The third party picks up the shopping carts, and the store pays for their return. It's cheaper for the store to do that, vs. the cost of purchasing new carts.

The third party picks up the shopping carts, and the store pays for their return. It's cheaper for the store to do that, vs. the cost of purchasing new carts. Stores have several alternatives to this: • They can send employees off-property to pick up carts they find. I used to see this in the past; not really as much anymore. • They can install an "invisible fence"-type system, which causes one of a cart's wheels to lock up when taken outside of the permitted area. If you walk to/from the store, you'll have seen signs warning about this; otherwise you can check the carts to see if one wheel looks different from the others. The Safeway near where I live does this. • They can require that customers pay a refundable deposit to use the cart. See the "Why do I need a quarter?" question at https://www.aldi.us/en/about-aldi/faqs/about-aldi/ https://www.aldi.us/en/about-aldi/faqs/about-aldi/ for an example of this. This doesn't happen in the US much.