Last call for Christmas

[Erin]

We had to call a fire engine to our house one night about a year ago. (gas fireplace malfunctioned, set off the smoke detector, we were worried about CO2 and possible fire in the walls)

Fire engine gets to the turn on our street (a T intersection) and there's a car parked right at the T. (car belonged to the daughter of a neighbor. Neighbor, ironically, is a firefighter)

The engine couldnt make the turn, so they used the engine to move the car over a bit so they could make the turn. That was kind of fun to see (neighbor's daughter is kind of a *bad word* and kept parking at the T intersection and parks a million miles away from the curb too. So, it was nice to see how they move stuff that's in their way.

[Captain Trips]

In Germany, that system's pretty much standard; every store that has carts uses it, and has been for years.

Of course, that doesn't stop people from being idiots: yes, they will return the carts to the corral, but only to that CLOSEST to their cars - which results in some corrals being practically empty, while in others, the carts are backed halfway into the driving lane between parking spaces...

Wait a minute -- are you actually complaining that people are using the corrals as intended? I don't mean to fratch, but it sounds like you are saying they are using the wrong corals! Geez, I'd be happy that they are using them at all!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Wait a minute -- are you actually complaining that people are using the corrals as intended? I don't mean to fratch, but it sounds like you are saying they are using the wrong corals! Geez, I'd be happy that they are using them at all!

As somebody who's forced to fetch carts as part of his job, I can see Canarr's point.

The swamp's lot is not very big, but it seems as though the middle two corrals get used the most. On the busiest days, those corrals fill up quickly and you do get carts spilling out into the traffic lane. Thus you have to go out and bring in carts more frequently than you otherwise would, and when you have customers and other duties also demanding your attention, it becomes kind of a nuisance.

Still, I won't complain about it too much. It beats people just leaving their carts wherever they please and forcing you to the far ends of the lot and beyond to get them all.

[Jay 2K Winger]

In Germany, that system's pretty much standard; every store that has carts uses it, and has been for years.

Of course, that doesn't stop people from being idiots: yes, they will return the carts to the corral, but only to that CLOSEST to their cars - which results in some corrals being practically empty, while in others, the carts are backed halfway into the driving lane between parking spaces...

As somebody who's forced to fetch carts as part of his job, I can see Canarr's point.

The swamp's lot is not very big, but it seems as though the middle two corrals get used the most. On the busiest days, those corrals fill up quickly and you do get carts spilling out into the traffic lane. Thus you have to go out and bring in carts more frequently than you otherwise would, and when you have customers and other duties also demanding your attention, it becomes kind of a nuisance.

Still, I won't complain about it too much. It beats people just leaving their carts wherever they please and forcing you to the far ends of the lot and beyond to get them all.

Speaking as someone who has to do carts twice a week on the nights when our regular cart guy can't work, I understand the frustration. Especially when you have to work on the door on busy days, and you get customers complaining that "there's no carts out there," when you can see about a bajillion of them in the far corrals, and you know the complainer only looked at the closest corrals.

Still, when I'm doing carts, I find other things to gripe about, like the trash left in some of the carts (like used diapers ) or idiots who drive through on the narrow side of our train of carts, where we're standing, instead of on the wide open side which we'd left open, so we have to jump out of the way so we don't get hit, and other assorted parking lot hazards.

[Magpie]

I used to see this a lot at the local grocery/super-centers and then they went the way of rent-to-use carts that required you to put in either a quarter or a loonie (Canadian dollar coin) to use them. You got the coin back when you returned the carts to the corrals. It REALLY cut down on people leaving carts all over the place.

You must live somewhere with nice people. I agree that there are fewer carts left out when there's a deposit, but that's more because if someone happens to leave a single cart out, there's more incentive for someone to do the obvious and carry the cart into the store with them. I find that there aren't many single carts left out though, because the people who do care about their dollar just take two carts so they can chain them together and get the deposits back (they need to start requiring a pair of toonies or something).

My local grocery store no longer allows carts out of the store - there's bollards at the exits, if you have a car and too many bags to carry they have a pickup service. (One of these days I will send my cart there and then bring the bike by, rather than trying to carry a trailer's load of groceries).

[Lots42]

But it's not gentlemanlike to hit a woman.

If they hit first, it's open season I say.

Though I try and hit back with equal force, for some reason. But if a women punches a guy and he lays her out, good for him.

[Lots42]

I used to see this a lot at the local grocery/super-centers and then they went the way of rent-to-use carts that required you to put in either a quarter or a loonie (Canadian dollar coin) to use them. You got the coin back when you returned the carts to the corrals. It REALLY cut down on people leaving carts all over the place.

My family tends to give the cart to the next approaching customer. I don't know what to think about that.