Where to park to avoid shopping carts
How to fix small dings and scratches
Final word
Where to park to avoid shopping carts
Having a rogue shopping cart crash into your car will likely result in a scratch or ding that you will need to spend some money on in order to repair or else you will have to drive around with the unsightliness of that damage on your vehicle. Insurance will obviously not cover it and there will not be anyone to be held liable. Thus, you will want to avoid this as much as you can.
The simplest way to avoid shopping carts making contact with your vehicle is to park where the shopping carts aren’t. That, by no coincidence, is where there also isn’t any or many people. This obvious bit of information means that you should park near the back part of parking lots or as far away from other cars as possible. Where there are other cars, there will be other people and some of them will have shopping carts. Unfortunately, not everyone returns the carts, thus the possibility exists of a rogue cart rolling into your car if you park next to or near other vehicles. This will mean more of a walk to the store entrance, but it will likely be worth the peace of mind.
How to fix small dings and scratches
If you do end up with a small scratch or ding on your car from a shopping cart, you might actually be able to repair it yourself rather than paying premium to have a repair or auto paint shop take care of it. You should start by purchasing a repair kit (depending on if it’s a scratch or ding) which you can buy online on a site like Amazon or in-person in a store like Auto Zone.
Once you have the particular kit, open it up and read the instructions. Then make sure that there is nothing additional you need to purchase such as touch-up paint. Once you are sure that you have everything the repair requires, follow the instructions closely and get to work. Repairing the scratch or ding this way will not look as great as if you had it done professionally, but the difference will very likely be negligible as long as the scratch/ding is not that large (it likely won’t be large coming from a shopping cart).
Final word
A random shopping cart rolling into your car in a store parking lot is an ever-present possibility. Sometimes it will be completely unavoidable. However, if you park a good distance away from the other shoppers’ vehicles, you will reduce that possibility greatly. If your car does get scratched or dinged by a rogue cart, you can always decide to repair it yourself in order to save some money. You can usually find the appropriate repair kit and touch-up paint online or at an auto store.
