What's with the shopping cart barriers everywhere? (Reston, Covington: crime, lawyers)

[car54]

Originally Posted by 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

Aldi does that in the US....I believe it's a quarter.

Makes sense because Aldi is a German company, which incidentally also owns Trader Joe's.

[athousandlogins]

I had no idea Aldi and TJs were the same company! That's so interesting.

[athousandlogins]

Holy crap, I have a dull life to be so interested in supermarkets.

[michgc]

The Pathmark where I grew up also had those coin-slot carts. At first we couldn't figure out why they put them in, since it's not a bad area, and no other Pathmarks that we knew of had those types of carts. But the store was on the top of a gigantic hill, and I'm betting they were quite sick of pushing them up the hill when they got moved or rolled down. Other than that, Aldi's is the only place I've seen them - and the airport. :-)

[michgc]

Originally Posted by athousandlogins

Holy crap, I have a dull life to be so interested in supermarkets.

I like supermarkets, too. Whenever we travel, I like going in to the local supermarket to check it out - see the local food, the people, etc. My mom said my grandmother liked supermarkets, as well, so it must be in the genes. :-)

[Turbogyrl]

Originally Posted by Flamingo13

There are no barriers either at any of the stores I shop at - BUT!! I do take issue w/the people that wheel the cart to their car and then dump the cart either in another parking spot, work at getting it up over a median, etc. rather than taking it back to the store or to a cart corral.

Sorry but I frankly don't give a darn. Let the store employees come out & get the carts. I HATE Shoppers, because everytime I go there they never have enough checkers and the only option is the self check... so I have the pleasure of selecting the overpriced food, unloading it, scanning it, paying the outrageous prices, bagging it, schlepping it to my car... so the stores can go get the carts from wherever I chose to leave it. Go to a different store you say? Where I live there are not too many options. 2 Shoppers are the closest. Grrrr. And then there is the Bloom which is just as bad, if not worse.

FYI - Aldi is a German store. The coin thing is how it is done in Germany.

[guyincognito]

Originally Posted by Turbogyrl

Sorry but I frankly don't give a darn. Let the store employees come out & get the carts. I HATE Shoppers, because everytime I go there they never have enough checkers and the only option is the self check... so I have the pleasure of selecting the overpriced food, unloading it, scanning it, paying the outrageous prices, bagging it, schlepping it to my car... so the stores can go get the carts from wherever I chose to leave it. Go to a different store you say? Where I live there are not too many options. 2 Shoppers are the closest. Grrrr. And then there is the Bloom which is just as bad, if not worse.

FYI - Aldi is a German store. The coin thing is how it is done in Germany.

Here's a thought. How about thinking about someone besides yourself? Don't put the carts away because you think it helps the store - put them away because we live in a society and need to help each other. No one wants their car banged up or to have to move a cart to park.

[CAVA1990]

If they don't have a cart corral I put 'em up in a planter or at some other out of the way spot. Eventually after having to round up carts here and there I figure they'll come to their senses and put in a corral.

[dkf747]

Just don't put them on the stripes for the disabled spaces. We can't just hop out and move them.

[anonymous703]

Originally Posted by athousandlogins

I had no idea Aldi and TJs were the same company! That's so interesting.

I don't think they are. Wikipedia says that TJ's is a privately held company based out in suburban Los Angeles.