The shopping carts are driving me nuts....

I went a year before I would even use a cart because I thought the pound coin was a charge for using the cart. I just wasn't going to pay someone a pound to then shop with them.

So finally one day I decided to pay the pound. And when I took the cart back and inserted the little chain thing and - surprise! - my pound coin popped out I just stood there for a second like an idiot.

LOL - That makes me feel much better!  It must have been quite a struggle to do a large shopping though. 

If I'm honest, I probably would have done the same thing if my husband hadn't shown me how the coin would be returned.   

Actually, I think it's a good system and I wonder why the supermarkets where I used to live didn't do something like that.

Well it goes a little deeper....I remember looking at the carts....the little box that you put the coin in....and I remember thinking that the little box couldn't possibly hold more than say ten pound coins. Did someone empty them regularly? I never saw anyone emptying them.

It really should have dawned on me much sooner.

I also find the Morrison's carts are better quality than Asda. Luckily when I started doing more shopping (after I got married), my wife was with me and pointed out all the do's and don'ts in the fine art of shopping and not dying. Before that I was single and shopped on the US base all the time.

We are in California on vacation at the moment, and just like Vancouver earlier this year on vacation, our local supermarket has trolleys whose wheels lock if you try to take them out of the parking lot. It still means the carts are all over the parking lot but you don't see them all over town.

I went a year before I would even use a cart because I thought the pound coin was a charge for using the cart. I just wasn't going to pay someone a pound to then shop with them.

So finally one day I decided to pay the pound. And when I took the cart back and inserted the little chain thing and - surprise! - my pound coin popped out I just stood there for a second like an idiot.

Me too.  I swear one day I'm just going to crash into something.  Im the worst at steering. 

I got scammed one day in the pouring rain by someone who said "here give me your £1 coin and you can have my nice dry trolley" . When I came to get the £1 back I found that there wasn't one, he must have been one of the people who push their car key into the slot to release the trolley.

But, on the upside, I did get a dry trolley....

I got scammed one day in the pouring rain by someone who said "here give me your £1 coin and you can have my nice dry trolley" . When I came to get the £1 back I found that there wasn't one, he must have been one of the people who push their car key into the slot to release the trolley.

You know I like to see a guy who isn't afraid to think big.....

It reminds me of the two junkies in the series The Wire. They hatch this elaborate heist, plan it meticulously, and you end up seeing them running off down the alley with a few old plumbing pipes.   

I thought of this thread at the weekend.  I was at Costco which has American shopping carts.  Saw someone "riding" one through the parking lot (one of my favourite things to do.. yeah, I'm that person!).  Realised you can't do that with the British carts!

DH refuses to use a trolley or basket in the UK.  He feels if it's too much to carry around the store in his hands he's buying too much.  I worry that the staff will think he's shop-lifting.  Needless to say, we have to shop every day 

BostonDiner--I live in the US these days and I grocery shop daily. It's a habit I picked up from my cute little Mexican grandma who went daily to the meat market and the vegetable/ fruit stall. My hometown of El Paso, Texas had a lot of these shops with other cute little grandmas who shopped daily with their little plastic bags with "The Virgen of Guadalupe" (the patron saint of Mexico) image and their daily shopping. When I moved to England, I loved having all the small shops and sort of channeled my grandma. My sister bought me a plastic carrier bag with the Virgen. I no longer live in an area with small shops but I still end up going every single day. I guess old habits die hard.

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I think (which means I'm probably wrong) the cart designs are a carry over from older shopping habits. When I first lived in the UK in 1980.....I think people shopped more often and in smaller amounts. There were more small shops to shop at. Now with the rise of the Asda/Tesco etc etc people are rolling out of the stores with large carts full of stuff. I'm assuming that the design was carried over from older times. I still think having the rotating wheels on the rear of the cart (next to you) makes it easier than on the front if you have a heavy load. Oh well......we went to Asda yesterday.....on the way back out to the car I looked at my wife and said "I'm NOT complaining about the cart"....which of course meant that I was complaining about the cart.

After my recent visit to the states and to Walmart of course I believe UK trollies are far superior so nurrrr.

We went to Morrison's yesterday.....damn....I had a cart with a bad wheel. That was a 50-50 chance at Walmart. How the hell a shopping cart wheel gets a flat spot on it.....a lot of the Walmart ones had that issue. But.....living in the Spokane area......they had SUN......you can put up with a lot when it is dry and sunny.

As clarification......what I meant was.......for every one bad cart in 20 at Morrisons (better than Asda's), I probably had 10 bad carts at Walmart. Even the "bad" cart I had at Morrison's last week was better than 90% of the ones I had at Walmart. If.....that is clarification.....it is in my head anyway.....