What is going on with all the loose carts in the parking lots??? I was in Brandon yesterday and I couldn't believe the amount carts left all over at the Walmart parking lot.  
 
I put a cluster of SIX shopping carts into a cart stall because I didn't want my truck scratched. Six carts! Saddest thing of all was that a cart stall was right across from these carts. I also took two more with me on my way to the store and put them away. A walmart employee was out gathering the carts, but c'mon. Why aren't people putting them away?  
 
Bad enough I park at the dollarama/ Ashley furniture parking lot at Christmas to avoid getting scratches/dents in our vehicles. It's warm weather. If you can shop, there's no reason you can't put your cart away.  
 
And this isn't just at Walmart. Is there anyone else peeved at this?

This drives me nuts. People are just plain lazy & it's pathetic. There's no reason that you can't put the cart back into the cart coral.

I actually had a shopping cart at in my parking lot at work, I work out on the highway!

agree with both of you!! if you can find the time and energy to shop then please take the extra minute to put the cart away!! if you're not going to put the cart away, at least be honest and just admit its due to laziness! own your actions

I dislike people who do not put their carts away. I always make sure I do, and when one of my family members leave a cart, I get out and put it away.  
 
It's funny, because they always complain about carts in parking stalls, yet they leave them there too!

I admit I have, on occasion, not put my shopping cart away. It tends to happen when I can't get a spot near the cart return.  
 
My choices usually are shlep my 3 kids (ages 6 & under) all the way to the cart return with me, walk back to my car with them in tow, and hope they don't get hit by a lunatic driver (because I obviously don't have enough hands to hold each hand, and the 'trailing' kid isn't always reliable to hold hands) OR  
 
Leave them in the car while I return my cart, meanwhile have someone post something on ebrandon about the horrible mother who left her kids in the car while she returned her cart!  
 
Sorry about that dent. And WalMart totally needs more cart returns.

I see it all the time at a grocery store and I just don't get it. It only takes a minute to put a cart away! After I put my groceries in my car, I almost always end up taking atleast 2 or 3 nearby carts to the cart corral in addition to the one I used. Unless one has kids, its just plain laziness of people of not returning the carts. Again, people are people.

Army_wife_xox said "This drives me nuts. People are just plain lazy & it's pathetic. There's no reason that you can't put the cart back into the cart coral. "

and the really sad part is they are teaching their kids that this is how you do it!

Abbysmum said "I admit I have, on occasion, not put my shopping cart away. It tends to happen when I can't get a spot near the cart return.     My choices usually are shlep my 3 kids (ages 6 & under) all the way to the cart return with me, walk back to my car with them in tow, and hope they don't get hit by a lunatic driver (because I obviously don't have enough hands to hold each hand, and the 'trailing' kid isn't always reliable to hold hands) OR     Leave them in the car while I return my cart, meanwhile have someone post something on ebrandon about the horrible mother who left her kids in the car while she returned her cart!     Sorry about that dent. And WalMart totally needs more cart returns. "

I was going to say how much it bothered me till I read this post....I never thought about that. Good point.  
It still bothers me a little though!

You know the neighbourhood is going to pot when you start seeing shopping carts on a regular basis.  
 
New neighbours - class act.

I do it quite often at Walmart, my excuse is being a parent. I think they need more places to return their carts to. They are spread too far apart and there are none at the far end of the parking lot.

It must be all the perfect parents that can't put a cart away... fear that their child/children will come to catastrophic situations........

how this doesnt seem to be an issue in lots where you have to put a loonie in. Problem solved.

I like when people are lazy at places like Safeway where they have to put money in the cart. Usually an easy dollar just going into the store! LOL.

Crossing Fingers said "I do it quite often at Walmart, my excuse is being a parent. I think they need more places to return their carts to. They are spread too far apart and there are none at the far end of the parking lot. "

you have 1 child. you have stated in other threads that you and your husband need to lose weight and do more exercise. you have also stated you didn't baby proof, which i don't really care about since we didn't completely baby proof either but from what i have gathered from your posts, i would say not returning carts is more a lazy thing then a parent thing. i fully admit that i have left a dollarama cart out. the reason? i was lazy!!! not gonna lie about it.  
 
i was going to say the same thing as Tamara. i shop at ss often and have NEVER seen a cart not put away. and i think their cart stalls are farther and not as many as walmarts, yes i know its a smaller lot. perhaps all stores should make you pay a dollar or even a toonie to get a cart?? i would support that, as it would make my lazy butt go and get my toonie back!! haha.

