Aldi Experience....

I've mentioned before that I like to shop at Aldi.  I've found they have quality products and fantasticly low prices!  I love that I can fill the shopping cart for less than $100 with healthy food!  One thing about shopping there is you have to pay 25 cents to rent a shopping cart that you get back when you return it to the cart area.  If you haven't been there you are probably wondering how they "rent" the carts out.  They have a little chain system where the chain from one cart connects to the second cart and so on. In order to unhook a cart you have to insert a quarter.  To get the quarter back you have to reconnect it.  Hopefully that makes sense because I am going to tell you a story about me and the Aldi's shopping carts.  Once I went there and someone had left a cart in the parking lot.  That rarely happens since people want to get their quarter back and usually return it.  I thought what a nice thing to happen to me....  It was a good day because that same day I thought I would treat myself to a Starbucks coffee.  I went through the drive thru and it took a few minutes.  When I got to the window they handed me my coffee and told me it was on them!  So I was in a very good mood.  Free coffee and a quarter to boot.  Well, the next time I went to Aldi I went to get a cart, which was right by the other carts.  In fact, it was in the cart stall but the chain wasn't connected.  Again, I got a free cart & when I returned it, after my shopping, I got a quarter for returning it!  Wow.  Two times in a row.  Well, if that wasn't exciting enough - the next time I went there was a man returning his cart, he told me I could take it.  I tried to pay him my quarter and he told me to keep it.  Now this is just crazy.  Is everyone going to Aldi to pay it forward, or what????  So, a couple of weeks go by and I go back to Aldi.  I have to pay for my cart.  I really didn't expect to get another free cart.  After I was done shopping and loaded everything in my car, I saw this man getting out of the car next to mine.  He was an older Asian man.  I said, "Here you can have my cart."  I am thinking it is my turn to be the cart fairy.  He said something in broken English and I waved him on (in my mind I was saying no - no, don't worry about the quarter).  He shook his head and said (again in broken, yet pretty clear english) You are something else!  I smiled.  I was feeling pretty good.  Until I saw him take the cart and leave it in the cart return area!  He entered the store without the cart!  OMG.  That man thought I was telling him to take my cart back for me.  He didn't understand I thought I was doing a nice thing by giving him my cart and my quarter!  It all made sense...."you are something else".  Well, someone got a free cart at Aldi that evening but it wasn't the man I gave it to!  These kinds of things always seem to happen to me!!!