said by dvd536 :

Thats what happens when they're pushed in long trains and all the stores cart guys do that.
the thumping wheel issue is caused by turning long trains of carts.

said by MysticGogeta :

What I hate is how the wheels are always screwed up. I stock for Target and we have to put the boxes from the truck in them because we can't have pallets out (Guests sue if they trip on them) when you have to push 10-12 alone and half of the carts pull to the right it pisses you off. Only thing that bugs me about carts.

said by sivran :

You've just convinced me: Hawaii is definitely on another planet. Either that or Walmarts there are run by an entirely different company. :D

said by Heshup :







Well I guess I am just a fucking lazy no good son of bitch. I never take a cart back to the cart corral as I don't fucking work for the store and am not drawing a pay check to do so and I just put food in the mouth for every sorry SOB that works there by spending my money at that store. Just like the self check outs. Not fucking going to happen unless the store wants to give me a 15 or 20% discount.

said by Heshup :


Wall-shit has already beat you to it as the fucking cheap bastards will not pay or hire any one to collect the carts as they want the customers to pick them up for them. Looks as if a lot of stores are flowing suite with the wheel locks and the money slots for the carts. Same as the self check-outs they don't want to hire cashiers as they are training the customers to do that for them. In fact I have yet to see any kind of contract when using the carts that says I have to do any thing. The stores have program people to do a lot of things that save them money and I said save them cause they damn sure not saving the customers money. So every one can just keep being their little robots. So who is the smart ones the stores or the customers? You and every other customer have just lost. LMAOROTF!

Edit:
Next they will get the customer to unload the trucks and stock the shelves and clean the bathrooms.

I am not the kind of person that thinks I have to park up front cause I can't walk. I let all the lazy assholes have that cluster fuck parking up front. Thank you I like to walk.

said by sivran :

Yep. You're a selfish lazy asshole son of a bitch. May you forever find every store's parking spots filled with shopping carts.

said by sivran :

May you forever find every store's parking spots filled with shopping carts.

said by Heshup :

I am not worried about the shopping carts putting dents in my car it is the low life ass holes that park next to me that don't give a shit what what their car door hit. Humm I bet you was the last ass hole that hit my car.

said by pnjunction :

Pretty much.

May your car get dented by a thousand errant shopping carts.

said by Heshup :

Well I guess I am just a fucking lazy no good son of bitch.

said by sivran :

Fair enough, but you're still an asshole if you block a parking spot with it. :p

said by sivran :

The Kroger nearest me only uses one wheel lock. I'm thinking the only thing stopping the wheel locks from being installed on all four wheels would be cost.

said by rspsas :

anyone hate shopping cart designs

said by sivran :

Think invisible fence, only instead of dogs, it's for carts, and instead of electric shocks, it's a wheel lock.

said by Combat Chuck :

Interestingly there have been studies done about the similar practice in airports. You know where you pay $2 for a cart and get a $0.50 reward when you return it.

More carts were returned than when they just charged a flat $2 than if they charged you $1.50 with a $0.50 deposit. The theory is that charging $2 to rent the cart and giving nothing in return makes people feel guilty for not returning the cart; but when you give them money back for returning it they see that as a "return charge" and just leave the cart if they don't feel like returning it.

said by shaner :

Every single grocery store here in Canada uses the "quarter lock" system

said by dvd536 :

Sounds like they're using the 'gatekeeper systems' protection wheel that is designed to prevent "push outs" and because it didn't go through the register lane, it didn't get sent the "ok signal" so the cart thought you were shoplifting the items and locked up at the door to prevent the "push out".

said by Mele20 :

Well, well, well....I just went to Safeway. I had one of those little shopping baskets over my arm. I ended up buying a huge thing of Charmin Ultra and more other stuff than I expected. So, the cashier asked me if I needed a wagon. The store was very busy so I said, "I'll go grab a wagon" (they are kept outside the store). So, I got the wagon, and the cashier put my stuff in it. I stopped at the courtsey desk on the way out to get a raincheck. Then I proceeded the few feet to the door. The wagon went halfway through and it seemed a wheel was stuck on something. (I had completely forgotten the information in this thread so I thought something actually was stuck on the wheel causing the problem). So I backed it up and tried again and it was still sticking on something and it was just the left front wheel. I tried again and as I was wrestling with it a lady coming in the store stopped and tried to help me....she pulled vigorously on the front of the wagon and declared it stuck on "something" after several hard pulls with me pushing on the other end. :D ;)

A second customer coming in the store stopped and also tried to wrestle with it. LOL Finally, out ran a Safeway employee who had an odd looking big clicker in his hand and and another employee behind him who argued with him as the first employee reached down with this huge clicker thingy to this red plastic(?) object attached to the outside of the front left wheel and the right front wheel. I was saying "ooooh ...when did Safeway get locking wheels"? Finally recalling this thread, I was asking both of them why it was locked to keep folks from leaving the store with their paid merchandise!!! The two employees were arguing about how to unlock it and ignoring my questions.

