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Tom Bender
04-18-2019, 2:11 PM
Lately the grocery carts always seem to pull to the right. Is this caused by the Coriolis effect? Anyone on the other top of the world notice that your carts lead left?

John Ziebron
04-18-2019, 4:09 PM
Hadn't noticed the carts going to the right. But I always seem to get the ones with a squeaky wheel. And no, I don't get any extra attention with them.

Tom M King
04-18-2019, 4:12 PM
The problem with them is when they go to bring a bunch of them back in at one time, and drag the wheels sideways. If they didn't do that, they would probably roll fine for a lot longer. Seems like no one in the grocery business is smart enough to figure that out. I always have to test roll a couple before I get one that's not aggravating.

Mike Henderson
04-18-2019, 6:53 PM
I always get the wheel thumper carts - something stuck on one of the wheels or a flat spot on one of the wheels.

Mike

John K Jordan
04-18-2019, 7:27 PM
Lately the grocery carts always seem to pull to the right. Is this caused by the Coriolis effect? Anyone on the other top of the world notice that your carts lead left?

Maybe it's you. Have you had your alignment checked lately?

JKJ

Dave Lehnert
04-18-2019, 8:28 PM
The problem with them is when they go to bring a bunch of them back in at one time, and drag the wheels sideways. If they didn't do that, they would probably roll fine for a lot longer. Seems like no one in the grocery business is smart enough to figure that out. I always have to test roll a couple before I get one that's not aggravating.


Funny, People that worked in the grocery business always figured the customer should put the cart back where they found it in the first place. They would last longer that way.

Barry McFadden
04-18-2019, 9:08 PM
LOL...just had a left turning one this morning.... by the time I was finished shopping my left arm was tired from trying to point it right all the time....

Lee Schierer
04-18-2019, 9:22 PM
LOL...just had a left turning one this morning.... by the time I was finished shopping my left arm was tired from trying to point it right all the time....

I also had one at Pet Smart that was definitely inclined to turn left more than it wanted to go straight or turn right.

Bruce Wrenn
04-18-2019, 9:45 PM
Funny, People that worked in the grocery business always figured the customer should put the cart back where they found it in the first place. They would last longer that way.Go by an Aldi's and see if there are any carts just resting in the parking lot. If you haven't shopped an Aldi's, you have to insert a quarter to get a cart, which you get back when you return cart. I've seen people pushing a cart back in a blinding rain storm, just to get their quarter back. Grand son and I thought about on a rainy day getting a cart and chaining it to a light pole just to see how many people would try to use it to keep from spending a quarter, whcih they get back

Bill Orbine
04-18-2019, 10:23 PM
I often get the ones with the wobble wheels!

Jim Koepke
04-19-2019, 1:19 AM
One market we shop has a system where attendants use a motorized 'engine' to return carts. They are returned through a door far from the entrance to the store. Their carts all seem to track petty well. It is weird pulling in and having to wait for a long train of carts going by.

At the other market we shop often my tendency is to keep track of which carts are new and wich ones are old. When a cart is picked it is pushed one handed in the center of the guide bar. It doesn't have to go more than a foot or two to let me know whether or not it will behave.

jtk

Tom Bender
04-19-2019, 8:30 AM
Yes, I tend to lean to the left

Tom Stenzel
04-19-2019, 9:49 AM
Yes, I tend to lean to the left

Please, no politics! :D

The thread title had me going in a different direction. I remember a high wind had picked up a cart and it was speeding across the lot. Someone with a nice pickup had had parked far away from all the other cars. Of course the cart had targeted the pickup and headed in full speed ahead. I was on the other side of the lot watching as the cart hit the pickup hard enough to make it rock.

Grocery carts are inherently evil. Their errant behavior proves it.

-Tom

John K Jordan
04-19-2019, 10:53 AM
I remember a high wind had picked up a cart and it was speeding across the lot. ... I was on the other side of the lot watching as the cart hit the pickup hard enough to make it rock.
Grocery carts are inherently evil. Their errant behavior proves it.


