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[CortJstr]

I'm gonna blow all your minds here:  shopping cart return systems at grocery stores typically use dollar coins here.  It makes for a lot more returned carts. 

What is a shopping car return system?

[greenkoolayd]

the only grocery store i have come across that uses the prisoner exchange idea is Aldi's.

[pmcd9]

At the grocery store in my neighborhood it is common for the customers to take the shopping carts home.  About once a week a truck drives around the neighborhood and gathers up the carts and takes them back to the store.

[side_show]

What is a shopping car return system?

Are you serious?

At almost every grocery store in my city (apart from the super ghetto ones that wont let you take shopping carts out of the store due to theft, there is a system where the carts are neatly positioned in groupings through out the parking lot and in the entry way to the store.  They are each nestled into each other and connected to each other by small chains which, if you pop a loonie in, releases the individual cart for your use.  When you're done you just return the cart and reattach the chain, get your dollar back and go on your merry way.  I like it because it prevents vehicle damage and the waste of parking spots by abandoned carts.

I stopped at a vegetable store the other day that clearly notes if you take their carts outside the yellow boundry lines of the lot the rear wheel will lock up, an alarm will sound and a hidden boxing glove will pop out and punch you in the face.

There are carts like this at the nearest Safeway to me - they also require a dollar to release, but in addition have a thing where the wheels lock up, supposedly if you get too far from the store.  When it locked up on me I was still well within the store's parking lot, so it was a bit of a pain in the ass.  It was just a nasty "thud" noise and the rear wheels had this sort of mini tire boot thing that caused the wheels to seize up.  I was close enough to my car that I just said fuck it and left the cart sitting where it seized.

The closest grocery store to my home no longer allows carts out of the store due to theft, and we have a shopping care retrieval patrol like the one Paul mentions.  There was one house that had at least a dozen carts out front.  That's a "have some dignity" situation right there. 

[theinevitable]

The ones at my store lock up if you try to take them out of the store. Despite all the signs, people try to take them out of the store.

I don't understand how the dollar-deposit thing works, because shopping carts cost a lot more than a dollar. Isn't that just allowing homeless and loonies to buy a shopping cart for a loonie??

[side_show]

The ones at my store lock up if you try to take them out of the store. Despite all the signs, people try to take them out of the store.

I don't understand how the dollar-deposit thing works, because shopping carts cost a lot more than a dollar. Isn't that just allowing homeless and loonies to buy a shopping cart for a loonie??

It's not about preventing homeless people from taking carts, it's about encouraging customers to return carts to their alloted return spots so they can get their loonie back.

[theinevitable]

I understand this. But how do they prevent homeless people from stealing the expensive carts?

[AugustWest]

It makes carts less available.  If you put your buck in to get your cart, you have a financial motive to put the cart back in the locked rack, thus making it far more difficult for the homeless person to steal.

[Nabubrush]

I understand this. But how do they prevent homeless people from stealing the expensive carts?

The homeless people don't get the cart to begin with because the shopper returns it for the $1. I wish they did that in PDX. It's pretty odd that they don't. I'm ok with the homeless folks having carts, though.

[jay-ell]

We just got an Aldi here, but that's the only store I know of in the area that has a shopping cart return system. I'm familiar with the concept, though, because most of the malls use a similar system to rent strollers (which some people use as shopping carts at Christmas time, making it impossible to get a stroller to put your actual child in when you need one, grr argh).

In one shopping center, it is common to see people in Target with Home Depot carts and in Home Depot with Target carts, because they are adjacent and lots of times people will go to one store, then the other without switching carts. I've done it myself when there are kids involved.

[theinevitable]

the homeless people where you guys live must not want the carts as much as the ones where I live do. Also, I feel like without the locking mechanism, each customer would just take the cart home with them and keep it at their house/apartment somewhere. I guess because we are in a downtown area where a lot of people walk to the store.

[jay-ell]

That's exactly what it is. I live in the suburbs; I can walk to a grocery store but that's extremely rare in my town. I can only think of three subdivisions/complexes in the whole town that are within walking distance to any kind of shopping whatsoever, out of several dozen. We looked extensively when we were house shopping, and that's the main reason we bought here.

We don't have a lot of homeless people in our town because we aren't walkable and have terrible public transit. Most of the homeless  in our area live closer to downtown Raleigh, where they have access to more services and bus routes.

In Raleigh, with the university and a bunch of condos and mixed-use buildings downtown, it's possible to live without a car, but here in the 'burbs, everybody has to drive everywhere.

[theinevitable]

I just took the bus for the second trip ever (I think maybe I took it some times when I was a freshman in college but back then I didn't even understand which way was up in St Louis. so that doesn't count.) I think I am getting really into it. Was at a concert with friends, and decided it was too loud and bad... just walked a block, got on the bus, and now I am back at my house instead of at a stupid concert.

[pmcd9]

I'd say that the store in my neighborhood is smarter to let the customers take the carts with them.  As evidenced by the picture I linked to earlier, those folks purchased way more groceries than they could have possibly carried.  I took this photo in an area where bums tend to hang around sometimes.  I guess the bums in my neighborhood are not interested in shopping carts.

I must add however, that this is the only grocery store I've ever known of that doesn't mind the customers taking the carts.

When I lived in Utah I remember one time walking down a creek behind the grocery store and seeing dozens of carts there that had rolled off the parking lot and down a hill.  I don't know if the store was aware that they were there.

[side_show]

I could write a really emotional post related to helping a homeless couple with maneuvering their shopping cart, but unfortunately due to some of the details, doing so would be illegal under the Personal Health Information Act and could get me into serious trouble.  The identifying details of the couple are what make the story interesting, but unfortunately such details are too identifying.  They are the only couple like them in my community.