The Shopping Cart (Part Two)

How important is it to properly return your shopping cart to a station once you are done with it? Extremely important, so important, that I am going to go all R. Kelly on you and write about it over four different parts.

Today we focus on Part Two, how a shopping cart plays a role in your insurance premiums. In case you missed it, click her for Part One, on why returning your shopping cart is a big deal. So how does a shopping cart running rampant in the parking lot play a role in your insurance premiums? Here is a story for you:

Mandy calls her husband Joe on the way home from work and asks if he can stop for some groceries. Being the good guy that he is, Joe, stops into the local store and grabs a cart. After checking out, Joe, loads up his grocery cart with his bags and returns to his car. Since he is in a "hurry" he decides to just leave his cart in the middle of the parking lot, since he must save himself the 35 seconds it would've taken him to do the right thing.

Joe leaves the parking lot and in pulls Mary to a spot a few places down from where Joe left his cart. Mary walks into the store unaware that her car is about to fall victim to Joe's laziness or carelessness. Mary returns to her car and notices a huge scratch along the side of the vehicle. There was a huge gust of wind while Mary was shopping and unfortunately for her, the shopping cart sideswiped her car leaving her in an unfortunate situation, the need to file a claim.

So how is it that this story affects your insurance premiums and not just Mary's? The thing to remember is that insurance companies distribute risk among a large number of people. So anytime a company pays a claim (or doesn't) it can affect rates for everyone insured by that company. Ideally your insurance company never pays claims to anyone, thus reducing their expenses and rates.

Assume that all throughout Michigan, insurance companies pay out tens of millions of dollars in claims for losses involving shopping carts hitting parked cars. This directly results in unnecessary expenses for insurance companies that results in higher premiums for everyone. If we look back on our example, Joe leaving his cart and the resulting claim might directly affect our car insurance premiums.

The next time you're at the grocery store and either in a hurry or too lazy to walk your cart down to the return station, remember that your actions will play a role in your car insurance premiums.

Do you know someone who doesn't return their shopping cart to the return station? Hit the share button and let them know why they should!

P.S. Remember that National Return Your Shopping Cart Awareness Day is July 21st.