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I might be able to give an interesting perspective on this topic. Way back in the day, I was a “cart wrangler” once for Sam’s working part-time 30 hours a week, I did it for 6 months. With Sam’s not only do you have very large shopping carts, you also have those flat beds. There was 4 of us, and we would be staggered with the first person opening the store and being by themselves for 2 hours, then the next wrangler would come in and overlap for 3 or 4 hours, the first person would leave and the next wrangler would come in for 5-6 hours until closing, where the last hour you were usually by yourself.
For the most part, people actually did return the carts and flatbeds to the corrals throughout the parking lot and to the store. Our parking lot was quite large, I forget how many spots, and the lot was slightly on a hill sloping away from the store. We had one of those remote controlled cart pushing machines, where you keep adding more carts to the machine and it will push the entire stack like a snake. We still had to push the heavy flatbeds by hand.
When working with 2 or 3 people, one person would operate the machine and the others would go out to each corral and line the carts up so the person with the machine would just have to come by and get the carts to bring them back to the store, instead of having to stop and pull them out of the corral. The one thing about the machine, while it can push a lot of weight, even uphill, and it goes pretty slow, but it doesn’t stop on dime, there’s just too much weight and momentum and people would love to pull out in front of you at the last second, no bueno!
Being a cart wrangler, you knew that you could be injured and maybe even killed while doing your job by a car/truck/suv hitting you. You definitely get an interesting perspective about people and society in general being a cart wrangler. Most people thought all of us cart wranglers were a least a little mentally handicapped. My biggest issue was what people would leave in the parking lot, here’s some of the things I found over my 6 months:
Trash in garbage bags
Dirty diapers (lots of those)
4 used tires without the rims
A large sex toy
A dead body, no really!
The dead body happened when I was closing the store by myself during the last hour and I was up near the store entrance returning carts and from our surveillance cameras, you can see a van pull up in the far end of our parking lot and dump a dead body and drive away. When I came back to do a final sweep of the lot, I found the guy, no visible trauma, also no pulse, so we called the cops, it turned out to be a drug overdose.
I was also able to catch shoplifters and witness and even break up many fights. This one argument happened right in front of the store between these two old guys who looked like they were in their 70s or 80s and I had the carts on the machine coming up the first row and saw one of them sucker punch the other and he knocked the guy out cold. The guy that got punched hit the ground so hard, I thought he was dead. I’m certified in first aid and CPR and immediately ran up to the guy on the ground to see what I could do. He was unconscious, but had a pulse and I asked the other guy why he punched him and he said the guy said something about his girlfriend! We called the ambulance and the cops, the guy who was punched survived and you other guy was charged with assault.
Man the stories I can tell about those 6 months, they’re all going into that book I’m not writing!
One of my pet peeves is pulling into a parking spot at Costco, Walmart, grocery store, etc. and seeing a shopping cart sitting in part of the space. At Costco, people leave their carts all over the parking lot. They will pop the front wheels over the curb or just leave them in the space next to their car. All the while, the cart return is just yards away from their spot. On more than one occasion I have seen individuals leave their cart in the spot next to them and have approached them. I'll usually say "are you just going to leave the cart there?" One woman told me that a loose cart hit her cart once, so her revenge is to just leave her cart. I'll usually point out where the cart return is and offer to return it for them. "The cart return is right there, I'll return it for you if its too far away."
I consider these people lazy, but is there some other reason why they would just leave a cart in the space next to them when the cart return is just a short distance away? They are above such tasks? It seems inconsiderate to me. I was always raised to have common courtesy, as most people are, but this habit seems to go against that belief.
Nah, they're jerks. I always wish I'd see someone do it so I could go up to them and say, "I"m sure if you talk to your doctor you could get a handicapped plate!" When they act confused, I can say "Oh, well, you seem to be unable to walk a few feet, so I figured if you could get a plate or placard you can park closer to the store and make your life easier."
I'll give them a pass if they're actually parked in a handicapped spot, because for some people, a few yards *is* a bit deal (and my mobility-impaired mom actually said she preferred when people would leave their carts next to the handicapped spot because she wouldn't have to go to the cart corral to get one), but if they're 20 years old and hop out of their car far out in the lot in their workout gear and practically skip to the entrance? Nah.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell
I won't return shopping carts. Let them pay a kid to do it. Likewise, I won't use the computerized self-checkout. Let them pay a cashier. If I won't take a stand against the collapse of civilization, who will?
So, what, you expect a store employee to follow each customer out to the parking lot to take their cart for them? maybe you think there needs to be a roving gang of employees in the parking lot just watching for people getting in their cars so they can go over and grab the cart for them? I'm guessing you'd be the first to complain when prices go up because they have to hire all of these extra people?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arya Stark
Do I work for the store now? That is the store's problem. I don't see why I have to take even one extra step for the store or for some total stranger.
