re: #89 Dave In Austin

Yep, that rings a bell for anyone who’s worked in a grocery store.

My son is working at a Safeway for his college job (southeast Denver metro, middle class neighborhood). They were down to TEN carts in the whole store a few weeks ago — the metal shopping carts kept disappearing, and they had to borrow some from other stores. One of his managers talked to their usual crew of homeless folks who hang around the parking lot, and tracked down the problem — a nearby pawnshop was offering $10 for each cart someone brought them. The pawnshop would then turn around and sell the carts for at least $50 to metal dealers.

The county mounties went down and talked to the pawnbrokers about this very illegal practice. The cart supply is now holding fairly steady (which helped during the frantic rush of business they got during the King Soopers/Kroger strike). I suppose if there’s a moral to the story, it’s that it pays to not abuse the homeless folks so they are willing to talk to you. Also that our current economic model is horribly honked when you have this many hopeless homeless so desperate for ten bucks that will barely buy a meal. *sigh*

(and that my kid is terribly lucky to work for a store that has nice, stable, competent managers. that’s pretty rare in retail.)