On stray shopping carts
Posted: 27 Jan 25
“The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification” by Julian Montague is a book that came out in 2006 and then updated and rereleased in 2023.
My friend's aunt found it somewhere and gave it to her a gift. and my friend, knowing im a nerd I’m a fan of niche subjects and categorization, gave it to me.
The title helped the book get the Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year 2006, and it also unfortunately makes people believe it’s a joke book, and then get disappointed when it’s not. And while it can be a bit comedic at times, the book is takes its subject seriously and can be quite dry, I find it extremely entertaining and amusing.
The book categorizes stray shopping carts the same way as an animal guide, but instead of by origin or look, it’s by location, distance to origin and state of the cart. I love it immensely.
The book was made by a graphic designer and I feel like it’s pretty apparent. It started as a photography project in 1999 which then became a zine which in 2006 became a book. It consists of an introduction explaining the concept of the book and the terminology it is gonna use, along side some notes. and after that we get into the meat with 33 catagories that a stray cart can be. the bulk of the book is chosen specimens- stray carts the creator took pictures off next to their classification, with some of them having a little written explanation as to why they got their classification. the back of the book contain two location case studies and an afterword.
The “East North America” part is one of those way the book takes it self somewhat seriously, with a spread about "Geographic Relevance" explaining that it was tested in only East North America, However could mostly likely work the same in western north america. It adds that while the intensity of strays is lessened in Europe the system does still generally work there(with one exeption in Copenhagen where there is a type added). And lastly the system has not been properly tested in asia, australia and south america.
I fully recommend for you at the very least to look at the section of the book in Julian Montague's website, It doesn't contain it all but It does contain the stray types and select pictres. Although I will say that it's images of the 2006 version and in my humble opinion the 2023 looks significantly better.
In the afterwards Julian tells us different ways people read his work, from a critic of waste and capitalism to anthropomorphizing the cart and seeing each one as a tragic story. While I do not disregard those readings I do want to quote a line from Julian "But I think at its center the project gives language to something familliar that has gone unarticulated" and I fully agree with that and find it kinda beautiful. After reading his work I couldnt help but to notice stray shopping carts more, thinking about them instead of disregarding them as background noise on the street, I started catagorizing them in my mind. And being more aware of your environment makes you appreciate it more in my opinion.
Later on I told friends about this book and they started noticing the strays as well! At some point they started sending me pictures of strays for me to analyze, so I did! I find it fun! New hobby unlocked!
So I made a short compilation of me using the book as well, a guide.
While I am not gonna explain all of the types (again there are 33 of them) here are some useful terms to know-
Source- where the cart is originally from, deduced by its branding and proximity to likely locations, usually a supermarket.
Class A: False strays- A cart that is on the source but diverted from its main function, or a cart that appears to be a stray but will be returned to the source.
Class B: True Strays- a cart that will not be returned to its source and also a secondary desegnation for Class A carts.
[The next section is research for stray shopping carts in the Middle East region, while most of the book will be used as is, but it will be acknowledged that several of the types in the Eastern North guide are unnecessary when analyzing the area. Specifically A/6 Snow Plow at Source, B/9 Snow Immobilization, and B/10 Plow Crash. I’ve never even seen snow, not really a thing that happens locally, therefore I am fully ignoring it]
The photo that started it all, after I told my friend about the contents of the book she gave me, one day she spontaneously sent me this picture with the caption "analyze this badboi", so I did. There is a close source but the cart doesn't match it making it an easy B/1 Open True specimen.
This one was located near an office building with the source being located at a mall across the road, making this a A/1 Close False however with where it is pushed I would argue this is also a B/15 Gap Marginalized. Also there is a bonus cat.
If we walk a few steps away from the previous cart to the nearby bus station, we’ll see two carts laying behind it (unfortunately not enough to make it a group), both from different sources, neither close by. Either way its location hints at B/1 Open True with a chance of B/12 simple vandalism that occurred by whoever used this bus station.
This one is located the the bottom floor of my uni building, and you can see another one farther down the hallway, making them both firstly B/1 Open True and secondly B/5 On/As Business Property.
This one is located at the same place as the ones before, taking all the same traits but also adding B/17 Remote Group to all three of them, it also has the additional interesting bit of it being obviously modified making it a rare B/8 Structurally Modified.
My friend works at a kindergarten and they use a shopping cart to carry stuff so it's another B/5 As/On Business Property. But also from this picture it kinda seems like B/18 As Refuse Receptacle.
Last one I was sent (so far?), It’s quite common in multiple story buildings to find at least one cart tied in the parking space or near the stairs, reserved as a B/4 As/On Personal Property, you can spot that its chained down so nobody steals the stolen cart.
I hope someone finds it as interesting as I do. If you have any questions or you want to enrich my silly hobby by sending me images of strays (with preferably some contexted to nearby sources) you can send me an email or contact me elsewhere, I promise to analyze them all.