Carriage collectors

[nomorecarts]

Its different if there aren't any loose carts in the parking lot. That means that there isn't a ton of work to get caught up on so the cart pusher can relax a bit. In the case that there are a ton of carts scattered about the parking lot, the cart pusher needs to get moving to clear them out, in which case asking for a cart from the stack being pushed just slows down the entire process. Depending on the design of the carts and the geography of the parking lot, it can take quite a bit of effort to start or stop a stack of carts.

who says you have to stop to leave a cart? I always just popped it out without stopping. and I know all about a trashed parking lot, I got to work with 250-300 carts out there when I was alone(the only cart pusher scheduled all day) several times, and usually had them all in(obviously plus what came out while I was there) when I left after a 4 hour shift

[nomorecarts]

When I worked for Lowe's, G and myself would often go out and round up all the carts in one swing. It tended to work better that way and we had it down to a science. Here's how we did it.


R----------------------------------------------G

That's Myself pushing, and G steering and providing braking power. Most of the time, we were talking back and forth about how we were going to go. When a customer neared, the usual result was an authoritative "On your Right!" or "On your Left!" "Watch out!"

Management never once gave us grief over it, even though numerous times we nearly hit people. I think, and I could be wrong here, our record number of carts was something like fifty or sixty. Once we got them moving, there was no WAY we could get them stopped.

one time where I work we had 4 cart pushers push a line of 40 and we were running(not really sure why we did that), good thing no one saw. my personal record for pushing with the only help being someone to steer is 40, but different stores have different carts, so you can't really compare them well. the most I've seen pushed overall is about 90 with the electric cart pusher and 2 people helping it to get started, but that doesn't really count, we cheated

policy says you don't push more than 10 by hand or 25 with the electric cart pusher

and ... something i forgot to mention earlier... another reason about my pet peeve on loose carts left in lots - when it's windy it'll blow them into things like cars.

and ditches, with water in them. one time my manager made a co worker get something to throw and hook onto a cart that was almost completely submerged in a puddle

[boringscreenname]

I wish more stores would start doing what Aldis does. When you go there, you stick a quarter in a slot in the cart, which undoes a chain and lets you use the cart. When you're finished, you put the cart back, hook up the little chain and get your quarter back. It really cuts back on the number of loose carts in the parking lot and there's no need for a cart attendant.

[Chromatix]

I wish more stores would start doing what Aldis does. When you go there, you stick a quarter in a slot in the cart, which undoes a chain and lets you use the cart. When you're finished, you put the cart back, hook up the little chain and get your quarter back. It really cuts back on the number of loose carts in the parking lot and there's no need for a cart attendant.

That system is very common in Europe. Not universal, but very common. It's more likely to be a £1 or €1 coin, mind, and it's unlikely to be found in places with a perimeter wheel-stop system, which is also quite common.

It's great because it passively penalises people who don't put the trolleys back, while rewarding people who collect the wayward ones. It doesn't adequately compensate the store for trolleys which are actually thrown in the local canal, but it does act as a deterrent.

[LewisLegion]

I hit a store employee with a line of carts once. I was parked in the very front row of the lot, the row facing the main glass windows. Got in my car, started it up, looked back to make sure no one was behind me, and started to back out. Right then, 'wham'. I hit the first cart as the line started past the back of my car.

In my defense, the cart pusher was pushing the line of carts along about a foot behind the parked cars and there was absolutely no way for a) me to see her, or b) her to see my reverse lights.

Fortunately, I hadn't yet hit the accelerator, just taken off the brake and started to roll, so I didn't hit her hard enough to do more than rattle the carts slightly. Didn't so much as scratch my paint and the cart pusher was fine and seemed a bit embarrassed.

[Munkie]

I like to grab a "loose" cart and take it inside, or to the nearest corral... i hate seeing loose carts all over the place.

i feel for you

[nomorecarts]

LewisLegion-that happens, it's really no one's fault, the cart pushers have to push carts close to the parked cars to keep from blocking traffic or getting mowed down, and neither one of you could see

[protege]

*Bad Hechinger's flashback...*

Ugh. Being a cart jockey sucked. Not only were most of the customers rude about them--they'd bitch if there weren't any in the store--but so was a certain manager. Most nights, we couldn't bring them in fast enough. I'd literally bring in a dozen, and they'd literally disappear. Even with 4 of us, we couldn't keep up with demand. Meaning, we'd get a 'talking to' by a certain manager (either that bitch Diane, or Felix) about how we "weren't doing our jobs." Yep, we were pissed about that--what the hell could we do? It's not our fault spring and summer are when everyone comes out the woodwork (pun intended) looking for home-improvement crap

At least Felix got what was coming--one of my co-workers "accidentally" broke open a bag of cement plus some sort of chemical in the back of his new Jeep. Last I heard, that was a bitch to clean up

[Jay 2K Winger]

I used to think all "cart guys" were lazy bums -- and, to be fair, some of them ARE lazy bums -- but once I started working FDLP at my store, I got a chance to see that some of them genuinely try their hardest to keep up with demand, but management doesn't see it and they persist in harassing the cart guys to "get back to work."

We had more than five cart guys quit because of it.