Only a smuck would assist the store in anything. They won't for you - I guarantee it.
I hope that the only time the carts don't hit your car in the lot is when they're blocking every parking space you want to use.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chiluvr1228
The Publix where I shop has a too small parking lot for the amount of traffic it gets and they don't have enough cart returns in order to save the parking space for cars. I'm not going to walk across the parking lot when it's 95 degrees (which it is for 5-6 months out of the year) to put the cart away. Now if I'm close to one I will but I always leave my cart where it's not blocking anyone from using a spot. If it's windy I make sure it's not going to roll into a car. For me it's not laziness, I just want to get into my air conditioned car with my groceries as soon as possible.
Now when it's not unbearably hot, humid or raining I will put the cart where it belongs and many times I bring others that are strewn across the parking lot with me.
And you don't think the minimum-wage employee out in the hot sun wants to get back into the air-conditioned store?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scooby Snacks
False equivalency. And sometimes not returning carts has nothing to do with other customers, but is an indirect passive aggressive message to the company itself. I don't return mine to Walmart's carrels on purpose. Why? Because the employees don't ever round them up. Every time I go they are overflowing in the carrels or strewn all over the lot. There are so few available at the store sometimes I have to pull one from the parking lot itself. Almost all businesses I do (Costco included), but the company has to do their job too.
As for Costco, those are some incredibly rude customers, banging into other customers with their carts, cutting in line, running up on me, stealing parking spaces others are waiting on, blocking aisles while they yammer on their cell phones, etc. . . And why on earth is every cart so godawful huge anyway? Sure many customers buy a lot of things, but many just need an item or two. They should offer smaller cart sizes that take up less space.
Then why shop at Walmart if you hate them so much? And why would rude jerks at Costco have anything to do with me and my car which your cart has just hit? Why not just slam your cart into their car and call it a day, and leave everyone else out of it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jobaba
I would get out and move the cart and then return to my car and park it there.
Now, would I then take THAT cart and bring it up if I'm not going to the supermarket?
If you're not going to the supermarket, why are you parked at the supermarket?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell
It seems like a weird thing to get upset about. I get a lot more peeved by people who throw their beer cans and burger wrappers out of their car when they drive past my house. If you don't like carts in the parking lot, snag one when you park and use it. Where I come from, the person doing the complaining is the one responsible for taking care of the problem. If I don't like litter in front of my house, it's up to me to pick it up.
And this is precisely why jerks continue being jerks, because nobody thinks they're responsible for their actions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arya Stark
Selfish and proud of it. Not like anyone else is going to look out for me.
Funny, I take care of myself just fine without deliberately making life difficult for other people. "Competent" and "selfish" are not synonyms.
Funny, I take care of myself just fine without deliberately making life difficult for other people. "Competent" and "selfish" are not synonyms.
You're beautiful.
It is the store's responsibility to take care of the carts without trying to guilt trip me into doing their work for them. Your beef is with the store.
Some truth to this, though when I shop at Whole Foods, I encounter some of the rudest people of any shopping experience. Mercedes and Caddies and other lux cars are always the ones parked in the handicap spots without the proper plates or hang tag. Carts are left all over the WF parking lot where I shop, and the surrounding community is a nice area. I think it's the "E" word: entitlement.
...
I know someone who worked at Whole Foods for a long time, and he never fails to remain shocked at the prices people will pay there. He said it's not all rich folks, either. The WF store in my area is so busy you can't even get a parking space, even when they open in the morning.
It is the store's responsibility to take care of the carts without trying to guilt trip me into doing their work for them. Your beef is with the store.
And you don't see the benefit you get in the store providing you with a cart? Shopping is a two way business, both sides reap a benefit. I don't get all the people who think they are bestowing a huge favor on stores by shopping there, you have to get it somewhere you know. I really truly wish the Aldi method would become the norm. People are great about living down to expectations or lack thereof.
I might be able to give an interesting perspective on this topic. Way back in the day, I was a “cart wrangler” once for Sam’s working part-time 30 hours a week, I did it for 6 months. With Sam’s not only do you have very large shopping carts, you also have those flat beds. There was 4 of us, and we would be staggered with the first person opening the store and being by themselves for 2 hours, then the next wrangler would come in and overlap for 3 or 4 hours, the first person would leave and the next wrangler would come in for 5-6 hours until closing, where the last hour you were usually by yourself.
For the most part, people actually did return the carts and flatbeds to the corrals throughout the parking lot and to the store. Our parking lot was quite large, I forget how many spots, and the lot was slightly on a hill sloping away from the store. We had one of those remote controlled cart pushing machines, where you keep adding more carts to the machine and it will push the entire stack like a snake. We still had to push the heavy flatbeds by hand.
