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TikTok videos show exasperated Target shoppers battling carts that lock in place — and it shows how anti-theft measures make the shopping experience worse
Buiness Insider via Yahoo ^ | January 6, 2022 | Dominick Reuter

Posted on 01/06/2023 10:56:24 PM PST by grundle

Videos:

https://www.tiktok.com/@taylormadesince1993/video/7178540623153286446

https://www.tiktok.com/@taylormadesince1993/video/7179492933639441706

On a drizzly December day in Olympia, Washington, a woman in a red windbreaker is rolling her Target shopping cart laden with a stack of baskets when she abruptly grinds to a halt.

"Skrrrt! It's done!" A TikToker going by the name Taylor Ann cheerfully narrates in a video of the moment, which has amassed over 4.4 million views on TikTok. The TikToker did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

The red-jacketed customer — one of a half-dozen stymied shoppers in the clip — eventually resorted to what Taylor Ann described as "the bunny trick," doing little wheelies to hop her cart a few feet closer to her vehicle.

All were victims of an unfortunate combination of apparently crowded holiday parking lots and a likely new rollout of a cart-control system from Gatekeeper, the shopping cart loss-prevention provider that says it serves 47 of the 50 largest retailers in the world.

Whether and when a particular store gets Gatekeeper for its carts is determined on an individual store basis, a Target spokesperson told Insider. The company declined to comment on this specific instance.

The system typically depends on an embedded antenna that works as an invisible fence, though some locations have a wireless solution that has a signal range of about 40 feet.

While the hardwired system is supposed to unlock carts that return within the perimeter, the video from Taylor Ann appears to show the wireless system failing to release carts that have ventured a bit too far. A growing herd of abandoned carts can be seen in the foreground as exasperated shoppers struggle to drag empty ones from the spot where they froze.

The same TikToker even returned for a second day to film a Part 2.

(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: gatekeeper; lockingcarts; retail; target
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To: grundle

After I stacked ten or twelve of these dead buggies in a pile in the middle of the parking lot thru-lane...they might get the message.

Also...first time a buggy locks up and throws a kid out on the pavement...massive lawsuit.


41 posted on 01/07/2023 8:19:30 AM PST by moovova ("The NEXT election is the most important election of our lifetimes!“ LOL...)
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To: webheart

...or new Air Jordan’s.


42 posted on 01/07/2023 8:22:49 AM PST by moovova ("The NEXT election is the most important election of our lifetimes!“ LOL...)
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To: Tired of Taxes

Good post—the comments that black people make about other black people are hilarious...

One of my favorites was a black lady I know who saw a city bus go by and said:

“I would never ride a bus on that route. The ^%$#s on that bus are crazy and dangerous.”


43 posted on 01/07/2023 8:23:47 AM PST by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
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To: Hot Tabasco

Our Kroger just got all new carts that are a hard plastic instead of all metal, the first day I went in the store it was so quiet, not a clack clack to be heard. Everyone was commenting on the quietness of the store. Been about 6 months and carts are still in pretty good shape.


44 posted on 01/07/2023 8:24:39 AM PST by chuck allen
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To: SisterK

You may not know—but Salvation Army started fighting for the bad guys...

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4023403/posts

We had many posts here which included their documents preaching anti-white hate.


45 posted on 01/07/2023 8:26:56 AM PST by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
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To: grundle
The carts are locking up before people can get to their cars.

Some Beechnut and an old 45 would nicely solve the problem of the cart pirates that inflicted these things on the ordinary shoppers.

46 posted on 01/07/2023 8:50:44 AM PST by kiryandil (put yer vote in the box, chump. HARHARHARHAR)
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To: DugwayDuke; Larry Lucido; fella; Babba Gi

It’s amazing that a mere 25 cent fee will stop most cart theft from Aldi. People throw away that much value with household waste, stupid impulse buying or pulling the onions out of their Whopper, without batting an eye.

The small amount of Aldi cart theft that does happen is “shrink” that the accountants figure in.

A full-size metal shopping cart costs around $200 apiece, BEFORE the addition of a store logo or anti-theft device. It’s a real bottom-line issue.


47 posted on 01/07/2023 8:58:51 AM PST by Albion Wilde ("There is no good government at all & none possible."--Mark Twain)
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To: cgbg

LOL. Most people complain sometimes about other people in their own “group.”


48 posted on 01/07/2023 12:17:43 PM PST by Tired of Taxes
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To: Nik Naym
-"The theft of the carts is only one aspect of this thing. What really pays back is that it can be used to eliminate professional shoplifters from just loading up a cart with expensive items such as TV sets, and whatever else you can think of, and just rolling right out the door."-

That's what a cashier said once, about the cart-stopping at the door, the only time I encountered this anti-theft device. She said it's to stop people from loading up a cart and running out the door with it.

IMHO, stopping a cart isn't going to stop thieves from stealing or looters from looting. They will always find a way.

I think the time is coming when retail might (or should) change drastically. It's already shifting in a different direction with shop-at-home options and curbside pickup.

Eventually, the only option may be to shop online at home and then pick up the order at the store.

Thinking about store clerks who stand behind bullet-proof glass in some places where crime is rampant. You'd walk in, tell them what you wanted, and they'd get it for you. If the looting continues, maybe suburban stores will start doing the same.

49 posted on 01/07/2023 1:10:48 PM PST by Tired of Taxes
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To: cgbg
Salvation Army started fighting for the bad guys

thank you for the reminder...indeed, they went woke

but I will still boycott Target until forever

I also boycott Walmarts since they were the first national chain to issue mandatory training burkas (masks) in 2020

50 posted on 01/07/2023 5:02:23 PM PST by SisterK (the final variant is communism)
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To: Tired of Taxes

A drunken crew member on a cruise ship told me the exact same when I asked him why everything was bolted down in my cabin.
Apparently they will even steal the TV remote for the hell of it...


51 posted on 01/08/2023 10:37:58 AM PST by mowowie (w)
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To: mowowie

Thieves are everywhere. Some ushers have been caught stealing from church collection baskets. Sometimes family members steal from their own families.

So, of course, a thief wouldn’t feel bad about stealing from a store or a cruise ship.

A store detective told me that shoplifters justify their theft by telling themselves it’s the store’s responsibility to catch them.

But, aside from calling the store detectives, I never confronted a shoplifter.

The other day, there was a sad story about a young retail worker who was shot and killed trying to stop a thief.


52 posted on 01/09/2023 4:53:54 AM PST by Tired of Taxes
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