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Saturday, January 24, 2009

White Rock Hills residents asked to call Wal-Mart to complain about abandoned cart

by PegNews wire

WHITE ROCK HILLS — From WRH Neighborhood Association #1177:

There is an abandoned Walmart shopping cart lying at the intersection of Bretshire and Green Meadow. Another resident and myself have made calls to Walmart to have the cart picked up but they have yet to send anyone out. We have allowed sufficient time for them to do so. The cart is unsightly and sends a bad signal about our neighborhood.

Please take a few minutes to call Walmart and ask them to retrieve the cart. We do not want our neighborhood to decline to the point that this and other trash is acceptable. After placing your call to Walmart, please reply to this email so we can track how many requests have been made.

The Walmart number is: 214-319-2616

Please state clearly that you want the cart picked up and the location is Bretshire Dr @ Greenmeadow Dr, Dallas, 75228

Posted by Mike O.

Staff
Verified User
Anonymous

Umm. Lemme see. It's math but let's try it anyway.

01:00 Time to put cart in vehicle
06:00 Drive vehicle to Walmart
01:00 Unceremoniously dump cart at edge of Walmart lot
00:30 Spit and shout profanity
Total 8:30 - Cart Gone

Versus
05:00 Format and send HOA newsletter
04:00 (x HOA membership) Phone up Walmart phone number and sit on hold
03:00 (x HOA membership) Add response to database
Wash rinse repeat until cart gone.
Total > 12:00

If the cart appears a blight on the community, then the unwillingness to take an 8 minute detour --- a choice made by the ENTIRE COMMUNITY THUS FAR --- ought to be considered a bit of a black eye.

It's not like they don't all have an SUV over there.

Sheesh! Volunteer, people!

Jason Rice Verified

10 months ago
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0:30 to spit and shout profanity! That's some quality spitting or profanity you have going there, Jason. Probably both actually. :)

tx_dem41 Anonymous

10 months ago
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Sounds as though there's a lack of urgency over at White Rock Hills these days...

grannygeek Anonymous

10 months ago
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Seriously, I had to double-check that it wasn't April 1st when I read this!

David Gates Verified

10 months ago
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Walmart got the cart this afternoon.

Mike Orren Staff

10 months ago
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But nobody got to spit and cuss.

Opportunity missed.

Jason Rice Verified

10 months ago
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Take heart, Jason. Maybe the store manager or the employee who fetched the cart got to spit and cuss White Rock residents.

It's almost certain that it was a resident of that neighborhood rather than Walmart who left the darned thing at that location.

What's that old saying about it being better to light a candle than curse the darkness?

momzilla Anonymous

10 months ago
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I tell ya HOAs are funny things, some take care of their neighborhoods, others pull this kinda crapola. Why not suck it up and put it your garage, keep it for important things like say, running the kids around the block or even entering underground late night downhill shopping cart racing...

The point is: WHO CARES?!?!?!

Chris Kidd Verified

10 months ago
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am just speechless at the degree of self-absorption and entitlement. how far away is the frickin walmart? how about a nice walk on a sunday afternoon?

it takes a lot for me to want to feel pity for walmart -- but by golly, WRH Neighborhood Association #1177 has done it

Teresa Gubbins Staff

10 months ago
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chrisdanger... it's not an HOA, it's a neighborhood assoc. Huge difference in rules (there are none in an NA).

TG... the Walmart closed 12/31/08.

Yes, they are self-absorbed.

Billusa99 Anonymous

10 months ago
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My bad Bill/Chris - I inserted the HOA inference.

Momzilla, I'll bet you're right. There was likely some spittin'

The distance to the two closest Walmarts is 1.4 and 1.9 miles so it has the smell of a high school prank (not that I'd know anything about that kinda stuff) - probably by a neighborhood kid.

But yeah, Chris, I'm seeing a toy I didn't have to steal myself.... er I mean, disgusting!

Jason Rice Verified

10 months ago
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I fear this one is my fault for re-posting quickly without context:

This neighborhood association (which includes my home) isn't some uppity HOA dictating paint colors on mailboxes -- It's been fighting a war in one of the highest-crime areas of the city. And one of the tactics that has brought crime down over the past year is zero-tolerance for trash, graffiti, junk, etc. It's been proven in studies, as well as in practice here that things like discarded shopping carts around increase crime by sending a message that no one gives a damn.

Second, there is a regular foot-traffic thoroughfare through this area of single-family houses, as folks who live in low-income apartments on the other side of the neighborhood travel back and forth to the Wal-Mart. Less likely a prank than a customer who didn't want to return a cart.

I am not certain, and will endeavor to check this afternoon, but it is my recollection that this Wal-Mart uses those secured shopping carts with wheels that lock down when you get a certain distance away from the mothership -- which would complicate a return of the cart. (And I, for one, don't have access to a vehicle that would carry such a cart.)

I was not involved in the creation of the email (which I'm sure only took our e-savvy neighborhood association president seconds to send), but from where I sit, the Wal-Mart has not been a particularly good neighbor. I've been threatened several times in the parking lot by loiterers; the store is always dirty, in disarray and understaffed. And, despite one of the most active Weed n' Seed's in the country, I've never personally seen Wal-Mart involved in any of the myriad events geared towards improving the neighborhoods surrounding it. (They're conspicuously absent from the <a href="http://www.fergusonroad.org/partners.html">partners list</a> on the FRI website.)

So really, the thing that was really over-the-top here was my posting it as a news story, even at the "neighborhood/niche" level. I did so because I know we've got a high density of readers in my hood and it was relevant to them.

Billusa, not sure which WalMart you're talking about, but the one mentioned here is still open: http://www.walmart.com/storeLocator/c...

Mike Orren Staff

10 months ago
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bummer. i liked this better when it was arrogant SUV-driving jerks who couldn't be bothered to wheel a grocery cart two blocks down the road. sigh. now who can we make fun of

Teresa Gubbins Staff

10 months ago
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Let's make fun of knee-jerk theater dorks!!

oh, wait.

Jason Rice Verified

10 months ago
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Mike... I got WR Hills mixed up w/ WR North, which is north of Walnut Hill Lane, east of White Rock Trl and west of Audelia. And, directly north of a Walmart grocery store that closed at WH Lane and Audelia 3 weeks ago.

Thus, pay no attention to my previous post whatsoever... ;-)

Billusa99 Anonymous

10 months ago
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Aha-- I drive past that store every day on the way to PNWHQ. Was surprised to see it close.

Mike Orren Staff

10 months ago
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Kudos to the neighborhood association. Job well done.

kevinh Anonymous

10 months ago
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<i>those secured shopping carts with wheels that lock down when you get a certain distance away from the mothership</i>

That seems like a pretty expensive add-on. Didn't know they had those.

Pavel Lishin Verified

10 months ago
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OMG. I can't believe I just spent five minutes reading all this. I need to get a life. Maybe someone ditched a shopping cart I can wheel back...

mamaratliff Anonymous

10 months ago
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Thanks alot orren for shooting our wheels out man....We had a good thing going here...Your such a downer ;)

Chris Kidd Verified

10 months ago
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I live just across Buckner from WRH, so, unfortunately, we used to shop at the Wal-Mart on Samuell. About a year ago I was in California on business, and my fiance lost her keys in the store. I had the only other key to my car with me in Santa Cruz. She sat on the hood of my car for 5 hours (until after dark) waiting for roadside assistance. She said it was the scariest 5 hours of her life.