Tamara79 said "how this doesnt seem to be an issue in lots where you have to put a loonie in. Problem solved. "

i was thinking this last night in bed lol. no wonder i dont sleep, i have ebrandon threads floating around up there haha.  
 
but seriously, i have noticed that ss's parking lot is hardly ever congested with carts. i think i have maybe seen 1 cart and when i took it i realized it was broken, so i assume that is why they didnt take it back to get the loonie. any other stores make you pay for a cart? what are their parking lots like?

summertime said "    Crossing Fingers said "I do it quite often at Walmart, my excuse is being a parent. I think they need more places to return their carts to. They are spread too far apart and there are none at the far end of the parking lot. " you have 1 child. you have stated in other threads that you and your husband need to lose weight and do more exercise. you have also stated you didn't baby proof, which i don't really care about since we didn't completely baby proof either but from what i have gathered from your posts, i would say not returning carts is more a lazy thing then a parent thing. i fully admit that i have left a dollarama cart out. the reason? i was lazy!!! not gonna lie about it.     i was going to say the same thing as Tamara. i shop at ss often and have NEVER seen a cart not put away. and i think their cart stalls are farther and not as many as walmarts, yes i know its a smaller lot. perhaps all stores should make you pay a dollar or even a toonie to get a cart?? i would support that, as it would make my lazy butt go and get my toonie back!! haha. "

yes I have one child and yes it may be laziness but I am not going to lie and say I am perfect and never leave the cart out. We go to Superstore often and always return the carts there but we always seem to get close to the cart return as well. I would have no issues with Walmart charging for carts. They did try it once and there was a huge uproar. We usually park at the end of the last row down by Ashley Furniture and there are not much for cart returns down there.  
 
If you read the thread about animals left in a vehicle you will see that there are people out there that feel it is a terrible thing to leave a child unattended. I guess that was always just my main reason behind it - god forbid I leave my child unattended in a locked car for a minute while I run the cart back. As for baby proofing my house - you need to go back and re-read what I said because you have that wrong.  
 
I do usually leave my cart where there are other carts left, I don't just dump it in front of my vehicle. I am not saying that is the right thing to do, no it is not but I am just being honest and admitting that I do it sometimes (not always).  
 
 
 
Edited by Crossing Fingers, 2012-08-17 08:19:57

Store lots. I live up behind the shoppers mall and regularly find carts strewn all the way up the street to 26th. And some of these carts are from sobys, Canadian tire and I've even found a Michele's cart beside the buss stop on richmond. As u know this prob cost stores money for lost carts or increase on insurance to replace them I call the stores to inform them about it. Its sad when u have to play " thread the needle " to avoid hitting the ones on the bike path. I have also notice an increase in the amount I carts I see in ditches around town and wonder if there might not be more stores can do to try an keep carts on their property's

Crossing Fingers said "    summertime said "    Crossing Fingers said "I do it quite often at Walmart, my excuse is being a parent. I think they need more places to return their carts to. They are spread too far apart and there are none at the far end of the parking lot. " you have 1 child. you have stated in other threads that you and your husband need to lose weight and do more exercise. you have also stated you didn't baby proof, which i don't really care about since we didn't completely baby proof either but from what i have gathered from your posts, i would say not returning carts is more a lazy thing then a parent thing. i fully admit that i have left a dollarama cart out. the reason? i was lazy!!! not gonna lie about it.     i was going to say the same thing as Tamara. i shop at ss often and have NEVER seen a cart not put away. and i think their cart stalls are farther and not as many as walmarts, yes i know its a smaller lot. perhaps all stores should make you pay a dollar or even a toonie to get a cart?? i would support that, as it would make my lazy butt go and get my toonie back!! haha. " yes I have one child and yes it may be laziness but I am not going to lie and say I am perfect and never leave the cart out. We go to Superstore often and always return the carts there but we always seem to get close to the cart return as well. I would have no issues with Walmart charging for carts. They did try it once and there was a huge uproar. We usually park at the end of the last row down by Ashley Furniture and there are not much for cart returns down there.     If you read the thread about animals left in a vehicle you will see that there are people out there that feel it is a terrible thing to leave a child unattended. I guess that was always just my main reason behind it - god forbid I leave my child unattended in a locked car for a minute while I run the cart back. As for baby proofing my house - you need to go back and re-read what I said because you have that wrong.     I do usually leave my cart where there are other carts left, I don't just dump it in front of my vehicle. I am not saying that is the right thing to do, no it is not but I am just being honest and admitting that I do it sometimes (not always).         Edited by Crossing Fingers, 2012-08-17 08:19:57"

thanks for being honest and saying you dont return the cart out of laziness. thats all i wanted. i am lazy at times too and dont put the cart back. however, i would never make up some excuse about it to cover my laziness.  
 
