Red Basket DRAMA

[Boo3711]

My ASM comes up for the second time to tell me I need hand baskets at the front door. So I have the cart guy gather them and ask for ASM key to get the two boxes out of the back so we don't keep running out. He wasn't his usual pleasant self in his tone so I take a smoke break to settle down a bit. I'm standing with another associate out front and I notice a customer with one of my red handbaskets in the back of his truck and remark to the other associate "Oh that's where all my red baskets go" (He knew I was pissed at the ASM about the baskets) The other associate walks over to the truck, peeks into the back of the truck to verify it was ours and asks the customer for the basket back. I thought my friend was going to his car to leave and was shocked to see him ask the customer for it back. The guy gets out of his truck takes all of his personal items out of the basket and throws it to the ground I see this and move towards them and stop when my friend brings the basket to me and off he goes. But the guy isn't done he starts yelling to me about how he shops at our store 5 times a week and won't be back because I made such a big deal about the basket. I'm so proud of myself of how calm I remained and told him "Sir I'm sorry your upset but we pay for those baskets and we simply asked for it back" He continues how I'M making a big deal about a basket he has had in his truck for three months and he would have returned it. I Then point out "I'm not making a big deal about it I asked for a basket back, I didn't run after you and tackle you for it I asked for it back we pay for them, seems to me your the one making the big deal about it?"
Then of course the favorite line " I'm never shopping here again!" Okay

[purplecat41877]

The customer completely overreacted. All your coworker did was ask for the basket back.

[bainsidhe]

So he claims he's had it for 3 months, but that he was going to return it. Um, when exactly? We have hundreds and hundreds of customers a day. Hell, as a cashier I myself have hundreds of customers per shift. Get this, we don't have hundreds of baskets. So yeah, he's an ass. Perhaps he should pay a "convenience fee" for inconveniencing other customers. I can dream, can't I?

[HawaiianShirts]

Ugh! If he hadn't become argumentative about it, I'd say he was just being lazy.

I've got a few lazies near where I live, too. Somehow they think it's okay to keep shopping carts around the apartment complex. There is a shopping center nearby with a grocery store, a department store, about a dozen restaurants, and several small specialty shops (clothes, craft supplies, movies and music, etc.). Just yesterday I counted six carts--one from the grocery store, one from a clothing store, and four from the department store. Five of those carts were flung haphazardly around one of the dumpsters. The other was half buried in the snow near the walkway in front of one of the buildings. My guess is that these people walk over to the shopping center, do their shopping, then bring all their stuff home in a cart, but they don't bother to take it back.

Anybody know how much a shopping cart costs for a retailer? I know they're not cheap, but I'm curious about it.

(And, yes, I'm going to take those carts back one of these days. I'm waiting for a day off to do it. I'm just obsessive-compulsive enough to do it. At least our trash collectors don't pick up the carts with the other stuff. This place is great for dumpster-diving, if you're into that. In the past two weeks, I've seen three perfectly good couches, a playpen, a treadmill, and two kids' bikes thrown out.)

[LingualMonkey]

Anybody know how much a shopping cart costs for a retailer? I know they're not cheap, but I'm curious about it.

See, now you went and got me all curious.

http://www.shopcarriage-trade.com/carriagepage1.html

Based on the same site, on sale, the hand baskets are better than $10 each. Naturally, this is why people feel entitled to them.

[Nyoibo]

This is the reason why when I was working at K-mart we put those magnetic/electronic tags on the baskets, and the carts had these little doohickys on the wheel that would lock the wheel up if it was taken out of the parking lot.

[ArcticChicken]

I've got a few lazies near where I live, too. Somehow they think it's okay to keep shopping carts around the apartment complex.

A few months back I was walking my dog by the apartment complex near our house. I watched a man pull up in his car, walk into the apartment complex, pull out a cart from the nearby grocery store, load all his groceries into it, and walk back into the complex.

[I_Hate_SCs]

My ASM comes up for the second time to tell me I need hand baskets at the front door. So I have the cart guy gather them and ask for ASM key to get the two boxes out of the back so we don't keep running out. He wasn't his usual pleasant self in his tone so I take a smoke break to settle down a bit. I'm standing with another associate out front and I notice a customer with one of my red handbaskets in the back of his truck and remark to the other associate "Oh that's where all my red baskets go"

I've seen so many SCs drop the basket on the floor (almost never in the designated holders at the end of each register; instead where people walk in aisles or simply behind them in line, forcing subsequent customers to push the basket aside so they can check out) that I'm surprised this guy actually wanted to keep it! Oh, and I'm sure he would've kept the basket indefinitely if your coworker didn't ask for it back!

[RetailWorkhorse]

Anybody know how much a shopping cart costs for a retailer? I know they're not cheap, but I'm curious about it.

According to the big poster in the Back Room, 80$.

We used to have 15.

We're down to 3.

Can't get Corporate to send us any.

Cheap bastards.

[thehippie777]

So would this same guy be apt to take a cart with him? I mean, he would prolly see the folly in that... People are weird.