pay a quarter to get a cart

Lots of places do this because some people do take them and push them home or they need to cut back on staff collecting carts as people tend to leave them anywhere. They're expensive to make so unless they have staff to return them all the time many would get lost or none would be returned for other shoppers to use.

Some stores have a magnetic system where the wheels won't go any further after a certain point as well. I do find it annoying, so I take a basket instead if I can.

 

Yes, carts do run away at times, but I don't know that the quarter system would stop most of the people who take them. Homeless people take them to push their things around, so if they had the quarter when the needed a cart, they would probably just keep it anyway. I have seen carts on occasion on the other side of the road from the store or down a few blocks from the store. I don't know why, but my guess is someone was taking their groceries home and left the cart for someone else to hopefully return.

 

Only smaller stores that have less customers tend to have these pay and refund shopping cart machines. I have never seen such machines at bigger stores, because I opinion, they have employees who do risk management calculations beforehand to account the costs of stolen or lost carts, which is merged into the whole store's finances.

I personally do not mind paying a quarter and then receiving it back after I have done shopping, it helps to prevent loose carts from being stolen [increases store owner to raise prices to pay lost cart] and from damaging another human, me and my property [car, bike, motorcycle, etc.].

 

It's a slight deterrent, I would say. It's for accessing a cart in the first place rather than stopping someone from walking away with it once they have it. In most jurisdictions, retailers are responsible for their carts and could be fined for letting them get taken off the premises. This quarter system helps deter people from walking off with the cart, and a homeless person (most likely to nab a cart) usually doesn't have a quarter on them. It's annoying for people that don't always have a quarter, sure, but it's there for a somewhat plausible reason.

 

I think it's more about keeping costs down by not having to pay someone to chase down carts. I don't mind it at all. At the store I use that has this system, people will usually just give you their cart as you approach. I just hand mine off to the next person when I'm done. Carts stay collected and prices stay lower, so it seems like a good system to me.

 

This kind of sounds like the grocery store ALDI'S where you put a quarter into a slot in the cart and once you do the cart unhooks from other carts. Once your one shopping you click the cart back into a slot in the cart in front and the quarter pops out. When I first started shopping there I thought it was really annoying especially when I thought that you didn't get the quarter back at first. But then I got use to it. What your talking about sounds a bit different is it ALDI'S?

 

We had a few stores like that where I used to live but I haven't seen any since moving to Maryland...I find them really annoying though, as I almost never carry change with me and don't need the extra reason to return the cart (though I know some people are terrible about that). I wonder if part of it isn't to save money/efforts on having too many employees who have to go round up the carts all over the parking lot?

 

Having to pay for a cart would make me reconsider visiting the store in the first place. If I were choosing between two stores and one had pay carts, I'd pick the other one just on principle. I understand that they lose money if people walk off with them but I don't think that's a good enough reason to charge for them. If a cart gets stolen, eat the cost, don't inconvenience your loyal customers.

 

None of the grocery stores where I live have this system. I'm not sure what to think about it. Here all the carts have numbers printed on them where if you find it abandoned, you can call and a guy with a truck (independent guy hired by the local grocery stores) will come and pick it up and take it back to the right store. I guess this system has been working out fine enough for the stores. They obviously care about getting most of their carts back, but not enough to bother customers with the quarter system.
Besides homeless people, most of the people who steal carts live just a few blocks away from the store. Either they don't have a car or they don't want to load and unload their groceries in the car when they live so close. So they just look around sneakily then take off running down the block with the cart full of groceries. I'm not sure if they bring the same cart back. I saw people doing this a few times when I worked at a grocery store. Lol.

 

Well it also helps from getting your car smacked with a runaway shopping cart, especially on a windy day or in bad weather. I've also seen stores put tall vertical bars on all their buggies, so you could not walk through a doorway with them (the bar would be taller than they doorway). Granted they looked silly, but it worked and it was pretty low-fi - no fancy technology or devices needed.

Some of the other grocery stores in our area do not allow buggies to be brought outside of the store, but instead offer to put your bags into your car for you. You drop your buggy full of stuff off with a group of store workers, and they give you a number. You place that number in your window and pull up to the store and they load everything in to your car. It's free too, and they don't accept any tips.

I used to live in an apartment that was right by a Target and several other stores, and the residents there were constantly stealing the Target buggies, and bringing them into the apartment complex to carry their laundry around and other stuff as needed.

 

Wow, I've never heard of this. I guess since you get the quarter back, it's not too much of a problem, but the carts that lock up are an absolute terror. If you like to park at the edge of the lot for exercise, sometimes the cart will lock up on you as you're trying to load your car. I usually return my cart, but if it accidentally locks, then I'll fight with it for about two minutes and then just leave. I cannot drag a cart all the way back to the holding area.

 

Your information is correct. I worked in two different grocery stores and it was a pain to get people to go out and bring carts in. There was never time and we always ended up all the carts left outside at the end of the night. Putting a quarter system on the carts saves a lot of money and it eliminates the labor costs associated with it.

 

In our town, all of the supermarkets have that system, some require a dollar coin or a store token which can fit on your key ring, while other stores require a quarter. I like the system because it keeps the carts in the cart corrals and out of parking spaces and all over the neighbourhoods. Our WalMart doesn't use that system so the parking lot is a hazardous area with carts parked every which way, in parking spots, in driveways, and always some rolling into cars.

 

My local Aldi does this. I actually think it's a very smart system; a low tech answer to a big problem. It may be a slight inconvenience if you aren't one to carry around change, but it can always be fixed by carrying a quarter in your car (that's what I do) for use at the grocery store. As you will see at places like Walmart, people will often bring out a cart, put their items in their car and leave the cart out in the parking lot. When they do this, it causes the store employees to have to leave their customers short handed so they can relay all of their carts back to the right place. Many of these carts also end up rolling into cars and denting them, leaving the store with disgruntled customers coming to them, when in reality it's not their fault but the rude customer who left it there. It's a pretty smart system, if you want your quarter back, you have to take your cart back.

 

I have never encountered this but it does sound unnecessarily bothersome. Anyone who would want the cart wouldn't think twice about leaving their quarter behind since I assume a cart costs a lot more than just a quarter. I think they should have just input a more practical system like digital scans or something similar, and if they wanted to entice you to put the cart back so they don't end up paying more employees then they should have done it in a better way than requiring their customers to always bring coins around with them.

 

I've never heard of that and to be honest I probably wouldn't bother shopping at a store that required that. Just seems like an unnecessary nuisance that I don't care to bother with. I just want to go in, get my items and be gone in as short a time as possible.

 

I never knew grocery stores did this. I have only seen these type of carts at the airport. Cart theft is pretty big in California. Most stores and malls use the magnetic strip that prevents the cart from going past a certain distance. It's a pain the butt, but it doesn't deter me from shopping at a particular store. If it did, I wouldn't be able to stop anywhere.

 

Don't know about other stores that do this but ALDI does and I love them. The main point is that they do not have to employ someone to corral the carts. I was reading online they can run an entire store with just 4 employees. And they have the cheapest prices anywhere. They do not take coupons though. If I know I am going to Aldi's I just take a quarter, it really is no big deal. If you are lucky you can even find few carts in the parking lot and make money!

 

People do steal the carts so I can understand why they do this. One time I was walking to Walmart and I counted 10 of their carts that had been taken and abandoned at various parts in the road. Those carts cost over $100 each so that was at least $1,000 abandoned in the road.
Compared to that, a quarter to take a cart doesn't begin to cover their losses. I don't blame the stores for charging a quarter. I blame the customers for stealing the carts.