# You're a goddam cart thief, and they should call the cops on you. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 28, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181 "2012-09-28T20:22:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/101 "2013-05-22T14:32:30Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Human nature must be different in a small town, especially with low housing density. I only see it here in Dallas when people use them to push their shit to the bus stop, and then leave the carts at the bus stop, which is across the street from the Wal-Mart. Of course, the trashy assholes who frequent that Wal-Mart can’t be bothered to do any number of civilized things, like use the freakin’ trash can at the bus stop, return the carts across the street to the corrals, or cross the street at the intersection when the light’s red. These idiots will literally jaywalk on a green light 15 feet short of the crosswalks to walk directly to the bus stop, rather than wait and walk 15 feet east of where they are to the crosswalks and 15 feet back. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/102 "2013-05-22T14:36:43Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > In the UK, each cart has a little box with slot in it and a chain dangling underneath with a key-like tongue on it, and they carts are nested together, each chained to the next. > When you insert a coin, the key attached to the chain from the next cart is released from the back of the box - when you return the cart to the stack, you insert the chained key in the back of the box and the coin is released from the front. > > The chains are short, so the key from one cart cannot be inserted in the slot of another unless they are nested together properly. Same here in France in most places, but when I think about it, it doesn’t really work, does it ? You put a two Euro coin in the cart, fine. The average user probably values his coin over a stupid cart. However… the cart is probably worth more than 2 Euros, and the store sure won’t keep your “security deposit” should you nick the trolley since the little box is on the cart you just stole. As for you, you should have little difficulty getting it back with a little help from your friend the sledgehammer. Or the bolt cutter. Or the crowbar. Fort Knox that little box ain’t. All things considered, I figure it’s less of an anti-theft system and more of a get-regular-customers-to-tidy-up-their-own-bloody-trolleys system. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/103 "2013-05-22T14:47:48Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > **Musicat,** how long ago did you see the ill-fated system you described? I wonder if there have been improvements since then, or if that system was from a different manufacturer or used different technology. I wouldn’t think that the manufacturer of such a system would last long unless they made substantial and rapid improvements to their product. It was 20 years ago at least, in Los Angeles. I have no doubt that systems have improved mightily since then, so it’s entirely possible that the new, electronic system will work. It’s also possible that it will fail for some of the same reasons the old one did. It reminds me of the many copy protection systems tried over the years. Most failed because users easily found a way to circumvent what looked to them like merely an impediment and a challenge. Even thieves can be resourceful. I saw many attempts at anti-theft devices, but the supermarkets usually resorted to hiring cart return services who drove a small truck down every street, picking up loose carts, sorting them, and returning them to the markets. I don’t know how they were paid – by the cart or the hour. I haven’t seen an anti-theft system for a long time, since I now live in a small town and the problem simply doesn’t exist. Shoppers return carts to the corral without hesitation. Although many residences are within walking distance, never have I seen a cart out of a lot, being pushed down the street, or abandoned at a curb. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/104 "2013-05-22T14:53:01Z")
Yeah, not a big problem in suburbs, where everyone drove their own car to the store. The only ‘strayed’ carts I’ve seen here are at an “affordable” housing development about a half-mile from the supermarket: close enough for the car-less to walk, too far to lug a week’s worth of food. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/105 "2013-05-22T15:36:08Z")
Preach it, OP! I hit one of the fucking things on my bicycle. Yes, I should pay more attention. I had sun glare in my eyes, and the cart was in a shadow. My daily commute takes me past several low rent apartment complexes within a mile of a SuperWalMart. I pitched that cart over the wall into the parking lot of the high-rent apartment complex. Maybe when the rich people complain, they pay more attention than they do to me. Not my finest moment, and not something I am proud of. Way too much adrenaline running in my blood at that moment to behave rationally. They leave them on the street, and they end up in the bike lanes. I have wondered if placing them upside down in the car lanes would draw enough attention to see the problem solved. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/106 "2013-05-22T16:03:59Z")
I walk in my neighbourhood all the time, and when I come across a free-range stolen cart, I roll it back to the store. I want to put a sign on the cart when I’m doing that, though - “RETURNING STOLEN CART! I’M NOT AN ASSHOLE LIKE THE PEOPLE WHO STOLE IT!” ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/107 "2013-05-22T16:51:39Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I walk in my neighbourhood all the time, and when I come across a free-range stolen cart, I roll it back to the store. I used to put the cart in my truck and take it back to the store, just to get it out of my neighborhood. Then I realized I might be depriving a cart return service of revenue and I wasn’t sure of what store it came from sometimes. You can’t win. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/108 "2013-05-22T18:23:31Z")
