Grocery Carts

I went to the grocery store today and couldn't find a grocery cart. They were all out in the parking lot.

In Toronto, they've solved this problem very cleverly. All the grocery carts are locked into one another at the front of the store. In order to unhook one, you have to stick a dollar coin in a slot on the handle of your cart, and the cart releases. Your dollar stays locked in the slot until the grocery cart is poked back with the others. Clink. You get your dollar back.

If you want to leave your cart in the parking lot, you lose a dollar.

No problem. There are always homeless people willing to poke the carts back for a buck.

I think that's awfully clever because:

1. The grocery store doesn't have to pay their workers to round up carts in the parking lot (which is no fun on a winter day in Toronto.)

2. The homeless obtain the revenue of the lazy. That's always a good thing.

3. The parking lot is kept clear of kamikaze grocery carts.

I wonder how that would go over in the U.S.?

Canada rules.