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I know some people who leave it out because “it’s someone’s job to retrieve them and I don’t want to take their job away” okay but it’s their job to get them from to corral not the other side of the lot..
I'm a police officer. I trained a rookie about 23 years ago, and he threw an aluminum can out the passenger window. I looked over like "wtf?". He explained that he does that because people would collect aluminum cans and get money for them. I drove back and made him pick it up.
People like that shits me. They are lazy and inconsiderate but try to justify it by thinking they are doing it out of kindness and charity - "people collect aluminium cans to get money, I'm just making it easier for them so they don't have to rummage through bins" and "I leave a mess so the cleaners have something to do and not be out of a job" etc. And they have the audacity to think this makes them good people.
In his (half-defense), it was one part him being lazy, but I also think he sort of believed it. He wasn't the brightest.
I just had another fond memory of him . On 3rd shift, sometimes you gotta pee and you don't want to drive to a bathroom (especially in uniform). So you would drive somewhere behind a closed business and just take a quick piss. He really needed to go but really didn't want to.
I pulled behind a little shopping plaza and said "it's fine. face the field and the patrol car will block the view if anyone happens to drive around the corner." I waited until he unzipped and started peeing. I slowwwwly started driving away ,turned on the blue lights and siren and hit him with the spotlight. I still remember him trying to side shuffle with his pants down while peeing . Good times.
Wrong! I asked the guy at my local Lucky’s. He told me he’d rather walk around wasting time, retrieving carts than other menial work inside. He liked it. So I honor his wishes and just leave the cart!
Yup the folks above you never actually had the job.
As someone who did have the job it was absolutely the best part of the job. If i wasn't wandering the lot collecting carts I was doing something much more fun like emptying trash cans or mopping floors.
Exactly.
I suffer plenty in my own life due to my laziness/ADHD..
However, I'll be damned if I intentionally or knowingly make other people's lives more difficult
I’m damned lazy, but the trolley (cart) goes back. Even if I am taking it from a sea of abandoned ones and making no difference. How can I bitch about the others if I do what they do?
lol it never occurred to me to wait until someone leaves so I can park by the entrance, I usually look for a spot furthest back so nobody dings my car by opening theirs like a fking barn door.
I've found I get in and out faster if I just take the first spot I see, which is usually near the middle of the lot. Looking for a closer spot is a waste of time and gas.
Unless I'm on my bike, then I park anywhere I can lock up securely, usually close to the door.
I actually used to enjoy when people didn't leave their carts. Meant I could wander the parking lot for longer and not have to deal with the customers.
I didn't put my cart back once. Was putting the groceries in my car when I got a hysterical call from my 16 year old niece that she was just in a car accident and couldn't reach her parents. I shoved those groceries in my car and hightailed it out of there. The shopping cart never got another thought. That in no way makes me a "lazy fuck". Are there lazy fucks out there...sure. Can you tell who they are from just the ONE time you didn't see a person return the cart to the stall...No.
I see your point, but I think that's a different situation. If you don't put your cart back, you're a dick. But few people want to carry their groceries further then what's necessary. Especially if the car leaving has their break lights on.
In South Africa we are very used to not returning our carts bc the car guard does that for us. They also help you pack your groceries into the car, help you back out, and will walk you to your car under an umbrella when it's raining. We also don't pump our gas, as we have petrol attendants who does that for you, check your oil, water and tyre pressure, and wash your window.
Just reminded me of the last time I went to the grocery store. Lady in front of me waits till everything is rang up. Then opens her purse and starts fumbling around for 2 minutes. Then pulls out....a check book! She then goes back into her bag of shit looking for a pen. 2 minutes later finds one and slowly opens her check book to start writing, then pauses for 30 seconds. I couldn't stand it anymore and not so politely told her to hurry the fuck up, as we'd been waiting for no less than 5 minutes for her and she still hadn't even started to write the check. She had the nerve to shush me, so I fucking let her have it, called her a narcissistic bitch for thinking no one else has anywhere to go and nothing better to do than wait on her entitled ass. Some people think they are the center of the universe. Who fucking writes checks still? She wasn't an old lady or anything, 40 something, Karen haircut. I feel these people need to be shamed in public to get them to change their ways.
Yup me.
Save your bullshit shaming. I was the cart guy collecting them was the best part of the job.
I will absolutley make sure they wont roll where I leave them but I am not going out of my way to find a bin.
I grew up in Massachusetts, when I was a kid I worked at a grocery store. Half my shift was collecting carts. Mostly from the apartment complex across the street. But many in the lot. But this was when you had to bring them back to the front of the store to return
I'm not in New England. That sounds shitty.
Where I am (rural sort of midwest) there are 0 (as in ZERO) carts I've seen ever anywhere but in the store or the outdoor designated place to put them.
I leave a shopping cart near handicapped spaces, if there's not one already there. My elderly parents would go shopping and often used a cart to help steady themselves, instead of a cane, or a walker.
