Cart Narcs ... I mean, I get it, but when did this become a thing?

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

No I don’t see it as a reason as much as it’s another step. I just can’t stress enough that no one does it or cares here & I’m fine with that. Seeing as I’ve live here all my 41 years & don’t plan to move ever, it should be fine.

If pretty much everyone routinely isn't returning the carts in your area (as you already mentioned) I doubt the mentality is related to hassle (or perceived hassle) of locking your car or figuring out what to do with your keys or purse. Those two don't jive common sense-wise (respectfully speaking) as a behavioral norm. It's much more likely, as you already stated before, that social norms are just different there.

 

[cobright]

You've propositioned this all as a "evil store, making me do work the peons can do themselves" kind of mantra.

That's not the tone I intended on either end of the issue. I don't see the store's profiteering as evil, and I definitely don't see low-skilled workers as peons.

What bugs me is that the majority of people don't care at all that they are getting less service for the same price at most supermarkets. That most grocery stores have done away with the low-skilled position of bagger to one degree or another by shifting that workload onto the customer and sending the savings up the chain to the owners or shareholders. I earned my first paycheck as a grocery store bagger. The options for a young person at the time were busboy, bagger, or paperboy. It's a job that a lot of people who aren't qualified for other employment can do; that's a reality and observing that does not mean one thinks of them as "peons".

Nor does lamenting a new norm that makes those jobs irrelevant and unnecessary.

Or the prices haven't gone up as much as they would if they kept the extra workers?

Not really. Can look at CPI data for 'food at home' prices over the timeframe that cart corrals, can deposit machines, and self-checkout aisles came to be normal and there is no contemporal change in market pricing trends. No, not a smoking gun, and the issue has a zillion (narn) possible variables that would take longitudinal audits to pin pricing changers (or lack thereof) to any one thing. But abductively it makes sense, you don't eliminate workforce unless it saves you more money than it costs.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

What bugs me is that the majority of people don't care at all that they are getting less service for the same price at most supermarkets.

Because to most of us generally speaking returning a cart isn't being associated with getting less service. I never once thought "well it's not my job it's their job" in returning a cart. It was simply a courtesy to return the cart. IDK just how I am I guess.

I don't mind going to Aldi at all. If I found their process not my cup of tea I'd go elsewhere (and I don't hear complaints from those working at Aldi either). People don't seem to mind Costco either where your items go back into your cart with no bag although you can request cardboard boxes (and at Aldi you just grab cardboard boxes from throughout the store same concept).

As far as bagging that kinda went out anyways over time as other things moved in such as reusable bags, online ordering, etc. I saw the decline in a separate bagger more when plastic became the thing to use rather than paper as the cashier mostly took on the duties of bagging. If you go to a cashier they will bag the groceries unless the certain places that if you bring your own bag they want you to do it (not all places are like that) Then self-checkout came around and we love it personally. We gravitate towards it and don't see an issue whatsoever to put stuff in bags. There are many times we prefer that as we've noticed over time those who bag tend to do it by overfilling, or mashing things together (our own observation).

There are different jobs available now too. You may not have a separate bagger but you may have people who collect items for online orders which has really blossomed over the years and most especially during this pandemic. In-store pick up for places that have that is big too and someone has to go get those items and put them in that area (like if they have lockers or towers to use).

Feeling like you're getting less service is one way to look at it but it's far from the only one. For us we just don't see the exact things things you're talking about as getting lower service.

 

[sam_gordon]

Not really. Can look at CPI data for 'food at home' prices over the timeframe that cart corrals, can deposit machines, and self-checkout aisles came to be normal and there is no contemporal change in market pricing trends. No, not a smoking gun, and the issue has a zillion (narn) possible variables that would take longitudinal audits to pin pricing changers (or lack thereof) to any one thing. But abductively it makes sense, you don't eliminate workforce unless it saves you more money than it costs.

Huh? If a company pays an employee to do a job, that money needs to come from SOMEWHERE. That's going to be from the product you produce. So, if they keep that employee, they'd either need to raise prices or cut somewhere else.

 

[kaytieeldr]

For all of you who are judging the person's mom whose purse got stolen from that other thread, I'd like to see you have the nerve to post those comments over there.

Not judging the woman, haven't seen the thread.

