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sbenois
Supporter
Username: Sbenois
Post Number: 15380
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - 10:42 pm: | 
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Is it really the responsibility of the Kings people to recover their carts from every parking lot in town? Sure it's keeping people employed but leaving carts in the lot behind the bagel shop is ridiculous.
Isn't it?
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Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 15096
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 1:46 am: |
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Is it? I think that distance is about the same as in a big supermarket parking lot.
I'm not sure where I stand on this issue. Maybe we should put breastfeeding mothers in the carts. That will heat this topic up.
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combustion
Citizen
Username: Spontaneous
Post Number: 262
Registered: 4-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 1:56 am: |
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Why don't people return shopping carts? Because they're lazy. |
Scully
Citizen
Username: Scully
Post Number: 780
Registered: 8-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 2:35 am: |
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What she said. |
Cynicalgirl
Citizen
Username: Cynicalgirl
Post Number: 2973
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 6:28 am: |
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I can see why they don't if they have to park far from King's, especially if they have kids in tow (though taking a couple of kids into that weeny little King's seems a prescription for annoyance if you're getting more than a couple of things). One reason I don't shop there for bigger shops is parking. It might be as well for King's to get permission to designate a couple of car return areas in the likely lots, at least in the lot behind the bank and the commuter lot across from the store (and maybe cut a deal with the bank in this regard). I imagine in the original days when the store was built, locals walked there with those wheeled shopping carts at best and there maybe was no problem. |
Virtual It Girl
Citizen
Username: Shh
Post Number: 4806
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 7:39 am: |
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I'm with Cyn, I have never bought more than a few items at Kings because I couldn't quite figure out the shopping cart thing with little kids (and I didn't want to second mortgage the house). |
Soparents
Supporter
Username: Soparents
Post Number: 2237
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 8:02 am: |
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The weirdest thing is when I return my cart, people look at me like i'm nuts doing it! The same at Wholefoods.... some stupid cow SAW me unpacking my shopping cart last week, LEFT her cart beside my front wheel while I watched her, and then when I (sarcastically, or maybe that went right over her head) said oh don't you worry an ounce about your cart being in front of my car i'll put it away with mine shall I??, she said "Thanks Lady" and walked off....the area for shopping carts was all of 10 feet away.
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Hank Zona
Supporter
Username: Hankzona
Post Number: 5971
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 8:31 am: |
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reasons: laziness; sense of entitlement; clueless to most folks around them except themselves. |
red
Citizen
Username: Redy67
Post Number: 6469
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 8:40 am: |
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No, I disagree Hank. Call me lazy if you want to (•••• my mom calls me fat!) |
CLK
Supporter
Username: Clkelley
Post Number: 2350
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 9:01 am: |
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Well let me say first that I don't often shop at Kings, and like others never ever buy big ordres. I will pick up something if I happen to be in the village for something else.
However, there are reasons I could see for not bringing your cart back, especially in the summer time. The car is really hot; you put your frozen foods in; take the extra 10 min. to walk your cart back to the shop and back. Add 10 min. to drive home, and your ice cream is now just sweetened flavored cream. If it's selfish to want frozen ice cream, well I guess King's would rather have people be selfish & shop there than unselfish and go someplace else.
Another one: You are unloading your groceries into the cart, and one of those parking-lot sharks is hovering waiting for your space. Obviously, the right thing to do is to walk s - l - o - w - l - y back to King's and back, but I can see people bowing to the pressure. (not me - I'd even let my ice cream melt in order to blow off one of these idiots - but I can see it happening.) |
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 3594
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 9:14 am: |
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Why should I return carts to Kings? The prices are astronomical, so they can obviously afford to hire cheap labor to collect them. Besides, I don't live in Maplewood, so what do I care? Not only do I purposely leave my cart around town (sometimes farther than where I park), but I toss the wrappers from my bonbons on the ground, and I pee out the window as I drive by the train station.
Why should I care? |
red
Citizen
Username: Redy67
Post Number: 6473
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 9:23 am: |
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Rastro--in reality they do have people that are hired to collect them. I know of one gentleman that this is his lively hood and he is greatful that he has this job. |
Joanne G
Citizen
Username: Joanne
Post Number: 375
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 9:46 am: |
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In summer here, we have large coolers in our car boot (trunk?) to help keep ice cream etc frozen, so we could walk a bit to return our trolleys - but yeah, mostly we don't. It keeps some people employed - keeps 'em fit! - keeps the males with nicer bodies sweaty and interesting to look at...(don't usually see females do this job???)
