Ugh! Cart hard to push

[wolfie]

Stopped at a nearby shopping mall, and as I was on my way in I noticed a woman pushing a cart of groceries to her car. Suddenly the cart stopped moving.

She hadn't noticed that there were lines cut into the blacktop (or a black-on-yellow sign on the same post as a stop sign) - she was leaving the grocery store's area of the parking lot and going to the part meant for an auto parts store. The "lock one of the front wheels to keep someone from taking the cart" system worked as advertised.

[Dreamstalker]

A TJ Maxx store nearby has locking carts that work. Rather than lines in the parking lot, there's some sort of sensor that prevents them from even leaving the store (possibly tied to the antitheft gates, as the wheels lock if you even try to go through).

One day mom and I found one of the carts halfway across the parking lot. I decide to try to haul it back to the store. Don't ask how, but I did get it back in. The manager was quite puzzled how it wound up out there in the first place.