Confused why anybody with a purse would keep/leave it anywhere except on their person.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Not really. Can look at CPI data for 'food at home' prices over the timeframe that cart corrals, can deposit machines, and self-checkout aisles came to be normal and there is no contemporal change in market pricing trends.

Cart corrals don't move the carts to or into the store, nor are they automated or computerized in any way.
Can machines and self checkouts (the latter being, typically, in addition to manned registers) add efficiency. What other technological inventions and improvements do you object to, or is it just retail?

One would have to do a deeper analysis of the CPI data to determine all of what has resulted in a lack of change in contemporal pricing trends. Notably taxes, energy, cost of goods to the retailer, wages and benefits...

Then self-checkout came around and we love it personally.

Black Friday, is was able to check out in under 15 minutes by using the self checkouts!

 

[sam_gordon]

No I don’t see it as a reason as much as it’s another step.

I'm sorry, I'm really missing something, maybe because I don't carry a purse.

Walk out of the store with your groceries in the cart.
Get to your car, unlock the car, put the groceries in the car.
Close the car, lock the car, return the cart.
Return to the car, unlock the car, get in.

Yea, ok, returning the cart is an "extra step". And I guess locking the car back (although if you put groceries in the trunk, you just close the trunk) is a huge hassle.

You said "Perhaps that's (the purse being stolen) is why no one does it (returning carts) here." So yes, you listed purses being stolen as a reason people don't return carts.

And @VandVsmama, I'm not sure what judging you're seeing here.

 

[LSUmiss]

I'm sorry, I'm really missing something, maybe because I don't carry a purse.

Walk out of the store with your groceries in the cart.
Get to your car, unlock the car, put the groceries in the car.
Close the car, lock the car, return the cart.
Return to the car, unlock the car, get in.

Yea, ok, returning the cart is an "extra step". And I guess locking the car back (although if you put groceries in the trunk, you just close the trunk) is a huge hassle.

You said "Perhaps that's (the purse being stolen) is why no one does it (returning carts) here." So yes, you listed purses being stolen as a reason people don't return carts.

And @VandVsmama, I'm not sure what judging you're seeing here.

I guess I just meant it’s one more step. But really idk why no ones does it or cares. Didn’t ever even consider that it mattered until I read it on here.

 

[kymom99]

You sound a lot like my mom when approached by the very idea of doing self-check out "I don't get paid to do that"...

You've propositioned this all as a "evil store, making me do work the peons can do themselves" kind of mantra. I mean it's certainly within your right to have that viewpoint. Majority of folks tend to just think of it as a courtesy that may or may not be the norm in one's area so it's telling that you have the viewpoint you seem to be conveying.

I rarely have anyone ring my groceries anymore. I much prefer to do it myself. I feel like I have more control over checking the prices as they scan and I would rather bag my own stuff. I got real tired of people smashing my produce and bread. Now with covid, I don’t have anyone else touching things, so that’s a bonus.

Funny story off topic. My mom has been gone almost 10 years but she didn’t drive. One time I took her to the grocery and she came out with a sack of potatoes and a bag of apples in the same bag. She complained it was too heavy to lift. I told her she should have mentioned to the manager that the bagger needed a refresher in proper bagging. She said the bagger was the manager.

This is why I prefer to do it myself. And I do return my cart.

 

[PollyannaMom]

There are different jobs available now too. You may not have a separate bagger but you may have people who collect items for online orders which has really blossomed over the years and most especially during this pandemic. In-store pick up for places that have that is big too and someone has to go get those items and put them in that area (like if they have lockers or towers to use).

That's a good point! ..and makes me feel better about not really wanting to use baggers. - I prefer bagging my own because I like to group things based on where I'll be putting them away.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

That's a good point! ..and makes me feel better about not really wanting to use baggers. - I prefer bagging my own because I like to group things based on where I'll be putting them away.

I like to do that too! I try to put frozen with frozen, fridge with fridge, pantry with pantry and then random stuff grouped together. It doesn't always work out that way but it's the method I prefer that way.

I remember one time I was buying a t-shirt at a different grocery store than the ones I usually frequent and the cashier, innocently I might add, put it in the bag with the milk lol.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I rarely have anyone ring my groceries anymore. I much prefer to do it myself. I feel like I have more control over checking the prices as they scan and I would rather bag my own stuff. I got real tired of people smashing my produce and bread. Now with covid, I don’t have anyone else touching things, so that’s a bonus.