Ah HA! This is a case for only using elderly carts with wheels that thump, drag, or can't travel in a straight line by themselves. They couldn't get up to speed like that! We need a law. Contact your congressman.

Perhaps carts are born evil but mellow in their ways with age and enlightenment, like many of us.

JKJ

Peter Christensen
04-19-2019, 11:18 AM
What is a grocery cart? My wife goes out and there is food in the back of the car when she comes home. It's magic I think.

John K Jordan
04-19-2019, 12:19 PM
What is a grocery cart? My wife goes out and there is food in the back of the car when she comes home. It's magic I think.

You have discovered the secret magic of life. We have a magic fridge and freezer that's always full, magic pantry, breadbox, and cookie jar, magic ice tea container, magic cabinets full of clean dishes, even a magic bathroom cabinet, and a magic sock drawer. I have pill containers where my vitamins and such appear in little magic compartments. Even the bills, tax returns, birthday cards, and wedding gifts are taken care of by magic here.

I can almost see a pattern here.

Alan Rutherford
04-19-2019, 12:23 PM
What is a grocery cart? My wife goes out and there is food in the back of the car when she comes home. It's magic I think. I'm looking forward to the day when I can send a self-driving car to pick up the groceries. Presumably from a self-driving grocery cart.

Peter Christensen
04-19-2019, 12:29 PM
John we just need the magic lumber rack in the shop that always has the wood we need.

Alan there will come a day when 2 self driving cars full of groceries crash and the contents are scattered all over the road. The homeless guys self filling carts will show up and all the food will be picked up starting with the liquor first.

Jim Koepke
04-19-2019, 1:40 PM
Please, no politics! :D

The thread title had me going in a different direction. I remember a high wind had picked up a cart and it was speeding across the lot. Someone with a nice pickup had had parked far away from all the other cars. Of course the cart had targeted the pickup and headed in full speed ahead. I was on the other side of the lot watching as the cart hit the pickup hard enough to make it rock.

Grocery carts are inherently evil. Their errant behavior proves it.

-Tom

Maybe they are driven by the disgruntled ghosts of shoppers past.

Has anyone ever been gruntled?

jtk

John K Jordan
04-19-2019, 6:34 PM
Has anyone ever been gruntled?


I live a gruntled life.

I had to look up "gruntle". It's etymology is interesting, coming into use in an unusual way:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gruntle

JKJ

Stephen Tashiro
04-20-2019, 4:53 AM
I always have to test roll a couple before I get one that's not aggravating.

It's aggravating to try several carts from line because they get entangled with each other by the straps on the child seats. I rarely see children sitting in the child seats on carts. I recall trying it as a child and it was too painful to endure. The local Albertsons has a type of cart with a child seat that doesn't fold up and doesnt have straps. These carts don't get tangled up with each other, but I've never seen a child sitting in the child seat.

Larry Frank
04-20-2019, 7:02 AM
It is magic as you can order groceries online and they show up at your door in a couple of hours.

Grant Wilkinson
04-20-2019, 10:37 AM
Every time I go to the local groc store, I get a cart that pulls to the Cheetos aisle. I can't figure out the physics behind it, but there is no questioning that it happens.

Geoff Pritchard
04-20-2019, 9:38 PM
There's a grocery store near us that uses the motorized retrieval units too (Winco). I think they run on batteries because I heard a kid telling the supervisor he couldn't bring in any carts because someone didn't plug in one unit and the second unit had just run out of charge. I think the supe reminded him of how to shag carts w/o a machine.

BTW --- those units aren't much good when there's some good snow on the ground. Carts don't like to roll in 4+ inches of snow.

Geoff Pritchard
04-20-2019, 9:40 PM
Same happens to me but I end up in the beer aisle.

Perry Hilbert Jr
04-21-2019, 3:52 PM
One local Grocery company charges a 25 cent deposit on the cart. Almost all carts are returned to the corral at the store entrance so the deposit can be retrieved from the cart. (Aldi's) Our local walmart has many customers who live in apartments a mile or so east of the store. They run a truck over to the apartment complexes to pick up carts every few days.

