It’s not really boasting when I say I can’t do it.
I think I’ll hang on to my car a little longer if all of these modern things – I can’t imagine you’re all driving Hyundais – get dented by carts in the parking lot.
You need to do some brushing up on basic economic theory. One of the drivers of price is the willingness to supply at a given price. If you remove an element of cost from an item, a provider of supply can price the item lower and still make a profit. Thus, the provider is encouraged to undercut competitors in order to sell more goods. One of the classic examples is Wal Mart, which is the target of unions in large part because of their efforts to reduce their costs by “underpaying” their employees.
The grocery store business has very thin margins, a fact which is causing massive consolidation in the industry. That’s why there are fewer stores; they simply are getting bigger, but fewer of them. And certainly, I don’t mean to imply that self-scan necessarily makes prices lower; the cost of self-scan may be greater than the saved cost of labor. MAY be.
As to the subject of the OP, I just have to say that, here in the Toledo area, loose carts aren’t that much of an issue. I guess people in NW Ohio simply are better about returning them to the corral or the store. I always return mine to one or the other location. And I would refuse to shop at a store that made me deposit any sum of money for my cart. If a store really wants to be sure to get them back, they can do as Nob Hill Foods did in California: ALWAYS have the bagger take the groceries to the car with you.
I’ve yet to see any of the bigger lots here be perfectly flat. I’m wondering if their set up that way so rain water flows toward the middle sewer grate?
In the past my Olds Alero got dented, My Mustang GT got a noticeable ding, my wifes Suzuki XL-7 got a deep scratch, and just last a week a friend of ours got her Dodge Charger scratched to shit, the offending cart stopped at the end of her trunk.
None of these are sissy made vehicles. A cart rolling at a good clip WILL cause damage to a vehicle. And some of us don’t considered getting a half-fist sized dent in our car a normal part of owning said car!
I usually park a good far away from the store entrance door and use the longer walk as exercise. Usually there are few, if any cars parked where I park. I’ve still had my car hit! That’s how far a cart will roll!
If every store had to do this, say per local ordinance, I guess you’d go hungry.
That’s fine with me, as long as they do it EVERY goddamn time. The stores around here have “cart boys” who are supposed to be out getting carts. Problem is I’ve seen them called on to do other tasks and the carts don’t get collected.
How many would there have been had the self-scanning technology not been introduced? More, or less? And how do you know?
Wow! Point taken. I guess I’ve just been lucky, or I don’t notice unnoticeable stuff. Perhaps it’s because I use the same tack as you, although for different reasons. I just park in the first spot I see, because I’m not a lazy schmoe that has to block the aisle while waiting for that one good spot. That, and it’s faster than being a lazy schmoe. Even so, that “first spot” is often pretty close to the store.
Oh, ick, no no no! Sorry, but I don’t *want *help out to my car. It’s offered here as a matter of course, and I break out in a sweat at the mere mention. First, I don’t want to tip, or wonder if I should tip, or feel guilty for not tipping. Second, I want control over where things go - I’ll take a few minutes to unpack their shitty packing job (because they won’t let me pack my own bags) and consolidate the groceries into fewer bags, which are easier to bring inside when I get home. While I’m at it, all the cold stuff goes into my insulated bag, and the pantry stuff goes into a few bags, and the cabinet stuff goes into other bags. No store employee wants to stand there for 10 minutes while I try an explain why the cereal and the tuna fish should go in that bag and the soup and crackers should go into that other bag. It’s my own little neurosis, and no minimum wage slave should have to deal with it.
Finally, the state of my car is not a source of pride for me. I don’t care to have total strangers opening my trunk and dealing with the stroller, the jugs of water and antifreeze, the sippy cups and diapers (unused), the hot dog forks and air pump and other detritus that accumulates when one is both a car camper and a parent. It works well for me, but that doesn’t mean I’m comfortable with other people being a part of that.
The Heinen’s by my in-laws has a mandatory system where you leave your cart inside and bring your car to the door, where the teenager in an apron carefully tosses your bags into your truck, ensuring that the eggs will be under the cans every time. It’s enough to make me go to the Giant Eagle.
Not only can it roll that far, but when it reaches your baby, it’s had plenty of time to ramp of to full speed.
I always park next to the cart corrals, to save that walk. I don’t mind walking to the store or out with my groceries–those are both important to me; but ditching the cart? Pain in the ass minute added that only keeps me from leaving even though I’m done shopping. Not a big deal, but once my groceries are in my car, I feel better the sooner I’m out of there.
Good grief, now you want to make it the law!? The annoyance w/ carts left in the parking lot only affects a small percentage of people and it’s very minor in the grand scope of life’s annoyances. First you propose a system that will assure that everyone is annoyed and now you want to put the force of law behind it. Better you learn some tolerance and control your own emotions. I’m coping just fine w/o the interference of controlling busybodies.