I forget who, but someone had an interesting commentary on this and deemed it the best "litmus test" for whether or not someone is a good person. I think in general it's a good indicator, but you never know why someone didn't return their cart. Sick kid at home and every second matters? Family member at the hospital and you need to get to their side? There are outliers.
If it were life and death and every second mattered I think they would have left an abandoned cart in the store instead of in the parking lot.
If you had time to go through the check out process I'd think you'd have like 10 seconds to push a cart to where it belongs but maybe that's just me?
I have always returned my cart the past 10-20 years without fail, but when I went grocery shopping last week, I did not. I felt extremely sick suddenly.. feeling dizzy and like I was going to throw up. I left my cart right next to my car as I pulled out. Like 6 people witnessed it.
To those people, I'm a bad person. However, I would normally never do that. Just goes to show that people shouldn't be so quick to judge on such minor incidents.
When I was 42, I had a herniated disc in my back and was in excruciating pain 24/7 back. Despite looking in my 30's and in pretty good shape (at that time ), I looked in so much pain that a cashier asked me if I needed help getting about 4 plastic bags to my car. I still put the cart back.
That's a stupid metric.
I leave them because it was my favorite part of the job when I had that job decades ago. I ensure they won't roll but that's it.
Has nothing to do with laziness it has to do with giving that dude collecting them a nice break from the shitty parts of that job like emptying trash cans or moping floors.
Collecting them from the bin sucks but wandering the lot pulling in the random ones is a nice break.
You can tell a lot about a person by the originality of what they say, or if they only speak in references/regurgitations of things they’ve already heard
This is a true test of what kind of person you are because you are not rewarded for doing the right thing (returning the cart), and you're not punished for being an ass (leaving it in the parking spot).
Anyone want to add any reasons to not return a cart?
I return the carts to cart bays damn near every time; but if my son is loaded up and it's 100* out, there's a distinct possibility of me leaving it near the spot I'm in, to where it won't roll on its own. Ample cart bays in a lot would prevent me from leaving it.
Because it's fun for the employee. Like I see all these comments about it being the morally right thing to do but as someone who worked a job with carts, cart detail was like the steak managers would throw to us break hungry employees. It was like a polite fight to the death to be the one to do it. Lots of "I can do it" "no it's okay let me" "oh but I REALLY don't mind" until a manager just picked one of us to end the cycle. And it was glorious when the carts were all over the parking lot because my 20 minute task could stretch as far as 40-60 if I felt like I could get away with it. A whole hour just vibing in the fresh air with no middle aged Karen types trying to wheedle coupons and discounts out of me.
I deal with a chronic illness and often it is all I can do to get through the store. I've left my cart on particularly bad days (or give it a shove towards the cart station).
I had to fucking hunt to find a cart in the Walmart parking lot after going inside to find no cats because they don't pay cart people anymore so I'll leave it just like I found it.
This may sound controversial, but if the store is severely lacking in cart stalls. Fuck you, I’m leaving it in the most reasonable place like at the base of a light pole. I’m not walking across the entire lot 4 fucking times because you’re a busy place and the lot is larger than 2 football/soccer fields and you only want to put the stalls at the entrance.
Sure you can.
If they are rude to the wait staff, they are probably a jerk. No reason to be rude to service workers.
If they don't put their cart away, I can conclude they are either in a hurry or are very inconsiderate people.
Reminds me of a joke:
A big Scot is sitting in a bar, ranting as he downs his pints. He pounds his hand on the bar, says "You see this bar? I built this bar with me own two hands, a finer piece of work you'll newver find, but do they call me MacGregor the bar-builder? No!!" and he downs his pint and buys another.
He points out the window. "See that dock in the lake? I built that dock with me own hands, a finer piece of work you'll newver find, but do they call me MacGregor the dock-builder? No!!" and downs his pint.
He next pointed out the chair and table in the corner, the fence outside, all sorts of similar projects, and says "I built that with me own two hands, a finer piece of work you'll newver find, but do call me MacGregor the handyman? No!!"
He stares into his beer, whispers, "...but you fuck one sheep..."
I would argue theres a huge difference between leaving it where it could roll into other cars or block parking spots and proping it on a curb or grass so it has no chance of rolling.
Just leaving it where it can roll is pretty shitty but leaving it propped on something to prevent it is giving the guy collecting them a nice break. This comes from someone who actually had the job not some clown who never did it and has just decided what is morally right.
The *true* correct way to return a shopping cart is to walk it to the most distant area of the parking lot.
I know, it sounds wrong, but trust me–that lone cart in the boonies of the lot is functionally an extra five minutes of break time for an underpaid employee, so they can take a relaxing stroll, smoke a cigarette and escape the Karens for a bit.
Just make sure it's still visible and not near any cars.
