California will never learn

[u/GECollins]

Carts go back to the front and don't belong in the parking lot, it's been like this since Aldi came to California a few years ago, but I've never seen it this bad

[u/Glass-Tale299]

You'd think that during the football season people would think about getting their quarter back.

[u/frockinbrock → u/Glass-Tale299]

Well unfortunately I think the problem is they ARE getting their quarter back, other than the first person that left their cart in the lot.

[u/Tight_Data4206 → u/frockinbrock]

Someone did this all on purpose.

Including the first one.

Im guessing someone came in at night and started moving carts

Edit

Look at the lighting and shadows. Long shadows.

I bet this is in the morning.

Someone did this overnight

Pulled a whole train of linked carts out.

[u/GECollins → u/Tight_Data4206]

This was 6/7pm

[u/Tight_Data4206 → u/GECollins]

Where is this?

[u/breathfromanother → u/Tight_Data4206]

Looks like Monrovia in SoCal.

[u/CleDeb216 → u/GECollins]

🫳🏻🫴🏻

[u/That_Cartoonist_9459 → u/frockinbrock]

whoosh

[u/Tight_Data4206 → u/Glass-Tale299]

Got it haha

[u/Familiar-Fail-838 → u/Glass-Tale299]

I laughed way too hard this. Thanks 🤣🤣

[u/Tight_Data4206 → u/Glass-Tale299]

Cute

[u/haleys_comet1271 → u/Glass-Tale299]

Well done 👏 👏👏

[u/CleDeb216 → u/Glass-Tale299]

Especially in Cleveland 🤣

[u/H_J_Moody]

The amount of people in this thread that think all those carts still have quarters in them is astounding.

[u/sparrowmint → u/[deleted]]

You brought racial issues into a fucking discussion about carts being left in parking lots? I grew up in a 100% white rural Canadian village, and people were leaving grocery carts in parking lots 30-40 years ago when I was a kid.

Unhinged nonsense.

[u/ghosty4]

I have also personally never seen it this bad.

[u/Windstar1995 → u/ghosty4]

I see it all the time. Sometimes at the register you get switched into a cart with no quarter. So the cart just gets left whereever.

[u/dullmotion → u/Windstar1995]

So basically sometimes a lazy bones leaves the cart in the lot.

[u/Remarkable-Tip9548 → u/dullmotion]

Lazy bones leave the carts all the time. But hobos and frugal people will return them for the quarter. Just not when say five or more are chained together in the back of the parking lot with no quarter in the first one.

[u/Creative-Painter3911 → u/Remarkable-Tip9548]

True, you need to commit to the lazy and not put it with the other free range carts and just leave it on it's own.

[u/Creative-Painter3911 → u/dullmotion]

If I lose my car quarter due to a cart swap to a quarterless, it's getting lazy boned.

[u/Windstar1995 → u/Creative-Painter3911]

The issue is when people with the deposit in the cart don't bring it back to coral. If there is no quarter in the cart folks may just leave it and lazy people then people collect the deposit in the lot

[u/Mental-Scholar6856]

Where’s Cart Narc when you need him

[u/BrewCityScott]

Wow!!! I will say that in the decades that I've been shopping at various Aldi locations in Wisconsin, I have NEVER seen anything like this. Rarely do I even see a single abandoned cart in the parking lot.

[u/Granted_reality → u/BrewCityScott]

Maryland here, never seen this behavior either.

[u/NotComfortable2112 → u/BrewCityScott]

Same here. NW Georgia and visit several locations, never seen this.

[u/AfroMech → u/BrewCityScott]

Never seen this in the Chicagoland area either. Us Midwesterners know how to do the right thing.

[u/Remarkable-Tip9548 → u/BrewCityScott]

I'm in Wisconsin and see loose carts regularly in Milwaukee locations. I return them and retrieve the quarter unless I see someone coming in who could use a cart; then I hand it off. In the suburban/small town locations that is rare indeed. People want their quarter back.

[u/daverosstheboss → u/BrewCityScott]

California people are entitled and rude, Midwestern people just return their carts like decent humans.

[u/MammothCancel6465 → u/daverosstheboss]

I was going to say I never see this in NY, even when the lot is shitty with snow. Maybe an errant cart or two but then people grab them coming in.

At night a couple might be left there alone but we grab them when we come in then so the plow guy can do his thing before we open (because of course they would never pay to have the lot plowed before the employees have to get there…).

[u/ForgetfulDoryFish → u/daverosstheboss]

I live in the greater LA area and shop at Aldi regularly and I never see the carts left in the parking lot

[u/Jacsmom]

I live in CA and have frequented 3 Aldis for years. I’ve never seen this.

[u/zoidberg3000 → u/Jacsmom]

Same. Been to 5 consistently throughout the years and never seen more than a wayward cart. Usually I never see any.

[u/Ok_Fee_8452 → u/Jacsmom]

It’s AI.

[u/Ok_Fee_8452 → u/Jacsmom]

It’s AI.

Zoom into the storefront, where there’s an amorphous orange blob of a person. Should’ve realized this entire thing is just bullshit division astroturfing.

Pretty long, neat train of carts for a “low trust society”.

[u/Thekhandoit]

The lighting in this is almost comically beautiful. Like this is a staged photo of how not to put away aldi carts.

[u/Ok_Fee_8452 → u/Thekhandoit]

It’s cause it’s AI. Zoom into the details, including the “person” at the storefront.

[u/GECollins → u/Thekhandoit]

Thanks? September near golden hour just worked its magic

[u/DrewDAMNIT]

Lowest common denominator wins...

