There are no carts!!!!

[I_Hate_SCs]

This happened a while ago during a very hot and miserable summer day. We were out of shopping carts for the first time since I started working there; I mean every single damn cart in both cartwells and the parking lot return thingys were in use, including the ones that usually end up in the woods beside the parking lot due to SC's carelessness and disregard for other's property. The store was so busy that I could barely walk an inch without bumping into someone or being called somewhere for customer help. This one particular SC I encountered this day made my brain-to-mouth filter fail completely:

SC: There are no carts!
Me: I know; I never seen anything like it.
SC: This is unacceptable. I'll have none of it!
Me: Um, okay, well if you wait at the other end of the checkout lanes I'm sure there will be someone who will give you their cart when they are done in a second or so.
SC: I will not!
Me: Well I'm sure someone left a cart on an aisle nearby that you could take.
SC: I'm sure your store will lose customers when you can't even give them DAMN carts to shop with!
Me: Well, actually, the lack of carts means the store is doing unbelievably well in sales today; probably the best in a few years since I never saw all carts being used. Check out the amount of people around you! (yes, I actually said that!)
SC: Well; I never! :walks away:

And to make it even better: the SC had only 2 items in her hands: a bottle of some medicine and a stapler, so she could've gotten a basket, or, gasp, carry the crap herself!

[Bright_Star]

I just love how customers complain about carts being wet when it's raining, when the carts are cold cause it's cold outside & there's snow on the carts cause it's snowing!
Sometimes I'm at the door covering a door greeter's breaks or lunches & get customers who want ME to get a cart for THEM. I tell them I can't move from the door but they can get one just outside the doors. They just glare at me. I mean, how how hard is it to go get a cart yourself?

[Shamus]

About as hard as it is putting them back, I'm afraid. People will leave their carts in front of my register, creating a sizable roadblock for the rest of the line, and the corral is no less than five feet away from my register - literally that close. I cannot for the life of me understand why they can push the cart all over the store but cannot be the slightest bit considerate to the people around them and push it an additional five feet.

[Nashida]

I still have trouble understanding why customers leave the carts on the islands in the parking lot. Those things are almost a foot high in the lot at Big Yank, and they're just so much fun to get down from there...:eyeroll:

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

And to make it even better: the SC had only 2 items in her hands: a bottle of some medicine and a stapler, so she could've gotten a basket, or, gasp, carry the crap herself!

Even better are the people (let's just reach deep into our Bag of Descriptive Words and call them "assholes") who:

come into the store shortly before closing....
grab a shopping cart....
continue snooping 5 or 10 minutes past the "store is closed" announcement over the PA....
finally purchase an item or items small enough to fit in a regular-size bag....
and take it out to their vehicle in their shopping cart.

Result: somebody has to go outside and bring the shopping cart back inside, because all the carts have to be inside the store before the all clear is given and people can leave.

Somehow I frequently got stuck being the "runner" when I used to work closing shifts.

[I_Hate_SCs]

Result: somebody has to go outside and bring the shopping cart back inside, because all the carts have to be inside the store before the all clear is given and people can leave.

Somehow I frequently got stuck being the "runner" when I used to work closing shifts.

Let me guess: the cart was left in the farthest corner from the parking lot, nowhere near one of those 'return your cart here' thingys in the lot!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Let me guess: the cart was left in the farthest corner from the parking lot, nowhere near one of those 'return your cart here' thingys in the lot!

Oh yeah, that's happened too.

[Despina83]

We had a woman (the woman from "The Family" that I have ranted about before) come in and stay several minutes after close, like she always does. She had several kids with her, and I don't mean little kids. She insisted on taking her cart outside with her, even though it was a blizzard outside and an employee would have to run outside in that weather and retrieve it before we could leave. She INSISTED. The supervisor argued that she had several people with her who could help her carry her bags to her car, but she wasn't having any of it. Finally the supervisor just said "No, you WILL leave that cart in the store. You are NOT taking it out there."

[mattm04]

We had a woman (the woman from "The Family" that I have ranted about before) come in and stay several minutes after close, like she always does. She had several kids with her, and I don't mean little kids. She insisted on taking her cart outside with her, even though it was a blizzard outside and an employee would have to run outside in that weather and retrieve it before we could leave. She INSISTED. The supervisor argued that she had several people with her who could help her carry her bags to her car, but she wasn't having any of it. Finally the supervisor just said "No, you WILL leave that cart in the store. You are NOT taking it out there."

A spine. *sniff* It bring tears to my eyes.

[Chromatix]

That's why many stores over here have coin-locks on trolleys. It has a virtuous trio of benefits:

- People who don't really need a trolley can't be bothered to get out the coin to obtain it.

- People are much more likely to put the trolleys back, to retrieve said coin.

- People get rewarded for putting back trolleys that others have left lying around.

[Aethian]

I actually like those...love them in fact. No dentted to hel carts and almost always in the main corral which means they are protected from the elements. Not the temp but I can deal with temp.

[valhar2000]

Relying on the SC's money-grubbing; how can it fail?

[jedimaster91]

Aldi does that and we have several in my city. It truely makes my day when someone leaves a cart out and I get an extra quarter.

If WalMart did that, I'd make tons of money every trip.

[Peppergirl]

There's a store called Biggs here that did the quarter thing.

Unfortunately, they caved to customer whining and got rid of them.

[AirHostess]

If there aren't any trolleys then what the hell are you meant to do? Pull some out of the magical back room?