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I have always wondered this and I am sure you have too.  You know all those shopping carts in your condo building.  Those carts that are conveniently there, so you use them to bring your goodies back to your units.   Have you guys wondered how they end up there?

I have lived in Boston a long time (Brighton, Allston, Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline), but every condo I lived in had shopping carts.  Lots and lots of shopping carts.  Carts of all sizes, colors, and stores.  Where in the world do they come from, and why are there so many?  I asked my current property manager, and he told me that he needs to bring them back to the appropriate stores EVERY YEAR, but they all magically appear.   

I recently counted 8 shopping carts in my complex.  8!!  And they are all from different stores (except one).  My condo is not even close to any of these stores.  Shaws is miles away.  Home Depot is on the other side of 93.  I don’t even know where there is Marshalls in Cambridge.  K-Mart?  Didn’t they shrivel away with Martha Stewart?  What the heck is Ames?? (continued - click on "Read More..." below)

I hope I am not being ignorant, but who are these people pushing shopping carts down the streets to my condo?  I have never seen anyone on the streets (except for the homeless – which is cool because they have a purpose) pushing shopping carts full of groceries or 2x2 or whatever.  Wouldn’t someone take notice?  Perhaps the shopkeepers or the police?  I give these guys mad props for their gigantic balls, because I think it takes a lot of guts to steal a whole shopping cart.  These people are taking shoplifting to the whole next level. “Screw stealing bags of socks.  I am taking the whole shopping cart!”

Can you just imagine?  They walk out of the store full of stuff in their shopping cart...they walk towards the cars...but through the cars…to the end of the parking lot…and they just keep on walking towards the sunset.  Wow…that is serenity.

Readers have left 12 comments.

1. Boscorelli

Yeah, mad props. Those sidewalks cannot be easy to navigate with shopping carts with all the cracks and hills and all. We all think we are the Earnhardt when driving on the smooth floors or grocery stores, but on the asphalt, I am sure it is "mad" difficult to maneuver.

2. CajunCaucasian

I just went down stairs and counted 3 in the basement garage and 2 on the main floor.

Seriously...why?

3. Sully

Don't they have locks on those shopping carts these days? The Shaws I go to has them. I hear these things cost thousands each.

4. Boscorelli

Sully, people who can drive a cart 10 miles to their homes probably have enough tenacity to break those locks beforehand. Probably right in middle of the store - with their "gigantic balls" and whatnot.

5. Guest User

Couldn't agree more with this post. My condo is by no means mega affluent, but we have decently wealthy people here. I just don't see the need that people would bring these nasty carts to the condo, but they appear out of no where. I find them convenient too, but the question is how they get there over and over again.

6. Schwallows

i second this post. carts everywhere in my apartment building too. my favorite is the ones from margnetti. the mini ones. love em.

7. Mike123

i can imagine a few being placed in the apartment building for convenience maybe by the management. they do cost a lot so maybe they just steal one.

the reason they multiply? there must be someone in the building who is bringing them back to carry their groceries.

8. Guest User

what? maybe in middle of the night?

maybe they dont know its a bad thing.

9. Boscorelli

Guest, if that is the case (people not knowing it's bad/illegal), they'd probably bring it back to the store; don't you think?

10. agentzero

In 1956, the C.I.A. in conjunction with N.A.S.A., started an elite shopping cart espionage program.

The thinking was that the Soviets were getting ahead of us in shopping cart technology and that it was only a matter of time before communist agents infiltrated America's flagging shopping cart industry and drove our economy to its knees.

The goal was simple. Agents were to create a "strategic reserve" of shopping carts by removing carts from stores and placing them around condominium developments.

The program went off without a hitch until the summer of that year, when two passenger airlines filled with shopping carts collided over the Grand canyon.

We got greedy, and we got burned. Remnants of the program continue today, the most visible aspect of which is the homeless population of shopping cart pushers roving America's streets in constant vigil longing for the glory days of the cold war when all that protected democracy from being overrun by the communists hoards was a thin line of shopping carts standing vigil around the condos of America.

And now you know, the rest of the story.

11. Chris

agentzero, you've got it all backwards.

The FBI knows this, but won't tell you: the shopping carts are actually very advanced robots from the future. They are positioning themselves strategically in places around the country, patiently awaiting the signal from the future to mount an attack on us and enslave the human race to build more shopping carts. The government has tried everything they can think of, from crippling one wheel on each cart (you think that was an accident the last time you got the squeaky wheeled cart?) to sophisticated electronic restraint systems. But they keep coming. When their numbers are high enough, we're in trouble. Mark my words.

You think I'm joking? Fine. But remember this: when the shopping cart mutiny occurs, I'll be prepared with my wire cutters and sawzall. I even have a shopping cart corral in my driveway, ready for the day. What will you do?

12. DCB

Wow, Chris and agentzero are either off their meds or have WAY too much time on their hands. Either way, props for creativity!

In my building, the carts are a god-send except when lazy residents leave them in the hallways blocking the emergency exits...

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