Why do people leave shopping carts in the parking lot?

[DaisyD]

And it is over the top sanctimonious and ludicrous to equate an occassional leaving of a cart out of a corral as laziness.

I just call them like I see them.

 

[rie'smom]

I just think this is cute -not that this applies to anyone on this thread:

 

[nuttylawprofessor]

Why do people feel that the way their stores in their neighborhood/state/region are the way all stores operate?

Oh, and the idea that full service automatically equals higher prices? Bunk.

Let me throw another wrinkle into all of this. Many argue that the main reason one must return a cart is to prevent car damage. What if the store has an indoor garage, as many Chicago stores do. Mr. Bipp leaves his cart on the "x" in the indoor garage; the cart isn't obstructing any parking space, and there are no worries that the cart will roll away and hurt someone or something. Does it still twist the knickers to see that cart parked on the x?

 

[jrmasm]

Why do people feel that the way their stores in their neighborhood/state/region are the way all stores operate?

Oh, and the idea that full service automatically equals higher prices? Bunk.

Let me throw another wrinkle into all of this. Many argue that the main reason one must return a cart is to prevent car damage. What if the store has an indoor garage, as many Chicago stores do. Mr. Bipp leaves his cart on the "x" in the indoor garage; the cart isn't obstructing any parking space, and there are no worries that the cart will roll away and hurt someone or something. Does it still twist the knickers to see that cart parked on the x?

I'm just guessing but I'd bet that if the X is where the carts are supposed to be returned than no one would have a problem with it.

 

[MushyMushy]

Why do people feel that the way their stores in their neighborhood/state/region are the way all stores operate?

Oh, and the idea that full service automatically equals higher prices? Bunk.

Let me throw another wrinkle into all of this. Many argue that the main reason one must return a cart is to prevent car damage. What if the store has an indoor garage, as many Chicago stores do. Mr. Bipp leaves his cart on the "x" in the indoor garage; the cart isn't obstructing any parking space, and there are no worries that the cart will roll away and hurt someone or something. Does it still twist the knickers to see that cart parked on the x?

Not as much. My main gripe is the damage a rolling cart can do. I just don't understand why that's so difficult to grasp for some people.

In a case like yours, I liken it to people who go into a clothing store and leave clothes unfolded or don't put them back where they belong. Or going through a grocery store, changing their mind on a product and putting it on the wrong shelf (this especially hacks me off when it's a cold item sitting on a room temp shelf). Just inconsiderate.

 

[tonilea]

The only time I don't return the cart to the corrall is when I have my elderly MIL with me and we are using the handicapped space. Then, if there is not already one there, I will leave a cart pushed up next to the pole holding the handicapped sign, because many people who have mobility issues do better with something like a cart to push.

Other than that, I hate it when people don't put their carts away.

 

[legalsea]

Well, I ALWAYS take my shopping cart back to the corral.

Mind, here in Texas our grocery store parking lots may cover several square miles. It is not unusual to have to push your cart for 20 to 30 minutes simply to reach your car, then another 10 minutes, if you are lucky, to the nearest corral.

Indeed, the other day I parked so far from the store's entrance that I had to call a taxi. When I left the store the only way I was able to get back to my car was to join up with a Cart Train that was passing by; you simply 'hook up' (like a Conga line) your cart to the passing line and then detach yourself when you get within spitting distance of your car.

Anyway, regardless, not only do I always return the cart to the corral, but I always pull out a new linen cloth and some metal cleaner and clean my cart thoroughly, until it shines (the shine is after the waxing part is over). While doing so I can't help but glare at those inconsiderate Yankees who just push their cart into the corral and leave it, without even giving it a low-grade 'spit shine'.

No doubt others on this thread care for their shopping carts as deeply as I do.

 

[rie'smom]

Well, I ALWAYS take my shopping cart back to the corral.

Mind, here in Texas our grocery store parking lots may cover several square miles. It is not unusual to have to push your cart for 20 to 30 minutes simply to reach your car, then another 10 minutes, if you are lucky, to the nearest corral.

Indeed, the other day I parked so far from the store's entrance that I had to call a taxi. When I left the store the only way I was able to get back to my car was to join up with a Cart Train that was passing by; you simply 'hook up' (like a Conga line) your cart to the passing line and then detach yourself when you get within spitting distance of your car.

Anyway, regardless, not only do I always return the cart to the corral, but I always pull out a new linen cloth and some metal cleaner and clean my cart thoroughly, until it shines (the shine is after the waxing part is over). While doing so I can't help but glare at those inconsiderate Yankees who just push their cart into the corral and leave it, without even giving it a low-grade 'spit shine'.