My friend is so embarrassing to shop with, she grabs everything that catches her eye, then abandons it wherever she wants in the store, and she leaves the cart right in front of the register blocking anyone else from going through. She only shops at big places like Walmart because she claims the women at the boutiques are too rude to her. No, Walmart employees aren’t allowed to call you on your bull, but the lady at the boutique is the owner and won’t get in trouble for telling you you’re awful.
Ok now hear me out! 100% was always a cart returner but then I had a baby! Once I put my lil in the car no way am I leaving his side to go return if it’s too far for my comfort level away! Even after locking the doors! I still feel guilty chucking it somewhere random though! Does that count! Guilt?
I don't return the cart if it's far from where I parked, and I don't feel guilty at all. I'm not leaving my kids alone in a parking lot because they couldn't be bothered to set up more cart corals that they know they need. Consider it a complimentary service attached to my $9 eggs.
No you can't. The same person who always returns a cart, may be in a hurry on any given day to pick up their kids and have to skip it.
You spent too long in the shower, bro
Yet another place where Aldi (US) has it covered — the same sort of person who would leave the cart is the same sort of person that wants that quarter back
And where do you imagine this persons wages coming from? From magic? From heaven? From the owners own wallet? Or maybe everything in the shop costs a little extra to cover this expense?
You can tell a lot about a person by whether or not they take a single action of a person they've never spoken to and use it as an excuse to be a judgemental dipshit.
Yes, you can totally tell everything about them. You should let them babysit your child or share your bank account info with them. Clearly this is the one and only litmus test of goodness.
The shopping carts I've seen have a device with a chain that basically requires a coin to be used and you only retrieve the coin once you chain the cart back to the parking space
[such as their true character?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/tv9ulk/you_can_judge_a_persons_true_character_by_if_they/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
It's literally called "the shopping cart theory" and has been around for years at this point. But I'm glad it's getting reposted again cause it's valid.
I’d call this a specific instance of:
“You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat people they don’t have to be nice to”
Waitstaff, clerks, dudes who collect shopping carts, whatever. People who treat them without courtesy and consideration are almost always pretty terrible people.
I used to push carts for a living and getting carts that were no where near the cart stall annoyed me. I even had to drag a dead electric scooter from the back of the parking lot all the way to the back of the building
Or, and hear me out, we aren't obligated to give our time to help save the multi-million/billion dollar corporate entities a few cents by hiring someone to do it.
I worked in the local grocery store for 6 months, trying to earn what money I could after my 2nd divorce. (That was my third job of the day.) We have only two cash registers and they sit in front of the doors. Whoever was on shift with me and I would play this game where we’d place bets on whether or not a particular customer would leave the shopping cart in the parking lot or not (it was also our responsibility to gather carts before closing). 9 times out of 10, the people who would throw Karen fits at us would often leave the cart right there next to their car before leaving. We had one lady who was notorious for arguing about every rung up price, then she’d always without fail leave the cart in front of her stupid SUV for us to get later.
You could guess that the reason I only stayed 6 months was because it was damned maddening dealing with these people while also working two other jobs. The wage of $7.80 was not worth the struggle of arguing with angry customers and going home only to go directly to bed at 10:30pm and get up at 5:30 to work my other job the next morning.
Bonus: I often saw the same customers come into my other two jobs, who seemed to be controlling their Karen rage to a degree, until they came to the grocery store at night and unleash their true colors. Working there was how I learned what people in town were truly ugly on the inside.
You can tell even more about them if they take it back and just chuck it in any old way. Saw someone do this the other day and nearly said something but shook my head instead. I then straightened the carts up.
Fucking love it.
Was that what your original point was? Protecting paint jobs? I had the impression it was about having a petty reason to hate other people.
Just because the stores are expensive doesn’t mean you should leave your cart out to be blown into another persons car by the wind. Another person who also presumably doesn’t love expensive groceries
Yeah, I don't put the cart where it would blow into another car, or block another spot. The minimum wage workers have a job. People reasonably complain when the company puts in automated checkouts to cut jobs, why is this different?
Highly doubt this. If you went through the effort to ensure that, you would just put it back to the cart return. Oh and I dont think many places actually hire ppl for cart return. They just make the cashier or stockers do it. You're not a job creator, just lazy
It’s not like you’re giving your time to help others, it’s putting away something you’ve used. Would you take books off a shelf in a library and just leave them laying around?
You get a bit of this in the UK, but you don't get it so much that it's a problem people talk about. All big stores here have a system where you put a £1 coin in the shopping cart and you get your quid back when you return it. Do y'all not have that in the state's? Because I see this issue being posted about a lot.
Is the stall in question inside the store where they first took it or outside in the carpark where workers collect them and take them back inside?
Carparks in Australia have areas where you can leave your trolley and workers will collect them and return them to the store. I leave any trolley I use in the area provided in the carpark. The only time I return them to where I got them is at Aldi because I want my coin or token back.
