Fun Poll: To return or not to return.....

*emeleel* · #1 10-24-2001, 06:45 PM

So, you've gone to the store and you have more than you can carry out with your own two hands. Once you've unloaded the buggy, do you or do you not put the buggy in a corral or up on the store's sidewalk?

I had to choose "Usually" because I always do it at the grocery store - parking lot isn't too full, and there are enough corrals. But the WalMarts around here are a different story. Huge parking lots with lots of customers means sometimes I can't park in a good spot, and for some reason, they have *very* few corrals in ratio to the number of customers. With two small kids, I sometimes just can't go way out of my way to return a cart properly, but I do feel bad about it.

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #2 10-24-2001, 06:59 PM

What about "partially"? I put the cart out of the way, which may or may not lead me to where the carts go... My supermarket doesn't have corrals in its parking lot.

mj

#3 10-24-2001, 07:03 PM

I usually push it all the way back into the store. Sometimes, if I'm feeling bad, I put a few things in the cart and leave it in an aisle. Makes the store personnel wonder if they've got ghosts or if somebody just went buggo and had to start over again fresh.

quasar · #4 10-24-2001, 07:18 PM

I walk my cart to my apartment then leave it downstairs for the cart fairies to return

Janice

kurt_messick · #5 10-24-2001, 07:22 PM

Janice,

Did you use to live at my dormitory in college???

Local stores regularly make a sweep through the university housing areas to collect their carts which have been wheeled all the way home.

#6 10-24-2001, 07:23 PM

Ok, I just remembered back in the days that I was working my earlier statement wasn't exactly 100% true.

There were several shopping carts from the Kroger's right next to the TV station that just kind of floated about as rolling tape storage and office moving equipment. Every time I rolled in a bunch of 12-packs of soda for the latest effort, I couldn't get it back in time by the end of the day for it not to become a tape hopper or some other testament to the lack of storage space.

I'm so ashamed... maybe that is why I quit. Or perhaps the fact that they were moneygrubbing a-holes.

mtbat · #7 10-24-2001, 07:47 PM

well, I do usually try to put the cart so that it doesn't run into cars, but once I've got the kids and the food loaded up, the last thing I have any urge to do it return the cart.

they pay people to do that anyways!(those clerks!)

when I didn't have a car, I used to push the cart home-and leave it for those cart faries-until the supermarket installed a device on all the carts that made it so you couldn't take the carts out of the parking lots!

Fridai

kurt_messick · #8 10-24-2001, 07:49 PM

A device? What kind of device? (I have visions of invisible fencing for shopping carts that shock you as you try to touch them...)

quasar · #9 10-24-2001, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kurt_messick
Local stores regularly make a sweep through the university housing areas to collect their carts which have been wheeled all the way home.

Actually I've lived in several apartment complexes throughout the years (including my current place) that made an arrangement with the local grocery store that their tenants could walk the carts home and they have regularly schedules pickups. My cart fairies know in advance that they will find carts at my complex.

Janice

mtbat · #10 10-25-2001, 01:05 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by kurt_messick
A device? What kind of device? (I have visions of invisible fencing for shopping carts that shock you as you try to touch them...)

HEE HEE-

actually, it was this thing they put on the wheels so that if you tried to tip the cart to get it over the curb, the wheels would lock and you couldn't push it-

of course, it was fun to go thru the parking lot and tip all the carts and lock all the wheels when noone was looking

**AuntieEmma**[$] · #11 10-25-2001, 01:12 AM

For a while, the supermarkets here were locking their carts. They were all attached together by cables, and you had to put a quarter in to get one free. Then when you were done shopping, you had to take it back to the stack and re-hook it up to get your quarter back. It was a royal pain in the arse, and I guess they realized that eventually because they stopped doing it. The idea was to prevent homeless people from stealing the carts, which they do a lot to carrry around their stuff.

I think the stores do have them set up now so you can't take them out of the parking lot (not sure how that works -- something with the wheels not being able to get over a bump??) but I haven't tried, so I don't know for sure.

**tpierzina**[$] · #12 10-25-2001, 04:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by kurt_messick
A device? What kind of device? (I have visions of invisible fencing for shopping carts that shock you as you try to touch them...)

Here in Chicago I'm seeing more and more stores install electronic fences around the perimeter of the lot, along with wheel-locking sensors on each cart that render it immobile outside of the fenced area.

Kind of cool if you ask me, but not as cool as a shock.

nicholmere · #13 10-25-2001, 11:22 AM

I have always returned them. Haven't had an exception yet. If there is no assigned spot for them then I take them back into the store. Helps with my step count too (see steppers club in H&F forum).

kurt_messick · #14 10-25-2001, 11:26 AM

What a range of responses! I must be living in a deprived area, to not have such remarkable devices on our carts...

*emeleel* · #15 10-25-2001, 11:36 AM

Oh, File, LOL! That reminds me of something I did Monday night - for real!

I came out of the end of the bread/drinks/chips aisle to head to the next one, the freezer aisle. Some idiot couple had started around the bend in the opposite direction, decided they needed to go back, and just left the buggy right there in the way! Bad enough when people leave a cart in a straight aisle, but when others are trying to get around an end, it's really hard. At first, I just snugged it up with the endcap so it was easier to get around, then I decided to go one better. (I was not in a good mood that night!) I pushed it about 1/3 of the way down the bread aisle - would have been further if someone else wasn't standing there shopping.

I was about halfway down the freezer aisle when I heard the husband, "Um, where's our cart?!" LOL

Who, me?

quasar · #16 10-25-2001, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by AuntieEmma
For a while, the supermarkets here were locking their carts. They were all attached together by cables, and you had to put a quarter in to get one free. Then when you were done shopping, you had to take it back to the stack and re-hook it up to get your quarter back. It was a royal pain in the arse, and I guess they realized that eventually because they stopped doing it. The idea was to prevent homeless people from stealing the carts, which they do a lot to carrry around their stuff.

The Pathmark I made my dad drive me to when he visited me in Philly did that. I'd totally forgotten. Had to drop 50 cents in and then you got it back when you returned it. I've also been to grocery stores that fenced in their curbs so you couldn't walk off the sidewalk - you had to pull your car up to unpack (meant if you drove you couldn't shop alone).

The bad memories are all coming back.

Janice

evmori · #17 10-25-2001, 01:05 PM

I always return the cart to the corral or the store. My vehicle has been hit by runaway carts in the past & I don't want to be responsible for doing that to someone else.

queenofallevil · #18 10-25-2001, 07:53 PM

I voted "always" because....

The Swedes got it right. In order to "get" a shopping cart, you have to put a 10 kronar coin in a slot to "unlock" it. (About a buck)

If you dont put the cart back against the other carts, and push the lock in, you won't get your money back...

(And I'm too much of a cheapskate to let a buck go to waste because I don't want to walk a few meters to return my cart!)

Val

jnbmoore · #19 10-25-2001, 08:15 PM

I voted always

but that's cause I always try to park near the cart corral

AND monkey reminds me and loves to help push the cart back -- course her defination of pushing is riding on the front -- holding the front pushing thing -- feet on the bottom -- with me pushing........

Bridgette