My chain has a policy of parcel pickup. No cart leaves the store. If you have a full cart, pull up to the door and we will load the groceries into the car. There is at least one stock clerk assigned to parcel at all times, (two or more on weekends and the day before holidays). The store gets to tout its service, never has to get into arguments about loose carts damaging cars in the lot, and we tend to not lose carts. (I realize this might work for all stores.) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/109 "2013-05-22T21:08:50Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > From the store’s POV, you may be a goddamned cart thief, but you’re also a regular customer, and the carts you take don’t go far and do make their way back to the store with only some bother. Isn’t it a possibly reasonable business tactic to continue to put up with it quietly? > [@Chimera](#): > > Given the cost of the carts? probably not > [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Probably not. Grocery stores do not have huge profit margins. I don’t have a cite, but I expect the cost of retrieving a cart – particularly when that involves sending an employee in a pickup truck to troll the streets for it–outstrips the profit from selling what was in the cart. Likewise, the people who do it once tend to do it over and over, so the store isn’t making much if any money from them. Our local Shop Rite has a sign: Our shopping carts cost $400 each. We’d rather lose your business than our carts. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/110 "2013-05-22T22:12:35Z")
When I bitched about this most of you fucktards turned on me. I like what Aldis does. Requires a quarter to take the cart and gives the quarter back when the cart is returned. I’ve yet to see an Aldi cart rolling around the parking lot hitting cars or sitting in a neighborhood abandoned. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/111 "2013-05-22T22:14:37Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > My chain has a policy of parcel pickup. No cart leaves the store. If you have a full cart, pull up to the door and we will load the groceries into the car. This used to be very common at grocery stores in the 1950 & 60s. Your order would be rung up and the bags placed into big tray-like baskets that went on to a conveyer that took them to a covered portico where you would pull up in your car and present your receipt and the boys would load them into your car. Seems like it required about the same staffing as bag & cart return boys are now needed, and less risk of them being struck in the parking lot. It did require them to be able to match the receipts, and perhaps it was a conduit for “inside job” theft. Also seems like you could pull up under that same portico when you first arrived and unload your empty soda bottles, and be given a receipt to have the deposit deducted from your grocery bill. I barely remember these, so they must have been mostly gone by 1970 or so. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/112 "2013-05-22T22:39:44Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > This used to be very common at grocery stores in the 1950 & 60s. Your order would be rung up and the bags placed into big tray-like baskets that went on to a conveyer that took them to a covered portico where you would pull up in your car and present your receipt and the boys would load them into your car. Seems like it required about the same staffing as bag & cart return boys are now needed, and less risk of them being struck in the parking lot. It did require them to be able to match the receipts, and perhaps it was a conduit for “inside job” theft. There’s a store in or near Chardon, OH - Wegman’s, maybe? - that still does this. Or rather, does this again; I don’t think they’ve been there since the 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/113 "2013-05-23T10:09:41Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > Your order would be rung up and the bags placed into big tray-like baskets that went on to a conveyer that took them to a covered portico where you would pull up in your car and present your receipt and the boys would load them into your car. Seems like it required about the same staffing as bag & cart return boys are now needed, and less risk of them being struck in the parking lot. Yeah, but people will just leave those kids lying around at the bus stop, outside of apartment complexes, and just along the side of street. Unless you put some kind of shock collar on them so people couldn’t take them out of the parking lot. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2013, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/114 "2013-05-26T02:53:01Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Mark this on your calendar, and come back in a year or so to tell us how successful this was. > > I remember a similar system installed at a supermarket near me once, a mechanical one. It was an abject failure. The anti-theft device was all too easily triggered by accident, causing the cart to careen wildly down the aisle. Since carts are well known to have poor wheels anyway, some shoppers just kept pushing them noisily until a manager ran up with the deactivation device. And it didn’t keep people from taking them off the premises, it just made them harder to push and more likely to end up in a ditch where it was harder to retrieve them. > > So let us know how it goes after a time. The grocery store we use has been doing this for several years now, and still does…so I’m guessing it’s working out pretty well for them. