What did YOU do today?

[Jazzer]

None of that here in north Indy but I’d imagine they’d start with the highest loss stores. WM did install alarmed electric entrance gates last year as people were taking cartloads out the in door and the greeters had no communication with loss prevention staff.

 

[Snoranger]

I finally got some time to do some work on the oversized butcher block countertop for my island.

 

[racsan]

I’m curious, I’d like to take a little informal survey on this.

The big Walmart near me now has Wi-Fi electric brakes on the back wheels of their shopping carts. The observer at the door to the parking lot has some kind of clicker/remote in his her pocket that deactivates the brakes as you walk through the sliding doors. The signal that locks them up is also present at the perimeter entrances and exits to the parking lot, so the cart can’t be taken off the property without carrying them. It’s the first time I noticed them at Walmart.

The Home Depot a mile down the road from me put them on their shopping cart about six or eight months ago.

I think they are a great idea for loss prevention, but it’s also a very sad indicator of the times we live in.

Do your shopping cards have the smart brakes wherever you live? Might be a good indication of where I want to ultimately retire to.

the local kroger store (bigger one with a gas station) has those, theres a perimeter wire that somehow will cause special wheels diagonal on every cart to lock when you go past “the line”. Haven’t seen them anywhere else. To my knowledge theres no remote that can activate. From the looks of the special wheels, there’s a pin that goes out from the side that will catch the wheel bracket, causing it to lock up. Interestingly enough there’s another smaller krogers across town that doesn’t have that stuff- but.,,, this big krogers is near a housing complex where people used to take their groceries alllll the way home, then just leave the carts -wherever-. I think this “cart control “ has been in place for a good couple of years now. You know, every wheel gotta have batteries of some sort that someone has to change. That would be quite a pain, No idea how many carts, but whatever it is- 2 wheels per cart.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I finally got some time to do some work on the oversized butcher block countertop for my island.

View attachment 120246

Dang... you butcher a moose on that.

 

[Rick W]

the local kroger store (bigger one with a gas station) has those, theres a perimeter wire that somehow will cause special wheels diagonal on every cart to lock when you go past “the line”. Haven’t seen them anywhere else. To my knowledge theres no remote that can activate. From the looks of the special wheels, there’s a pin that goes out from the side that will catch the wheel bracket, causing it to lock up. Interestingly enough there’s another smaller krogers across town that doesn’t have that stuff- but.,,, this big krogers is near a housing complex where people used to take their groceries alllll the way home, then just leave the carts -wherever-. I think this “cart control “ has been in place for a good couple of years now. You know, every wheel gotta have batteries of some sort that someone has to change. That would be quite a pain, No idea how many carts, but whatever it is- 2 wheels per cart.

Home Depot only has them on one wheel. Walmart had them on two. I never tried to take one off the property, but I got stuck a couple times when I was walking out of the store into the parking lot. The gal who watches the self check outs, took out a magic wand and said “OK. You can go now,” and it unlocked. It’s very strong and very sudden for something that’s about the size of a soup can lid. I couldn’t budge the cart when it was on.

Q? On the batteries, is it possible that the wheel spinning on the hub is somehow also a generator? So as you push it around the store it’s charging an internal battery? I think I’m going to research it, I’m curious as hell.

 

[Snoranger]

Dang... you butcher a moose on that.

That’s not the plan, but it’s always an option. I need to have the island done for Thanksgiving… I’m sick of the plywood countertop. (But it does make a good work bench.)

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Saturday night I got a call from my friend Lisa, apparently her alternator took a dump. 262k miles and apparently the original alternator. Took the battery with it, it was showing 0.64 volts and refused to take a charge. Of course the alternator wasn’t the common one so it wasn’t in-stock in most parts stores but we managed to track one down. Put a new belt on it while it was apart. Battery was fortunately still under warranty so that got swapped. Did an oil change and got her winter tires on while I was there too. Winter tires needed new valve stems, that was a bit of a pain, I might see about buying the valve stem replacement tool. So that was my Sunday and Monday. Then Monday after I was done I stopped at my buddy Paul’s to finish the crossmember for dad’s Ranger plus the ramps for the tow dolly.

 

[Bill]

I read an article about Advance Auto closing all its stores on the West Coast. It doesn't surprise me. They are the most expensive auto parts store.

https://fox40.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-advance-auto-parts-is-closing-hundreds-of-stores-in-an-effort-to-turn-its-business-around/

 

[pjtoledo]

now that it's cold outside some heavy duty cleaning & maintenance in the basement is in order.
the ways & screws are all gummed up
that table is hea-vy.

 

[sgtsandman]

I read an article about Advance Auto closing all its stores on the West Coast. It doesn't surprise me. They are the most expensive auto parts store.

https://fox40.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-advance-auto-parts-is-closing-hundreds-of-stores-in-an-effort-to-turn-its-business-around/

Interesting. They are about the same as AutoZone and O'Reilly's where I live. NAPA, on the other hand, is more expensive.

 

[Rick W]

Interesting. They are about the same as AutoZone and O'Reilly's where I live. NAPA, on the other hand, is more expensive.

Ditto for me in Atlanta. Advance is a couple pennies more than AutoZone and O’Reillys, but at least by me they have some pretty good experienced guys behind the counters. I really don’t do much with O’Reilly, there’s not one close. I use AutoZone if I can figure out what I need and I can get out of the store with it, not many experienced guys behind the counters, just parts movers.

One of the regional warehouses for NAPA is pretty close to me and they also have a retail counter. The nice thing about going there is they have everything all the time, they have experienced people as well, but they are definitely higher priced.

Honestly, I buy 90% of what I’m going to need online these days.

Having said that, the alternator I got from eBay/parts geek online for the road Ranger crapped out within 30 miles, maybe 50 miles after I put it in. I’m debating taking it apart and see if I can fix it, but that violates the return warranty. It’s the third thing in a row that came in wrong or defective from parts geek, so I may have to retire them from my sources. I’ve had people visiting who leave in the morning, so I’ll figure it out this Sunday

 

[SenorNoob]

Made the Ranger work a little.

That's one rick. Had to put part of it in the cab to get it all. Truck had no problem moving or stopping it. I drove extra slow mostly cause it was top heavy and wanted to sway.

 

[jballard81]

Spent 4 hours getting rid of stuff and organizing. Still feel like there's too much, but it's better than it was

 

[scotts90ranger]

Mowed leaves again, more shop cleaning/rearranging, got some firewood from the back shed to the house with the '97 Ranger, sighted in the new .22 roughly, rearranged the paletized axles from a couple months ago in the yard with the tractor, used the tractor to lift the tongue of the boat to put a block under the tongue jack, fixed the plastic stock of a pellet gun with some plastic weld (since it's ABS it's easy, MEK does the job), burned some of the weeds in the driveway for the shop... all in all a fairly productive day...

 

[Bill]

Spent most of the day with a headache from driving between Sacramento and Modesto, which took three hours due to the heavy rain and people driving erratically in the rain. Someone got impatient, cut in front of another car and hydroplaned off the freeway. Another car took the exit too fast and couldn't navigate the curve in the exit. And a third slid into a concrete barrier. So, I had a headache from eyestrain because the visibility was down to about 50 feet at times with the fog, rain, and spray coming up from tires and the level of concentration I had to maintain in case one of those idiots decided to cut in front of me and stop abruptly, which happened a few times.