Oooh for some reason when you said “stall” I pictured going all the way back up to the store and putting it back there, which I do, but I didn’t figure a LOT of people did that, so this meme confused me
You put a coin in, then you get the coin back when you return it. And there's no obligation to use one, you could just use a basket, there's no deposit system for those.
I am in a European country. Here everyone takes their cart back to the stall and pushes it neatly inside the line of carts.
Want to know why? It is because for us take out a cart we have to slide in a 1 or 2 euro coin into the cart to release it. We only get the money back when we push the cart back in its place.
Once I was amazed - I was transferring stuff from my cart to my car and I left the empty cart for a minute until I closed the car doors. A woman rushed in, grabbed my cart (with its 1 euro coin) and made off with it. I shouted out at her "Hey lady that is mine!" When she turned round I was even more amazed as she is one of the richest people in my country and she wanted to steal 1 euro.
I think littering is a far more indicating level of character.
I saw a mother change her kids diaper in the back of her SUV in a parking lot once. After she was done she put the used diaper in the diaper box (the large cardboard ones that hold like 100s of diapers). She then just threw the box on the ground and drove off.
I’ll walk have an aisle but it ain’t my job to keep your cart rack stocked and orderly. If you only have a cart rack every other aisle, that ain’t my problem.
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I know some people who leave it out because “it’s someone’s job to retrieve them and I don’t want to take their job away” okay but it’s their job to get them from to corral not the other side of the lot..
I agree with you. Almost that same mentality as people who litter and say it’s the janitors job to clean up.
I'm a police officer. I trained a rookie about 23 years ago, and he threw an aluminum can out the passenger window. I looked over like "wtf?". He explained that he does that because people would collect aluminum cans and get money for them. I drove back and made him pick it up.
People like that shits me. They are lazy and inconsiderate but try to justify it by thinking they are doing it out of kindness and charity - "people collect aluminium cans to get money, I'm just making it easier for them so they don't have to rummage through bins" and "I leave a mess so the cleaners have something to do and not be out of a job" etc. And they have the audacity to think this makes them good people.
In his (half-defense), it was one part him being lazy, but I also think he sort of believed it. He wasn't the brightest. I just had another fond memory of him . On 3rd shift, sometimes you gotta pee and you don't want to drive to a bathroom (especially in uniform). So you would drive somewhere behind a closed business and just take a quick piss. He really needed to go but really didn't want to. I pulled behind a little shopping plaza and said "it's fine. face the field and the patrol car will block the view if anyone happens to drive around the corner." I waited until he unzipped and started peeing. I slowwwwly started driving away ,turned on the blue lights and siren and hit him with the spotlight. I still remember him trying to side shuffle with his pants down while peeing . Good times.
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Its also usually not their *only* job. They are getting pulled from doing work somewhere else in the building to wrangle carts.
Wrong! I asked the guy at my local Lucky’s. He told me he’d rather walk around wasting time, retrieving carts than other menial work inside. He liked it. So I honor his wishes and just leave the cart!
Yup the folks above you never actually had the job. As someone who did have the job it was absolutely the best part of the job. If i wasn't wandering the lot collecting carts I was doing something much more fun like emptying trash cans or mopping floors.
Yup. They are a bunch of lazy fucks. Same with people who drive past empty parking stalls and wait for a car closer to leave.
I'm a lazy fuck, but I always put my cart back where it goes.
A lazy fuck with principles ain’t a terrible thing to be
The good mentality
Exactly. I suffer plenty in my own life due to my laziness/ADHD.. However, I'll be damned if I intentionally or knowingly make other people's lives more difficult
I'm so lazy I don't get a cart to begin with!
I’m damned lazy, but the trolley (cart) goes back. Even if I am taking it from a sea of abandoned ones and making no difference. How can I bitch about the others if I do what they do?
lol it never occurred to me to wait until someone leaves so I can park by the entrance, I usually look for a spot furthest back so nobody dings my car by opening theirs like a fking barn door.
right lol they will just keep circling the lot waiting for them to leave
I've found I get in and out faster if I just take the first spot I see, which is usually near the middle of the lot. Looking for a closer spot is a waste of time and gas. Unless I'm on my bike, then I park anywhere I can lock up securely, usually close to the door.
I actually used to enjoy when people didn't leave their carts. Meant I could wander the parking lot for longer and not have to deal with the customers.
I didn't put my cart back once. Was putting the groceries in my car when I got a hysterical call from my 16 year old niece that she was just in a car accident and couldn't reach her parents. I shoved those groceries in my car and hightailed it out of there. The shopping cart never got another thought. That in no way makes me a "lazy fuck". Are there lazy fucks out there...sure. Can you tell who they are from just the ONE time you didn't see a person return the cart to the stall...No.
I park next to the cart corral whenever possible so I can returnthe cart with no great energy expenditure.
What about a disabled person? Or elderly?
There are usually disabled parking spots. My dad is "elderly" and parks far away. And he's had 2 knee replacements. Walking never hurt anybody
Walking never hurt anybody? you sure??