When working with 2 or 3 people, one person would operate the machine and the others would go out to each corral and line the carts up so the person with the machine would just have to come by and get the carts to bring them back to the store, instead of having to stop and pull them out of the corral. The one thing about the machine, while it can push a lot of weight, even uphill, and it goes pretty slow, but it doesn’t stop on dime, there’s just too much weight and momentum and people would love to pull out in front of you at the last second, no bueno!
Being a cart wrangler, you knew that you could be injured and maybe even killed while doing your job by a car/truck/suv hitting you. You definitely get an interesting perspective about people and society in general being a cart wrangler. Most people thought all of us cart wranglers were a least a little mentally handicapped. My biggest issue was what people would leave in the parking lot, here’s some of the things I found over my 6 months:
Trash in garbage bags
Dirty diapers (lots of those)
4 used tires without the rims
A large sex toy
A dead body, no really!
The dead body happened when I was closing the store by myself during the last hour and I was up near the store entrance returning carts and from our surveillance cameras, you can see a van pull up in the far end of our parking lot and dump a dead body and drive away. When I came back to do a final sweep of the lot, I found the guy, no visible trauma, also no pulse, so we called the cops, it turned out to be a drug overdose.
I was also able to catch shoplifters and witness and even break up many fights. This one argument happened right in front of the store between these two old guys who looked like they were in their 70s or 80s and I had the carts on the machine coming up the first row and saw one of them sucker punch the other and he knocked the guy out cold. The guy that got punched hit the ground so hard, I thought he was dead. I’m certified in first aid and CPR and immediately ran up to the guy on the ground to see what I could do. He was unconscious, but had a pulse and I asked the other guy why he punched him and he said the guy said something about his girlfriend! We called the ambulance and the cops, the guy who was punched survived and you other guy was charged with assault.
Man the stories I can tell about those 6 months, they’re all going into that book I’m not writing!
Thanks for that, I think a book might be entertaining.
In regards to the perception people have of the 'cart wranglers', it's interesting because we have another deep discount grocery store in the area, which typically hires disabled people of various degrees. I have found many of them to be better with customer service than the seemingly sharp people who work there. There is a young man who has a speech problem and is slow who is one of the best customer service providers in the store. I witnessed him helping multiple people on my visits asking about some closeout items, or where things are located etc... This young man will go out of his way to search if they still have a product. I've had him help me on something and he is great.
I sometimes come across as cold in my comments and can be in real life while shopping, but it usually is because one has expectations of civility and consideration of others and knowing what is going on around them. What I have observed is there is a very large number of people who pay no attention nor thought into observing their surroundings and it becomes exasperating in certain high volume traffic store situations- whether inside as consumer or navigating the nearby environs.
TamaraSavannah brings up an interesting aspect about being of mindset to take extra responsibility to return carts. I recall as kid my mom would make it seem fun to allow us kids to have responsibility of steering / returning the cart. I still see parents who do this and you can tell the kids (usually 7 to 14) who take pride in having the responsibility of contributing to the shopping experience.
I surmise all the "leave it wherever I feel like it" types (carts /trays etc..) are dumbfounded if they have ever visited a national or state park with carry in - carry out rules.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Parnassia
What YOU decide to do or not do leaves an imprint. One person who litters might be a lazy PITA. One million people seeing no problem doing the same decimates the nation. Its herd mentality. How do you like the assumption of being brainless? OK, its returning a shopping cart; one little event, but its a symptom of how a person goes through their life too. Pile enough of those little acts together you have one sorry surly existence.
Every time I do some little considerate act I end up feeling better about the day. Do it one million times...that's a lot of feeling better. If I am considerate to someone they are more likely to be considerate of me. I prefer having a pleasant reputation with businesses I deal with year in and year out. Hard-nosed deliberate PITAs usually don't get cut any slack when they might need some. They are expending energy defending rude behavior and probably getting treated rudely as a result. Which is why they end up becoming PITAs in the first place. Self-fulfilling prophesy.
I watched a close relative go through their life becoming more selfish and rude to many people. It infected everything they did. In return they were treated worse and worse. Then they would end up brooding over every little slight. All it did was escalate over time. They ended up assuming no one could be trusted, the world was a terrible place, everyone was going to be mean or a threat. How is that a good way to live?
You're exactly right. The more you are cooperative, helpful, responsible and respectable, the better you feel. And it builds and builds. Each time you put your cart away, flush the public toilet, hold the door open for someone who is struggling, tell someone they dropped their credit card, tell the cashier she didn't ring up the lipstick, the better you feel, and it builds.
If you go through life purposely putting your carts where they don't belong just to spite Walmart, that builds too.
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