welcome to California, just take a grocery cart, they're free (Vista: cheap apartment, living in)

[Fontucky]

No, they'd rather have the WIC and food stamps from the mojados.

[Lovehound]

Originally Posted by MIKEETC

If the store wants to do something about it they'll do something about it.

[not my problem]

I'm very annoyed by shopping carts appearing any place except store parking lots, but I've come to pretty much the same conclusion. If the store wanted to do something about it then they'd do something about it. Their inaction (besides posting signs) indicates to me that the store doesn't care sufficiently other than to hire a shopping cart fetching service. I understand these services can work for multiple stores (so for example they may be looking for more than just Ralphs carts) and they receive a fee by returning them to the store.

It becomes your own personal problem when a cart shows up on your lawn and you have to either call the store or just wish it would disappear (the latter is 100% effective although may take quite some time). Or you push it up the block and it can annoy one of your neighbors, not a very effective solution to getting along with your neighbors.

But what really annoys me is all the homeless people who load up the carts with belongings and recyclables they're collecting, annoying because the carts are unsightly (along with the person pushing it) and I don't like the principle that they've illegally taken possession of property they do not own and are using it for their own purposes. IMO it would put a crimp in some of the homeless problem if they were denied their misappropriation of shopping carts. (IMO the main purpose of the money for recyclables program is to provide income to homeless people, a pretty poor solution to litter in the street. If the recyclables program were actually intended to increase recycling then you would be able to get money for glass of all kinds, not just specific containers. And if we're really trying to reduce litter, how about requiring a deposit on styrofoam fast food containers and a recycling fee for them too?)

Here's my "can you top this?" story: I was driving over to my local supermarket (about 4-5 blocks from home) and as I approached a side street intersection two shopping carts came around the corner right at me, each of them being "operated" by a person riding next to it on a bicycle, a young man and young woman about late teens or early twenties. I had no chance to make any maneuver to avoid hitting them and I'm glad they somehow missed me. I sure wish I had my camera with me that day.

Anyway I wish the markets or somebody would do something about keeping the carts on market property but I think they're sufficiently satisfied with the present system. And I predict you'll never see the day that a police officer will confiscate a cart from a homeless person merely because the homeless person doesn't own the cart. Even more unlikely, a homeless person prosecuted for stealing a shopping cart.

[cricket_factor]

Originally Posted by sjnative

when you refer to "California", who exactly are you referring to? The state gov? The county or city govs?

Please be more vague so that our vision can outrightly blur after reading your posts.

I don't know whose responsibility it is, frankly. I'm merely responding to this thread because I have vast experience with living in neighborhoods where shopping carts were spread around like parked cars.

I don't think cricket_factor is quite ready to understand that, though. It's easier to put the onus on "California".

I will readily admit that I don't know how every single thing in life works. As a lifelong California resident I'm merely commenting on a problem that causes blight and in which another state's certain store seemed to have under its control.

However, I get to add my two cents to the thread, no matter what anyone thinks about it.

[Lovehound]

Originally Posted by cricket_factor

I KNOW - why doesn't California do this?

When I went to visit my boyfriend's parents in Wichita, Kansas, they had an Aldi's store there where this simple "technology" was used to keep carts around the store.

Why does California need people with flatbed trucks going around locating carts instead of instituting this system?

In California we make a lot of simple things very, very difficult.

Originally Posted by sjnative

when you refer to "California", who exactly are you referring to? The state gov? The county or city govs?

Please be more vague so that our vision can outrightly blur after reading your posts.

...

Flatly apathetic, but true. It is, literally, the store's business. I don't think cricket_factor is quite ready to understand that, though. It's easier to put the onus on "California".

I'll agree that Cricket somehow makes it sound like this is a problem that can somehow be blamed on "California" for not solving it. Removing shopping carts from the owner's premises is already illegal. There is no reason for me to believe that our legislative government can do anything more about the problem. In theory police can arrest shopping cart misappropriaters but many if not most of us would agree that far more dangerous criminals are getting away with serious crime, enough that we don't have the resources to prosecute shopping cart thieves unless we would be willing to pay more for police enforcement of shopping cart crimes, and you know the increased funding isn't going to happen.

Nor is this problem caused by Californians like you and me. Most of us drive to the supermarket even if it's only a few blocks away, because it's easier to get our goods home and because we're too lazy to walk that far carrying something. Poor people who don't own cars take the carts when they buy too many groceries to carry on their walk home. I guess you could blame them but good luck getting them prosecuted. And homeless people take them, sometimes even for long term use. Again as I said above, good luck getting them prosecuted.

I presume supermarkets are already using the most cost effective solution available to them, hiring a shopping cart retrieval service and just accepting permanently lost carts as part of the cost of doing business. The quarter operated system doesn't sound too bad but supermarkets aren't going to adopt that unless (1) it is at least no more expensive than the retrieval service, and (2) doesn't annoy customers with the hassle of dropping a quarter, perhaps causing the market to lose business due to annoyed customers.

And finally, the big one! Who cares? I mean yeah, the carts annoy me and they annoy you, but does anybody care enough to do anything more than kvetch about it? No.



p.s. I'd like a system where the carts have some sort of device that would lock the wheels at the edge of the parking lot. That's my engineer's solution to the problem. It would only affect (1) the store who has to pay for the system, and (2) people who are removing carts without permission.

[TimC2462]

C'mon folks. What do you have against people stealing carts. I like the metal ones the best, since you can flip it sideways and use it as barbecue grill.

[BlackShoe]

Originally Posted by seain dublin

Then abandon it somewhere close to where they live.

The ones with cars abandon them right where they park. Have you ever seen an illegal return a cart to the store, or at least the rack for them in the parking lot? Cannot ever recall ever seeing this. The usual practice is to give them a shove after they are empty, and then drive off. Of course, the cart usually then rolls away and slams into another vehicle, but then, that possibility never occurred to them. Anyone besides me ever gotten dings in their car from an errant shopping cart? Rather think so. My usual practice is to park at the far end of the lot if at all possible. If patronizing a business that has a large illegals cusomer base, this is an absolute must.

[MIKEETC]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Sure it is. You pay for them at the checkstand.

Pennies.

[you can't avoid all costs]

[Twinkle Toes]

Please don't tell me these guys stole this cart!




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGMp6...eature=related

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by BlackShoe

Have you ever seen an illegal return a cart to the store, or at least the rack for them in the parking lot? Cannot ever recall ever seeing this. .

How do you see an illegal? Do they wear a sign? I lack the ability to discern whether someone is here legally or illegally by looking at them. What am I missing? Or do you just assume that anyone who looks Hispanic is illegal?

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by 8bravo

Maybe you should tell the store manager that YOU would stop shopping at his place when his trucks keep on waking you up at 5 in the morning...

The trucks to not connect to any specific store. They are contracotrs. they pick up all the carts, sor tthem out and return them to whitever store they came from.

The store manager woudl not care. We only buy staples there once in a while. We shop at Alberstsons or at Stater Brothers. Those little local groceries never have everything we need. Besides, we are not that fond of Oatieos and they do not carry Cheerios.