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Why are shopping carts always broken?

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Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#181

Post by thsksbd »

chrisco255 wrote: post #62
slimsag wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really it's the opposite. It's called a pharmacy, but in practice it is a convenience store first, and a pharmacy second. Often times the pharmacy is closed, has restricted hours, is understaffed, etc.

Not really. Walgreens and CVS are basically this, and many of them have 24 hour pharmacies.

Where in the US do you live that you have easy access to a 24 hour pharmacy?

In my corner of the USA the only 24 hour pharmacy is in the children's hospital, about 15 miles away from my house.

I have three hospitals with ERs within 5 miles but no pharmacy.

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#182

Post by batch12 »

blinkingled wrote: post #57
jbandela1 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also Publix tends to have pretty nicely maintained shopping carts. Part of the reason might be that they provide complimentary cart service where someone will push the cart out to your car and help load the groceries.

Ah yes forgot about Publix - and yeah more than once I have been asked by Publix employees if I needed help pushing the cart - they seemed to be happy to do it too!

When I worked there as a bagger many years ago, it was expected. If the customer said no, we were to insist. Even then, we'd get looks from management if we let too many buggies leave the store without us. Also, we'd get in serious trouble if we accepted a tip.

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#185

Post by blagie »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #156
blagie wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can blame one middle manager. You can't blame a million middle managers. If all middle managers are doing something wrong, that's a problem of org design. The same is true across the board. One corrupt congressman? Bad apple. 100 of them in a government? Something is wrong with the way the system is set up. One bad teacher? Bad apple. Most teachers are bad? You're looking at some issue with hiring practices, trai…

the original saying about bad apples is that one spoils the barrel, which applies in some organizational cases. Sure you can't blame a million middle managers, because they are all in different barrels, but congress people are in the same barrel, and if one is corrupt we might assume that non-corrupt ones will be corrupted over time by exposure. Many systems can be set up to ease spoiling, thus creating a two-tiered…

I think we're talking about a difference in timescales. My experience is that culture naturally converges to incentives, but very slowly.

If we were to evaluate teachers in ways which didn't align to tests (or not at all), put in mechanisms to fire bad teachers, added transparency and accountability (so parents know what's going wrong and can try to advocate to fix it), etc. we would have a whole new teaching culture... circa 2044.

A faster reboot is possible, but with more disruption (e.g. wholesale firing). Disruption is harmful in several ways, from impacting morale and stability (making it more difficult to bring in qualified people), to having experienced people leave, to simply taking time to learn how to work in the new order. Whether a disruption is warranted depends on the level of organizational dysfunction.

The current set of dysfunctions in schools specifically are grounded in a narrow tests which were implemented in 2002. Schools have increasingly broken, as anything not in Common Core was increasingly ignored, and schools competed on the only measure they were evaluated on.

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#188

Post by Scoundreller »

JoyfulTurkey wrote: post #48
chupchap wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> alcohol Please tell me it's not the drinking kind?

Where I am (Ohio, USA), drug stores like CVS/Wallgreens sell beer, wine. Hard liquor over a certain alcohol percent is only available at a state liquor agency.

And cigarettes in Nevada

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#189

Post by [deleted] »

dmarto wrote: post #124
milliams wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my local there's often a few columns of trolleys next to each other. I always go for the column with the fewest trolleys as I assume that the trolley sitting at the head of the longest column is likely to have an issue.

I do the same, but for a different reason. In my mind, they are less accessible, as the end of the line usually has metal guardrails, thus leaving the closer and easier-to-reach carts for other people. On the other hand, in my area, I have never seen a broken cart, perhaps because they require coins to operate.

[deleted]

Re: Why are shopping carts always broken?

#190

Post by lloeki »

tecleandor wrote: post #128
dayjaby wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My grandfather was a "Drogist" and his job was not to sell drugs, but anything pharmacy/chemistry related: "I got that oily dirt on my jacket" - "Say no more, I mix you the perfect soap for this". That feels quite the same as dm/Rossmann/.. from a customer point of view. The modern word Droge/drug does not mean what it used to mean.

Seem like that's common in continental Europe. In Spain in a "droguería" you would find something quite similar to a DM: cleaning supplies, some chemicals, personal hygiene and cosmetic products and the like. A "drogaria" in Portugal probably would a bit more similar like a hardware store, but also in the theme...

> Seem like that's common in continental Europe.

Yeah, it's a very historical thing dating back from times of Marco Polo, the Silk Road, and the likes.

In France we have "pharmacie", "droguerie", "épicerie", and "quincaillerie".

- "pharmacie" is the regulated medical thing, historically it was "apothicaire" (apothecary)

- "quincaillerie" is where you get hardware ("quincaille") like screws, tubes, metal parts, and whatnot, and by extension, tools. By extension "quincaille" coloquially refers to small, cheap stuff in a derogatory way (akin to "lemon" but for small things).

- "droguerie" is where you get various general usage, non-medical stuff, from hygiene to ; it is part of "épicerie", where it used to be "all manners of drugs sold under the merchand guild, from dye pigments to perfume, hygiene products and cosmetics, as well as medicine". In the XVIII century the "drugs" term largely meant "things of small value that you can put on the market" and "mixes for which only artists and craftsmen hold the secret".

With this definition you can see how it grew from "épicerie" (=> "spicery", a shop for spice) from the economy market of bringing such goods from specific countries like North Africa, Middle East, India, China and whatnot. Pigments, spice, and medicine were obtained from foreign sources and highly sought after. Of course this could involve a deal of mysticism and exotic mystery, a perfect recipe for snake-oil medicine and once medical goods began to be regulated it is left with "alternative" medicinal things.

- "épicerie" used to cover all of the above, but today it's your corner-shop that has a bit of everything and is open most of the time to 24/7 (bordering on the illegal, or outright skirting opening hour laws) and saves you in a pinch. These businesses are often held by people of above areas ascendance, not really surprising given the history of it.

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