Safeway cart

[Ameskid]

Seriously? That's awesome! Where did you see it and what did it look like? I'm not trying to interrogate you or anything, just curious.

[tokensafari]

it looked like a smaller version of an Ames cart. It was orange and it said "G.C. Murphy's" on it. It was old school. I am going to try and snap a picture of it in the coming days!

[Ameskid]

That's weird. I saw an old, rusty orange Rehrig cart at my local Trust Worthy hardware store. There was black spraypaint over the nameplate sections, like something had been there. Were Ames' carts made by Rehrig?

[XISMZERO]

Here's a brown Caldor cart I found today junked beside some Bradlees carts on Route 6 in Bristol, Connecticut.

[XISMZERO]

This brown-colored Caldor cart reminds me of the ones our Caldor used to have. This was probably one from the later rainbow-era circa mid 1980's.

[XISMZERO]

Here's the logo with evidence of sticker residue.

[XISMZERO]

This Caldor cart probably was junked by the nearby Ocean State Job Lot. The surrounding (Bradlees) carts were partially scarred from once being used by them.

[XISMZERO]

The handle with a partially filed away "Caldor" eched across the bar.

[Zayre88]

Shopping carts from The BigParty, Paperama and Bradlees located near Marden's (former Ames) in the Maine Coast Mall in Ellsworth, ME.

[store215]

About The Big Party, does anyone know anything about this chain? Because I have seen old carts and baskets for them everywhere. They had a store near me which opened in 1995 in Doylestown, PA, and they closed around 4 years later.

[C. Fontaine]

Here's a Lechmere cart I spotted at a Salvation Army while on vacation in Buzzards Bay, Cape Cod not too long ago!  They also had a Ames turned OSJL turned Salvation Army cart as well... Hehehe.

[df559]

I spotted a 60's or 70's Safeway cart in a parking lot over the weekend. It was quite small -- dinky compared to today's grocery store carts!

[df559]

Here is a closeup of the "S" logo that is part of the wire of the shopping cart. Safeway did this up until the mid 1980's, making their shopping carts very distinctive!

[C. Fontaine]

Wow, that is really cool!  I've never seen that on a shopping cart before!

[Caldor1999]

Originally posted by XISMZERO
The handle with a partially filed away "Caldor" eched across the bar.

thoughs arts were used by caldorin the 80's they were chaged around 1991 to teh black carts

[Crawford]

The Building 19 in Pawtucket RI has a bunch of Child World carts as well as Home Depot, some Bradlees, couple of Caldor's and BJ's Wholesale. I hate the practice of scratching off the names and breaking them off the handles so the other carts are hard to tell where they came from.

[C. Fontaine]

Originally posted by Crawford
The Building 19 in Pawtucket RI has a bunch of Child World carts as well as Home Depot, some Bradlees, couple of Caldor's and BJ's Wholesale. I hate the practice of scratching off the names and breaking them off the handles so the other carts are hard to tell where they came from.

I agree, OSJL seems notorious for scratching them off and whatnot...  Looks like they use a dremel or something.  The Building 19/Former Ames in Cranston, RI has a fleet of Ames carts with no debadging whatsoever!  It was pretty nice to see them!:yup:

[Ameskid]

Update: I have spotted a blue cart that is from a regional clothing store called Van Lunen's at my Hader Hdwe. Also, I have an exciting story from Salvation Army. They had carts from Thriftway, some metal with "Thriftway" on the handle, some metal with "Fo od Thriftway Drug" on the handle. There were also ones from Save-A-Lot, Central Hardware, Food Town, Walgreens, Big Lots/Odd lots, and two from Kroger. Also, I paid a visit to Big Lots and found a T.J. Maxx cart in front, not covered up or anything, with nasty McDonald's stuff in it. But it makes sense, for there is a TJ Maxx right up the hill. Then my mom thinks that they've been replaced by Big Lots in the building 10 years ago!

[d_fife]

ames basket found in manchester CT

[ameskmart1]

An old 1980s ShopKo cart

[alien]

There's one  Ames cart at the BigLots in Warren, Ohio. :roll:
http://i6.tinypic.com/2h305jn.jpg
http://i3.tinypic.com/2ch245e.jpg:

[Ameskid]

Spotted a Family Dollar cart in a flea market a few weeks ago, along with a Kroger cart and some other old metal cart. While I was in a junkyard, I saw an old tiny Kroger cart. My sister's friend has a cart from Family Dollar and another cart (I don't know where its from). Just today in Eastgate mall in $1 Land, I saw a Jewel-Osco basket and a few other baskets from unknown stores.

[Ameskid]

Today I saw MacFrugal's, Service Merchandise, and Ames cart at the Florence, KY 99Center.

[Marc82]

Originally posted by MBZ321
About The Big Party, does anyone know anything about this chain? Because I have seen old carts and baskets for them everywhere. They had a store near me which opened in 1995 in Doylestown, PA, and they closed around 4 years later.

The BIG PARTY stores that didn't close changed their name to I-PARTY. My supervisor at Shaw's used to send me there to buy decorations. It's a couple doors down from Shaws. Like to see how they survive without Shaws.

[HoJofan206]

Baby's R Us cart

[Ameskid]

Originally posted by Ameskid
Today I saw MacFrugal's, Service Merchandise, and Ames cart at the Florence, KY 99Center.

URGENT UPDATE!!  On a trip yesterday to the Florence store, I found that they were nowhere to be seen...I also saw a dead hulk with a 99Center labelscar!!!:huh::barf::boring::(:duh::exorcist:  I hope some crappy Odd Big Lots didn't take them and slap their stupid stickers on precious old logos!

[beachgal26]

Wow!  You guys have been busy and found some great carts from wonderful shopping days of old.  Before I started getting into retail history, I never even gave a thought as to what a store (or chain) does with their shopping carts.  In the old days, you would assume that one store would just move them to another in their chain.  But, what happens to all those carts when the store goes out of business?  Are they all shipped somewhere to be bought by another chain or does the holding company sell them as part of a way to make up for any losses?

These are weird but interesting (to me) questions that I don't think most people ever think about!

:insane:    :insane:    :insane:

[beachgal26]

I don't think that I have seen one of those all metal carts since the 70's!!  I'm not sure when they were used, but it was back in the day when a store's cart was distinctive and was as much a trademark of the store as anything else.

I do have to wonder where that cart has been all this time and why it's in such good shape considering how old it is!

:o   :o

[Ameskid]

I saw a bunch of Hills and Wal-Mart "Discount City" carts at an Ollie's outside of Baltimore, Maryland.  How long has it been since Wal-Mart has been "Discount City"? :roll:

[Hadley]

I didnt have a camera with me (and i still dont know how to post pics on message boards anyway) but the piggly wiggly in Brookhaven MS has a ton of carts from a store called "saverite". The carts just came in recently, beforehand they were using regular PW carts. Also, i saw a kroger cart outside a best buy in Jackson.