I also don’t need to increase my shopping costs by requiring more employees to do something I’m perfectly capable of doing for myself.
I know that’s part of it, but grading costs money. It’s easier to work out the drainage to take advantage of the natural slope than it is to grade the land for the lot.
Robin
Um, well, at Nob Hill Foods:
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They ALWAYS did it, so you didn’t tip, unless they did something out of the ordinary. No pressure to tip; that’s the point of having all the carts taken out to the car that way.
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They didn’t load for you unless you asked; if you preferred, they simply either helped you load, or waited for you to load.
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It keeps you from having to walk the cart anywhere, and it makes the number of carts THEY have to have on hand smaller, since the parking lot doesn’t become the repository for them. I found that the experience was quite pleasant; as a rule, the baggers who walked you out were selected to be personable.
But, to each their own. 
pkbites, any locality that would legislate something of that nature is the sort of communistic place I would avoid living in like the plague. :rolleyes:
Amen.
Given the amount of breast-beating there is about the need to import cheap labour to do the tedious low-paid jobs that westerners won’t do, I’ve often wondered why there isn’t more effort put into getting rid of all the crappy low-paid jobs.
Yes, it’s a chain. It’s Food Lion’s effort to overcome its reputation.
It shouldn’t cost anything. The little devices on the carts refund the money when you reconnect the little do-dad at the cart corral (at least that’s how it’s done at Aldis).
What is your opinion of nailing people whos cart damages someone elses property?
Cars get dinged, scratched, marred, dented, it’s the reality of owning one and many, if not most, of the minor damage will buff out when you clean you car. Just like it’s the reality that a small percentage of people are going to leave their shopping carts in inconvenient places, park crooked, block the aisles while they inspect merchandise, sample the grapes, wait until the cashier announces their total before getting out their checkbook, or do something else that inconveniences others coming behind them. Occasionally it even happens to those of us who consider ourselves to be considerate of others. Tolerance is necessary for social interaction and not everthing can be solved by imposing rules and regulations.
Even if there is a deposit system for carts there will still be some who will forgo their refund and drop their cart in the wrong place. Then there will be problems w/ the coin despensers, you won’t have the right coins, or they won’t release a cart, or they won’t return your money properly and you’ll have to deal w/ that situation. Your suggestion won’t solve the inconveniience, it will only compound it. The real solution is to exercise tolerance, set an example by acting considerately toward others and maybe give an evil eye to those who don’t if your so inclined.
you sound like one of the assholes who are too lazy to take their cart back.
ARE you one of the assholes too lzy to take you cart back?
Getting a good sized dent in my car because some asshole didn’t take their cart back is not something anyone should have have to tolerate. My opinion is that anyone who preaches tolerance for assholes is…! Well, let’s keep this civil.
If putting a coin in a cart (a coin which you get back) is such a downer, why, exactly, is the Aldis chain prospering??
That’s uncalled for. I totally agree with A.R. Cane. He’s not advocating intentionally damaging anyone’s car, and not limited possible damages as a result only of being in a parking lot. Cars are machines, pure and simple. Just because you choose to anthropomorphize them doesn’t change the fact that little shit like that just happens, and you’ve got to expect it. If it’s not a cart (still can’t see it), it’ll be a rock, an idiot with a key, a neighbor with a can of spray paint. Unless you have a collector, classic car (or something exotic, it’s just a machine. You can have pride it’s not a POS, but beyond that, dude, it’s just a Toyota or whatever.
Preemptively, I’ve already said that I always put my cart where it will do no harm, either the cart corral, the store, straddling a yellow-bumper-thing, whatever.
I want to come back to the carts damaging cars thing – I still don’t see it. Do they build parking lots on hills in other parts of the country? They don’t have enough mass for doing damage if it’s just “a lazy asshole” that leaves it in an adjacent, neighboring spot. Hence, they’ve got to be loaded, or have inertial mass. But where’s the come from? I’ve hit carts – often intentionally – because I am to lazy to get out of the car and move the cart if I didn’t see it before I started pulling in (and block traffic, and otherwise be an asshole). Damage to my car? None. Damage to the cart? Who the hell knows, it’s not my problem.
The damage that happened on my olds was $200. The cart broke the paint and put a half-fist size dent into it.
The damage done to our friends car was over $250.
This is not nick and scratch stuff.
And we should we tolerant of this shit, why?
Some parking lots are, in fact, built on hills. There is a large shopping center near me that has a gentle, but discernible slope to it in the main area, and several of the outlying sites have lots that are on a HUGE slope, although these stores are too small to need carts. And I’ve seen carts in that lot roll downhill at a pretty good clip, which is why I take the few seconds to put the cart back in the cart corral or give it to someone going into the store. I’ve had enough dings and dents from carts, so I don’t inflict them on anyone else.
Robin