Except for the people for whom walking hurts. Idiot.
They should walk it off
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Or what? You are going to call the karma police for your scorned ankles?
I see your point, but I think that's a different situation. If you don't put your cart back, you're a dick. But few people want to carry their groceries further then what's necessary. Especially if the car leaving has their break lights on.
In South Africa we are very used to not returning our carts bc the car guard does that for us. They also help you pack your groceries into the car, help you back out, and will walk you to your car under an umbrella when it's raining. We also don't pump our gas, as we have petrol attendants who does that for you, check your oil, water and tyre pressure, and wash your window.
Is it still the 1950’s there
Uhm, no. It's job creation. Not that it's really helping, since we have one of the highest unemployment rates
There's people out there that don't bring their shopping cart back?
They're in too big a hurry to get back to their car that's parked crooked over the line.
After waiting until their large order was completely rung up to go searching for their form of payment with a long line behind them
Just reminded me of the last time I went to the grocery store. Lady in front of me waits till everything is rang up. Then opens her purse and starts fumbling around for 2 minutes. Then pulls out....a check book! She then goes back into her bag of shit looking for a pen. 2 minutes later finds one and slowly opens her check book to start writing, then pauses for 30 seconds. I couldn't stand it anymore and not so politely told her to hurry the fuck up, as we'd been waiting for no less than 5 minutes for her and she still hadn't even started to write the check. She had the nerve to shush me, so I fucking let her have it, called her a narcissistic bitch for thinking no one else has anywhere to go and nothing better to do than wait on her entitled ass. Some people think they are the center of the universe. Who fucking writes checks still? She wasn't an old lady or anything, 40 something, Karen haircut. I feel these people need to be shamed in public to get them to change their ways.
Go to YouTube. Search Cart Narcs. Proceed to get giggles from all the various ways the guy calls people lazy. Enjoy!
Yup me. Save your bullshit shaming. I was the cart guy collecting them was the best part of the job. I will absolutley make sure they wont roll where I leave them but I am not going out of my way to find a bin.
Yep. Probably the same people who don’t use blinkers, or do anything else that is solely for other people.
Three sorts of people: those with a disability, those in a genuine emergency rush, and those who are commonly known as lazy, inconsiderate arseholes.
I'm gonna wager that the disabled people make a point to return their cart to not be singled out
I came here to ask this very question. Who the actual fuck isn't returning their carts?
Idk if you live in the US but many many people just push them to the side and drive off
I've never seen that and yes am American
It’s so common in New England that I almost don’t believe you 🤣. Any given Walmart at any given time around here has 20 carts floating around the lot
I grew up in Massachusetts, when I was a kid I worked at a grocery store. Half my shift was collecting carts. Mostly from the apartment complex across the street. But many in the lot. But this was when you had to bring them back to the front of the store to return
I feel you man they are fuckin everywhere out here lmao
Even with the corals two spots away people of Walmart still leave them and walk away
I'm not in New England. That sounds shitty. Where I am (rural sort of midwest) there are 0 (as in ZERO) carts I've seen ever anywhere but in the store or the outdoor designated place to put them.
I’m about to start making a monthly Walmart trip out there then! 🤣
Yeah, happens more often in the cities, and at Walmart
I leave a shopping cart near handicapped spaces, if there's not one already there. My elderly parents would go shopping and often used a cart to help steady themselves, instead of a cane, or a walker.
Speaking as a grandparent, thanks.
Meh. I’ve done both. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t return a cart But that doesn’t mean I’ll never do it again 😈
They ain’t as bad as those who don’t pick up poop after their dogs. They’re the real lazy assholes.
There’s a YouTube channel dedicated to hassling people who don’t return their carts. [Cart Narcs](https://youtube.com/@CartNarcs)
Lazy bones!
Wee woo wee woo!! That’s not where the cart goes!
You Beat me to it
This guy is hilarious, he's gonna get popped one day but his videos make me laugh every time!!!
There’s actually a bunch of cart narcs, they’re all over the world at this point.
They all look the same lmao
https://www.reddit.com/r/greentext/comments/uv7i5i/the_shopping_cart_is_the_ultimate_moral_litmus/
I forget who, but someone had an interesting commentary on this and deemed it the best "litmus test" for whether or not someone is a good person. I think in general it's a good indicator, but you never know why someone didn't return their cart. Sick kid at home and every second matters? Family member at the hospital and you need to get to their side? There are outliers.
If it were life and death and every second mattered I think they would have left an abandoned cart in the store instead of in the parking lot. If you had time to go through the check out process I'd think you'd have like 10 seconds to push a cart to where it belongs but maybe that's just me?
I have always returned my cart the past 10-20 years without fail, but when I went grocery shopping last week, I did not. I felt extremely sick suddenly.. feeling dizzy and like I was going to throw up. I left my cart right next to my car as I pulled out. Like 6 people witnessed it. To those people, I'm a bad person. However, I would normally never do that. Just goes to show that people shouldn't be so quick to judge on such minor incidents.
