Shopping carts, courtesy or chicanery?

Yep. Got a brand new car scarred by a runaway trolley the first day I had it once. So I always take the trolley back, even pick up others I come across along the way.
Yes, Karaukey. There is no safer an option for one's car than to leave it in the garage and instead ride the trolley.
 
I have to use a 25 cent piece to unlock the cart so that I can use it. Since I'm basically cheap and don't want to show up at the store without adequate change I always return the cart. I have an old 35mm film canister that I keep in my car that I store the quarter in along with a dollar coin for the stores with expensive carts.
 
I always return them to where I got them no matter what the weather and I'm a seventy year old Canadian who tends to shop all year round, cold, snowy, rainy... It always pisses me off to see carts left in the lot or in a parking spot. It takes less than a minute to take a cart back into the store and park it where you found it.
One thing worse than the folks who leave carts is the guy who takes up two parking spots so he won't get his new car/truck scratched or the able bodied driver who uses the handicapped spots to save a few steps because he knows he won't get ticketed on a private parking lot.
 
I live in NJ...and I usually have 2 or 3 young kids with me. Sometimes if I am rushed and the kids are crazy or the parking lot is insane I leave my cart but mostly I return them.
I surprised the shops are not required to have cart-porters. In NJ the Barrier Free Laws won't let you pump your own gas
 
Always return to the corral. Usually try to ride it fast /feet off the ground while it's empty
 
Yeah, but you guys drive on the left side of the road. And your steering wheels are on the wrong side.
Yep. I had an American work mate stay with me for a while. Every morning we'd walk out to the car to drive to work and he'd climb into the drivers side, then he'd spot the steering wheel and say "Oh Geez, I think I'll start sitting in the back seat". He would try to do the same with cabs. By the time he got used to it, it was time to go home.

I'm surprised the auto correct spelling here on the forum is the spelling I'm used to color colour.
 
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Yep. I had an American work mate stay with me for a while. Every morning we'd walk out to the car to drive to work and he'd climb into the drivers side, then he'd spot the steering wheel and say oh Geez "I think I'll start sitting in the back seat". He would try to do the same with cabs. By the time he got used to it, it was time to go home.

I'm surprised the auto correct spelling here on the forum is the spelling I'm used to color colour.

And you also watch the 'telly', carry 'bumbershoots' when there's a possibility of rain, and drink water from 'bubblers'.

Also your auto-correct is what your computer, phone, or whatever machine you use has on it, not the forum...:eek:
 
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Yep. That's interesting, because even if I try to spell it the American way the spell checker automatically corrects it. You have to be quick to even notice the correction. "Well ye Gods and little fishies", as my old teacher used to say when someone surprised him with something new. Lol
 
Yep. That's interesting, because even if I try to spell it the American way the spell checker automatically corrects it. You have to be quick to even notice the correction. "Well ye Gods and little fishies", as my old teacher used to say when someone surprised him with something new. Lol

I know we're way off subject, but I think this thread is about to die anyhow...

You can go into your device settings--go to keyboard--then you should have an option for spell check that will allow you to change it to American English, if you so desire.

But beware--they say "When you go Yank, you never go back". ;)
 
Thank you. Nice to know the term yank is still acceptable, hard to be sure of anything these days. By the way, we live in the Gold Coast hinterland in Australia, where we rely on rain for tank water. Nowadays, it seems to either pour, or we get nothing for months on end. Right now it is dry, unbelievably dry. If it did rain there would not be a "bumbershoot" in sight, I think we'd go out and dance in it. Meanwhile, we do watch telly and the Uke comes out for every ad of course. Cheers
 
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Thank you. Nice to know the term yank is still acceptable, hard to be sure of anything these days. By the way, we live in the Gold Coast hinterland in Australia, where we rely on rain for tank water. Nowadays, it seems to either pour, or we get nothing for months on end. Right now it is dry, unbelievably dry. If it did rain there would not be a "bumbershoot" in sight, I think we'd go out and dance in it. Meanwhile, we do watch telly and the Uke comes out for every ad of course. Cheers

Just don't try to call us 'merkins'.
 
I know we're way off subject, but I think this thread is about to die anyhow...



But beware--they say "When you go Yank, you never go back". ;)

Why ...it doesn't rhyme ? :D
 
I park in a Handicap slot. I usually return the cart to the queue in front of the store. If there are carts in the Handicapped parking area, there frequently are. I will take all the carts to the corral. When practical I unload the bags at the queue and hand carry the bags to the car.

My wife has bad knees, and as a result, a handicap placard. I park in the handicap spots when she's with me. While we're shopping, she uses the cart as a walker. If there's a cart in the parking lot near where we park, it's a bonus because she doesn't have to walk all the way up to the building without assistance. When we're done, we usually leave the cart out of the way but near the parking spot. Not because we're lazy or discourteous, but because we figure she's not the only person parking in a handicap spot that needs assistance getting into the building.
 
Before I say anything, let me throw out there that I do return my carts.

I find this thread interesting because cart corrals are a fairly new thing. The McCue company claims to have made the first ones in 1994.
Before then it was the stores responsibility to over see the parking lot and the carts, now the shoppers seem to have heartily accepted this responsibility and take it seriously.
So the stores are off the hook and no one laments the loss of jobs for teenagers?

Going back even further (late 70's maybe?) I vaguely remember when fast foods restaurants began asking people to dispose of their own garbage and trays, before then they had employees clean the tables off.
I think the trend over the years has been for business to have the customer do as much as possible to cut costs. Now a lot of places encourage shoppers to bring their own bags, which is better for the environment without a doubt, but aren't they really just trying to save money on bags?
 
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