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We need to get the whole country to read this thread! lol
I didn't go in to work till 2:30 PM today and I wanted to park fairly close to the store because I'd be getting off after dark. Well, I couldn't! Nearly one whole side of the closest lot had shopping carts, all lined up in a row like good little soldiers, with the front wheels over the curb. Apparently each parking space holds exactly three carts, side by side. I didn't need to know that. I ended up having to park in the further parking lot.
You don't know how much I wish you'd taken a picture of that and posted it here.
and pushed a dang shopping cart right down into a deep gully! Yes, I did. It was a very long, extremely busy and totally frustrating day today. I had a splitting headache by the time I got out of work and all I wanted was to get home and relax. And take some Aleve! Got to my car and there's this shopping cart up against the front fender of my car. I checked and no dings/scratches but if I'd tried to back out it would have done something. So...I grabbed that thing and I really meant to only put the front wheels over the curb but I didn't. I gave it a BIG shove and it went over the curb and down into the gully. And I don't care. If I knew who did it or saw them do it they would have followed!!
Got to my car and there's this shopping cart up against the front fender of my car. I checked and no dings/scratches but if I'd tried to back out it would have done something. So...I grabbed that thing and I really meant to only put the front wheels over the curb but I didn't. I gave it a BIG shove and it went over the curb and down into the gully.
Hiya AZ... Firstly, glad there was no damage to your car.
You know, Kathryn said something above about pics that gave me an idea after reading your post. I'm wondering if what will help fix the issue is if people begin taking pics of store parking lots with carts-gone-wild & emailing/mailing them or handing them en masse to Store Mngrs and/or the Customer Service Mngrs? Perhaps there's a way to post them as Comments to the stores' websites?
I'd bet that if it included a note with something like, 'Was going to shop at your store today, but since I had a battlefield of carts to maneuver through with my nice, shiny, expensive vehicle, I went across the street to ABC to spend my hard earned dollars! They have adequate employees to collect the many carts their patrons discard. Once you begin offering appropriate customer service in your store's parking lot, I'll be happy to resume shopping at X. Until then, ABC was happy to sell me $123 in merchandise today.'
It makes them aware that their decisions to leave cart cleanup & collection as a last resort is a mistake & also gives them the opportunity to hire kids PT for after school cart patrol or anyone else wanting a PT job for a bit of extra cash. One of my sisters lives in a small town in PA & Home Depot pays very well for employees assigned to parking lot patrol, mostly younger lads. Her neighbor's teen son, who's been doing it for several years after school a few nights/wk & on occasional weekend days, makes $18/hr just to collect carts.
Hiya AZ... Firstly, glad there was no damage to your car.
You know, Kathryn said something above about pics that gave me an idea after reading your post. I'm wondering if what will help fix the issue is if people begin taking pics of store parking lots with carts-gone-wild & emailing/mailing them or handing them en masse to Store Mngrs and/or the Customer Service Mngrs? Perhaps there's a way to post them as Comments to the stores' websites?
I'd bet that if it included a note with something like, 'Was going to shop at your store today, but since I had a battlefield of carts to maneuver through with my nice, shiny, expensive vehicle, I went across the street to ABC to spend my hard earned dollars! They have adequate employees to collect the many carts their patrons discard. Once you begin offering appropriate customer service in your store's parking lot, I'll be happy to resume shopping at X. Until then, ABC was happy to sell me $123 in merchandise today.'
It makes them aware that their decisions to leave cart cleanup & collection as a last resort is a mistake & also gives them the opportunity to hire kids PT for after school cart patrol or anyone else wanting a PT job for a bit of extra cash. One of my sisters lives in a small town in PA & Home Depot pays very well for employees assigned to parking lot patrol, mostly younger lads. Her neighbor's teen son, who's been doing it for several years after school a few nights/wk & on occasional weekend days, makes $18/hr just to collect carts.
Just a thought.
You know, I felt kinda silly about that whole thing when I woke up this morning. All I can say is it was the last straw that did me in after a long day in retail h3ll. I love my job but this entire week has been just nuts and even my co workers are wondering what the heck! I'm not superstitious but I think I'll remember this Friday the 13th for a while. lol
A letter would be good but I'd be skeptical as to how much attention it would actually get. I know that, in our store, the guys honestly do their best to keep those carts coming in. We are such a busy store it doesn't take long to run out of baskets. We usually have two guys on each end of the parking lot, which is about four acres. I watch them work and am amazed at how they can keep it up. Some aren't so young either. They are out there from 9 AM to 11 PM seven days a week. And they still can't keep up with the nuts who strew their carts around. I think they should get hazard pay too.
I promise I won't tell our cart pushers that others are making $18 hr.! They would have heart attacks.
A letter would be good but I'd be skeptical as to how much attention it would actually get.
Perhaps. Was just curious what others felt. I guess I always recall the 1 person, who reportedly complained about school prayer, it snowballed, then disappeared. I suppose something different needs to be done, since the current system isn't always working to shoppers' satisfaction.
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I know that, in our store, the guys honestly do their best to keep those carts coming in. We are such a busy store it doesn't take long to run out of baskets. We usually have two guys on each end of the parking lot, which is about four acres. I watch them work and am amazed at how they can keep it up. Some aren't so young either. They are out there from 9 AM to 11 PM seven days a week. And they still can't keep up with the nuts who strew their carts around.
Not meaning to toss a spanner into the mix, but then, shouldn't your store & many others, hire more people to collect carts? I agree, the cart collectors I see are working hard & I do see an increasing # of older folks working at such a job, but it appears there are often too few of them. Surely, each store could afford 1-2 more, no?
