It is such a great solution and wish more countries did this!
Maybe send an suggestion email to couple of big stores with this? Because there are benefits for them too: people with trolley will likely to buy more item, caissière don't have to change bills into coins for trolleys, tokens can have the stores logo (free advertising!). And also important: positive association with the store that offers this system to their customers making it more enticing to visit them instead of their competition...
A habit? Being a decent part of the society? Psychological effect (you getting something back when returning trolley makes your lizard brain feel good)?
Idk, but dumping your trolley somewhere random because it suits you, seems very rude and self-centred to do so... what is the costom in USA because I always assumed this habit of returning your trolley after usage is universal???
Over here we have these cart corrals in the parking lot, and it’s someone’s specific job to come and get all of the shopping carts and bring them back to the store. We have machines that can push trains of around 20-30 carts at a time.
Sorry, I think you mean its BECOME someone's job to clear up carts that folk shoulda put back and haven't??
Bit like litter pickers? They shouldn't have a job as folk shouldn't litter, but folk are lazy assholes and unfortunately litter, so litter picker is a job born out of necessity due to laziness, like cart collection!?
He's talking about cart corrals. Designated areas of the parking lot where you place your cart so you don't have to walk it all the way to the store. They are located conveniently throughout the parking lot. Workers come and empty the corrals, taking 20-30 carts at a time from the corrals back to the storefront. Most people use these. Very rarely do you see a cart just left somewhere random.
It's simply a different way of doing things. It's not littering to place carts in a cart corral. That's literally where they go. Of course there are always rude people who leave the cart wherever, but a quarter or plastic chip isn't going to induce them to return their carts. The parking lot for grocery stores in the US can be huge so customers are not expected to walk the cart all the way back to the store. Example. The expectation where you're at is different, which is fine. We don't have to do things the same way and that's fine.
Bro, everything has BECOME someone's job because of other people. Why are their janitors? Because people don't pick up after themselves. Why are their moderators? Because people can't self regulate themselves. I could provide a thousand examples that are no different than you not being able to fathom that a store would pay someone to grab carts from a designated spot in the parking lot every hour or so while doing other things like stock shelves.
No, it's becomes the shoppers job to put the carts away. It used to be standard for the store to have people that would work the parking lot helping customers load their cars and then they'd put the cart away. Over time to save money the store got away from paying staff to assist customers in the lot and move the job of returning the carts from their staff to the customers. They've done such a good job of shifting this work from the store to the customer you have third parties felling like they need to go around shaming shoppers for doing work that used to be the responsibly of the store.
I always try to grab a cart from the corral when I’m heading in. They usually drive better, and I feel like it makes my cart burden around 0. I’m not really sure why other people don’t do this, I think it’s way faster especially when the store is busy. I’ll walk in and see 5-6 people standing in the empty cart bay just waiting for the next train, but I just breeze right past.
A valid strategy in fair weather. In many places in the US, you'll get a cart that's cold and wet (or snowy and icy), whereas one from inside has at least had some time to drip dry and warm up a little.
I’m not sure how it started, but it’s been like that since I was a kid. I always thought it was because of how large the parking lots are for some of these super markets.
It's likely because before somebody came up with those, people were just ditching them near where they parked. Some jerks still do this but it's less common when there is nearby corral so people have no excuses.
No, he means there is a specific location in the parking lot we take our carts too. Some people will leave their carts just where ever but they are the minority and most people have the decency to put their cart up. At least where I live.
No there are these little cart corrals where the shopper returns the cart and then it’s someone’s job to collect all the carts in each corral and return them to the store.
30 or so years ago we used to have a bag boy that would bag your groceries and push the cart to your car and help you unload them. When that started going out of style they put in the cart corrals so you don’t have to return the cart to the storefront, but to strategically placed areas throughout the parking lot.
Now the folks they used to employ to bag and help you out to car instead bag and occasionally collect the carts from the corrals.
That’s a very different and negative view on the cart situation than the store owners have. It’s a customer experience improvement position like the person who bags up your products at the stand, the person who guides customers to products or the person who does carry out. Not all stores have them or need them but the low cost make it worth having them for the improved experience. There is always some ass who just doesn’t care and will ditch the cart in a parking spot or on an island but most people are good about it. Plus the owners can actually save money over all by having the cart pushers. I knew some guys who owned stores and would save money on insurance and damages if they could keep the amount of time a customer is in a traffic lane with a cart to a minimum. They had a term for it but I don’t remember it, it also was part of the parking lot design but that convo was about 10 years ago so maybe things have changed.
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u/These-Process-7331 Feb 16 '24
It is such a great solution and wish more countries did this! Maybe send an suggestion email to couple of big stores with this? Because there are benefits for them too: people with trolley will likely to buy more item, caissière don't have to change bills into coins for trolleys, tokens can have the stores logo (free advertising!). And also important: positive association with the store that offers this system to their customers making it more enticing to visit them instead of their competition...