Other people expecting you to clean up after them? - SOP- you just look like you must own/work there!!!! Happens to me, too, in the most unusual shops 
(am attempting to go to bed - before midnight for once. let me go! let me sleep! otherwise see you in an hour...) |
Hank Zona
Supporter
Username: Hankzona
Post Number: 5976
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 9:49 am: |
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what came first...the cart picker-uppers or the cart leavers?
I dont disagree that it is nice that someone who is grateful to have the job has it, red, but the creation of that job was a business necessity I am guessing because of human behavior, or because there werent enough carts easily available to customers because they were all over the Village, or because the town maybe told Kings they had to retrieve carts because they were taking up valuable parking spaces or causing damage to cars or creating some generally unsafe conditions. I also do think that a parent alone with a shopping cart and a kid or three in tow doesnt have it easy, but I also think that does not constitute the majority of cases where carts are left all over town. I guess the real solution is the five tier parking deck built above Kings. |
Soparents
Supporter
Username: Soparents
Post Number: 2241
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 9:57 am: |
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The funny thing was Joanne, I had the two girlies in the car screaming blue murder, and that day I had been at a meeting and was still wearing a suit along with proper court shoes with heels and a pearl necklace and earrings! She was just plain ignorant, even the kids said "she's a nasty lady Mummy. she nearly hit our car and Daddy would have told her off"....!!!!!
Look i'm being very ungracious here, maybe she's not local, maybe where she lives, the staff at her local Wholefoods etc wear designer suits and strings of pearls as a staff uniform...... I shouldn't be so quick to judge...
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Joanne G
Citizen
Username: Joanne
Post Number: 377
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 10:08 am: |
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An executive trolley collector???? or a work experience girl trying very hard to make a good impression?? 
let me go to bed - it's now well after midnight...and I've just read the eyeless cat thread to David... |
susan1014
Supporter
Username: Susan1014
Post Number: 1701
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 10:37 am: |
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Honestly, I park as close as I can, and carry my bags whenever my load is light enough.
However, I don't return my cart across the street when I need to use one. I think that collecting carts from at least the closest lots is just part of the business model of having that store in that location.
If the town of Maplewood or the management of Kings makes it clear that leaving the cart (safely grounded on a curb so that it won't roll) is unacceptable, then I will use Kings less, and purchase less per visit, as my shopping time is honestly too brief to use it taking long walks back with shopping cart and child while frozen food melts in the car. Especially since if I'm at Kings, it tends to be 30 minutes or less to my daughter's bedtime, on the way home from a dinner out.
None of the other groceries that I shop at expect me to return carts to the door of the store, so King's can't have that expectation and keep me as a shopper, I'm afraid (especially at their premium prices). I'll wait for the town or the store to tell me that they want me to take my business elsewhere, rather than being guilted by other posters here.
(Just curious as to whether the people calling us lazy do a share of the family grocery shopping, sometimes with kid(s) in tow, in narrow wedges of time between other commitments?) |
Hank Zona
Supporter
Username: Hankzona
Post Number: 5978
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 10:53 am: |
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susan,
Actually yes, in answer to your last question. And as I said in my last post, I do not think that the parent with kids in tow have it easy and they do have at times good reason to not return a cart but I dont believe that makes up the majority of folks who leave carts all over. So no, not everyone is lazy and selfish if they leave a cart, but a hell of a lot of people are. Even supermarket parking lots had to put in those cart corrals and people still dont always use them. |
Soparents
Supporter
Username: Soparents
Post Number: 2242
Registered: 5-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 10:55 am: |
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I love you Joanne for calling me a girl!!!!! |
greenetree
Supporter
Username: Greenetree
Post Number: 8486
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 11:49 am: |
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I never used to think about it much. I didn't really return the cart, but I always made sure to put it to the side or somewhere where it wouldn't roll or block a parking space. Nothing more aggravating than having to get out of a car to move a cart so that you can park.
This changed a year ago. I took my mom to the grocery store. It was hot, she wasn't well and weighed all of 100 pounds, soaking wet. She barely had the strength to lift bags out of the cart into the car. But, she insisted on doing whatever she could.
Then, she took the cart and started walking towards the store. I asked her where she was going. She said "I'm putting the cart back. It's rude and inconsiderate to the other shoppers to leave it here. No one should be that lazy."