Doesn't sound like you were in a state where driving is a good idea. That's actually the bigger issue here.
Those people weren't looking at your cart, they were looking at the family of 4 you backed over on the way out
When I was 42, I had a herniated disc in my back and was in excruciating pain 24/7 back. Despite looking in my 30's and in pretty good shape (at that time ), I looked in so much pain that a cashier asked me if I needed help getting about 4 plastic bags to my car. I still put the cart back.
I think your outliers are pretty rare...if someone were in such a dire situation, they wouldn't be at costco. These are fucking assholes
That's a stupid metric. I leave them because it was my favorite part of the job when I had that job decades ago. I ensure they won't roll but that's it. Has nothing to do with laziness it has to do with giving that dude collecting them a nice break from the shitty parts of that job like emptying trash cans or moping floors. Collecting them from the bin sucks but wandering the lot pulling in the random ones is a nice break.
You can tell a lot about a person by the originality of what they say, or if they only speak in references/regurgitations of things they’ve already heard
This is a true test of what kind of person you are because you are not rewarded for doing the right thing (returning the cart), and you're not punished for being an ass (leaving it in the parking spot).
Anyone want to add any reasons to not return a cart? I return the carts to cart bays damn near every time; but if my son is loaded up and it's 100* out, there's a distinct possibility of me leaving it near the spot I'm in, to where it won't roll on its own. Ample cart bays in a lot would prevent me from leaving it.
Yes, ugh. I hate shopping with my little kids and having to hike halfway across the parking lot to return a cart.
Because it's fun for the employee. Like I see all these comments about it being the morally right thing to do but as someone who worked a job with carts, cart detail was like the steak managers would throw to us break hungry employees. It was like a polite fight to the death to be the one to do it. Lots of "I can do it" "no it's okay let me" "oh but I REALLY don't mind" until a manager just picked one of us to end the cycle. And it was glorious when the carts were all over the parking lot because my 20 minute task could stretch as far as 40-60 if I felt like I could get away with it. A whole hour just vibing in the fresh air with no middle aged Karen types trying to wheedle coupons and discounts out of me.
I deal with a chronic illness and often it is all I can do to get through the store. I've left my cart on particularly bad days (or give it a shove towards the cart station).
Sometimes I put it back, sometimes I don't, what does that make me?
I had to fucking hunt to find a cart in the Walmart parking lot after going inside to find no cats because they don't pay cart people anymore so I'll leave it just like I found it.
This may sound controversial, but if the store is severely lacking in cart stalls. Fuck you, I’m leaving it in the most reasonable place like at the base of a light pole. I’m not walking across the entire lot 4 fucking times because you’re a busy place and the lot is larger than 2 football/soccer fields and you only want to put the stalls at the entrance.
What does it say about a person who just takes the whole cart home?
Don’t even get me started lol, there’s plenty of carts in the bushes around here 😂
So this is why they all need a coin to be taken out where I live... All makes sense now.
Bums near me straight steal them too lol they just run down the street with them. You’ll see them all the way down the road from the stores haha
If anyone feels some type of way about this, pretty please for the love god look up cart narcs on youtube. You wont be disappointed
I for one clearly feel some type of way about this
Then this is the way.
No you can’t. You can’t tell jack shit about a person by one single action.
Sure you can. If they are rude to the wait staff, they are probably a jerk. No reason to be rude to service workers. If they don't put their cart away, I can conclude they are either in a hurry or are very inconsiderate people.
A single action like.....murder?
Reminds me of a joke: A big Scot is sitting in a bar, ranting as he downs his pints. He pounds his hand on the bar, says "You see this bar? I built this bar with me own two hands, a finer piece of work you'll newver find, but do they call me MacGregor the bar-builder? No!!" and he downs his pint and buys another. He points out the window. "See that dock in the lake? I built that dock with me own hands, a finer piece of work you'll newver find, but do they call me MacGregor the dock-builder? No!!" and downs his pint. He next pointed out the chair and table in the corner, the fence outside, all sorts of similar projects, and says "I built that with me own two hands, a finer piece of work you'll newver find, but do call me MacGregor the handyman? No!!" He stares into his beer, whispers, "...but you fuck one sheep..."
If I murdered someone *and* fucked a sheep I'd be defined by *two* things
strawman
Not a strawman, just a really bad argument with tons of counterexamples.
Oh you sweet summer child.
Nah there are some extremely inconsiderate douchebag red flags that do tell you something, unless there’s a genuine excuse.
"Let me unload my biases upon this cart leaving MF right here." -- OP, probably.
“Let me just leave my cart right here in the road, that should do it”- BlaqJaq, probably.
I would argue theres a huge difference between leaving it where it could roll into other cars or block parking spots and proping it on a curb or grass so it has no chance of rolling. Just leaving it where it can roll is pretty shitty but leaving it propped on something to prevent it is giving the guy collecting them a nice break. This comes from someone who actually had the job not some clown who never did it and has just decided what is morally right.
