A person using the moniker Irene Rock Vigotty recently posted a complaint in the Valley Stream News Face book group.
She expressed her grievances with the East Rockaway Lidl grocery store’s lack of shopping carts, pointing out that, “There are NEVER any carts in front of the store...I have to geezer around the lot looking for a person walking to their car and then follow them to get their cart.”
Vigotty said she had spoken with managers on multiple occasions and had been told that circumstances, including cart theft and staff shortages, contributed to the noticeable lack of shopping carts.
Other shoppers expressed similar frustrations with this Lidl location’s cart shortage.
“There used to be wonderful smallish carts in here, but lately they have been very spare, and when you come in the store, and there’s none in the store or in the lot,” Barbara from Oceanside said after getting a cart from another shopper exiting the store.
She also pointed out the necessity of such handoffs because of the lack of shopping carts. “Other people are very nice, they see an old lady and come over and give me their cart, otherwise I’d be out here in the cold for a while,” she joked.
Barbara’s frustrations were echoed by Jen from Far Rockaway, who said, “I come here every two weeks, and I usually get a cart from someone who’s going back to their car.”
Despite multiple shoppers having the same issue on the same day, other shoppers had conflicting accounts of the cart shortage’s severity.
Heshie from Stockholm, Sweden, via Far Rockaway, said, “Just this location has a problem in my experience; usually at other locations, the cart rack is filled.”
Lidl is a chain that started in Germany and has locations throughout Europe, so Heshie’s personal account encompasses his shopping experience across multiple countries. “I live in Sweden, so I deal with Lidl all the time,” he said.
His claims might not just be based on personal experience. According to SEnine Magazine, a London-based local publication, Lidl locations in the U.K. are doing away with handheld baskets and only supplying wheeled carts.
Despite Vigotty noting that the East Rockaway Lidl had been dealing with a cart shortage since May of 2025 in her post, Heshie only noticed a glaring lack of carts in recent months.
“I would say it’s just this store for the past two months at most, I go to this store a lot,” he said.
Other shoppers exist in the middle ground between Bigotry’s exasperation and Cheshire’s sentiments.
Michelle from Queens, who was shopping without a cart, didn’t know that there were any complaints of a cart shortage.
“I only shop here once in a while, so I don’t know if it’s a problem. I usually see some carts, but not a lot,” she said.
All four declined to provide their last names.
What is considered the first modern Lidl location was opened in Ludwigshafen, Germany in 1973, with only three employees and roughly 500 products, an according to information on the company’s website.
In the 1990s, Lidl began its global expansion and within a few years the company had stores across Europe, and now operate in 31 countries and employ more than 360,000 people.
The U.S. headquarters in Arlington, Va., was opened in 2015. There are more than 190 Lidl stores actions the East Coast, according to the company’s website.
As of press time, Lidl did not respond for comment.