Ever since then, I've always put the cart back. I can't leave it there and walk away because I always have this picture of her in my head pushing that cart on a boiling hot day, because she considered it the right thing to do, no matter what.
I will think about my mom every time I touch a grocery cart for the rest of my life. |
Oregon gal
Citizen
Username: Oregon_gal
Post Number: 69
Registered: 6-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 12:14 pm: |
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I heard something somewhere once (can't remember where for the life of me) that stuck - "there are the kind of people that return shopping carts, and there are the kind that don't." I have two little kids, and I want them to be the kind that do, so they watch me do it EVERY TIME. They also watch me pick up litter, give money to girl scouts etc. and be nice to people. The biggest compliment I can receive is when people say I have nice, kindhearted kids.
Soparents - I totally know what you're talking about with people looking at you like you're nuts. |
Proud Daddy
Citizen
Username: Proud_daddy
Post Number: 42
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 4:27 pm: |
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Greenetree - I like your mom. She thinks like my parents.
I moved down to the NYC area from Upstate many years ago and their influence still comes back to me every day.
Something as simple as bringing back carts. What doesn't make sense about it? It makes more spaces available and people do not have worry as much about dinged cars. You can't complain about either one if you do not bring your cart back.
Garbage - A lot of kids have no problem (no guilt) littering down here. I am on the Colombia HS route and I have to pick up trash every day from my yard. Not to mention the soda bottles, food wrappers and other crap at our soccer field (Chyzowych). During LAX and soccer season, the field is a mess after every practice/game. Who raises/coaches these kids? My coaches growing up, would never let us leave a field without picking up after ourselves. Can you say laps?
Last observation - Whole Foods - where you would think people who shop there have a better appreciation for their place in the environment (or I guess can afford to pay the difference between organic and conventional). I rarely see anyone return a cart. No guilt, no shame. Just think it is someone else's responsibility or it is too much work.
I just hope that what I remember of Rochester is still the same. |
Joan
Supporter
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 7801
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 5:20 pm: |
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I don't have as much of a problem with people leaving Kings shopping carts in the various parking lots about the village as I do with those who leave their carts in the river in Memorial Park or on the Country Club golf course.
Still, I suspect Kings' prices might be somewhat lower if more of us were to return their carts to the appropriate space to the side of the front entrance --not that I would want to see anyone such as the person Red mentioned lose their job as a result.
Has anyone seen the man who uses a King shopping cart as a walker when going to/from the apartment building on Valley and Millburn? I haven't seen him in a while. |
susan1014
Supporter
Username: Susan1014
Post Number: 1702
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 5:20 pm: |
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You know, I return my carts to the nearest cart return almost everywhere and almost all the time EXCEPT at Maplewood Kings. There the logistics are just too bad, especially with a kid along.
I make sure it is someplace that it won't roll, and isn't blocking a space, and I leave feeling morally comfortable. Sorry (but not very. |
Scalia
Citizen
Username: Scalia
Post Number: 32
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 6:13 pm: |
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I think grocery stores should charge a fee for the use of carts (like domestic airports) that would be refundable upon the cart's return. Too often rogue carts end up in the middle of a driving lane, blocking scarce parking spots or damaging vehicles. That said, I do not pretend to know the difficulties of shopping with children and if I ever do my views may change, although I doubt it.
My favorite cart experience was at Home Depot where I was waiting with blinker on to turn into an open space when the man next to the space finished unloading the contents of his cart into the trunk of his car, sneered at me and then shoved his cart into the space that I was waiting to use even though the cart collection bay was just on the other side of his car. That was so egregious I just had to laugh. |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 15100
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 7:20 pm: |
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Yeah, the deposit thing could work. Some would leave their carts out, and enterprising kids will return them to get the money.
I return carts most of the time. Does that mean I'm half polite? In big parking lots, they have places to return them. I really think we are expected to leave the carts around in Maplewood. There's no place for them, and there is a job to retrieve them. Why is using that person's designated labor rude? Do we know that Kings pays this wage grudgingly?
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Oregon gal
Citizen
Username: Oregon_gal
Post Number: 70
Registered: 6-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 10:03 pm: |
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I found this thread very relevant as I was standing in Kings tonight at 6:20. There weren't enough checkers and then a kid rushed in to open a register so red in the face the other checker asked him if he was OK. His response was "I've been out getting carts for an hour."
I don't know that Kings pays the wage grudgingly, but I do know I would rather have had him ringing me up than collecting carts.