They got it unlocked finally and the commotion had created a small crowd watching. They continued to ignore my questions. I told them I was going to post in this thread and I just wanted to know why it was locked like that when leaving the store. I wondered if they are all locked when in their resting places outside the store. In fact, I asked if that was the intention and was just answered with "people were stealing them". So, I think they are locked, maybe against any movement except into the store, and then the cashier unlocks them for going out of the store. I'm speculating that because I didn't take a wagon inside to shop and I didn't go through the checkout lane with the wagon. I went and got the wagon after I had paid for the groceries and the cashier was new to Safeway. I know her and she worked for years at another grocery so maybe she didn't think to "release" the lock when I brought the wagon in the store to put the sacks in.

The whole thing was actually hilarious what with me, and the other customers, pushing and pulling on that wagon that would only go half way over the threshold at the door and then the employees having trouble unlocking it.

said by sivran :

Think invisible fence, only instead of dogs, it's for carts, and instead of electric shocks, it's a wheel lock.

said by quatrix :

If I leave the cart out, at least I put it BETWEEN two parking spots instead of right in the middle of one. I don't know why that's so hard for people to figure out.

said by wilbilt :

A visit to the supermarket is a lesson on how disgusting people really are.

said by dvd536 :

Doesn't work on the ones here. they have things welded to the back that won't allow them to roll while tilted back like this one.

said by dvd536 :

The smart retailer would convert them to token based coins for the carts that have no cash value. putting the homeless at bay.

said by Mr Neutron :

I have to wonder if stores have actually lost business as a result of forcing the "coin carts" onto their customers.

As you point out, coin-filled carts are one hell of an attractant for the local homeless population. Who then have a strong incentive to start hanging around the parking lot and make a nuisance of themselves.

This can't be an endearing thing for a store to have happen and I'm guessing that if additional measures aren't taken to keep away the local homeless population, (i.e. measures that will cost money, you know, like the money the special carts were supposed to save) their presence in the store parking lot is going to cause at least some customers to start shopping elsewhere.

said by patcat88 :

You wind up with homeless bums fighting over getting carts back to the station.

said by Combat Chuck :

Interestingly there have been studies done about the similar practice in airports. You know where you pay $2 for a cart and get a $0.50 reward when you return it.

More carts were returned than when they just charged a flat $2 than if they charged you $1.50 with a $0.50 deposit. The theory is that charging $2 to rent the cart and giving nothing in return makes people feel guilty for not returning the cart; but when you give them money back for returning it they see that as a "return charge" and just leave the cart if they don't feel like returning it.

Similar things happened when they looked at charging parents a penalty for being late picking their kids up. When they instituted the charge more people started showing up late.

said by fishacura :

I think it's some sort of incentive to bring your cart back to the appropriate place. Theoretically, it should reduce costs because the market should then not need a person to do this work. Or if people don't bring them back, the store generates revenue...those quarters add up. However, I don't remember seeing my grocery prices go down and to be honest, sometimes it's just easier to leave the cart wherever.

said by Heshup :



Carts are about as nasty as they come. Think of the all people that had there hands on that bar. When is the last time any one has seen them clean the carts? It would scare the hell out of people if they seen what grew in a petri dish and we put our hands right on that bar. LOL Yes the wheels piss me off in a bad way. It all comes down to one thing SAVE A BUCK!

said by fatness :

Leaving the kids in the frozen foods coolers slows them down a lot. :)

said by PhoenixAZ :

My rant is with shopping carts in general...They use them to place only one item in the cart, then they leave the cart astray in the parking lot, driving their GMC Yukon with only one person and their one item in it home...across the street.

