Kroger "kiddie carts" are an accident waiting to happen!

I think it is up to the parents to keep there kids in line. Just
because they have it doesn't mean you hve to let them use it.

As the parent of a 5 year old, I can honestly say that they are a
lifesaver for us. These carts give my daughter a sence of
responsibility at the store which keeps her more than happy the entire
trip. That said, I keep tight control of my daughter the entire time
we are at the store. I don't go anywhere without her being right
beside me. She has to move asside just as if she didn't have a cart,
whenever necessary. I hate dealing with parents who don't pay
attention to their children just as much as the rest of you. This is
where the parents need to be held responsible. If Kroger isn't
willing or able to point out negligent behavior to parents, the carts
should disappear.

I absolutely hate these carts. I refuse to let my six year old use
them because at this time she can't walk through a room without
bumping into a wall so I KNOW she can't be trusted to not take out
several senior citizens the minute I turn to get a gallon of milk.

Tell you what, take out the carts and put in a daycare area where I
can check my kid in for an hour (like IKEA). I swear not only will
the store be safer but I'll probably spend more since I won't be
trying to rush through my shopping.

It's up to the PARENTS to watch their children. I have a
four-year-old son who gets rambunctious and I know fully well he'd
tear off full-speed with one...so I wouldn't let him play with one in
public.

It's not so much Kroger as the parents.

It's really a toss up, Kroger is being negligent to their customers by
creating a "mirage" to keep busy moms' eyes on the product more than
their own children...OR...mom's are being negligent for allowing their
kids to rampage around Krogers in plastic demolition vehicles with
minimal supervision.

that she witnessed the incident.

Then why didn't SHE file a police report? I'm absolutely sure they
wanted to know what happened, as well as Kroger management did.

That's why it's not so obvious to me, NO details.

I happened to be shopping at the Kroger in Western Hills, Cincinnati
last night (Janell, you were probably there too - haha).

Anyway, I was in the pet food aisle and a lady and her daughter came
down the aisle. The mother had a large cart, and the child had one of
the offending kiddie carts. The mother was picking out some dog food
and the child decided to copy her and put some cat food in her small
cart. It went very smoothly...why? The mother said 'honey, we don't
have a cat' and nudged her over to the dog food section to enlist her
'help' in picking out the dog food.

At no time was I inconvenienced, nudged, run over, bothered, knocked
down, etc. Why? Because the mother had control over the child and of
the situation. It made for a pleasant experience for the two of them,
and did not appear to affect the shoppers around them.

That seems to be the key here. It's all in how the parent conducts
his/herself, not the child.

I know from experience. When my kids were little, they tended to
behave badly in stores. What did I do? Anytime I had to go to the
grocery, I left them in the care of their father or my parents. I am
lucky I had people to help me out. On the rare occasion that I didn't,
I placed them in my cart or carried them and hurried through the store
as quickly as possible. This was to avoid hassle and also out of
consideration of other shoppers who (I am quite sure) did not want to
hear my little charmers chanting and/or screaming for candy.

Now...that said, it now makes me doubly frustrated to be in the
grocery or any public place in which a parent is allowing their child
to run wild. I feel like I put in my time, and for the most part,
conducted myself as a responsible parent. I didn't allow my kids to
make everyone around them miserable.
Now they are teenagers...and I have a WHOLE NEW set of circumstances
to deal with. Heh.
Anyway, rant over. :)

In my opinion.. its the PARENTS that should supervise the children.
Some small children like having their own cart and aren't pests.. ok
well i shoulnd't say pests.. but they dont run around like crazy
people. Maybe the parents in your area need to supervise the children
better, or not bringing them at all. I AM NOT SAYING ANY PARENT IN
THAT AREA IS BAD so let me just get that out of the way before I get
hate mail from that.

OK...from a mother of a 4 year old...
Not me, but a girl I work with...

I asked her about these carts. She said they are wonderful BUT...not
at grocery stores. She said she lets him use it when they are at
Linens and Things...and only when they are picking u pa few items...so
he is the only one with a cart. It's how he feels like he is beign a
"big Boy"

But she also agreed parents need to carefully supervise... Just though
i'd offer that insight ;)

This just in!!!!

Several innocent shoppers were mowed down by a pack of cart wielding
unruly children.

Paramedics on the scene described the incident as an abomination of
all things holy: adult faces were waffled by the metal mesh,
unpurchased groceries were strewn across the floor, the inconvenience
levels had skyrocketed to an all time high.

On interviewing some of the victims, many cited the carts as the true
source of all this mayhem, although some said it was the parents own
ignorance that allowed such a catastrophe to occur.

The police are now looking for a group of 6-year-olds who have
repeatedly breached the Cart Rolling And Pushing (aka CRAP) agreement
in many other locations. They will be charged with negligence in the
first degree as well as their parents.

An alliance of people threatened by the existance mini shopping carts
is being formed, and a petition is being sent out to ban the existence
of these dangerous weapons for good.