When I shop in my area (normally between noon-4pm), I rarely see collectors. The Whole Foods near my home tends to be about the worst, with carts strewn about the parking lot, oftentimes blocking a dozen available spaces & more trailing about the lot. I am sometimes amazed at how many are abandoned, even when weather is good, mere feet from the corral.
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I promise I won't tell our cart pushers that others are making $18 hr.! They would have heart attacks.
Yes, I understand. Perhaps it's a fluke. The lad I mentioned has worked at the store for several years in a very small town. I'm unsure what retail pays (my impression was it's notoriously low), but for $18/hr, I'll keep cart collector in a small PA town in the back of my mind, should I ever get laid off!
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Location: A Yankee in northeast TN
16,154 posts, read 21,313,253 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PatanjaliTwist
Not meaning to toss a spanner into the mix, but then, shouldn't your store & many others, hire more people to collect carts? I agree, the cart collectors I see are working hard & I do see an increasing # of older folks working at such a job, but it appears there are often too few of them. Surely, each store could afford 1-2 more, no?
Retail, for the most part, is no longer about the customer. It's about the shareholders and the bonus money for the veeps at the top of the corporate ladder. Budgets are being cut to the bone with payroll being the easiest and most effective way to cut cost in the short term.
Ours is a fortune 500 company with a CEO that makes millions in bonus, yet we cut corners every way possible. Stores are kept understaffed to maximize profit. We talk a great game about good customer service but the reality is there simply aren't enough bodies to take care of all the the things that should be done. It's pathetic, but I don't see it changing anytime soon.
Retail, for the most part, is no longer about the customer. It's about the shareholders and the bonus money for the veeps at the top of the corporate ladder. Budgets are being cut to the bone with payroll being the easiest and most effective way to cut cost in the short term.
Ours is a fortune 500 company with a CEO that makes millions in bonus, yet we cut corners every way possible. Stores are kept understaffed to maximize profit. We talk a great game about good customer service but the reality is there simply aren't enough bodies to take care of all the the things that should be done. It's pathetic, but I don't see it changing anytime soon.
Another cost cutter is the attempt to force customers into using self-checkout. Some stores used to have a couple self checkout isles but it was easy to find a human cashier. Now I am starting to see one or two human cashiers and lots of self-checkout isles. But the human cashiers are often separated by 15 isles from the self checkouts. So if you are in the food portion of Wal-Mart, all the checkouts are self-checkout that are near the food area. The only way to get human cashier is to walk to the complete other side of the store to find the human cashiers.
I didn't have anything to contribute, just that the title of this thread cracked me up because I was thinking about all the random shopping carts I see around the town as if they're on vacation. But then I realized you meant people at the store just not putting them away lol
When I consider that a lot of the people who drive around here do so because they're too lazy to walk (I mean people who take their car to the grocery six blocks away to pick up milk), I'm not surprised they don't feel like walking to find a corral if it's not right next to them. They're lazy butts in general.
As for the rest, maybe just poor manners. Pretty common these days. Or maybe people don't like to leave their car with all their stuff in it to wander off. Once they put the stuff in, they just want to go, especially if they have small children with them. Or maybe because they can do it without being penalized. After all, many people only do the right thing because doing otherwise has consequences. No consequences and they do what they want.
The only time I won't walk it is if I see that the corral is full, in which case I'll prop the front wheels up on something nearby so the cart can't roll (and never where it would be blocking a space).
Retail, for the most part, is no longer about the customer. It's about the shareholders and the bonus money for the veeps at the top of the corporate ladder. It's pathetic, but I don't see it changing anytime soon.
Hiya DT... Yes, of course. I forgot that I seldom find someone to help me inside most stores, should I need assistance... don't know why I thought there'd be plenty of employees outside of stores for cart collection.
And, as a 22-yr old, I worked in retail in a large, upscale, inner-city dept store. Even in those days, cost cutting meant longer hours & less employees, particularly after 6pm. Goodness forbid we at the front of the store needed to venture all the way to the back & up escalators for several floors to use the bathrooms or go to lunch. We were not only grabbed every few feet to help people (because we had store badges we couldn't take off), but to add insult to injury to customers, we weren't allowed to help customers in different depts. I didn't know anything about shoes or men's suits anyway... I worked with makeup, but frustrated shoppers simply thought we didn't wish to help them. The insults flung at us daily was astounding. In my personal experience, retail was a thoroughly thankless job for barely above minimum wage. It chased me back into the business world, where I could be treated poorly for slightly above min wage. This also explains the expressions I often see on retail worker's faces, should I ask for assistance. I don't know... it doesn't seem to benefit either end, does it?
But, I still believe we should at least attempt to complain to the people who can do something about it. Ya never know... maybe like the 1 parent, who objected to school prayer, 1 complaint can start the ball rolling on remedying the carts-gone-wild problem.
I'm fairly certain, this is what's going on in virtually all stores' parking lots, when we're not looking:
And, I agree with S2C, as well. I really dislike self-checkout, because I eat a lot of fresh food sans bar codes & often without a code sticker, as well. People groaning whilst waiting for a terminal behind me are plentiful when I'm trying to figure out which type of apple I have out of the 5 organic & 4 non-organic available. Sorry, I don't recall... I walk around & simply take the ones which look best... I'm not paying attention to signs after a long day, with a headache. The amount of time it takes me to checkout is annoying for all involved & further, I don't want to do it. If I have to do all the work, give me a few cent's discount for saving you the cost of an hourly wage for the employee who could have that job, but isn't needed, now that customers are doing their own checking-out.
I suppose in the near future, we'll see those 15 unused cashier stands in the front of stores taken out to make room for merchandise... or an expanded Starbucks.
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Okay, I got mad tonight...
This also explains the expressions I often see on retail worker's faces, should I ask for assistance. I don't know... it doesn't seem to benefit either end, does it?
