I think I have a solution for the parking problems at grocery stores. You know how it is; every time you go to the grocery store every good parking spot has a grocery cart in it. Here is the solution. The grocery stores should start charging a deposit for using the carts. It would not even need to be very much. Let's say $1. Then, like a pop (what some of us call soda) can when you are done with the cart, you go back and get your dollar.
Oh, wait everywhere doesn’t give money back for cans. Some of us have spent our whole lives getting a nickel back for pop cans. It’s pretty cool really. You do not see many cans on the side of the road. I’ve even heard rumors that in some states you can get a dime back. Here in Vegas we just recycle them at the curb. I have actually had people beat the trash people to my house and take them so they could recycle them for cash I suppose. Once I messed up and put my cans out a week early, only to find that somebody recycled them for me.
Anyway, back to the real story. I know what you're saying, “But, I'm not the person leaving the carts out to cause damage to all the cars. Why should I be forced to pay a deposit when I'm not the person leaving the cart out?” Well, if it isn't I and it's not you, then who the heck is it? It's certainly not the homeless. In fact, if they took the stupid wheel locks off there wouldn't be any in the parking lot at all. Actually, I'm sure that we wouldn't see any in the parking lots if they were worth a dollar. People would be lining up to take them back.
In the small town where I grew up we never had run away grocery carts. We didn't even take the carts outside. There was high school kids hired to do it for everyone. As I remember it, we weren’t even tipped. It was just part of our job. I remember someone getting a tip once but it was a person from out of town and stopped at the lake for the weekend. I remember thinking, "wow, that's what it is like to live in the city." Well now that I live in the city, it just seems like I must walk farther. But that is what we get for reserving so many prime spots for shopping carts.
At least that's the way I see it.
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4 comments:
I like that ideea. - Just like in an airport, where you are charged for the use of a luggage cart to assist with hauling your luggage to your car from the baggage claim. Oh wait - you don't get that money back - but, you get the general drift. I like your idea - sounds like a plan - keep 'em coming!
I appreciate your blog on shopping carts. They cause so many problems simply because people will not take the extra time to walk maybe 10 steps or more to place the buggy in the rack provided for returned carts. I don't know if the deposit will work, some people may say, "ah, it's only a buck". Not sure what the solution is, but appreciate the chance to vent. Thanks, Linda W
I live about 3 hours from Vancouver, BC, Canada and they have something of a deposit system for carts there.
To unlock the cart frm the corral, you have to put a quarter in a little slot in the handle. When you put the cart back in a corral, you get your quarter back. I think it works because you see your quarter the whole time you are pushing the cart.
Kathy
We have discount grocery stores that use the deposit system and it seems to work well. You never see carts in the parking lots. Sometimes customers will even hand off their cart to a new customer out in the parking lot and let them cash in on the usage and the quarter too.
Personnaly, my favorite was the drive-up service. Where all your bags went into bins on a belt that went outside, you got a tag for each bin, you to drove-up in a designated area and an employee took your bin tags and loaded your car, you never see this service anymore.
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