Pillage first, burn later

[wolfie]

Stopped at the local WalMart last night, and the lot had been plowed after a recent snowfall. What made things interesting is that the big piles of snow had numerous shopping carts in them, resting in all attitudes and sticking out in all directions. It looked like they had plowed the lot without bothering to collect the carts first.

Isn't WalMart supposed to be trying to minimize costs? How much money did they lose by destroying all those carts, and having to replace them?

[bainsidhe]

I've seen scooters stuck in snowdrifts as well, tilting horribly and frozen in place. The plows at WalMart scare me. They go barreling through the lot with little regard to what's in their way. Once a plow barely missed me by a foot, the damn thing didn't even slow down. Good thing I look before venturing out into the the parking lot.

[TheSHAD0W]

How much money did they lose by destroying all those carts, and having to replace them?

It's several hundred dollars per cart for new ones. Ouch.

[MoonCat]

It's several hundred dollars per cart for new ones. Ouch

Pssh. For Wal-Mart? Pocket change.

BTW, almost forgot to add, I love this threat title!

[Racket_Man]

Stopped at the local WalMart last night, and the lot had been plowed after a recent snowfall. What made things interesting is that the big piles of snow had numerous shopping carts in them, resting in all attitudes and sticking out in all directions. It looked like they had plowed the lot without bothering to collect the carts first.

Isn't WalMart supposed to be trying to minimize costs? How much money did they lose by destroying all those carts, and having to replace them?

you should snap a pic of that and send it into Retail Hell Underground

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

If the store isn't going to have anybody clear the lot of carts before the plows come, this is going to happen.

I mean, it isn't the plow drivers' job to return carts inside the store.

[laborcat]

This sounds like WalMart. That they didn't clear the lot first, and that there were sooooo many carts out loose in the lot to begin with. And that they don't really care about the cost. After all, they've saved billions by shirking their employees over the last few decades, what's a few carts?

[Food Lady]

I'd love to see a pic of all those carts. The mental picture have is hilarious.

[candyshopgirl]

Snow plows always scare me, maybe cause they are so wide they almost always run us off the road. The biggest reason is because my sister in law's dad got run over by one and it ripped his arm off. He sued the city and won 10 million dollars, no joke. He deserves it as far as I'm concerned.

[wolfie]

This sounds like WalMart. That they didn't clear the lot first, and that there were sooooo many carts out loose in the lot to begin with. And that they don't really care about the cost. After all, they've saved billions by shirking their employees over the last few decades, what's a few carts?

Based on what others have said, it's a few hundred bucks per ruined cart. Assuming it's only $200, and that the "all-in" cost of a worker is $20/hour (probably an underestimate on the cart cost, and an overestimate on the worker cost), a worker able to retrieve 10 carts per hour would be a net savings.

As for what others posted, I didn't have my camera with me (and it was after dark anyway - wouldn't have been a good photo), and you can probably tell by the title that I was into roleplaying at some point.

[bainsidhe]

Holy crap about the lawsuit story. Someone locally was backed over by a snow plow last week and killed. Poor lady was my age and was walking across a parking lot.

[Food Lady]

I'd love to see a pic of all those carts. The mental picture have is hilarious.

BTW, everyone, I didn't mean to make light of the danger aspect. Snowplows do scare me, even the little ones.

[Mytical]

Not sure about the cost for a cart collector, but if they can only collect 10 an hour..there would be something wrong.

[SuperDan]

Based on what others have said, it's a few hundred bucks per ruined cart. Assuming it's only $200, and that the "all-in" cost of a worker is $20/hour (probably an underestimate on the cart cost, and an overestimate on the worker cost), a worker able to retrieve 10 carts per hour would be a net savings.

Probably a more accurate estimate would be $400 per cart, $9 per hour per employee, and since snow on the ground makes it much harder to push multiple carts at once and impossible to use a device such as the QuicKart 2000, the cart count per employee would be around 50 carts per hour. Given these numbers, the net savings would be $19,991 per man-hour.

[Dreamstalker]

Part of me suspects that the store management will at least try to blame employees for the wrecked carts...