Laziness..ugh

said by Mele20 :

Rain gear in a tropical rainforest? Heh, you reveal that you have not had the experience of living in such a place. :D We have umbrellas but a lot of time they do no good...not in the downpours we get. Plus, it is bright sunshine one minute and literally the next moment it can be raining heavily...plus, raining on one side of the street and maybe clear on the other. Damnedest thing...I saw that for the first time in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as that is a semi tropical climate there. What other rain gear would there be?

said by Mele20 :

I don't know why you emphasized the exception to the rule...sure, there could be an excellent reason for leaving the cart in the stall blocking anyone parking there without moving it but that is an exception.

said by Mele20 :

And, yeah, you are an asshole if you leave a cart blocking a stall. I'm supposed to get out of my car in heavy rain to move your cart? And where do I move it? I mean that is why you acted like an asshole, right, and left it blocking a stall because the nearest cart collector aisle was too far away so you were lazy. I'm supposed to not only move your cart in heavy rain but take it all way to that cart lane in heavy rain...and I shouldn't think you are an ass and curse you? Yeah, really. :uhh:

said by Mr Neutron :

Once my groceries are on the checkstand, I wheel the cart out of the way. When they are bagged, I carry them out in the bags without the aid of a cart.

said by thedragonmas :

[sarcasm] maybe we should have all cashiers where hasmat suites? actually would be kinda cool. [/sarcasm]

said by sivran :

Fair enough, but you're still an asshole if you block a parking spot with it. :p

said by sivran :

Fair enough, but you're still an asshole if you block a parking spot with it. :p

said by Mr Neutron :

1) How do you know it's 20 feet? Some of the parking lots I've found myself in are larger than several football fields.

2) Maybe my time is worth more than a quarter, making a decision not to push a cart back to the corral a purely economic one (i.e. there's an opportunity cost involved in doing anything) rather than it merely being a matter of my being "lazy." :uhh:

said by Mr Neutron :

Maybe it's just me, but when I see a cashier wearing disposable latex gloves, I feel like I have some sort of dread disease. :(

I mean, I'm cool with the hand sanitizer, but I really don't see the need for wearing gloves, so long as you don't touch your nose or mouth (something I don't want to see a cashier doing anyway).

said by fatness :

I doubt it. Slugs are very slow and not too bright. And if you have salt on your hands just forget it.

said by Mele20 :

In our grocery stores now cashiers wear gloves or use hand sanitizer between checking out each person.

said by TheHarvester :

Because of pure laziness.
I mean how long does it take to push a friggin empty cart 20 feet.

said by Mr Neutron :

Is Pathmark an American store? Or is it a European outfit doing business in the US?

said by Mele20 :

Walmart has VERY FEW and FAR BETWEEN aisles for the wagons/carts so theirs get left all over the place. Plus, they have tiny parking stalls and so the customer is already irritated by that before they get in the store so not very motivated to take the wagon to a designated lane.

said by Mr Neutron :

I won't ask how that fact was discovered. :)

Me being the kind of contrarian asshole curiosity-driven person I am, I would waste no time whatsoever experimenting with washers, slugs, etc. should those deposit carts make a local appearance.

said by TheHarvester :

OK maybe not 20 feet. Even if it were 200 feet, How hard would it be? It still boils down to pure laziness!!!

said by TheHarvester :

Because of pure laziness.
I mean how long does it take to push a friggin empty cart 20 feet.

said by wilbilt :

If I had to put a quarter in a cart for the privilege of shopping at a certain store, I would go elsewhere.

I almost never carry any cash - quarters included - so such a scheme would insure the loss of my business.

said by Mr Neutron :

I wonder if you can fool the mechanism with slugs? A coin acceptance mechanism in something like that isn't likely to be too sophisticated.

(I ask because I would probably walk off without reclaiming my quarter, too.)

said by dvd536 :

Specially if said tokens work in the $3 car wash. a local arcades tokens here work in the car wash machines :D

said by Mr Neutron :

But if I sell you a bag of 100 of those "shopping cart tokens" for $2.00, that works out to two cents per token. IOW: the token sellers could sell consumers the tokens at a price point that's so low, the incentive for consumers to bring the cart back is, once again, pretty much gone.

said by Thinkdiff :

I really hate these carts. They have them at most pathmark's in the Bronx.

said by Thinkdiff :

All it does is attract the local bums who wait for you to unload your items and then take the cart so they can get the quarter. They always get pissed when I bring my own cart back and get my quarter.

said by dvd536 :

Let me get this straight. they PURCHASE the tokens so they don't have to use money, isn't that using money?
sounds like a good scheme to keep the undesirables off the property.

said by patcat88 :

The Walmart near me has that system.

