A Parking Lot Problem We Can Actually Fix

By Isaac Shadpour

It was a viral picture of a local supermarket parking lot full of shopping carts scattered all over that ignited a passionate debate on social media about those who leave their carts in the middle of the parking lot after they finish shopping. But is this a problem in our community or is it something witnessed in other places too? And what can we do to help address this issue?

We interviewed a local who’s heavily involved in a cart management tech company. Someone who has been all over the country and many parts of the world studying this very problem and offering surprising answers to these questions. And if I sound a little fired up, it might be because I recently walked out of a store, opened my car door, and before I could even sit down, a runaway cart came racing toward my passenger side, leaving a very expensive dent in my car. That experience alone was enough to make anyone pay attention. On windy days, our parking lots become wild raceways with carts flying in every direction. And even on regular days, they block parking spaces and frustrate drivers searching for a place to pull in.

The conversation took off online for another reason as well. A local commenter shared a very raw and honest perspective. She wrote that in her out-of-town community, carts are almost never left scattered everywhere. As a minority, residents feel an extra responsibility to avoid making a chillul Hashem. She described juggling three little kids while returning her cart because she knows that leaving it in the middle of the lot would reflect poorly on the community. She said that in heavily Jewish areas, people often assume that everyone understands that returning a cart is difficult, so it becomes easy to excuse the behavior. But she also pointed out the obvious danger of leaving carts loose. The wind can send them flying into other cars just as it happened to me. Her message was simple. Someone else will be hurt by this. Someone else’s time and property matter just as much as yours. Think about everyone and not just yourself.

That comment resonated with many readers, but the expert we spoke to wanted to clear up one very important misconception. “This is not a frum community issue at all,” he told The Voice. “It’s not a Lakewood issue either. It’s a big city issue. I’ve traveled across the country and even overseas to observe cart usage and monitor cart management systems, and I’ve seen the exact same problem in large urban centers everywhere.”

He pointed to one extreme example in Canarsie in Brooklyn, a mall that has very few Jewish shoppers, yet the parking lot is overflowing with abandoned carts from every store. The mall employs multiple cart jockeys for each retailer, yet they still can’t keep up. And even the Aldi there, which uses the famous quarter deposit system that works in almost every other Aldi nationwide, is overwhelmed with carts scattered across the enormous lot. “This alone is proof that the problem isn’t cultural,” he explained. “It’s simply what happens when population density grows and convenience becomes king. Lakewood has grown into a big city, and big city issues follow big city growth.”

He also shared fascinating details from the cart management technology he worked on. The typical shopping cart itself isn’t changed at all. Instead, a small hidden RFID tag is added, and the corral is turned into a smart machine. Carts slide into the corral and a mechanical arm secures and stacks them automatically. A shopper retrieves a cart by scanning a loyalty card or entering a phone number. The system then incentivizes customers who return their carts. This technology may be making its way to your local supermarket in the future.

As for solutions that can be implemented now in our own community, he believes that stores could start by placing corrals farther out in the parking lots and not only near the entrances. “Many people park on the outer edges of the lot because the central area fills up quickly,” he noted. “The problem is that most corrals are near the storefront. When you return with tired children and arms full of groceries, the last thing you want to do is walk all the way across the lot again. If corrals were positioned closer to where people park, many more carts would make it back.”

He also believes that incentives could help. “Stores already spend a significant amount of money every day on cart retrieval staff,” he said. “A portion of that cost could be used to reward customers for returning carts. A small discount, a loyalty point, or even a quarterly raffle entry could motivate many people to take those extra 30 seconds. Of course, without a cart management system like the one I described before, you would have to take people for their word that they will return their carts.”

What about the famous quarter system? It works in most places, but not all. “A very large Jewish grocer in Boro Park tried it and later removed it after customers continued abandoning carts anyway,” the expert described. “Once again, the issue wasn’t quarters. The issue was the big city mindset that says, ‘I can’t be inconvenienced even for 30 seconds.’”

So where does that leave us? After hearing from both the out-of-town shopper and the cart tech expert, one message became clear. This isn’t a moral failing of any specific group. It’s simply a challenge of crowded communities and busy families. But it’s still a challenge we can fix with awareness, courtesy, and a small amount of effort.

“Our shopping carts don’t belong in the middle of a parking lot,” the expert concluded. “They don’t belong leaning against someone’s car, and they certainly don’t belong sailing across the asphalt in search of their next victim. They belong in the corral. If you can spend 20 minutes choosing the perfect melon and hunting for sales, you can spend 20 seconds returning the cart. And for those with young children, this may not be the most pleasant reminder, but it’s still true. If you were able to carry your children from your car to the corral to pick up a cart at the start of your trip, then you can carry them back after you’ve unloaded your groceries. It’s not impossible, and it sets a valuable example. Perhaps our community can show that big city convenience and genuine courtesy can indeed coexist.”