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----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 6:06 PM
Subject: [NewYorkerOnline] NYB In Dwntwn West Palm
I saw a triple burgundy, '76 or '77 coupe parked outside of Publix, on Fern Street, about an hour ago. Does it belong to anyone on the list?
-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Woodcock
To: NewYorkerOnline@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 19:46:21 -0400
Subject: RE: [NewYorkerOnline] NYB In Dwntwn West Palm
I can only guess that it is Christopher R's of West Palm. If it was a St Regis and perfectly clean I can almost guarantee it ! I guess you caught him shopping.
Tall Tom
Palm Springs
-----Original Message-----
From: christopheraia@aol.com
To: NewYorkerOnline@yahoogroups.com
Sent:
Subject: RE: [NewYorkerOnline] NYB In Dwntwn West Palm
Haha, yes, you did. I parked at a meter on the street right near the door of Publix rather than parking in the lot so I could get in and out of the store faster. There was only one problem with that. The grocery cart has some sort of governor on it that prevents the cart from being beyond a certain point so loading the groceries directly from the cart into your trunk is unfortunately not an option.
Christopher R
West Palm Beach, FL
----- Original Message -----
From: gregandsandra@att.net
To: NewYorkerOnline@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2006 6:35 AM
Subject: Re: [NewYorkerOnline] NYB In Dwntwn West Palm
Hi Chris,
Nice looking car. It's probably best to keep it in the street, the spaces in the lot seem to be on the small side. And yes, the carts don't go beyond the lot.This prevents them from ending up in other parts of town.
Greg Gryczan
Living in infamous zip code 33407
-----Original Message-----
From: Mytoy <78ny440@comcast.net>
To: NewYorkerOnline@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 09:13:54 -0400
Subject: Re: [NewYorkerOnline] NYB In Dwntwn West Palm
How do they do that? Do they make the cart wear a dog collar? Who gets the shock, you or the cart?
Russ in NH
----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2006 3:24 PM
Subject: Re: [NewYorkerOnline] NYB In Dwntwn West Palm
Russ,
I don't know how it works. I was clueless about even the existence of it until I pushed the cart beyond its predefined boundary. I'm more of a traditionalist; just give me some barbed wire. I'll tell you what little I do know. There's some sort of mysterious partial cover over one of the wheels. When the cart is pushed past its invisible threshold, that wheel locks up but it feels as if all the wheels lock up, maybe they do. The cart won't roll in any direction even when its moved back behind the magic boundary so it can't be anything very sophisticated. There's probably one big plastic manager key that sets the wayward carts free again.
I parked in a metered angled parking space on the street less than 6
feet from the door of the grocery store in an attempt to avoid parking
in the parking lot. It's one of those lots where they maximized the
number of parking spaces by minimizing the size of the spaces to such
an absurd degree that it's impossible for even the driver of a compact
econobox to extricate himself from his vehicle and holding his breath
as his door inevitably touches the adjacent vehicle. The only thing
that fits in those parking spaces are maybe a pair of those oversized
grocery carts and they apparently couldn't sacrifice even one space to
stack the carts. I've seen just as many stray carts roll into parked
cars there as I've seen moving vehicles crash into abandoned carts,
usually in an attempt to move them out of the way. Of course I would
never do that
Silly me. I didn't realize that despite the fact that those spaces are ten times closer to the main entry of the store than any space in that lot, those metered spaces have absolutely no relationship to the store and apparently were not intended to be used by grocery shoppers. One might ask, "Why are they there and what are they for?" Who knows. There's a small hedge separating the sidewalk which is about 2 feet higher than the street. Since the cart with its electronic leash won't proceed past the curb, loading groceries from your cart directly into your trunk is not an option. Instead you get to schelp them from your now disabled cart that won't budge in any direction whatsoever through an opening at the end of the hedge, down a little dirt and stone embankment to your car and back, repeating that step 7 or 8 times until the cart is empty.
I recall a Quality Markets grocery store built in a Mall in the town where I grew up. After you paid the cashier, the bag boy loaded your groceries into plastic containers like in an airport and onto a metal conveyor sort of like an exterior baggage carousel. Another bag boy unloaded them directly into your car when you pulled up under a covered area in front of the store. It was well worth the dollar tip, the store didn't risk losing any carts, and shoppers didn't have their cars dented by orphaned carts flying around the parking lots.
Don't get me wrong, I like that Publix and it's convenient, well, maybe in some ways. But in an urban downtown grocery store with its already "downsized" aisles gridlocked with typical suburban sport-utility-sized grocery carts (guess a big huge cart always appears more empty so you buy more food) coupled with a seemingly enless obstacle course of poorly placed idiotic and annoying "displays" of cookies, dishware, knick-knacks, and other crap nobody needs stacked smack in the middle of every aisle and at nearly every turn, why is it necessary to also have what seems like a veritable fleet of those supersized plastic cart-vehicle thingys? (If there's a name for them, I don't know it). They're like a whacky inventor combination of mammoth grocery cart morphed with family-sized Big Wheel inspired by cheap Golf Cart (bigger than a riding lawnmower, smaller than a small tractor) so Mom can do her grocery shopping as she wheels as many as up to 4 screaming brats through the store. I actually saw a 9-year old kid (at that age you're big enough to walk or stay home) standing on top of one of these things as the Mother cluelessly pulled it in the other direction. Believe me, you don't EVER want to get stuck behind THAT (it'd be like driving behind my 95 year-old Grandmother on a two-lane road with no passing lane, ever). Now I bet you THAT thing shocks the customer the very moment it goes past the invisible curb boundary because those in-store vehicles were also not intended to be "driven" home, no way, no how!
Christopher R
West Palm Beach, FL