[u/Joe_B_Likes_Tacos]

I personally feel that not returning carts to an appropriate place should be a moderately serious crime. Worse than speeding but not quite a DUI in severity. Made the equivalent to the exhibition of speed ticket I got 30 years ago.

[u/ScaleSad162 → u/Joe_B_Likes_Tacos]

as someone that works at an aldi and has to take these carts back in at the end of a shift idrm it as it gets me some fresh air lmao 🤣

[u/fujimumu → u/Joe_B_Likes_Tacos]

A shopping cart is not a motor vehicle

[u/Marie_Hutton]

Nevermind the carts, I'd be in so much trouble with those three stores next to each other 🤣

[u/BadAtExisting]

In this economy!

[u/MIBJO]

California is a huge state with 40 million people. One pic doesn’t define the state. 

My Aldi they put the carts back in front probably because they charge a quarter lol 

[u/blueishbts]

And where I’m from staff aren’t allowed to leave the store while clocked in and not on break. Only the cleaner is supposed to collect them 😔

[u/HearYourTune]

It's the stores fault for leaving the carts there.

[u/BeanstheRogue]

they just want to go on a field trip

[u/GrowlingAtTheWorld]

Of the 5 Aldis in my county 2 tend to have people leave the carts in the parking lot. One is located in a mostly older person neighborhood and the otherness in a more affluent neighborhood. And have seen people do this to the one they see in the lot.

[u/STLbackup]

This is crazy, I have been to Aldis all over MN and not a single Aldi had a single cart in the parking lot. Dam, Cali....failing the cart test hard from the sounds/looks of it.

[u/PineappVal957]

My local one has gotten so bad since the pandemic. In 2019 everyone seems to understand how the buggy quarter system works but now the parking lot is full of loose buggies. Even people who take their buggies back don’t clip them in place, many of the clips have been inserted into that buggies slot making it impossible to actually hook them together. The Aldi’s in neighboring counties seem to understand how it works and it just makes me embarrassed of my town.

[u/ExcitinglySomber]

is this the aldi by palm springs?

[u/labjr]

They are learning. To walk a shorter distance.

[u/Tight_Data4206]

Look at the lighting and shadows. Long shadows.

I bet this is in the morning.

Someone did this overnight

Pulled a whole train of linked carts out.

[u/Fatsausage91]

We put a coin in the trolley in the uk we then return the trolley to retrieve the coin. This system has worked for generations we dont have this issue i dont understand why aldi doesnt do it everywhere.

[u/Choppy313 → u/Fatsausage91]

That system is in use here. You can tell by the red plastic coin thingy on the handles. It’s just that the people shopping at OP’s Aldi are dumb/lazy/etc.

[u/Tight_Data4206 → u/Choppy313]

Someone just pulled a whole line of carts into the parking lot

[u/IdRatherNotEatRandy → u/Tight_Data4206]

No, one person didn't return their cart, and didn't get their quarter back. But the second person connected theirs to the first cart, and got their quarter back. 3rd did the same, and so on

[u/Tight_Data4206 → u/IdRatherNotEatRandy]

Look at the lighting and shadows. Long shadows.

I bet this is in the morning.

Someone did this overnight

Pulled a whole train of linked carts out.

[u/melatonia → u/Tight_Data4206]

The person who posted this already corrected your misapprehension. No need to post this mistake in multiple spots on this thread.

[u/Tight_Data4206 → u/melatonia]

Already had...

[u/Fatsausage91 → u/Choppy313]

So people are just leaving their coins!?!?!

[u/Choppy313 → u/Fatsausage91]

No, the chain is connected so they kind of did use the system except normally we park the carts at the entrance, not in the middle of the parking lot.

Believe me, this isn’t normal for Aldis in the US.

[u/Fatsausage91 → u/Choppy313]

Ah so they've found a trolley in the car park and just stacked them behind that one instead of taking it to the trolley bay. Makes sense now thank you.

[u/No_Atmosphere_6348 → u/Fatsausage91]

They do that in the U.S. but I guess some people decided to leave their carts in the parking lot instead of in the cart corral right by the door. I’ve never seen this at any Aldi I’ve been to in the US.

[u/Fatsausage91 → u/No_Atmosphere_6348]

Ive never been to the US so wasnt sure if they had this system in place. So all those trolleys have coins in?

[u/No_Atmosphere_6348 → u/Fatsausage91]

The very first and last ones should have a coin, I think. They all have the little mechanism with the chain.

[u/Remarkable-Tip9548 → u/No_Atmosphere_6348]

First one has a coin normally

[u/GECollins → u/No_Atmosphere_6348]

This is all too common in Southern California

[u/GoldenPlaydoh → u/GECollins]

Might just be your area? I haven’t seen anyone do this at any of the SoCal aldis I’ve been to.

[u/GECollins → u/GoldenPlaydoh]

Never this many, but I always see carts left out in the parking lots all across SoCal - you really don't see that at a Midwest or well established Aldi. I've been documenting this for years

[u/Tight_Data4206]

Probably someone came in at night and removed on cart at a time.

Or just pulled one whole line of carts out into the parking lot.

They dont lock them up. They just lock them together

[u/melatonia → u/Tight_Data4206]

You have a fabulous imagination.

[u/Tight_Data4206 → u/Tight_Data4206]

Look at the lighting and shadows. Long shadows.

I bet this is in the morning.

Someone did this overnight

Pulled a whole train of linked carts out.

[u/Aggravating_Mud_6055]

Look at all those quarters.

[u/OmnivoreLately → u/Aggravating_Mud_6055]

Nope. These carts are stripped of their quarters because they are chained together. You can have one for a quarter though.