Jim Koepke
04-21-2019, 4:45 PM
There's a grocery store near us that uses the motorized retrieval units too (Winco). I think they run on batteries because I heard a kid telling the supervisor he couldn't bring in any carts because someone didn't plug in one unit and the second unit had just run out of charge. I think the supe reminded him of how to shag carts w/o a machine.

BTW --- those units aren't much good when there's some good snow on the ground. Carts don't like to roll in 4+ inches of snow.

That is the same chain here that has the electric carts to help round up the carts.

We don't usually have that much snow and people don't tend to push carts to their cars, let alone go out shopping, if there is that much snow on the ground.

jtk

Matt Day
05-13-2019, 9:26 AM
Go by an Aldi's and see if there are any carts just resting in the parking lot. If you haven't shopped an Aldi's, you have to insert a quarter to get a cart, which you get back when you return cart. I've seen people pushing a cart back in a blinding rain storm, just to get their quarter back. Grand son and I thought about on a rainy day getting a cart and chaining it to a light pole just to see how many people would try to use it to keep from spending a quarter, whcih they get back

I remember growing up in NNJ (25-30 years ago) and the Shop Rite in town did this. The carts were always neatly put back. And if someone did put it back, you’d better believe it was quickly put back by someone else who wanted that quarter!

I don’t know why more grocery stores do this.

Bill Dufour
05-13-2019, 9:37 AM
Winco is the only store I know that thought about the cart corral location and design. They are set up so they are pull through in a straight line. That way the push them forward and never have to backup. they are also lined up so they do not have to weave up and down the parking lot but sweep from one end to the other.
I have only seen one parking lot that was designed for pedestrians. It has sidewalks for people to walk and be safe from roaming cars. All other lots have zero protection for pedestrians and low hedges and trees so people have no where to walk safely.
Bill D.

Dave Lehnert
05-13-2019, 6:09 PM
I remember growing up in NNJ (25-30 years ago) and the Shop Rite in town did this. The carts were always neatly put back. And if someone did put it back, you’d better believe it was quickly put back by someone else who wanted that quarter!

I don’t know why more grocery stores do this.

We made a switch to the quarter carts at the company I worked for. Did not last long. Customers were mad.

You hope people would just be considerate and return the cart anyway. Kinda sad if you think about it.

Bert Kemp
05-14-2019, 1:14 AM
I find it hard to return the carts where I shop. All the handi cap parking is up front close to the store entrance but theres zero cart returns with in a 100 ft. why don't they put a cart return near the handi cap parking??:eek::confused: That would be to easy :rolleyes:

Mike Null
05-14-2019, 7:41 AM
I avoid Walmart because customers typically leave their carts wherever and I'm afraid one of them will end up blowing into the side of my car. We do shop at Sam's and there we have to do a cart inspection because at least half of their carts won't drive straight.

Steve Peterson
05-16-2019, 11:48 PM
I was at a strip mall the other day and went to several stores. We left a store and pushed the cart towards our car which was a small distance away. All of a sudden the wheels locked solid when we passed a buried wire. The electric safety mechanism kicked in. We had to carry our bags the rest of the way and I could barely drag the cart back to the corral. That cart probably has a flat spot if it was pushed back using the electric cart wrangler.

Jim Koepke
05-17-2019, 11:24 AM
We made a switch to the quarter carts at the company I worked for. Did not last long. Customers were mad.

You hope people would just be considerate and return the cart anyway. Kinda sad if you think about it.

A lot of people do not carry cash today.

How are you going to find a quarter for a shopping cart if you do not carry cash?

jtk

Flamone LaChaud
05-17-2019, 12:13 PM
A lot of people do not carry cash today.

How are you going to find a quarter for a shopping cart if you do not carry cash?

jtk
We have an official "Aldi's quarter" that lives in the drink tray in the van specifically for this purpose