Funny story off topic. My mom has been gone almost 10 years but she didn’t drive. One time I took her to the grocery and she came out with a sack of potatoes and a bag of apples in the same bag. She complained it was too heavy to lift. I told her she should have mentioned to the manager that the bagger needed a refresher in proper bagging. She said the bagger was the manager.

This is why I prefer to do it myself. And I do return my cart.

lol oh your poor mom! I've had that experience as well in terms of just overloading the bag with weight. I can do two 2-liter pops in a bag..adding a third however and that bag is way too heavy and way too easy to break.

I noticed that with bread especially--why that seems to be the easy thing to smush down with something else IDK

 

[TheIncredibles!]

Back in the 80's our store implemented the quarter for a cart thing. It's fantastic and I have no clue why it's not standard decades later.

 

[kymom99]

Back in the 80's our store implemented the quarter for a cart thing. It's fantastic and I have no clue why it's not standard decades later.

I’m trying to think back to the 70s. People collected green stamps. They tried for a while to have some set up where if you brought your cart back into the store and ran it through this corral thing it would spit out some stamps for you. Not sure why they stopped it but I know I liked getting to put the cart back for my mom.

 

[robinb]

Back in the 80's our store implemented the quarter for a cart thing. It's fantastic and I have no clue why it's not standard decades later.

You don't see stray carts in Aldi parking lots!

 

[Lilsia]

think this may be true for European countries, my Brit friend was shocked when he saw store employees bagging his groceries. But cart corrals for the middle of parking lots were invented in 1991, and did not get used much at all until the mid 90s. I'm 45 years old, until sometime in my 20s the norm was to unload your cart and place it at the head of your parking spot. This was the way shopping worked since the late '30s when shopping carts were invented.

Maybe that is a regional thing but I am 47 and we always returned the cart back to the corral at the front of the store. There were, of course, people who just dumped it in front of their car, but people got angry about it back then too. Some people were not careful and the cart would roll and hit other cars. There were cart corrals, they might not have been convenient for you, but that is just laziness, not something that was acceptable.

 

[Lilsia]

If this is your situation why not park near the cart return? They're generally further out in the lots so it's not hard to get a spot near them.

This is exactly what I did when my kids were young. I still try to get close to one.

 

[Lilsia]

I always return mine and even go so far and to straighten out the carts that are in the corral if they are just randomly pushed in there and not nestled into the one in front of it. It only takes a few extra seconds and allows more room for more carts to be returned. Nothing bothers me more than getting ready to turn into a space and not be able to get into it because there is a cart sitting there. If the corral I'm going to is full, I'll walk to the next one and not just leave my cart beside it. Again, doesn't take that long and the extra steps certainly aren't going to hurt me. As far as littles, I would empty my cart and push it back to the corral with my son in it then, he and I would walk back to the car with me holding his hand. Never hurt him to walk either. That same son has worked in the grocery store business on and off since he was 15, he is now 39 so carts randomly in parking lots are a big deal for him even now that he is management. Yes, there is an employee that gets paid to go get them but that is not that employee's only job and sometimes if the store is a busy one, they don't get time to get out there and gather them as often as a smaller store would. I look at it the same way as yes, there is an employee to clean up the streets at WDW but that doesn't mean I should throw my trash down, as a matter of fact my son or I will walk out of our way to pick up trash if we see it. As far as that show, I've never seen it but think the concept is silly and I would probably have something to say to someone if I saw them doing that to someone else.

This is exactly how we are. I can give a pass to someone who may have an injury, as long as the cart can't roll to damage someone's car, but for the most part, there are very few legitimate reasons to not put your cart back. "I'm having a bad day" is not one of them. I don't know why I am shocked at some of the attitudes about it being OK to just dump your cart where it can roll and hit someone. All I can say is Karma.

 

[Lilsia]

I said earlier that there are often no carts inside or in the corrals b/c they’re all over the parking lot. So I think it’s fair to say most ppl aren’t returning them.

I feel sorry for your local society that they can not even show this basic courtesy. It is sad to think that people will take on the bad behaviors of those around them more often then they take the good.

 

[LSUmiss]

I feel sorry for your local society that they can not even show this basic courtesy. It is sad to think that people will take on the bad behaviors of those around them more often then they take the good.

Why does it matter? Who does it effect? Everyone seems cool with grabbing one out of the parking lot on their way inside & clearly no workers are collecting them if there are none inside. So what as the difference?