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2013, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/115 "2013-05-26T11:44:45Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Our local Shop Rite has a sign: Our shopping carts cost $400 each. We’d rather lose your business than our carts. I love it when a business is honest, and has the guts to say something like this. The grocery I do most of my shopping at tried the locking carts thing and it didn’t work out for them. They posted a sign with a number for people to report sightings of their abandoned carts, so they could pick them up, and that seemed to work a little better. But the number isn’t posted now. This store is part of a chain, but hasn’t been super-sized like most of the others. It’s in a central city neighborhood, and a lot of people walk to it. I live about ten blocks away, and shop there because it’s right on my way home from work. It has seen some problems but I hope it doesn’t close, because quite a number of folks would have trouble getting stuff if it did, the next closest grocery is at least a mile and a half away. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2013, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/116 "2013-05-26T12:24:13Z")
Yeah, I just assumed your ‘Bubbles’ reference was Trailer Park Boys! I mean, shopping carts? It’s gotta be, right? When I opened the thread I just knew someone would make that connection, sooner or later. I am shocked to discover it’s not! In the lots I frequent, the quarter to unlink the cart system seems to work quite well. Often, when you turn to push it back to the corral there’s a kid there saying, “Want me to take that?” They get my quarter every time! Make some pocket change and effectively do a job the store previously had to pay an employee to do! Seems to work out for everyone. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2013, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/117 "2013-05-26T13:01:39Z")
> [@Svejk\_1](#): > > I don’t get this rationale. I was reminded of this again in the line cutting thread the other day, which brought up **Sauron** ’s ‘I met the Emperor of the World thread’. There, too, people would say that line-cutters are regular customers and it’s in companies’ interest to just put up with the shit they pull, lest they lose these deadbeats’ invaluable business. What about the non-asshole demographic? Shouldn’t their business be valued, and shouldn’t companies worry about losing out in the non-asshole demographic when they continue to tolerate the stunts that jerkwad nation likes to pull, at the expense one way or the other of people that are not completely morally, socially, and intellectually stunted half-witted oafs? > > I think being a ‘regular customer’ may entitle you to them not taking you round the back and beating you to within an inch of your sorry-ass life with baseball bats - but not much more. This. It appears to be a freakin epidemic which IMO is social training encouraged by the big corporate stores and too much competition. Politely pointing out that someone’s behaviour {or their kids behaviour} is unaccpetable is reported as “your employee was rude to me” so even decent managers and employees are taught to not hassle people, and that’s how the “everybody does it” BS makes bad behaviour accpetable. It’s a “I’m a customer , or a potential customer, so I should be able to do whatever I want” attitude. After years in retail I’ve seen a lot of it. My pet peeve at the moment are parents who can’t be bothered to keep an eye on thier kids or teach their kids that the displays in the store are not for tham to play with. Teach your kids a little respect for other people’s property and to not touch without asking permission. Supervise them, it’s your dam job. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/118 "2013-05-26T19:09:11Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > There’s a dude at one grocery store who does it all day long…offers to bring back carts for people and keeps their quarters. Apparently, he’s making a living at it; I guess if it’s a busy enough store with busy enough shoppers, he can return dozens an hour…better than minimum wage! This. Puts me in mind of the people I see in ALL weather, middle of the night through early morning. On days where there is Recycling pickup by the NYC Dept of Sanitation. They are out there with the most ginormous plastic bags on God’s green earth. Carefully going through every bag put out by every building’s Super. Taking out the deposit bottles and cans. To survive. When I walk by them- which is frequently lately since I’ve had 4:30am in times at jobs- I have a "there but for the grace of God go I " moment. Let them have the deposits. Similarly, if there’s a fellow / gal who asks to return a cart for me in a supermarket parking lot, they are doing SOMETHING to survive that is honest. Had I a passel of small kids these days, I’d be desirous of such a fellow or gal. Lacking that excuse, I’d have to decide if I wanted to let him/ her take the cart and get the quarter or not. Prolly would let them have it. My two cents. Rather, my twenty-five cents. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/119 "2013-05-27T08:23:44Z")
While I can’t condone it, I have to feel sympathy for the person that has no other way to get groceries home than to steal a trolley. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181/120 "2013-05-27T13:34:54Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > While I can’t condone it, I have to feel sympathy for the person that has no other way to get groceries home than to steal a trolley. That’s a really slippery slope. If they’re that hard up, why not just steal the food, too? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-goddam-cart-thief-and-they-should-call-the-cops-on-you/636181.md?page=7)