One tip for people with kids - I have an umbrella stroller with a basket underneath that is a whole lot more convenient than a cart and I don't have to return it. |
doulamomma
Citizen
Username: Doulamomma
Post Number: 1617
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Friday, July 21, 2006 - 9:25 am: |
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what Susan1014 said...
usually return them, but if faced with unloading & then leaving a car full of kid(s) when I had to park blocks away, then I make sure that they are secure & out of the way & leave it at that. And I do sometimes buy a lot (though not with all kids along) - my theory is that it makes me feel like I'm still in the city - tiny cart, small store, high prices...
Related grocery topic: I generally bring tote bags & tend not to wait for them to bag my stuff unless someone is right there doing it as it's being scanned, especially at Kings...saves resources, way easier to carry, saves waiting time |
anotherkittie
Citizen
Username: Anotherkittie
Post Number: 100
Registered: 4-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 25, 2006 - 7:03 pm: |
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they do it to annoy you. It works! |
Joan
Supporter
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 7841
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 25, 2006 - 8:32 pm: |
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Perhaps Kings should sponsor a Shopping Cart Parade similar to the cow parade which was so popular a few years ago. Interested Kings shoppers could decorate a shopping cart in whatever style they wish and the carts would serve as a tourist attraction as they lay about town.
There might even be a good tie in for a fund raiser.
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extuscan
Citizen
Username: Extuscan
Post Number: 680
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 25, 2006 - 10:14 pm: |
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While in college, I was a cart collector for an inner-city supermarket. Typical cart boy equipment... they gave me an apron... a pair of gloves... and keys to the most awful van you ever saw. I then drove around the neighborhood, sitting on a lawn chair because the van didn't have a real drivers seat... looking for shopping carts. I'd usually bring back a dozen or so every afternoon. I'd have gotten more if they issued a chain cutter because these people would pad lock them to telephone poles. The manager required us to do a shopping cart count to see how many we lost that day before (and how many I was theoretically supposed to retrieve from the city streets). We used to have these "Truck Load Meat Sales" and we always timed them so we'd have the sale the same weekend food stamps were mailed out. The parking lot would be desolate, but the store would be PACKED. The next day me and the old man on first shift cart patrol always retrieved 50+ carts.
-John |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 15145
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 25, 2006 - 10:28 pm: |
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You're such a good story teller. You always have a great story to tell.
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thegoodsgt
Citizen
Username: Thegoodsgt
Post Number: 1026
Registered: 2-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 - 8:26 am: |
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People are lazy. Period.
I was at the Home Depot on Sunday and a man waited for me to load up my car for my space. He could've parked five spots behind me and been in the store by the time I pulled away. Lazy, lazy, lazy. Total loser. |
sac
Supporter
Username: Sac
Post Number: 3618
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 - 2:45 pm: |
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I'm with Susan. If customers are expected to return carts to the door, then that is not a typical grocery store expectation and a sign should be placed to let people know that. Otherwise, I do leave them in the parking area (although not outside the general area, certainly) and I make sure that they are placed in a way not to block the next driver from parking. (i.e. straddling the line and close to the curb and/or nested with another cart nearby if applicable.)
Given the tightness of parking in the village, I don't think we should erect cart returns that would eliminate spaces. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I don't recall ever not being able to park due to a shopping cart being in the way, so I think that most people are pretty good about where they leave them. |
LilLB
Citizen
Username: Lillb
Post Number: 2147
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, July 27, 2006 - 9:15 am: |
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Not returning carts is one of my biggest pet peeves.
I do think the setup with shopping at the Maplewood Kings is pretty absurd. I can understand not wanting to return the carts, particularly if your parking spot is far away. But, I try not to shop at that Kings if I need to buy more than I can carry because I hate returning the cart there (but I do anyway).
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susan1014
Supporter
Username: Susan1014
Post Number: 1725
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, July 27, 2006 - 1:01 pm: |
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So you've decided that it is better to take your business to another town rather than to have Kings send someone out to collect your cart. Fair enough.
Still wondering which strategy the Maplewood town government and Kings would prefer... |
LilLB
Citizen
Username: Lillb
Post Number: 2149
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, July 27, 2006 - 2:05 pm: |
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susan - Perhaps I wasn't clear - I've decided to take my weekly shopping needs elsewhere (as do many people) because that small store doesn't stock enough and I find it a pain to maneuver in the overcrowded narrow aisles. I think it's much more suited to smaller shopping needs. So, if I just need to stop in during the week for something for dinner that night or for a quick something I've run out of, I go to that Kings. While I'm there for my quick trip, I don't make it a point to also stock up on a bunch of things for the house -- I wait for a larger weekly trip. I don't need those things immediately and, as you said earlier, the logistics of using carts in town is bad.
