question

[RailroadMonster]

What is so hard about pushing a shopping cart back into a stack of other shopping carts? After deciding not to be a lazy prick and leave the cart in the lot somewhere, why would you push it all the way to the stack of carts along the store and then just leave it there, next to the stack? I don't understand. It's not that hard. You push the cart into the stack. That's it. People have such a difficult time in understanding this concept. They seem to know how to stack items in a grocery bag by the "advice" they shout at me, but they just can't seem to do the same with the carts. It's a mystery.

[walking with scissors]

It is a mystery. This is very much like my son dropping his dirty clothes RIGHT NEXT to the laundry basket.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Nothing is hard about it at all. They just leave the carts loose in the parking lot because "the store pays people to retrieve them so why should I bother?"

I got that a couple years ago. I was bringing in carts while a younger lady and her mother were loading up their car with their purchases. The mother started to bring their cart over to the corral when the daughter told her "No mom, just leave that there, the store has people to pick the carts up."

And off they went, leaving the cart loose in the parking lot. I sincerely wish I had a ready to go.

[Nekojin]

I always push my cart to the nearest cart rack, and sometimes one or two nearby carts as well. In the rare case that there aren't any cart racks (Yes, I actually know of a few stores like this - I don't understand the logic in it), I'll push it to the nearest safe location - and by "safe," I mean any location where the cart isn't likely to roll off.

I can somewhat understand people who don't want to walk the entire length of the parking lot when there's only one return rack at the very front of the lot, but some of the people are downright sucky about where they leave their carts, like behind other cars (WTF!).

[angelicafire]

Stores may have employees to bring your carts back in from the cart corral, but they don't pay them to chase them all over the lot. Most of the stores here have signs telling you to put the cart back to keep prices low. Of course, if there is an easy way to save money, like put things back where you got them from, a SC won't do it.

[digilight]

Do you really have to ask why some buttmonkeys won't return their carts to the holding pen. Well from what I've read on here you have a wide range of people who should be relegated to only using safety scissors and circles of paper who dare to enter the world and venture out into the stores. You have people will drop a duece in various places including the middle of the store, the trash can, the urinal, 6 inches away from the toilet. Hell if they can't even be bothered to place their crap where it goes can we honestly expect them to place their cart back where it goes. I know this is a rhetorical question.

I still like the idea of a cartrack that takes a deposit that you get back when you return the cart (like the luggage carts at airports), hell if it cost a quarter to get a cart out and the people with easter grass for brains still couldn't be bothered to do it, I'm sure that the local homeless population would do the job just for the few cents involved. Boom, job gets done, store doesn't have to pay an employee to do it, and someone who needs the money gets it. I see it as a win win situation....and for a extra dollar the homeless guy could harrass the assclown who makes the new cashier cry.

[Becks]

My store doesn't have corrals. There's no where specific to put them, so there's billions of them all over the parking lot. Great fun.

If I didn't burn so easily, I'd ask if I could work carts. LOTS of exercise.

[Purple Monkey Dishwasher]

At the local grocery store near my work, I always leave the carts just anywhere. And I'll tell you why.

The store - a full-sized, very large grocery store - has a policy of having their baggers try to help you out to your car. One can decline the help, of course, but they try. So, in theory, there is a bagger with the cart to bring it back into the store. Therefore, there are only TWO small cart corrals for a parking lot that must have a capacity of at least 250 cars (an estimate).

But I HATE having a bagger help me out. I don't want to make chit-chat on my walk to the car. I simply DESPISE the store's policy. If I am within a reasonable distance from the cart corral, I will use it, but I'll be dipped in shit if I'm gonna brimg the cart back from 45 spaces away, especially on a summer day when it's 108 degrees. Yes, I feel sorry for the person who collects the carts, and I am sorry. I am forced to be sucky. All the Save-Mart would have to do would be to give up about a half-dozen parking spots, and all would be well!

Joe

[Emrld]

I saw the mention of having to put in a deposit for the use of the cart just like at the airport . . . it is that way in Garbsen, Germany. You put the coin in the slot on the cart and the wheels work . . . .you return the cart to the designated "tent" and the cart returns your coin to you.

I try to be good about getting my cart back out of the way . . .I will even bring carts in with me . . .have caught people as they are finished unloading and most likely going to leave the cart where it was and say something to them along the lines of oh, I am headed into the store, let me go ahead and take the cart from you instead of you have to walk over and put it with the others.

[protege]

Some places even have carts that lock the wheels if you attempt to take them off the property. There's a Target store here that has them. They got tired of the idiots taking the carts out, and walking from store to store with them. When done, the carts where then usually dumped by the bus stop

[rerant]

When I can see that customers are about to leave their cart behind I pull it up right beside them (we have open registers so I'm not behind a counter) and as they about to leave say loudly, "The carts go back by the first two registers on your way out." That or I say, "the carts don't stay at our lanes, would you mind bringing it back to where you got it?" in the most sickly sweet tone I can muster.
I LOATHE people who leave their carts behind and don't let anyone get away with it.

[pacman]

Here in grocery stores (at least some of them) there are chains and locks on the carts. You can unlock the cart from the other carts with a coin, and the coin returns to you as you lock it back to another cart. Nobody wants to waste an euro for being able to leave the cart anyway they want (especially when it's free then to anyone else) so they return the cart where there are other carts - and that's the return point where there are other carts as well. If it happens to be empty, there's a bit of chain and a lock bolted on the wall so you get your dime back.

[RichS]

Some places even have carts that lock the wheels if you attempt to take them off the property.

I wonder if our local mall is going to do the same thing - you see the Target carts as far as the other end of the mall at Sears, and vice-versa.

Reminds me of a couple of years ago, when my wife stopped off at the grocery store to get a few things. I was bored, so I counted how many people put their cart in the corral.

Out of 12 carts, 2 made it to the corral.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

There's an Aldi on the opposite end of the strip mall from my store. Sometimes their carts get dumped in our corrals. When that happens I return it and pocket and pocket the quarter deposited to use that cart.

I can make a dollar or more doing that some days.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Some places even have carts that lock the wheels if you attempt to take them off the property.

Never seen that...how do they work, exactly?

We had one store in my area that had the carts with the coin slot and you have to lock them back together to get your quarter back...they didn't last all that long, as I recall...

Stores may have employees to bring your carts back in from the cart corral, but they don't pay them to chase them all over the lot.

My thoughts exactly...

Most of the stores here have signs telling you to put the cart back to keep prices low. Of course, if there is an easy way to save money, like put things back where you got them from, a SC won't do it.

But it doesn't save them money RIGHT NOW, and if prices don't go up in the somewhat-distant future, they won't be able to bitch about it then...