If you are interested in joining this alliance of
anti-minishoppingcartarians please reply to any of the RE:s below.

PFB News, signing off.

His mom wasn't watching him and the store wasn't as busy as one might
expect. He (this child about age 3, maybe 4) approached me in the
same aisle and acted like he was going to run into my cart. I smiled
at him and shook my head like, "oh no you don't, thank you very much."
He pushed it to my cart really fast and then stopped and just tapped
my cart with his. Kinda cute, but I had shopping to do and cooking to
start once I got home.

His mom chose to be oblivious.

In the next aisle, there were a couple of shoppers and he came around
the corner WITHOUT HIS MOM (who DOES that?) and chased me down with
his cart. I firmly but politely told him that I was busy and couldn't
play with him and that he should be staying close to his mom. I got a
big "nuh-uh" and he hit my cart with his again. I took his cart away
and put it in my cart and went on with my shopping. One of the other
shoppers, a woman in her 50s or so, gave me the thumbs up, the other
shopper was tsk tsking over an unwatched child.

He started wailing (wah effing wah) and THEN his mom rounded the
corner to see what was wrong. I kept on with my shopping, pushing my
cart at a normal pace.

She called out to me down the aisle, "Why do you have my son's cart?"
I said, "Because he kept running into my cart with it even after I
told him not to." "You give that back, you don't have the right to
take it away from him."

Me: "I wish I had the right to take your KID away from you. Now drop
it. You're not getting it back if you can't be a responsible
mother."

I heard laughter from another aisle over and the woman who gave me the
thumbs up shook her head negatively at the mom.

I firmly believe that children should be entertained at boring, adult
places (restaurants, stores, banks, etc.), but that means keeping them
coralled/contained, and giving them a book or crayons and paper. It
does NOT mean giving them free reign as if they were home.

Do they not have employees patrolling the store to help collect unused
shopping carts? If they insist on having these kiddie carts available,
then the staff should at least collect and corral them the same way
they would for the full-size carts.

However, I think the kiddie carts are a silly gimmick. They are a
waste of space and metal (plastic?). Do you think they'll start
putting those special wheels on them to keep the kids from "stealing"
them from the parking lots?

Hopefully this will reveal itself as a fad and die out, and people
will look back and say: "Remember when grocery stores had those
ridiculous kiddie carts? That sure was a dumb idea."

That I am sitting here happily reading about rennet in cheese?

I am not weighing in on this conversation at all.

And I am trying desperately to knock "Children Not Wanted" back down
out of the number 1 spot.

What do you do when you have two groups of people that either:

#1 - care and understand about the need for kids to exist in the same
places as adults: people who invented the small cart idea/parents/the
kids themselves

and

#2 - feel that it is their right not to be troubled by other human
beings who aren't adults: consumers who expect to be catered to/plain
grumpy complainers

Somehow, the age 'ol battle of managing the development of children in
to full-fledged adults continues to happen. Some want to help, some
don't. Some want to take a larger responsibility, some don't. Living
in a time when the consumer is king has created an elite force of
adult two-year olds who aren't interested in the development of the
world around them--only in making life more convenient for
themselves.

In hindsight, you might have asked the barricade of shopping carts for
safe passage. If they were unwilling to comply, plan B would've been
to circle around to the other side of the aisle. As far as the
physical damage caused by minors behind the proverbial wheel of a
mini-shopping cart, I am quite sure that those lil holy terrors can
cause just as much damage to someone with the products available off
of the shelf. Parental control is all it takes.

When I drive down the road, I avoid hitting potholes--It may be a
chore--but it is my responsibility as a driver.

--course I live in a shared-liability state.

I completely agree with the writer. The small carts and the car
shaped cards are a major nuisance for busy adults who work for a
living and have to go shopping, run errands, etc. It may be
convenient for parents who don't know how to contol their kids and
have to keep them amused at all times, but we spend money in the store
too, and most times these carts are not used in a responsible manner.

I think this is turning into "Children not wanted" part 2!!!!

I agree that this is a valid complaint, and the beginning of a very
troubling trend... Supermarkets are for shopping, NOT for entertaining
children.

Very well-written letter, very valid complaint. The stores in my city
don't (yet), fortunately, have these, but I agree that they are a bad
idea.

I agree. I saw an accident waiting to happen in one of those things.
While I was shopping at one of these stores I saw a girl of about 7 in
one of those carts. She was really too old for it and too big. She was
able to manipulate it back and forth by throwing her weight around
while all the while shouting to her clueless father "Look what I can
do, Daddy." He totally ignored her. She was in a fairly small space so
in order to avoid the possibility of being hit, other people had to go
all the way down an opposite aisle to get around her. But that wasn't
safe either because one big push and she could go off in any direction
including over to the escalator.

The mother came over and stood in deep conversation with the dad also
ignoring the kid who was now yelling for mommy to look at what she
could do.

