February is also Shopping Cart Return Month
Thanks to David Markland of the Los Angeles Metroblog, I have now learned that this is “Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month”. [b.la]
Yes, really. Even the US government (in the form of the Census Bureau, after a fashion) recognizes it.
This seems to be a much bigger problem in other places than it is here, at least from my point of view. When I lived for a while in Waltham, Massachusetts, my roommate and I would walk to our local grocery store once a week, taking along with us the various abandoned carts for the store that we found along our maybe a half-mile walk. By the time we got the store we invariably had at least two or three, but often much more than that. David’s post links to entire galleries of abandoned carts in the LA area. Up here in Seattle, though, I can’t remember the last time I saw a cart sitting lost and alone outside the environs of its home. Are people nicer here or do those locking wheel security systems that stores like QFC use simply work that well?
Oh man, I see them everywhere. A friend did a photo series on escaping shopping carts a while back, and now I can’t get away from them. There were three on my way to work this morning, and I don’t even live anywhere near a grocery store.
It would be great if you lived in SE Seattle and walked to one of our grocery stores occasionally. We have plenty of shopping carts begging to be escorted home.