The Shopping cart
 

Sometime Friday night a shopping cart appeared on the boulevard next to my house. It's a Safeway shopping cart. The closest store is 3 miles away which is a long way to push a cart. So I called the closest Safeway store and told the guy who answered there was a cart on the street and gave him the address. I figured that would be the end of it, he would call whoever is in charge of cart pickup and it would be returned to where it belongs.

Monday morning the cart was now in front of my house. Maybe the cart pickup guy didn't work on weekends. I waited till afternoon and then phoned the 1-800 number for customer service listed on Safeway's web site. After going thru the phone directory I sat listening to the "everyone is busy, but your call is important to us" message. At the 3 min mark I almost hung up but I decided to find out how long it would really take. After 12 min a nice lady answered the phone and I told her about there cart on the boulevard and my concern some tool would push it in to my vehicle and damage it. She thanked me for calling and took down the address as to where the cart was and we said our goodbyes. I figured she would look after the cart and have it picked up.

It is now Wednesday night and the cart is still on the street. It's moved about 2' from Mondays position. I had to go pick up some stuff at Safeway tonight and I spoke to "Ryan" who appeared to be in charge of the store. I told him about the cart, the phone calls and he asked where the cart was. I told him the address and his answer was "I have no idea where that is" (I'm guessing that at this point he will be no help in getting it removed) I tell him the general direction of the street and offer to recycle the cart if they (Safeway) has no interest in retrieving it. His answer is go ahead they (Safeway) has lots of carts and won't miss one.

Safeway has no email address listed (I looked) but I found their HQ phone number and who the CEO is.

So do I break out the torch and cut up a $150 cart and pocket $5 for the scrap or phone the CEO and ask him to get someone to remove their cart?

Yes, it's quite odd. They are worth a lot of money.

I understand what you are saying.
I see carts around all the time.
These are expensive.
You see adults pushing the things home without a conscience, on the sidewalk, next to the busy street like they're using a stroller or a walker as it just was thrown in as a gratuity for their purchase of groceries.
The theft is so obvious that even the idiot police do not acknowledge it.
I don't get it?

What's the closest store to you that uses carts?

Push it there and leave it in the far end of their parking lot.

Maybe they will adopt it.

In our neighborhood you can see shopping cars for weeks! No store you contact wants to know about them, I guess they don't have to account for them. Some guy with a pickup truck goes around every once a while and collects them, but he keeps his own schedule. Its a mystery to me too why stores don't care. Looks like it is a corporate thing. They just figure the losses as an expense of doing business.

I see them at bus stops where they are turned on thier side and some lard azz is sitting on it waiting for the bus.

I guess my town is unusual, the carts all stay at the store.
Jim

I've never called. The couple times there has been a wayward cart on or near my property I've tossed it in the back of my truck and dropped it off at the store.

Now I see that's a mistake- I should be grilling steaks!

some of the stores in Germany had a great idea..
you had to deposit a 5 mark coin ( $ about 2.50 then)..
to get one..
when you returned it..
you got your $$..
kids made a killing taking them back for the fat folk..
and fought over the loose one's in the street...

Rika

If this cart was in Chicago, it would have been gone - as the local scrap guys would have picked it up either to use as they go from place to place looking for metal or as part of their collection.

Aren't there stiff fines for cart theft?

the Aldi stores here in the US use that model. I love it. No errant shopping carts left around. No surprise, since Aldi is a German company. The homeless people started to offer to return your cart if they could keep the quarter. OK in my book.

Target just opened up in Canada and I heard that the wheel(s) on their carts lock when they get "X" distance from the store. I thought that was a good idea.

I find one dumped off in my neighborhood every now and then, and I go to Shopping Cart Retrieval Company provides local California, Nevada, and Oregon stores with a cart pickup and cart recovery service for a fraction of the cost. which is a California-based service, but you guys may have something similar, eh?

Safeway here charges a quarter to use the cart. You push the coin in and a chain is unlocked. When your done with the cart, you return the cart to the corral and re chain it and you get your quarter back.

Well I called Safeway's HQ this morning and asked to speak with the CEO Chuck Mulvenna and to my surprise I was transferred to his assistant. I didn't actually expect to get that far up the corp. ladder. She was a nice pleasant woman who when I explained why I was calling said she would make sure someone picked up the cart.

We will see.

When you complain start at the top as all plumbers know $hit runs down hill.

I told the CEO's assistant that they should have a email link on there web sites that goes to whomever is in charge of shopping carts. She said that was a very good idea. Safeway has no email links on any of there web pages. Now she may have been blowing me off just to get rid of me, but we will see.

This is getting common here in SoCal... although I suspect they have a wire in the ground around the parking lot and if you cross the line it locks one of the wheels. I know this because at the 99 cent store and tried to go out on the sidewalk to get to my car.

Also here in SoCal I see stake-bed trucks (presumably owned by the supermarket) roaming the street looking for wayward carts.

The Target near me has this also, but the problem is that the "zone" doesn't extend far enough to cover the entire lot. I always park at the far end in a secluded spot, and I have to drag the cart the last 10 or so feet with the wheels locked to reach my car.

like fridge trays the carts are coated with a toxic metal - this is a good way to get sick or worse


BTW - vagrants steal these carts all the time and use them to haul their belongings around

Here, I have never seen a non-vagrant use one outside of the store's parking lot.