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Why are shopping carts always broken?

cnn.com

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Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#131

Post by prmoustache »

My understanding is that most carts aren't broken but something is stuck in the bearings/bushings that allow the wheels to rotate on both axis. Just desmantling the wheel once in a while, cleaning it and regreasing it would do the trick.

It is just that shops do not care nor are willing to pay someone to spend the 15 to 30 minutes[1] every day to it takes check and fix them.

[1] if they were checked daily, most of them would stay in shape so a very little amount of them would need a fix per day.

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#132

Post by [deleted] »

prmoustache wrote: post #131

My understanding is that most carts aren't broken but something is stuck in the bearings/bushings that allow the wheels to rotate on both axis. Just desmantling the wheel once in a while, cleaning it and regreasing it would do the trick. It is just that shops do not care nor are willing to pay someone to spend the 15 to 30 minutes[1] every day to it takes check and fix them. [1] if they were checked daily, most of th…

[deleted]

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#133

Post by ttepasse »

logtempo wrote: post #96
Mashimo wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People often use little plastic coins. Even though it's worthless piece of plastic they want it back and thus deliver the carts back as well.

Even more if in your childhood memory it is engraved as something fun. As a child, and I believe others too, getting and returning the cart with the little coin your parent gives to you was cool.

My parents and me were living near a large supermarket in the very early 90s when coin carts were introduced. I spent the first afternoons with my little BMX bike at the parking lot, looking for carts where people, unused to the new system, forgot their coins. Or I simply offered to return the cart. If I remember correctly, in one afternoon I made somewhere around 25 DM. I invested the proceeds into LEGO pirate sets, of course.

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#135

Post by dsego »

RecycledEle wrote: post #2

The percentage of shopping carts that are broken tells you about the character of the local population. The article's byline credits Eva Rothenberg, whose LinkedIn lists her as living in New York City. There must be horrible people there. Here in Waxahachie, TX, there are almost no broken shopping carts, and people help when there is a broken cart.

Oh man, I visited NYC recently and was shocked when I went into the local CVS and Walgreens in Williamsburg. Almost all shelves had plastic covers with locks on them, so you can't pick up anything by yourself. Coming from a relatively safe country in Europe and to see something like that, not a pleasant experience at all.

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#136

Post by 0xEF »

prmoustache wrote: post #131

My understanding is that most carts aren't broken but something is stuck in the bearings/bushings that allow the wheels to rotate on both axis. Just desmantling the wheel once in a while, cleaning it and regreasing it would do the trick. It is just that shops do not care nor are willing to pay someone to spend the 15 to 30 minutes[1] every day to it takes check and fix them. [1] if they were checked daily, most of th…

> something stuck in the bearings/bushings

This is tracks with my experience. I used to work for a mid-sized US grocery chain in the Midwest (Farmer Jack if anyone remembers those, gone now) and I once got reprimanded for cleaning the cart wheels. I didn't even have to take the wheels apart most of the time, just get in there with some WD-40 or pop out the small bits of concrete or rock with a screwdriver. Apparently that was a waste of time in my manager's eyes since "the carts were always broken anyway" and I was supposed to be unloading stock.

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#137

Post by AdamN »

dsego wrote: post #127
koliber wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For people from Europe not familiar with the big drug stores the parent is referring to: these drug stores are more like a Rossman with a pharmacy counter in the back.

Not familiar with Rossman but with german DM (drogerie markt) & Muller being well represented in my country (and I presumed other ones in Europe) for over a decade or more, I thought this concept had already been established in all of Europe.

In the US, a drug store is a DM with a pharmacy in the back. There are way fewer independent pharmacies in the US nowadays as 'drug stores' have taken over.

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#138

Post by mathverse »

asystole wrote: post #123
mathverse wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can unlock the cart with standard european key tip like this https://image.made-in-china.com/202f0j00GpWUwrYJnBoN/Sn-Euro... Most homeless and poor people know this trick. It really is just for general populace who are too gullible to know better.

> It really is just for general populace who are too gullible to know better I know you didn't mean it this way but this is an incredibly funny way of putting it. "The globalists don't want you to know this, but the shopping carts at Publix are free..."

Ill word it like this next time :p

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#139

Post by AdamN »

dtgriscom wrote: post #30
freddie_mercury wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most countries have laws limiting the size of paracetamol & aspirin bottles to reduce overdoses & suicides. The UK passed a law in 1998 about it and saw suicides from overdoses drop 21% and liver transplants from paracetamol poisoning drop 66%. "Numbers of tablets per pack of paracetamol and salicylates decreased markedly in the year after the change in legislation on 16 September 1998. The annual number of deaths fr…

What are the limits? (Asked as a US guy who buys the 500 x 500mg bottles at BJ's.)

Don't want to judge but that's concerning. You can really mess up your internal organs with that much volume (even spread over a year with a family of four).

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#140

Post by Yizahi »

Shopping carts are always broken because the store doesn't give damn. For instance in my current city giant Auchan store has literally every single cart busted, unmaintained and completely rusted top to bottom. Similarly sized Carrefour has normal carts, mostly without any issues, just like Ikea and several other medium and small stores. Kaufland even has some fancy new carts, which not only work fine but have some modern ergo handles. It's just some Auchan middle manager has decided that they aren't interested in the carts and that was the result. And adding more insult to the injury - those Auchan carts have fully indoor use, because parking is inside same building, and Carrefour and Ikea have open parking lots with carts experiencing weather and rough pavement.

We can try to blame weather, people, stack problem, ethics, cart design, economic downturns or taxes, but that's all a misdirection. The blame lies squarely on some middle manager who either enforces maintaining and replacement of the carts or he doesn't.

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