That yellow line looks like the above pic by the end of the day because of dead shopping carts. Fun game for the kids, take a working shopping cart, run as fast as you can with it, let it go right before the yellow line, cart will go over line, then somersault once or a couple times.

said by 81399672 :

I have on purpose take them out by lifting the front wheels up and rolling on two back wheels.

said by Mr Neutron :

Apparently, there are people selling "shopping cart tokens" that allow you to get the use of such shopping carts, but without having to use actual money to do so.

said by Mr Neutron :

When you say "local," is this a town/city thing?

Honestly, I'm having a hard time understanding what all the fuss is about. Most of the stores I go to have the carts that stop at the yellow line. Provided the carts never leave the lot, is it really so hard to deal with them in parking lot?

said by Mele20 :

They are not "carts". They are WAGONS. Never call one a cart in Hawaii. :D

said by fireflier :

I've never done it, but I've been tempted. :huh:

said by patcat88 :

The Walmart near me has that system.

That yellow line looks like the above pic by the end of the day because of dead shopping carts. Fun game for the kids, take a working shopping cart, run as fast as you can with it, let it go right before the yellow line, cart will go over line, then somersault once or a couple times.

said by 81399672 :

]I have on purpose take them out by lifting the front wheels up and rolling on two back wheels.

said by quatrix :

I use those straps to attach the seat back to the front of the cart and make it harder for the next overbreeder to fold it out. Hold your applause.

said by lew_b :

Yeah, plugging the end of the cable from the cart in front of you into your cart releases the quarter.

said by sivran :

Think invisible fence, only instead of dogs, it's for carts, and instead of electric shocks, it's a wheel lock.

said by Mele20 :

Yes, I mentioned that earlier in this thread and that was the reason for Duchess44 replying about them being called buggies in Tennessee. When I moved to Hawaii, I was looked at strangely when I would say "cart". Everyone says "wagon" here and I still, after all these years here, sometimes forget and call them carts and will still get a strange look. :D

said by fatness :

imperiling condiments and rutabagas.

said by Mele20 :

Everyone says "wagon" here and I still, after all these years here, sometimes forget and call them carts and will still get a strange look. :D

said by Mr Neutron :

Are they referred to as "wagons" in HI?

said by patcat88 :

That yellow line looks like the above pic by the end of the day because of dead shopping carts. Fun game for the kids, take a working shopping cart, run as fast as you can with it, let it go right before the yellow line, cart will go over line, then somersault once or a couple times.

said by Mele20 :

:D That's pretty good. I'm from Arkansas and was born in Tennessee. In Arkansas they call them carts.

said by Mr Neutron :

Thanks for the reply.

As near as I can figure out, the deposit-style carts (?) don't seem to be sweeping the nation. The name that comes up the most in connection with them is Aldi, and it seems that their use of such carts is simply a continuation of their European business practices. I can't seem to find any other major chain that has either adopted them or is thinking of adopting them. Of course, that doesn't mean they're not out there.

Have you experimented with using washers, etc. in place of quarters? Apparently, there are people selling "shopping cart tokens" that allow you to get the use of such shopping carts, but without having to use actual money to do so.

said by lew_b :

I believe that it is a 'town thing'. If you go down the road to a supermarket that is out of the Town of Poughkeepsie their shopping carts do not have these devices.

said by Mr Neutron I must confess that I was temporarily confused by the above photo of a field full of Czech hedgehog beach obstacles. For just a split-second, I thought that Wal-Mart might be experimenting with exciting new Atlantic Wall-themed stores. :D Frankly, I wouldn't put it past them.

said by Mr Neutron :

When you say "local," is this a town/city thing?

Honestly, I'm having a hard time understanding what all the fuss is about. Most of the stores I go to have the carts that stop at the yellow line. Provided the carts never leave the lot, is it really so hard to deal with them in parking lot?

I'd hate to think this is the kind of thing that town need to pass laws over.

said by patcat88 :

That yellow line looks like the above pic by the end of the day because of dead shopping carts.

said by patcat88 :

Fun game for the kids, take a working shopping cart, run as fast as you can with it, let it go right before the yellow line, cart will go over line, then somersault once or a couple times.

said by Mr Neutron :

Most of the stores that use this system have a yellow line painted around the parking lot, with signs (like the one pictured above) that warn shoppers not to push carts beyond that line.

said by Heshup :



Carts are about as nasty as they come. Think of the all people that had there hands on that bar. When is the last time any one has seen them clean the carts? It would scare the hell out of people if they seen what grew in a petri dish and we put our hands right on that bar. LOL Yes the wheels piss me off in a bad way. It all comes down to one thing SAVE A BUCK!

said by Mele20 :

"Stop at the yellow line"? Huh? A wagon stops at a colored line? I don't understand.

said by lew_b :

