[DRC]

Hi all,
I had a sort of minor freak accident yesterday at Metro cash and carry, Yashwantpur.

I had parked the car in the open parking lot and went in for shopping. By the time I came back, there was a minor dent and scratch on the rear boot lid. It is the first scratch on my new car, every one here know how the first scratch feels like!

It did not take long to figure out how it had happened. Culprit was right there, and empty shopping cart. Then I noticed the behavior around. People abandon the shopping carts after unloading them into their cars instead of returning to designated spots. then theses carts drift with the wind or along the gradients and collide with the parked vehicles.

Enough can be rued upon this, but what can be done? How can we park safely in such scenarios.
1. Park up hill areas?
2. Park up-wind?
please share your thoughts

[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by DRC

Enough can be rued upon this, but what can be done? How can we park safely in such scenarios.
1. Park up hill areas?
2. Park up-wind?
please share your thoughts

drc the best solution is not to park anywhere in the 1st 4 lanes of the parking lot at the Ypr, Metro. It's a mess with the shoppers always abandoning their shopping carts where ever they find a 4x2 foot space. I have seen carts abandoned betweens parked cars too.

I simply park my car at the farthest slot available and walk up to the entrance.No amount of bickering with the management at Metro helps.

[tsk1979]

Western countries have solved this problem to an extent at the airports by using "paid"carts
You put a coin into the cart, take the cart. If you return cart at designated parking place, you get your coin back as it pops out. However, if you don't you loose the money.
With 10rs coin popular, this solution can work. Many shoppers will be reluctant to give up 10rs and return the cart to the designated place.

[getsurya]

I simply park my car at the farthest slot available and walk up to the entrance.No amount of bickering with the management at Metro helps.

Absolutely!

Even in Hyd Metro, it is a similar plight. I try to pool up some carts and then leave them at the cart area away from car parking. But, that only helps little.

If it is a weekend, I avoid going to Metro as possible.

More than the management at Metro, probably the users also should be little bit more responsible to ensure the cart returns.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Western countries have solved this problem to an extent at the airports by using "paid"carts
You put a coin into the cart, take the cart. If you return cart at designated parking place, you get your coin back as it pops out. However, if you don't you loose the money.
With 10rs coin popular, this solution can work. Many shoppers will be reluctant to give up 10rs and return the cart to the designated place.

True. Something similar to this has started working in grocery stores where they have started charging for carry bags. Lots of people do get there own cloth bags and avoid using the plastic carry bags due to extra 5 Rs being charged.
But the question is why will Metro do something like this? Our traffic scenario anyways ensures that most cars get a fair number of scratches.

[SmartCat]

Shopping carts need to have "automatic brakes" like the luggage trolleys you find in the airport. You can move the airport trolleys only by depressing the handle.

That will surely prevent those runaway trolley incidents.

[ghodlur]

+1 to Smartcat.

Providing brakes to the trolleys does not end the responsibility of the owners who get the trolleys out of the shopping malls. It is their responsibility to ensure that the trolleys are out of anyone's way and dont collide with any cars. I hope the owner who acted irresponsibly with the trolley in your case gets a taste of his own medicine.

Even when the trolleys spread around the mall are collected and sent back to the super market, they pose a great risk to the cars around.

Suggest to drop a mail to the mall management highlighting the incident and suggest to increase the surveillance.

[DRC]

Not sure if parking at the farther slots help.. In fact this incident happened at the farther lanes. Auto brakes like airport trolleys could be a great idea. but who bells the cat?
Meanwhile, I thought parking against the gradient (northwards) could help.

Anyways, I will try to mail to the management and see if the take notice.

DR

[amit]

Best solution would be to charge for the cart's like they do abroad and like tsk said. This puts the onus on the 'cart owner' to put the cart back to it's station. This will ensure the mall / parking area is always clear. Indian's are too indisciplined and if we use the brake system, they will leave the carts anywhere they like and drive off.

[Jignesh]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Western countries have solved this problem to an extent at the airports by using "paid"carts

Hello,

Exactly same is the system followed at retail outlets in Germany. At outlets like Lidl the shopping carts are very well arranged at designated places without help from any store attendents.

Reason - simple - The shopping carts are auto-locked & people have to insert a coin to release one cart. Now after shopping & loading the goods in car, the shopper has to take the cart back to its designated place & place it well arranged so that the coin pops out.

But frankly speaking I doubt whether the Rs. 10 coin solution will work in India. When people pay Rs. 30 to Rs. 60 or more as parking charges in malls, they will be more than happy to lose the Rs. 10 coin rather than walking all the way back & placing the cart in its original place.

Thanks,

[thoma]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

With 10rs coin popular, this solution can work. Many shoppers will be reluctant to give up 10rs and return the cart to the designated place.

Good idea and the most practical one, but 10/- is too low that there could be still people who won't return the cart back. Your post just remembered me the system at Vellore Medical College where they charge 100/- (IIRC) for a wheel chair for the outpatients, since there are many number of them. We have to return the chair before night to get the money refunded. INR 500 is charged as parking fee at the leading textile showroom in my small town, which of course is refunded back at the cash counter!

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by Jignesh

But frankly speaking I doubt whether the Rs. 10 coin solution will work in India. When people pay Rs. 30 to Rs. 60 or more as parking charges in malls, they will be more than happy to lose the Rs. 10 coin rather than walking all the way back & placing the cart in its original place.

Thanks,

Originally Posted by thoma

Good idea and the most practical one, but 10/- is too low that there could be still people who won't return the cart back.!

Even if the original guy lets go of 10rs, I am sure you will have people returning 5-10 abandoned carts to get back 50rs.
Heck, if there was such a system and I saw 5 abandoned carts, I would return them and earn my 50rs parking

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Heck, if there was such a system and I saw 5 abandoned carts, I would return them and earn my 50rs parking

Tom Hanks did that to earn money when he was stuck in New York Airport "Terminal" in 2004!

[thoma]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Even if the original guy lets go of 10rs, I am sure you will have people returning 5-10 abandoned carts to get back 50rs.

But the guys at the counter should use their kidneys before implementing this. At Vellore, each chair is numbered and a receipt issued, you need to return back the receipt too.

EDIT: The drawback of this solutions is that it does not help the OP right now, except for the suggestion rjstyles69 put forth

[DRC]

Alas, such a system does not exist today and I dont see this happening in near future either.
Meanwhile, what can we do today? best parking slot? carry some bricks and lay them around your car? give some accessory company idea about shopping cart guard? etc...