No doubt others on this thread care for their shopping carts as deeply as I do.

Brilliant It's good of you to leave the cart shiny clean for the next person. Maybe you should start a thread about the inconsiderate people who have the gall to leave their dingy carts in the corral w/out a spit and shine.

 

[Mom2Nick]

And I say you have NOT returned your cart each and every time because no one does something always and never. I never said children would melt in the rain or be traumatized, do not put words in my mouth. If you want to feel superior over cart returns, more power to you. Must be a very sad life to be sanctimonious over cart returns for gawd sake. People on occassion do not return carts and it is being made out to be up there with murder and torture. So many Jesus Christs running around the DIS board.

Nope - I have always returned my cart. No way I am leaving a quarter in there when a few feet away I can put it where it belongs AND get my money back.

 

[legalsea]

Brilliant It's good of you to leave the cart shiny clean for the next person. Maybe you should start a thread about the inconsiderate people who have the gall to leave their dingy carts in the corral w/out a spit and shine.

Thanks for the kind word.

I mean, those who say that they can't properly return and clean their cart due to having their children with them?

Hello! Young children are especially handy for getting clean the wheels and lower part of the cart! Indeed, on those days in Spring when the temperature is over 110 degrees I actually leave it to the children to do all the cleaning, waxing and maintenance (like when one wheel is a bit 'shaky'; children should be taught early about how to use different type of screwdrivers and wrenches).

 

[rie'smom]

Thanks for the kind word.

I mean, those who say that they can't properly return and clean their cart due to having their children with them?

Hello! Young children are especially handy for getting clean the wheels and lower part of the cart! Indeed, on those days in Spring when the temperature is over 110 degrees I actually leave it to the children to do all the cleaning, waxing and maintenance (like when one wheel is a bit 'shaky'; children should be taught early about how to use different type of screwdrivers and wrenches).

You're right,having a child is no excuse for leaving a messy cart. Most responsible moms have baby wipes with them. If they don't it's their duty as good cart picker uppers to go back into the store and buy some. The nerve of some people just astounds me-must be lazy and ignorant.

 

[2girlsmom]

love it, you two!

By the way, Nutty Professor is right, better service does not have to equal higher prices. Here we have stores that you have to sack your own groceries and stores that do take your groceries to your car and unload them for you (and aren't allowed to take tips), they are all priced about the same and usually the "full service" store is the cheapest.

 

[kaytieeldr]

My mother has a bad back, so when were out we have to drive around until we find a parking space with a cart. she needs to lean on it to get into the store, where she transfers to one of those electric ones.

Respectfully - is there a reason, after she gets back to the car by leaning on a carriage, that YOU don't return it to a designated area?

Entirely separate from that, but apropos of this conversation - I just stopped at the supermarket.

There are three HP spaces, parallel to the store. I was parked in the closest one. As I was approaching my car, there was a large SUV blocking the other two spaces, with two women loading groceries into it (I think - they were about done by the time I got to my car). One got in the passenger seat, one got in the rear seat behind the driver as I approached my trunk. They were leaving, and ended up leaving - despite my best efforts at a dirty look and rolling my eyes - the cart IN A HANDICAP SPACE.

Across the aisle from us was a completely empty cart corral. It's not even as if the person returning the cart would have had to walk anywhere unsupported, if that was an issue - the vehicle could have driven maybe ten feet at an angle, and the person could have gotten right in.

 

[rie'smom]

Respectfully - is there a reason, after she gets back to the car by leaning on a carriage, that YOU don't return it to a designated area?

Entirely separate from that, but apropos of this conversation - I just stopped at the supermarket.

There are three HP spaces, parallel to the store. I was parked in the closest one. As I was approaching my car, there was a large SUV blocking the other two spaces, with two women loading groceries into it (I think - they were about done by the time I got to my car). One got in the passenger seat, one got in the rear seat behind the driver as I approached my trunk. They were leaving, and ended up leaving - despite my best efforts at a dirty look and rolling my eyes - the cart IN A HANDICAP SPACE.

Across the aisle from us was a completely empty cart corral. It's not even as if the person returning the cart would have had to walk anywhere unsupported, if that was an issue - the vehicle could have driven maybe ten feet at an angle, and the person could have gotten right in.

Did you return your buggy to the cart corral and did you wipe it down first? With it being cold and flu season, you might have germs that can spread to others. Remember your baby wipes or Clorox wipes and use them!!!!

 

[legalsea]

Actually, we have a new grocery store opening soon. I believe it is owned by a German outfit.

