When shopping carts attack

Oh, you have those people, too?

Most cars have more scratches from parking at the shopping center than from real traffic.

 

A shopping cart attacked my Honda Accord a couple of years ago in a Kroger parking lot. $500 in damages.

 

I have noticed that morons congregate close to the store entrance. Heaven forbid they would have to walk!!
I usually park as far down the parking lot as practicable, and have had so far zero issues with carts

 

That is one of the main reasons why I try to park far away from everyone else and the shopping cart return areas. I used to work at a bank and the branch was inside a supermarket. Tons of scratches and dings on the car I had at the time from those people.

 

Last week in Home Depot parking lot, I came out and some wonderful person had pushed a cart into my 1 month old Prius. Its going to the body shop next week and will have to have the front passenger door fixed and repainted, about $450.

 

There are two kinds of people in the world, those who put their shopping carts away and those who don't.

 

I totally agree. And the ones that don't just thorougly piss me off !!

 

When I was living in the Netherlands, I got used to the "paid" shopping cart policies at my local shopping mart (Albert Heijn). The carts had a built-in coin holder that was used to remove carts from the stack. You got your coin back when you returned the cart to the stack. I never saw a cart left anywhere... I wish we could adopt this model in the US.

 

No reason why not, you have to pay to get the luggage cart at the airport... what do you do with them when you're done? I can't remember... do you get money back? I sure never see them lying around.

 

I live in New York City (Manhattan), which is supposed to be a lot rougher on cars. But I venture out to the wealthy, leafy green suburbs about once a week.

However, 4 out of the 5 dents and scratches on my 2007 Prius are from these relatively infrequent and brief visits to the suburbs:

-- 1 keying scratch
-- 1 rear bumper dent/scratch from a shopping cart
-- 2 passenger side door dents from the opening doors of adjacently parked cars

My conclusion: Suburbanites are uncouth ANIMALS. They should come into the city more often to get some couth and civility.

 

It only really hurts bad the first time. Then it is just annoying as hell. Or so I am told...here in Seattle everyone returns their carts to the proper location and door dings/vandalism are a rarity. Mmmm this medication is nice.

 

I wonder if its the same family of dirtbags that I saw once in Rancho Cordova. I watched a young teenage kid push a shopping cart across the parking lot aiming for another car. I was in position to intercept and save it from hitting the car. I took it over to the shopping cart rack and the kid looked at me like I was an alien lifeform. I said something to the effect that it was wrong to damage other peoples property and the leader of the clan yelled at the kid to get in the car (I think it was a station wagon) and they drove off.

 

When Bush went looking for WMDs, he should have searched the Baghdad shopping malls.

 

It's inconsideration. In the dance of life, kids will push shopping carts and they will roll into cars...it happens. But the real problem is the parents being inconsiderate. That was a chance to appoligize and teach the child "why" we are responsible and return the cart to the cart holding area carefully. Instead the child learns nothing, because the parents know nothing.

When I was a kid, if I had accidently or mindlessly pushed a shopping cart away and let it roll into someones car, or just into harms way, my parents would of taught me not to ever do it again. It bothers me when Parents don't care enough to teach their kids to do whats right.

Sure, "pay" carts would solve that specific problem, but then unfortunately using a shopping cart becomes that much more inconvienent for everyone. Too bad seems like things are getting worse. On one hand, it's a minor incident, no harm, no foul. On the other hand, if the OP wasn't in the car to get out and stop the cart, it would of probably been at least a scratch or worse, on a brand new car.

 

Yes, this is an ongoing argument between my wife and I and sometimes the kids join in. My wife accuses me of parking in BFE for no reason and I repeatedly explain that I work too hard for the money I make to not take good care of what I purchase with it. Not to mention the bit of exercise is not a bad thing. I always park on the uphill areas, away from other cars, and never near the cart returns.

There is a low end discount grocery store about 5 miles from us that has the carts that require a quarter to get from the rack and you get the quarter when you get it back. A quarter is not much but the clientele is such that everyone shopping there returns the cart for the quarter and the store does not have to pay an employee to bring carts back in from the parking lot. We shopped there while I was unemployed for a few months 5+ years ago and I thought the cart policy was great.

 

Yes, this is common practice in the Netherlands, but do you really believe this may be adopted in the US? Someone will surely object for some weird reason, there are so many of them to choose from, none of them called: common sense!

 

Just to clarify my own opinion, I don't have anything against a "pay cart" system. I just think it's sad when we reach a point where people are so inconsiderate and unthinking, or plain lazy that we need one. How hard is it really to return a cart safely to a cart holding area? Sometimes I walk the cart all the way back into the store.

Also as I get older, I find parking far away more and more of a sacrifice. When I was in my 20's taking a few extra steps, to keep my vehicle potentially safer from the crowds wasn't a problem. Now I have more and more days where being closer to the entrance and the exit seems valuable. I'm still healthy enough to park in BFE but I don't know how many more years I'll be able to "Walk Like an Egyptian".

 

we need airbags for shopping carts