I had enough and told them to please watch their child because I felt
she was in danger. They gave me a dirty look and a grunt but they
finally payed attention to her telling her to stop moving the cart.

Those things don't appear particularly sanitary to me. Although the
store I mentioned (a subsidiary of Kroger by the way) supplies clean
wipes where the carts are parked, I wonder how many people actually
use them.

I don't think the stores will quit using these things until someone's
little kiddie gets hurt and the big lawsuit follows.

These carts permit the kids to "play" as they feel in their mind once
they grab hold of them. And they're OFF!! Unless you have the rare
dainty little proper girl there to buy her tea and cookies, most kids
feel it's a fun thing, and thats when the excitement gets out of hand.
Especially if you have more than one child and it becomes a game
somehow. The item itself encourages the challenge and the problems
that come with it. No carts, no play, no additional discipline to
worry about. I'd rather be doing what I need to be, shopping, and get
out of there. Now if they want to assign an area for them to use
them, that would be another thing. Although who's going to go watch
them?

i hate those things too! they arent as bad as the huge isle hogging
car shaped carts!!

Explain how these carts represent a "hazard"
It's the negligent parent that allows their kid to run wild and cause
the accidents. I've seen many children push the carts in the proper
way.

"I will shop at other markets until this situation is corrected." -
it make take a few years, but go ahead.

If it makes you feel any better we had them around here years ago.

They didnt last long...

Well what did you expect her to do something right awy when you talked
to her, she said she would send your comments so she will probably do
so later.

Where I work, we SELL little toy carts in the toy department. What I
really hate is when parents allow their child to push the little cart
around the store and throw random things in it (while laughing and
aaaaaawing because they think it's cute that the child is destroying
the store) and then I end up finding it an hour later with a bunch of
things in it that now the employees have to put away.

I don't have a Kroger near me but please, Kroger, for the sake of your
employees, get rid of the little carts.

I have never been hit by a child pushing a cart. I have, however,
been hit by many adults pushing carts, most notably, my spouse.
Hmmmmm...maybe he's doing it on purpose.

YOU HATE CHILDREN! YOU CHILD HATING ABORTIONIST!

Sorry, I figured someone would say it eventually so I thought I'd have
the fun of saying it first ;-).

Anyway, I haven't seen those carts, but you're right, it doesn't sound
like a good idea. I hate the car carts too, impossible to maneuver. I
find the best carts are the plain old regular ones, with the little
one in the seat and the older ones following the one-hand-on-the-cart
rule. Overall, well written letter, though I wouldn't necessarily
fault the manager for going back to her duties - if she was bagging
they were likely short staffed.

It seems like the Cincinnati stores (Union is outside Cincy) all seem
to be getting them. I just noticed it the other day.
Its not so bad when its one kid and the parent is watching him/her.
But 4 kids and 4 carts?
Its just like everything else, put something cute out there and
someone has to take it to an extreme and ruin it.
I do travel for Kroger headquarters. Think I should march upstairs and
find out who started the carts? Heehee

I've never seen those carts where I live and I hope I don't. One of
these days someone is going to get hurt.

I agree with you and everyone else.

SO true.... they are an accident waiting to happen...our stores got
rid of those a long time ago and now have a few of the "car" type....
larger, easier to see, and adult controlled. Much happier for everyone
involved...
Great Letter. Concise, points out a problem, and a quick and easy
solution. Wish a lot more companies would listen and I hope they take
your advice to heart.

I hate those little carts too. Seems that only the people with the out
of control kids use those. My kids know better than to even ask for
one! I think they can make the most well-behaved child turn into a
maniac. Our grocery store has the carts that are designed to look
like cars and trucks. They are a bit cumbersome and the basket on ours
is smaller, but that was the only way I could get my shopping done
when my kids were both little. It really wasn't any harder to keep in
your own space than with a regular shopping cart.
I have a bigger problem with people that think the grocery store is a
great place to visit with your neighbors/long lost friends that block
the aisles!

I also agree that the kids carts have got to go. To top that off,
here in California, many of the major grocery stores have these HUGE
plastic carts that I guess are designed for parents to push around
more than one child plus all their groceries. These things are about
the size of my bathroom and you want to talk about clogging the
isles?

I think kids are great and certain accommodations should be made for
them and their parents, but not to the point where their presence
interrupts the reason the business is in existence.

I can't stand those carts. My kids tried them out and it was nothing
but a clog in all the isles. They wanted to drive them around like
racecars so now I refuse to let them use them anymore. They get a
little bit too much adrenaline going speeding around racing each
other.

I agree. I find it very frustrating when "kid friendly" becomes an
adult hazard.

I agree with you. They used to have those carts where I shop, and
while it seems like a good idea and they look cute, the child using
one must be highly supervised and not allowed to run loose in the
store. My own son used one when he was little, and from personal
experience, I can say it is very difficult to shop and keep an eye on
a cart pushing child at the same time.

The store got rid of the kiddie shopping carts a long time ago.