Anyway, to deal with the shopping cart issue the owners announced that their new shopping carts will not have wheels: you just slide the cart along on its base.

 

[nuttylawprofessor]

We don't believe in having the prior users clean carts after they're done. You have to grab a wipe or two from the dispenser by the cart corral in the store.

 

[dogluva]

I have 3 kids. I used to haul all of them to the store with me. Two were walking age and one was a baby. Somehow I still managed to get that cart back where it belonged. To not do so is rude and lazy. I have always returned the cart. Always. Whether rain, slush, kids. If I borrow something I put it back. You use it, you put it back when you are done with it. That is the way my parents raised me. Nothing to do with superiority. Everything to do with what is right.

WOW I never realized that there are acually perfect people in the world.

I have been known to leave a cart astray here and there. Do I feel guilty. No. Should I, I don't know after reading this post.

 

[DaisyD]

WOW I never realized that there are acually perfect people in the world.

I have been known to leave a cart astray here and there. Do I feel guilty. No. Should I, I don't know after reading this post.

Who said anything about being perfect? This thread is about shopping carts. I return them. Doesn't mean I'm perfect. Just means I'm not lazy.

 

[NotUrsula]

Forty five years ago, ONE supermarket here had an arrangement where, after you paid for your groceries and rolled your cart to the inside front of the store, and drove up to the outside, employees put your bags on a conveyor belt and sent them outside. My parents never shopped there. Too expensive - and this is, and was, an average suburban community with oretty average incomes.

Really? That's an interesting setup; I never encountered anything remotely like that except at "Catalog showrooms" like Wilson's and Service Merchandise. However...

No store I know tells customers to check out their own purchases, although many do have a few registers that allow customers to do this - vast difference.

I'd agree with that. For grins, though, since we've discussing the history of supermarket service, do your stores remove your items from the cart for you, or do you have to put them up on the register belt yourself? Around here, the only store that has cashiers take the items from the cart is Trader Joes, but when I was growing up in the South, most of the stores in my area had carts with a drop-gate at the front end, so that you could roll it up to the checkout and the cashier would drop the gate and sweep the things down onto the checkout counter. The entire basket of the cart folded up toward the handle for storage on the parking lot -- it occurs to me that I haven't seen a cart like that in some time now. Lately they all seem to be the deeper sort.

Bag it yourself? At the self-check counters, yeah; at the cashier-operated registers - never, except by my choice (in, granted, my experience - I tend not to stick around and bag other customers' items).

The supermarket chain that I normally shop at has all customers except those in the express lane bag their own groceries. They keep an empty cart next to the register and as items are scanned they go into that cart. You take that cart to the bagging area and leave the one that you brought to the register behind for the next person to use. (If you have a baby in the cart they will scoot up your own instead so as not to make you move the baby.)

The two more expensive chains in town will bag your groceries for you, and the more expensive of the two still offers to carry bags out for every customer. I work near a store that has a largely elderly clientele; they still take the clerks up on it most of the time.

Bring it to the car yourself? Again, I've never known a store that provided employees to transport customers' carts/purchases to the vehicles on a regular basis, in many, many years of shopping. Some will offer under certain circumstances, and most will comply if asked.

This is the statement that triggered my memory. When I was a kid in the South, every store my parents frequented had special carts for the baggers to use to take your groceries to your car. They were NOT the regular carts pushed by customers in the store. These carts were about 30" wide x 30" deep, and approximately 5' tall, with mesh on three sides but an open front, and they had two big wheels on the back only and a dolly-type handle on the back side. (Imagine something like a wheeled bakery rack, tall and square.) There were three shelves in it, at heights of about 2' each. Baggers would fill your paper sacks and then set them on this cart, which could easily hold a dozen filled bags, maybe 18 if they used all 3 shelves. They followed you out to your car and loaded the bags from this cart into your vehicle, then took the cart back into the store.

So, really, in forty-five years, the only thing that's changed in my experience is that many stores now provide relatively convenient cart drop-off areas, hoping that customers will stop leaving carts at random throughout the lot.

I remember that I first saw "cart corrals" in the early 1970's, at the same time that the tall square "bag boy" carts apparently disappeared.

 

[NEM]

I have not read all 11 pages...but I can get my kids to the cart, but getting them PLUS what was purchased inside back to my car is not that simple. I do try to park near a cart abandoned in the lot as it makes it much easier to load them up.

I wont leave my kids in the car to go return a cart. I always did before kids and when I get them mobile....I will return to doing so. In the meantime, I abandon the cart and I am not ashamed to admit it. ...I look for those abandoned carts....it doesnt bother me at all.