Seriously.
For starters, they have relationship problems. Put two of them together, and they both disappear together behind some planter. Put three of them together and they suddenly all hate each other, go emo, and attempt to jump into traffic, in three different areas. Now imagine six of them. Of course, we do get a nice little cable to hold them all together; it's really only long enough to hold like six of them together, with a bit of effort.
Which brings me to my next point. You'd think six shopping carts tied together would be fairly simple to get back to the store. Well, they travel in a straight line, a very very stubborn straight line. So, in order to make them turn, you have to stop, and drag them from the side (which leave nice little tread marks on the floor btw) and hope that while you drag them sideways, the cable holding them together doesn't go undone.
Of course, when you get to the store, you have customers who want shopping carts. So they see me bringing some fresh shopping carts in and ask if they may have one. Since it is extremely rude to say, "No ma'am, please take two more steps to your left and take one out of the super long line of shopping carts there," I'd hand one to them, and in order to do that, I have to undo the cable and get one off. If one goes free, they all go free. Now this wouldn't that big of the problem if they took shopping carts at the end of my line closer to the parking lot, cause then all the remaining shopping carts would just rush forward into the cart cradle, but no, they want the cart closer to the store. So all the remaining carts rush back into the parking lot, cause if one goes free, they all think they are freed too. The downward slope into the parking lot doesn't help much either.
Then there's the fact that there are many many many shopping carts, in fact, there are so many shopping carts that they don't even fit into the cart cradle in front of the store. So we make another line right next to it, two in fact. I like those more, cart cradles are evil. There's a reason for so many shopping carts, right? Of course there is. They make nice planter decor. Seriously, who doesn't like looking at trees surrounded by shoppings carts, all the way across the plaza right next to the bank. The parking lots half empty most of the time, is it really that hard to find a closer parking spot to the store, instead of right next to the bank, past several speed bumps, gutters, and ditches. Dragging a line of shopping carts over them isn't fun. Sometimes I get my line halfway across one, and the other half decides to go like, screw you, the bank's cooler, and breaks off from the line. Then I would have to chase after them again and while I'm chasing after the few carts that are trying to rob the bank, the remaining few carts decide to be like, oooo, water is in the gutter, lets follow it! and end up in some big ditch in the middle of the road.
Did I mention that I'm gathering carts in long sleeves and a tie, dress shoes a little bit too big, in the wonderful afternoon sun?
Oh well, it's the only part of my job I don't like so much. Its fun at night when the parking lots empty and you can kick em around, but not during peak hours, with minivans and little kids everywhere.