A local law forces stores to put a device on the cart that chains the cart to the one in front of it.

said by quatrix :

If I leave the cart out, at least I put it BETWEEN two parking spots instead of right in the middle of one. I don't know why that's so hard for people to figure out.

said by Heshup :



Carts are about as nasty as they come. Think of the all people that had there hands on that bar. When is the last time any one has seen them clean the carts? It would scare the hell out of people if they seen what grew in a petri dish and we put our hands right on that bar. LOL Yes the wheels piss me off in a bad way. It all comes down to one thing SAVE A BUCK!

said by DonLibes :

The wipes are pointless given that all the stuff on the shelves has been handled by people. And just to be sure everyone shares, your cashier will handle everything again, passing the germs from the previous customer on to your goods.

said by wilbilt :

The local grocery store here has antibacterial wipes in a dispenser just inside the door for customers who wish to wipe the handle off.

said by fatness :

There's always at least 1 wheel on a cart that wobbles or freezes,

said by lew_b :

A local law forces stores to put a device on the cart that chains the cart to the one in front of it. You have to put a quarter in it before the cart can be unlatched from the cart in front of it. This is to get you to return the cart to the corral and not litter the parking lot with carts.
Woe to anyone who dare go shopping without a quarter ! :(

said by sivran :

I don't hate the carts. I hate the lazy twits who leave them in the parking lot...

said by lefty1 :

Amen! Hasn't everyone had the experience of starting to pull into a parking place only to find it occupied by a shopping cart left by some lazy slob?

said by Damon85 :

As far as I'm aware, they still use them around here. Aldi is not the typical supermarket that carries everything (or at least it wasn't the last time I was in one). They cut their costs as much as possible to keep prices down. Not paying someone to retrieve shopping carts left behind by lazy shoppers is just one of those methods. I don't expect they're a store devoted to unreasonable people with unrealistic expectations, because their objective seems to be reasonable prices instead. They also didn't provide free plastic bags (you could buy nicer large ones or use extra boxes you found about the store), and they didn't take credit cards or checks either (debit/cash only). Great deals, though -- and their carts weren't halfway broken, either.

said by Mr Neutron :

Did they eventually stop using them because they proved too unpopular with their customers?

Seriously, I know giving up a quarter is not that big of a deal, but I wouldn't exactly find such an arrangement to be all that ingratiating, either. Of course, I never claimed to be a reasonable person.

said by Mr Neutron :

Is there a magnet contained in the red cable end, perhaps? Is that what pops out your quarter?

said by lew_b :

Yeah, plugging the end of the cable from the cart in front of you into your cart releases the quarter.

said by fishacura :

However, I don't remember seeing my grocery prices go down and to be honest, sometimes it's just easier to leave the cart wherever.

said by wth :

Aldi used those here for years. »aldi.us/index_ENU_HTML.htm

said by Mr Neutron :

I wonder if you can fool the mechanism with slugs? A coin acceptance mechanism in something like that isn't likely to be too sophisticated.

(I ask because I would probably walk off without reclaiming my quarter, too.)

said by lew_b :

Yeah, plugging the end of the cable from the cart in front of you into your cart releases the quarter.

said by Mr Neutron :

I wonder if you can fool the mechanism with slugs?

said by mcd :

Oh dear!! Here I thought I was purchasing the carts for a quarter all this time!! :o

said by lew_b :

Yeah, plugging the end of the cable from the cart in front of you into your cart releases the quarter.

said by lew_b :

A local law forces stores to put a device on the cart that chains the cart to the one in front of it. You have to put a quarter in it before the cart can be unlatched from the cart in front of it. This is to get you to return the cart to the corral and not litter the parking lot with carts.
Woe to anyone who dare go shopping without a quarter ! :(

said by Mr Neutron :

I'm not familiar with those. Do you get your quarter back at the end?

I wonder if the hassle of having to produce a quarter before you get to use a cart drives away business?

said by lew_b :

Woe to anyone who dare go shopping without a quarter ! :(

said by wilbilt :

The local grocery store here has antibacterial wipes in a dispenser just inside the door for customers who wish to wipe the handle off.

said by fatness :

If someone can invent good wheels for shopping carts they'll make tons of money. There's always at least 1 wheel on a cart that wobbles or freezes, imperiling condiments and rutabagas.

said by Heshup :



Carts are about as nasty as they come. Think of the all people that had there hands on that bar. When is the last time any one has seen them clean the carts? It would scare the hell out of people if they seen what grew in a petri dish and we put our hands right on that bar.