Wal-Mart Shopping Carts (Seaboard St.)

I want to start out by saying how awesome it is that stores provide carts for consumers to use.  This is obviously beneficial for the store owners because people are more likely to buy more if they have an easy way to carry it.  That being said, stores should really make an effort to maintain their carts.  Out of all the stores I have been in, the Wal-Mart on Seaboard Street, here in Myrtle Beach, has the worst carts I have had the misfortune of using.

One might assume that I just had some bad luck tonight.  If that's what you're thinking, you would be very, very wrong.  In general, I avoid the Seaboard Wal-Mart.  It is often busy, which leads to the shelves being messy  and, in some instances, empty.*  If I have to go, I try to go really, really early on Sunday mornings.

Tonight, I didn't have much of a choice, so I headed to the Seaboard Wal-Mart.  In the past, I have often pulled out two or three carts, only to have each of them messed up.  I can handle when they pull to one side or the other, but I can't stand the racket some of them make.  On multiple occassions, I'll come in the grocery entrance and head to the other side of the store for things like toothpaste.  By the time I'm passing the other entrance, I'll have to stop and swap out carts.  Often, the new cart is no better than the old.  It's just plain terrible.  The overwhelming majority of carts are in poor shape.

Tonight was no different.  I pulled out a cart, pushed it a bit and decided it was too noisy.  I grabbed another one, hoping it would be better.  I thought maybe it was just a bit noisy, but I was wrong.  It just rattled and rattled.  I stopped in the other entrance to swap it out.  I shouldn't have to go through three carts to find one that isn't a mess.

Now, it's not Wal-Mart's fault that the carts are in such poor shape.  Customers have a tendency to be pretty rough with them and leave them in all manner of places.  I'm sure the people gathering the carts aren't overly careful with them either.  Unfortunately, that's not my concern.  That particular Wal-Mart needs to replace the noisy carts or at least perform some sort of maintenance.

I'll continue to avoid that Wal-Mart when possible.  Between the crowds, the under-stocked shelves, and teh cruddy carts, I'd rather pay a few more dollars and shop at BiLo.  They have really neat carts!

*I love the sugar canister they sell, where the sugar is in a resealable container.  It's easy to use, but the Seaboard Wal-Mart is usually out of them.