What's with the shopping cart barriers everywhere? (live in, shoppers)

[car54]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

It seems to be going by the wayside, thank goodness. It was one of those horrid things dreamed up by Giant and Safeway when they had duopoly control of the grocery market in this area. When other chains moved in (Trader Joe's, Harris Teeter, Whole Foods) things started to change for the better. I think Giant was the greatest abomonation to ever visit itself on our food culture. High prices, dingy stores, mediocre food, a labor union service culture and the cart barriers, plus they were from Maryland. I'm glad their time of grocery domination has ended. I still refuse to shop there.

We've been through this before, but the Giant of old was a VERY good and innovative grocery chain. It went to hell when Izzy Cohen died in the mid '90s and the chain was sold to Royal Ahold, a Dutch conglomerate, that also owns the Stop & Shop chain in New England (which also stinks!).

In the 50's, Izzy even experimented with the concept of a grocery store and a department store under the same roof...an idea that apparently was ahead of it's time. The idea eventually caught on, ala Sam Walton. Izzy pioneered other things...Giant was the first grocery chain to use barcode scanners in all it's stores.

The first Giant Food opened in NW DC in 1936...they didn't move to MD until 1958...there just wasn't enough warehouse space in DC. Izzy sponsored kiddie shows on local TV and was an all around great guy who visited stores daily to talk with customers. I remember my mom giving him hell about something one day...he made sure she left the store happy.

I went to my first Redskins game compliments of Izzy, he even picked us up on chartered DC Transit buses (now MetroBus). During the '68 riots in DC, the Safeway stores burned to the ground while Giant's stores were untouched.

And Giant and Safeway never had a duopoly around here. Just in Annandale alone, where I grew up, there was a Grand Union, an Acme, and an A&P along with Giant and Safeway. Kroger and Food Fair also operated stores all around the DC area. Izzy ran all of them out of here except Safeway.

It's a shame what happened to our Giant!

[athousandlogins]

Originally Posted by car54

We've been through this before, but the Giant of old was a VERY good and innovative grocery chain. It went to hell when Izzy Cohen died in the mid '90s and the chain was sold to Royal Ahold, a Dutch conglomerate, that also owns the Stop & Shop chain in New England (which also stinks!).

My grandmother was a cashier at Stop & Shop for many years. She and her co-workers commonly referred to the company as "Royal A@#!hole." As I'm sure Giant's employees also do

[CAVA1990]

I grew up in California where supermarkets were much better. I was somewhat amazed how bad they were here when we moved to the area ('90). It was a duopoly by then with cart barriers everywhere. Fortunately things have improved.

[anonymous703]

I shop at TJ's like it's a religion. Then, it's funny... Teeter is closer to my house, and Wegmans is closer to my work. Depends on what I want when I want it.

Safeway is just f'ing expensive these days. I never used to feel that way when I lived in DC itself and shopped at the Watergate Safeway. Giant isn't much cheaper, and I also used to not feel that way years back when I lived in Centreville.

But long live Trader Joe's. I support them whenever I can.

[Flamingo13]

Originally Posted by anonymous703

Well, if a store is too cheap to pay employees to pick up carts from cart corrals (ie Harris Teeter in Reston) I'm not going to oblige them and bring the cart back to the storefront.

The point was made about people NOT returning to corrals or the store.

[jbird82]

I don't want to sound like a jerk, but is there a rule that you can't bring your kid along to return a shopping cart? Sounds like a lazy excuse to me.

[michgc]

After spending an hour in the supermarket with a 2-year old and a 4-year old and then unloading groceries into the car, the last thing I need to do is bring the kids with me to drop off the cart and then bring them back to the car. It's not being lazy; it's being realistic because by this time at least one of them is either crying or cranky.

Having said that, I try to food shopping without them or park near the corral when possible. But if you want to call people like me lazy, be my guest.

And actually, now that I think about it, the probelm is when I get to the car, I don't like my 4-year old hanging out in the street while I unload the groceries, so I usually strap her in the car and do the same for the little one before I unload the food. Then I'm not going to leave them alone in the car to return the cart.

[normie]

Don't most grocery stores offer help for getting your packages to the car? That's what I use when I have a bunch of squirming grandkids in tow. Weggies and Bloom are both very good about giving me a helping hand.

[anonymous703]

Originally Posted by Flamingo13

The point was made about people NOT returning to corrals or the store.

Yeah... and at HT - Reston, there are no cart corrals. With a huge parking lot like that, there should be. If the store were to put in cart corrals, they would have to pay people to get the carts. I can only assume they are too cheap to pay the employees to do that, so they don't have corrals at all.

[djplourd]

I think the best answer is for US stores to adopt the European model. In Europe, shopping most shopping carts have a chain that customers must put a a coin deposit in (one coin worth 50 cents to a dollar). It's great incentive to make customers return the carts to a corral or to the store. I don't know why US store have never implemented it. Even if you don't want to return your cart, there will always be some kids (or maybe s0ome homeless person?) that will the carts back to make a few $$.

DJP