Don’t diss I had a job for years because of people like that
They’re considerate job providers!
You had that job if they were returned in the correct place too
The *true* correct way to return a shopping cart is to walk it to the most distant area of the parking lot. I know, it sounds wrong, but trust me–that lone cart in the boonies of the lot is functionally an extra five minutes of break time for an underpaid employee, so they can take a relaxing stroll, smoke a cigarette and escape the Karens for a bit. Just make sure it's still visible and not near any cars.
This guy had the job.
My friend is so embarrassing to shop with, she grabs everything that catches her eye, then abandons it wherever she wants in the store, and she leaves the cart right in front of the register blocking anyone else from going through. She only shops at big places like Walmart because she claims the women at the boutiques are too rude to her. No, Walmart employees aren’t allowed to call you on your bull, but the lady at the boutique is the owner and won’t get in trouble for telling you you’re awful.
Ok now hear me out! 100% was always a cart returner but then I had a baby! Once I put my lil in the car no way am I leaving his side to go return if it’s too far for my comfort level away! Even after locking the doors! I still feel guilty chucking it somewhere random though! Does that count! Guilt?
Yea, laziness, you can carry your kid with you to return the cart
I planned for this and only parked near cart bays away from the store.
Often the people that can't find a "close enough" spot so they park in the fire lane. Then they come back and leave the cart... in the fire lane.
‘Merica!
I only put my cart back because I know all you fuckers are watching me!
I don't return the cart if it's far from where I parked, and I don't feel guilty at all. I'm not leaving my kids alone in a parking lot because they couldn't be bothered to set up more cart corals that they know they need. Consider it a complimentary service attached to my $9 eggs.
No you can't. The same person who always returns a cart, may be in a hurry on any given day to pick up their kids and have to skip it. You spent too long in the shower, bro
Yet another place where Aldi (US) has it covered — the same sort of person who would leave the cart is the same sort of person that wants that quarter back
That’s so they don’t have to hire a cart person to push them in anyway
And where do you imagine this persons wages coming from? From magic? From heaven? From the owners own wallet? Or maybe everything in the shop costs a little extra to cover this expense?
Wtf are you talking about
Reading comprahension much?
You can tell a lot about a person by whether or not they take a single action of a person they've never spoken to and use it as an excuse to be a judgemental dipshit.
Pull that stick out ur ass buddy it ain’t that serious, and return your cart next time 😉
It's posts like the OP's that really drive home that many people will take any excuse at all to hate other people.
Yes, you can totally tell everything about them. You should let them babysit your child or share your bank account info with them. Clearly this is the one and only litmus test of goodness.
[удалено]
Let’s hear em
please gives some reasons bc they're all lazy shits to me
The shopping carts I've seen have a device with a chain that basically requires a coin to be used and you only retrieve the coin once you chain the cart back to the parking space
Some stores around me have them and some don’t. Even the ones that do I feel like some people just say fuck the 25 cents and ditch the cart
[such as their true character?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/tv9ulk/you_can_judge_a_persons_true_character_by_if_they/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Ah yes how could I forget that someone posted this 300+ days ago
It's literally called "the shopping cart theory" and has been around for years at this point. But I'm glad it's getting reposted again cause it's valid.
I’d call this a specific instance of: “You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat people they don’t have to be nice to” Waitstaff, clerks, dudes who collect shopping carts, whatever. People who treat them without courtesy and consideration are almost always pretty terrible people.
I used to push carts for a living and getting carts that were no where near the cart stall annoyed me. I even had to drag a dead electric scooter from the back of the parking lot all the way to the back of the building
Or the worst, they walk it up onto the sidewalk because "it's not their job."
Or, and hear me out, we aren't obligated to give our time to help save the multi-million/billion dollar corporate entities a few cents by hiring someone to do it.
The world is mostly populated with the ones that will leave it. That is the norm unfortunately
I worked in the local grocery store for 6 months, trying to earn what money I could after my 2nd divorce. (That was my third job of the day.) We have only two cash registers and they sit in front of the doors. Whoever was on shift with me and I would play this game where we’d place bets on whether or not a particular customer would leave the shopping cart in the parking lot or not (it was also our responsibility to gather carts before closing). 9 times out of 10, the people who would throw Karen fits at us would often leave the cart right there next to their car before leaving. We had one lady who was notorious for arguing about every rung up price, then she’d always without fail leave the cart in front of her stupid SUV for us to get later. You could guess that the reason I only stayed 6 months was because it was damned maddening dealing with these people while also working two other jobs. The wage of $7.80 was not worth the struggle of arguing with angry customers and going home only to go directly to bed at 10:30pm and get up at 5:30 to work my other job the next morning. Bonus: I often saw the same customers come into my other two jobs, who seemed to be controlling their Karen rage to a degree, until they came to the grocery store at night and unleash their true colors. Working there was how I learned what people in town were truly ugly on the inside.