i did re read your post. i am referring to how you only put plug in protectors on the outlets you deemed unsafe instead of all of them. thats all. not trying to start anything, was just commenting on what ive read from your posts. sorry. like i said, i didnt baby proof either and taught my children what was okay too touch and not too touch. im not a perfect parent either by any means!!  
 
this next comment is for all parents. i would rather you parent how you do all the time instead of doing things differently when out and about in fear of an ebrandon thread being started about you. if you dont agree with my parenting, that is fine. i may not agree with yours. but if you want to start a thread on my parenting, then by all means have at it! lol

It's a sad day when we worry that by doing anything in this city someone might post about us on ebrandon! lol it's the truth though isn't it. Btw, I always return my cart. Didn't used to, but in recent years I sure do. (maybe mostly cause I want my loonie back LOL)

That reminds me, there's a giant tiger cart sitting in the field on 6th and Mctavish. Was wondering why someone would bother pushing it 20 blocks away.  
 
Carts in the mall area tend to be really mixed up. I should know, I grabbed one in the lot to shop at safeway one time (didn't have a quarter), and it turned out to be a sobeys cart lol. Always wondered how they got accross the street.  
 
That's one thing about the store I work for. All the carts are kept up front in the building, so there collected often.

Ever happened to the guy(s) that used to pick up stray carts? I believe they used to have like a $5 bounty on them and I'm sure I remember a white pickup truck doing this as a business?

ah i did it yesterday, i realized i only had 7 minutes to make my appointment(my fault for getting side tracked) and i was at the far end of the lot and there are no returns near by but, i do return carts when i can and, i do think carts laying around the neighborhood isn't good (if it leaves the property isn't it stolen?)  
 
but i do think the stores bear some responsibility here, its their carts and their customers, just like the floors and shelf's, getting the carts is part of doing business, they should staff the cart area better or if they want to cut costs they could make them lonnie carts, otherwise its wall-world cutting down expenses and making their parking lot look bad a again for customers, dealing with it is the cost of us saving a buck

Boy, this discussion sure took a left turn someplace here. This is not a good parenting thread, it is about the lazy people who don't return their carts. I usually try to return the carts along the way as I walk to the store. Easier than nagging about loose carts.  
What I find strange is carts across town. Why don't the cops stop the people who are pushing carts down the street? It is theft since the carts are not meant to leave the property of the store.

Last time I checked that what they hirer ppl to do go get the carts. Really people I wish my life was so good that carts not being put away was a problem.

It isn't a shopping cart, it's a welfare taxi!

they cant drive cars correctly and u think they will do better with a shopping cart

Walmart has a sign at the cart corrals asking us to return the carts so that they can keep prices down...or something like that.  
 
And there was a Walmart person gathering the carts. Can you imagine what it will be like at Christmas if people leave their carts out?  
 
It takes what, 30 seconds from the far end of the parking lot to return a cart to the nearest cart corral? 15 seconds there and 15 seconds back. Think about that. Shop for an hour and can't spend 30 seconds putting a cart back.  
 
If your cart hits my truck will you be paying for your negligence? To get a small dent fixed and the hood repainted is somewhere in the ball park of $600. And that's just a hood. Not a dent and a scrape down the side of a vehicle. Pretty expensive 30 seconds I would say. I'm far from eff'n perfect, but I've busted my butt for many years to finally have nice things. I don't need your lazy negligence ruining my day by damaging my stuff.  
 
I have the courtesy to be careful around all other peoples vehicles and put my cart away in the heat, the rain, and when it's -40 outside. Even when I had kids with me. (Really clma, when life was not good for us either, we still put our carts away) Yeah...really.  
 
Edited by Mandy6, 2012-08-17 16:07:53

Lazy 5% of the time. The other 95% I put my cart away. When I put my cart away, I do it properly and push a bunch together because people don't seem to know how. But I will admit I don't always put my cart away

always put my cart away if there is money in it. Like at Safeway (I don't ever shop at Super Store). On occasion I have left my cart. Usually at Wal-mart, since there is very few cart corrals, and I am not going to take my cart somewhere where I can't see my vehicle, since my kids will be in it. Or at Canadian Tire, since you have to take your cart all the way back to the front of the store, and sometimes I am parked far away, and am either lazy, or again, dont want to leave my kids that far away.