If you plan to shop at Fruit Fair Supermarket in Chicopee, Mass., you’d better be one of the first 10 people to show up in the morning. That’s because the store only has 10 shopping carts left, as most of them go home with shoppers who live nearby and don’t have access to vehicles. Unfortunately, the carts never make it back to the store. Over the past year, the store bought 45 shopping carts, and only 10 are left. The missing carts are impacting the business, as shoppers are buying less and spending less time in the store because they can only carry so many groceries. As a solution, a free shuttle service was created to bring shoppers who don’t have vehicles to and from the store so the carts can remain at the supermarket. As a bonus, in exchange for every returned shopping cart or helpful lead in getting them back, customers get a $5 gift card to the store. Meanwhile, the supermarket now has 40 new carts on order.
