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Out of control Gen Zers and teens recklessly careening down the streets of South Boston in Stop and Shop carriages, outraged councilors say
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Hear me out.
Maybe the police should do something?
We can arrest our way out of this crisis.
A little jail time is in order!
Yeah the letter covers that.
The letter sounds totally reasonable and seems to cover all the bases.
"We have been following up with Captain Boyle from Boston Police C-6 and Principal Gant at the Tynan School to provide footage from security cameras to the police to pay more attention to the area, as well as the neighbor’s insurance carrier. We have also reached out to other City Departments to see what improvements can be done at the school and at the bottom of the ramp to deter this behavior."
It also addresses modifying the carts, which others brought up:
"Meanwhile, in the interest of public safety, personal property and quality of life issues, I would like to respectfully request that Stop & Shop work to address this matter by looking to maintain their shopping carts on-site, perhaps via technological upgrades and an electronic system, and prevent them from being taken off premise. This is an issue that requires multiple partners to work together."
It's a school and a Stop & Shop and a long straight hill all located in the same basic spot. It makes sense that this combination comes with more issues than most, and the letter seems like a perfectly reasonable response by representatives who are doing their jobs.
Let me guess
The GenX store manager shrugged and mumbled, "Whatever".
A Millennial was scheduled to speak but they were a no-show.
A Boomer in the audience yelled out of turn, "That TicTac is to blame!"
A Silenter quietly sat in the back, hoping their Gen Alpha granddaughter would stay asleep in the stroller.
Silenter
We'd be talking great-grandchild at this point.
Dosen't need to be
A 78 year old woman could have had a daughter when she was 38. That woman, now 40, could have a toddler.
It's not that uncommon for men to have children later in life so an 80 year old could have a 25 year old daughter who only recently gave birth herself.
Exactly.
My mom is 80. I'm 43. I could easily have a toddler (or a 10-year-old, using some definitions of gen alpha).
Shopping cart geofencing is a well-established technology
The Porter Square Star Market, for instance, has had it for years. Try to roll the cart out of the shopping center parking lot, and a wheel locks up.
Better yet
Other countries have shopping cart which require a quarter as a deposit to take the cart. Which is then returned when you bring the cart back.
It might stop this, but it would certainly stop all the lazy asshole who leave cart scattered everywhere.
or both
otherwise, you can buy a cart for 25 cents
This country, too
There was a Hannaford or Shop n Save in Lowell that had quarter deposit carts. It closed.
Aldi
I think all the Aldi stores use them, or at least the Medford location does. They are very much still in business.
In the late 80s the supermarket I went to installed them. They handed out little aluminum circles that had a keychain hole to “good” customers. The idea was you could add it to your key ring and not have to go searching for a quarter to use the carts.
When I used to work at the
When I used to work at the Tynan school about 10 years ago I’d have to bring several carts a week from the school playground back to Stop & Shop. It’s nothing new.
The locks on wheels come
The locks on wheels come right off. Do you expect an employee to stop the hellions from taking carriages? Or a homeless desperado full of rage and a survival weapon in his inside pocket? What would Jesus do? What would Arthur DeMoulas do?
Which Arthur DeMoulas?
Artie T or Artie S?
Artie S would probably sneak a cart rent into every credit card transaction, where Artie T would just hire two more teenagers to cheerfully collect carts from people in the parking lot.
Unless things have changed, the hometown store in the Acre in Lowell had the roving locks on the wheels years ago.
Really?
They look pretty robust to me. Maybe you're thinking of a specific model that's a little less solid?
I suspect that even if you can remove the lock, that it's enough of a barrier to discourage casual shenanigans. I mean, there's even a way to unlock them with your phone, but most people don't know it and wouldn't bother even if it would mean an easier trip with their groceries.
Sometimes mistaken for a yuppie
Fuck you and the cart you rode in on.
Yeesh, did I miss something?
Yeesh, did I miss something?
Found some video
Here.
Flynn and Five Car are basically Ricky and Bubbles anyway.
Gen Xer here
I onehundred percent did this when I was about 13.
We believed the more kids you could get in one
would gain you more speed and distance while more passengers would only help soften the inevitable impact.
We were not smart.
Gen Xer here, too
I 100percent did this at age 13 because my grandpa challenged me to a race.
Flynn and Flaherty going off on the shopping cart menace reminds me of this completely surreal scene that me and my college buddies encountered heading to Crane Beach on a bizarrely warm spring break day.
We stopped at a sub shop in a u-shaped plaza at mid-morning and it was very quiet. We went in to buy lunches and they guys who got their sandwiches first broke out a frisbee in the empty parking lot. Suddenly, a flock of weeble-shaped old guys wobbled out from doors in three sides of the plaza, chests thrust out. They started robotically chanting a call and response of "we don't have any trouble in our town" and "nope we don't have any trouble in OUR town" at each other.
We were expecting a God-like Rod Serling voice over to emerge from a cloud at any moment.
They could at least ride them
They could at least ride them in the bike lanes!
Adorable.
Adorable.
There are no comments in the
There are no comments in the shooting articles. Now we get a story of some shenanigans with a few Southie kids. Let the pearl clutching begin.
We respond to things we are familiar with
Most of us here have experience with shopping carts and grocery stores, not with guns.
Where is your comment?
Where is your comment?
no ninos en la canasta!
It says so right on every Stop & Shop cart!