I ALWAYS return my carts no matter where I am shopping because I am considerate of other people around me who have to get around the cart, park their cars, etc. I consider it my responsibility to return the carts, not an option just because it seems too logistically difficult. If I can manage to get a cart filled with groceries from the store to my car, I don't see any reason why I can't get an empty cart from my car to the store... I may not like it, but I do it anyway.
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Stuart0628
Citizen
Username: Stuart0628
Post Number: 313
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, July 27, 2006 - 2:14 pm: |
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There are pretty much three places you can park to shop at Kings.
1) On the street near Roman Gourmet. If you park there, your cart will take up some sidewalk but will not impede parking or traffic. If you park closer to Kings than that, returning the cart to the store is easy.
2) In the lot next to Ricalton Square, north of the Post Office. If the town converted one parking space near the Post Office into a cart return, they would probably save more than one parking space on average. And they would create a moral imperative to return the cart to that return lane, where there is no imperative now.
3) In the lot next to Samurai, south of the Post Office. I know that parking spaces are at a premium, but as with (2), converting one space into a cart return would perhaps create more space than it takes away. |
Wendyn
Supporter
Username: Wendyn
Post Number: 3170
Registered: 9-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, July 27, 2006 - 2:16 pm: |
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Real question here:
What if someone is waiting for your parking space? Do you:
1. Return the cart and make the car wait for the space, potentially holding up other traffic
2. Park the cart as out of the way as possible and leave so the car can take your space expediently (and maybe use the cart you just left)?
Would the person be more insulted to have to wait for the cart to be returned or to have a cart in their way when they pull into a space?
And if I have my kids with me, do I strap them in and leave them in the car while I'm returning the cart or bring them with me across the busy parking lot to the cart return? Or just park the cart near the car and let someone else deal with it?
Too many considerations. I think the decision to return the cart must be made on a case by case basis.
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MeAndTheBoys
Citizen
Username: Meandtheboys
Post Number: 4289
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Friday, July 28, 2006 - 4:59 pm: |
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My personal beliefs on those questions:
If someone wants to wait for my space and hold up traffic, that is their prerogative. But it doesn't mean I have to rush out so they can pull in. Also doesn't mean I should take my sweet time, either. Honestly, if I'm waiting for a space in town and traffic seems to be backing up, I'll move on and find another. It's not ever really that crucial for me to park right then and there.
As far as the kids are concerned, for me there is no question. I leave the cart because I'm not leaving the kids in the car and I'm not dragging all three of them back and forth in traffic just to return the cart. (But that is not necessarily the case for other stores where I might shop. I generally try to park close to either one of the areas where you return carts or the front entrance, so that once I load the kids in to the car, I can make a quick run to return the cart to an appropriate spot.)
All that being said, I don't generally buy enough at King's to justify the use of a cart, and 90% of the time, when I shop there, I've walked in to town, not driven. |
flugermongers
Citizen
Username: Flugermongers
Post Number: 718
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - 7:26 pm: |
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Same reason they litter and do other harmful things when they don't see the direct effect. Though, in this town, you can leave them around... but it isn't quite nice to leave them on the other side of town. They probably don't make it back when they're behind the bagel store, or whereever was said. |
flugermongers
Citizen
Username: Flugermongers
Post Number: 719
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - 7:28 pm: |
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Ah, but might I add that the prices at King's are so outrageous, that well, shoot, I think you should get to take the cart home with you. I have a pile of them in my garage. Haha only kidding. |
eab
Citizen
Username: Eab
Post Number: 127
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Friday, August 18, 2006 - 11:01 am: |
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I am grateful I have the health to return the cart. Someday I will be old and rickety, and then I won't feel bad leaving it, because I have paid my dues, so to speak.
Back in the day, sometimes I didn't return it if I had the kids with me. But, it was a goal in life to go to the store without a kid with me, so I usually managed to return the cart even then. |
flugermongers
Citizen
Username: Flugermongers
Post Number: 726
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, August 18, 2006 - 3:54 pm: |
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eab brings up a very good point - i'm glad that you are able to walk the carts down to your car - when disabled in some way... |
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