If It Don't Go, It Don't Go!

[ralerin]

At my Aid of Rite, we recently got a collection of new shopping carts, proper ones with the body made of metal wire. Some of the older ones are made of plastic with a metal pole so that the cart doesn't go outside and it keeps people from stealing the damn things. The new ones don't have this problem and we've lost a few already.

Anywho, at least once a day I hear the pole meeting the top of the door with a SMACK and I usually have to call that the cart doesn't go out and they need to carry it out by hand. Usually this is met by surprise, then a catbutt face and demands I get someone to help them. But they at least get the message.

One woman...didn't. I heard the pole smack and thought that someone else had called after her already but apparently someone didn't even though there were other cashiers right there. I kept on hearing the pole smack against the door and looked up.

Woman is pulling on the cart with all her might, trying to make it go through the door. Face red with exertion, the whole nine yards. Manager A finally intercepts her and then chews me out for not telling her the cart doesn't go out.

[cinema guy]

Woman is pulling on the cart with all her might, trying to make it go through the door. Face red with exertion, the whole nine yards. Manager A finally intercepts her and then chews me out for not telling her the cart doesn't go out.

So it's your fault she's stupid.

Seriously, what do they think the pole is for? It is a wonder they don't think it is for power like the bumper cars at the fair.

[XCashier]

Woman is pulling on the cart with all her might, trying to make it go through the door. Face red with exertion, the whole nine yards. Manager A finally intercepts her and then chews me out for not telling her the cart doesn't go out.

So it's your fault she's stupid.

The customer's obviously a graduate of the Midvale School For The Gifted.

[Syriilord]

I'd have to agree with cinema_guy. Why should your boss blame you because someone else doesn't have any common sense? (And it sounds like many of your store's customers don't)

[ShootMePlease]

The new ones don't have this problem and we've lost a few already.

I've never understood the facination with stealing carts. What the hell can you do with them anyway ? The only logical thought was they take their items home with them and are too lazy to bring them back.

[dragon_wings]

I've never understood the facination with stealing carts. What the hell can you do with them anyway ? The only logical thought was they take their items home with them and are too lazy to bring them back.

I live across a busy street from a grocery store. And I routinely see people leave their carts at the top of the stairs leading down to the complex from the parking lot next to us. I actually saw a couple with a cart on the sidewalk through the complex. Meaning they not only walked through the grocery store parking lot, crossed the busy street, walked through another parking lot, went through the walk way at the shopping center by the complex, through a third parking lot, and down a set of cement stairs all with a grocery cart.
My roommates and I will often have 2 to 4 re usable shopping bags full of groceries each. But we carry them home instead of push them home. *facepalm*

[joe hx]

I've never understood the facination with stealing carts. What the hell can you do with them anyway ? The only logical thought was they take their items home with them and are too lazy to bring them back.

That's exactly what they do with them. Some places have carts especially for people who do this. Hell, in my hometown there's an old folks hotel/apartment complex that has its own cart corral.

[Peppergirl]

I'd have to agree with cinema_guy. Why should your boss blame you because someone else doesn't have any common sense? (And it sounds like many of your store's customers don't)

It sucks.

The only thing worse than asshole customers is an asshole manager.

[BookstoreEscapee]

That's exactly what they do with them. Some places have carts especially for people who do this. Hell, in my hometown there's an old folks hotel/apartment complex that has its own cart corral.

Do they get returned to the stores, at least? Or does the store have to come get them?

[Mr Hero]

I understand the reason for the policy, but I think the higher-ups could have done something different. Why shouldn't a person be allowed to cart their items out to their car?

[Kristev]

Trust me, all that ends up doing is requiring someone out there all day to go and recollect them. A dangerous, physically demanding job for which the pay is menial, at best.

I used to have to do that for three years, and then even longer.

[camyoung11]

I've never understood the facination with stealing carts. What the hell can you do with them anyway ?

When me and my friends went on schoolies (the Australian equivilent to Spring Break i guess.) we found that the shopping carts from the local safeway made for excellent towel drying racks when we came back from the beach :P.

we returned them all after we left of course

[Magpie]

I understand the reason for the policy, but I think the higher-ups could have done something different. Why shouldn't a person be allowed to cart their items out to their car?

Most stores around here that don't let you take the carts to the parking lot have a pick-up service for groceries. And honestly, the carts that lock outside the parking lot are horrible, you don't want to go there until someone invents a version of that that actually works.

[sirwired]

I always wondered why airport wheelchairs had a huge pointless pole sticking up; now I know... it keeps the wheelchair from being taken on the plane (where it's probably too big), and also makes it less likely to be stolen.

[MoonCat]

I've never understood the facination with stealing carts. What the hell can you do with them anyway ? The only logical thought was they take their items home with them and are too lazy to bring them back.

Ohmygod, what DON'T they do with them? The area I live in has the most dedicated shopping-cart thieves in the world. I've seen carts from almost every store within a five mile radius. I've even seen carts from stores that closed 20 years ago. The only store that actively collects them is a certain eastern grocery chain (voted best place to work several years in a row...)

They use them to collect cans & bottles for the deposit money. Kids use them to push each other around in. They dump them at bus stops & people sit on them. I've seen them used as planters. The most ironic use: the guy who delivers the local neighborhood tabloid newspaper uses one to hold the papers as he walks the route. This is the same paper that editorializes about carts not being collected by the stores.