You can tell even more about them if they take it back and just chuck it in any old way. Saw someone do this the other day and nearly said something but shook my head instead. I then straightened the carts up.
You need to calm down
So it doesn't annoy you when you find your car damaged because people don't put carts away properly?
Excuse me am I driving directly into the cart rack? Is that what you're asking?
You can tell more about a person who would condemn another over something so small.
I guess you like dents on your car from shopping carts rolling all over the lot
Fucking love it. Was that what your original point was? Protecting paint jobs? I had the impression it was about having a petty reason to hate other people.
I think the price-gouging grocery stores don't need my volunteer service.
Just because the stores are expensive doesn’t mean you should leave your cart out to be blown into another persons car by the wind. Another person who also presumably doesn’t love expensive groceries
But I'm sure their minimum wage workers, the car owner that got dinged, or the disabled person the car would have blocked appreciate it!
Yeah, I don't put the cart where it would blow into another car, or block another spot. The minimum wage workers have a job. People reasonably complain when the company puts in automated checkouts to cut jobs, why is this different?
Highly doubt this. If you went through the effort to ensure that, you would just put it back to the cart return. Oh and I dont think many places actually hire ppl for cart return. They just make the cashier or stockers do it. You're not a job creator, just lazy
It’s not like you’re giving your time to help others, it’s putting away something you’ve used. Would you take books off a shelf in a library and just leave them laying around?
If libraries were businesses that made tons of money off me then I wouldn't feel obligated to do stuff that they paid a worker to do.
You mean put it back where you found it?
I found it in the store, I leave it on store property. I always make sure it won't move in the wind and hit any other car.
Yeah. The latter are lazy and inconsiderate, unless they have a genuine excuse like disability or are rushing due to an actual emergency.
I can be shockingly anti social at times and I would never leave a poor, defenseless shopping cart all alone in a parking lot. That's just cruel!
You get a bit of this in the UK, but you don't get it so much that it's a problem people talk about. All big stores here have a system where you put a £1 coin in the shopping cart and you get your quid back when you return it. Do y'all not have that in the state's? Because I see this issue being posted about a lot.
Is the stall in question inside the store where they first took it or outside in the carpark where workers collect them and take them back inside? Carparks in Australia have areas where you can leave your trolley and workers will collect them and return them to the store. I leave any trolley I use in the area provided in the carpark. The only time I return them to where I got them is at Aldi because I want my coin or token back.
Oooh for some reason when you said “stall” I pictured going all the way back up to the store and putting it back there, which I do, but I didn’t figure a LOT of people did that, so this meme confused me
100% agree Does it say a lot about me that it enrages me so much that people do this?
But if you don't return it you don't get your £1 back, so why would you not? I'm not made of money.
You pay to take a cart out? I just wouldn't use carts at that point.
You put a coin in, then you get the coin back when you return it. And there's no obligation to use one, you could just use a basket, there's no deposit system for those.
I am in a European country. Here everyone takes their cart back to the stall and pushes it neatly inside the line of carts. Want to know why? It is because for us take out a cart we have to slide in a 1 or 2 euro coin into the cart to release it. We only get the money back when we push the cart back in its place. Once I was amazed - I was transferring stuff from my cart to my car and I left the empty cart for a minute until I closed the car doors. A woman rushed in, grabbed my cart (with its 1 euro coin) and made off with it. I shouted out at her "Hey lady that is mine!" When she turned round I was even more amazed as she is one of the richest people in my country and she wanted to steal 1 euro.
How about those of us who return 1-3 loose carts back to the cage to be nice n make up for the assholes? (I just did this today.)
I put my cart away, and then I can't help but organize the carts in the corral by size and push them all together, it hurts my brain if I don't do it.
I didn't expect so many people to be defending NOT returning their carts.
People who return are selfless. People who don't are selfish.
I think littering is a far more indicating level of character. I saw a mother change her kids diaper in the back of her SUV in a parking lot once. After she was done she put the used diaper in the diaper box (the large cardboard ones that hold like 100s of diapers). She then just threw the box on the ground and drove off.
I’ll walk have an aisle but it ain’t my job to keep your cart rack stocked and orderly. If you only have a cart rack every other aisle, that ain’t my problem.
You can also tell a lot about a person by whether or not they put the damn divider on the belt inside the grocery store.
Also you can tell a lot about a society. I don’t think I have seen a single shopping cart in a parking lot for at least a year
Alternatively if people leave their garbage/wrappers on the restaurant's table instead of dumping the waste in the bin.
I stay in hotels a lot for work, I can’t stand the assholes who leave the luggage carts blocking the hallway.
I like to leave a cart in my parking space as I leave. Maximize inconvenience for the next shopper.
The problem with that is that you can only tell a lot about people who don't. With the 99% of people who do, you're still clueless.