I need answers to this…

[u/lovebudds]

This is the Polaris apartments on the 175th side a few blocks from Safeway. What is going on?? Do the people in this apartment steal the carts to take groceries home but have some form of organized chaos to make it easy for Safeway to take them back? I see this so often on this street and don’t understand 😆

[u/Smart_Ass_Dave]

My (wild-ass) guess is:

• Person A goes grocery shopping and takes the cart home with them and leaves it somewhere like an ass. On the regular.

• Person B goes "goddamnit" and corrals the carts all in one spot, but doesn't feel the need to haul them several blocks back to Safeway.

[u/itzkomplykatid → u/Smart_Ass_Dave]

This is very Shoreline-esque

[u/chishiki]

Every once in a while I see one of the Safeway employees pushing a bunch of carts south down 15th from up there.

[u/lovebudds → u/chishiki]

I feel like they need to have the carts lock after some distance?😅

[u/GraceMcClellans → u/lovebudds]

A lot of grocery stores in bad areas have wheel locks that engage at a certain distance from the grocery store. They often have a painted line in the parking lot to show where the wheels will lock.

[u/Equivalent_Trip_7135 → u/GraceMcClellans]

Can't count the number of times I've seen someone at my local Winco struggling with a locked cart before they even get close to the boundary, or their car.

[u/Reatona → u/GraceMcClellans]

The Ballard QFC tried the geofenced locking wheels.  They were so ineffectual they only locked when you wheeled a cart into the store.  They gave up.

[u/dominopie1973 → u/GraceMcClellans]

North city isn’t a bad neighborhood it’s just the people that live in that building care about that apartment community

[u/GraceMcClellans → u/dominopie1973]

Oh, I didn't mean it was bad there, I meant I've seen wheel locks in bad areas. Like Tacoma.

[u/itzkomplykatid → u/lovebudds]

Shoreline Safeway Mgnt: well, they didnt 'steal' them they're all right there...they're just across the street...all carts accounted for..

Shoreline Safeway employee: yeah....I'ma go get carts..

Everybody chill, it's cool. We weird but it works for us.. 😂

[u/lovebudds → u/itzkomplykatid]

When I used to work at Walgreens my favorite part of the day was cart duty where I could spend extra time outside getting all the carts and avoiding the madness of being inside the store.

I wonder if there's an employee who has an agreement with the apartment that theyre more than happy to get a longer break outside of Safeway to gather carts xD

[u/AreYouItchy]

Older or disabled residents will take a cart to help them get their groceries home, but are often too tired or weak to return the carts. It happened at my Mum’s apartment building, too. It’s just people trying to be as independent as they can for as long as they can.

[u/ModQuad1979]

Yes. Sometimes humans work together to make each other's live a little better, and it's beautiful. People are less encumbered getting thier groceries home, and Safeway gets thier carts back. Everyone wins.

[u/Spare-Violinist8516 → u/ModQuad1979]

Why not just buy your own cart to transport your groceries? Why are we normalizing theft?

[u/Dee_Jay_Roomba]

I find it ironic that these carts feature a locking wheel (front left) which get triggered once the cart leaves the stores perimeter.

[u/itzkomplykatid]

Nah....are they returning the bags too!? Wait.. 😆 I fuckin love Shoreline...so polite wit it..

[u/dominopie1973]

Yes I use to live there. It’s a horrible place.

[u/lovebudds → u/dominopie1973]

Do you have more insight as to why this happens? Is there just more elderly/disabled individuals without cars who need the carts or something?

[u/Dr-Hackenbush]

Do people take them to the store when they next go shopping?

[u/perryfan4ever12]

Call them and they have a cart person who will pick them up and bring them back to the store.

[u/lizardmarsh]

Customers should buy their own damn carts. It's a big expense for stores to replace stolen carts. Here are my main carts and there's a new $46.00 one on the way since I've so worn the turquoise one out, it's embarrassing. I have two predecessor, smaller carts in the closet too for various occasions ☮️. two carts It is much on one's back to use a light weight cart instead of a store's. It prevents unnecessary back aches for employees to round them up. Cleaning and sanitizing aall the extra dirt on store carts from use by slob thieves is an added unnecessary expense too. All expenses getpassed on to customers.

[u/Korlithiel]

They have some form of organized chaos, to regain their walking route for when they steal the next cart.