What are we looking at here? A legacy of lazy shoppers? A symptom of impatience brought on by Covid-19? Or a sign that the collapse of civilization is closer than we thought?
How much effort is it really to return your shopping cart to the nearest corral the supermarkets provide in their parking lots? Not much, if we’re honest, even if it’s two weeks before Christmas, we’re sick of the pandemic, and the rain is coming down.
Yet there are people who evidently can’t be bothered. They’re not thinking of fellow customers, who have to drive around obstacles like these. As though densely packed lots aren’t tricky enough.
They have no regard for the hapless young “associates” employed to round up carts and return them to the store. Do we think it’s fun for them to chase all over the lot after strays like these?
Suppose it’s windy and a gust blows up. No problem when the empty carts are fenced in. But here, they could be blown this way and that, putting a dent in somebody’s body work before they’re though. There goes a thousand bucks for a new car door.
What we’re seeing, then, is what you get when people have no sense of what’s right and what a decent person would do. It may seem like a little thing, sure. But if you’re thoughtless and lazy here, chances are you’re the same way in everything else.
So next time, before you get in your car and leave, put the damn cart were it belongs. (hh)
You said it perfectly. It is lazy and inconsiderate to not put the cart away.
I remember seeing a clip on a news program a few years ago of an elderly woman in a parking lot with a cart. It was pouring rain, and the wind looked like it was near hurricane strength (she was pushing the cart mightily against the wind), yet she pushed the cart into the corral where it belonged. I decided then that if this elderly lady could return her cart in those conditions, ALMOST ANYBODY could.
I put my cart away so that The wind does not blow it into someone else’s vehicle causing property damage. If my car rolls into somebody’s car causing property damage that person can file a claim against my auto insurance. I also put my cart away out of courtesy.
Absolutely Nina! I will *round carts up* on the way from my car, either to the cart corral or into the store … it’s absolutely the right thing to do!
p.s. Please say hello to your hubby for me, if you will
I have used returning the cart as my own personal Karma test. Returning the cart is a small good thing to do. If I want Life, and others, to be kind to me, I need to practice good daily Karma. This thinking often gets me to return my cart when I don’t feel like it.
I am so glad to see this posted. I had my car dented by one of these rogue carts. My husband and I are in our 80’s and would never leave a cart loose. We always wonder about these ” entitled” people who want to be waited on. Put the cart away! Thank you hh.
The entitlement mindset is a bigger pandemic than Covid.
The feeling that we deserve to be given something or that someone else is responsible for taking care of us prevails in our daily lives. We were taught to be this way.
Throw your bagged garbage on the side of the road. Government will clean up the mess.
It’s okay for your dog to use someone’s lawn for a bathroom. The owner will pick it up…maybe…but who cares? It’s his problem.
Leave the dirty dishes in the sink and throw your dirty clothes on the floor. Mom and/or Dad will clean up the mess.
Don’t return to your job or look for a new one. The government will extend your unemployment benefit.
CARA’s giving away “free” money? Cool. I like unearned profits.
Personal responsibility & accountability are no longer expected. You owe me. Welcome to the entitlement society.
Gordon…we came from a different era. We cared.
Amen
“The shopping cart is the ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self- governing. To return a shopping cart is an easy, convenient task, and one we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do.
To return the shopping cart is objectively right.
There are no situations, other than dire emergencies in which a person is unable to return their cart. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your cart. Therefore the shopping cart presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it. No one will punish you for not returning the shopping cart, no one will fine you, or kill you for not returning the shopping cart, you gain nothing for returning the shopping cart.
You must return the shopping cart out of the goodness of your own heart. You must return the shopping cart because it is the right thing to do.
Because it is right.
A person who is unable to do this is no better than an animal, an absolute savage who can only be made to do what is right by threatening them with a law and the force which stands behind it.
The shopping cart is what determines whether a person is a good or bad member of society.” Glenn Danzig
Rather than talking about returning carts in a web blog, how about confronting the person in the parking lot. It takes guts to do that and yes those people will yell at you, BUT, they will have learned that you do not appreciate their behavior. And while your at it, and I am at it, confront a bunch of other different harmful behaviors (garbage, vandalism, rude driving) and at the end of the day, you won’t have to resort to writing about it here… problem solved.
The problem with public scolding and shaming is that the person will probably respond with resentment and anger. Sometimes violence.
It doesn’t work.
You want to change the social norm when it comes to shopping carts? Then model the behavior you want from others. Teach your kids personal responsibility and accountability. Write a blog article and make a general plea to “put the damn cart were it belongs.”
But don’t expect a personal confrontation to change a person’s behavior. It’s doesn’t work.
It starts at home and in the school.
To put my shopping cart away EVERY time was one of my New Years resolutions. It is about the only one I have kept and one I intend to keep.
Another Swale. Carts be damned! Who can we blame for another one these blights?
Some times it is monkey see, monkey do. There are those who feel entitled to their bad form and think nothing of it when they see others are doing it. Never mind that it is rude and inconsiderate. If they read this, will they recognize themselves? Probably not.
I couldn’t agree more. I saw a cart sitting in between two parking spaces the other day, and was so frustrated that I wanted to post a photo of exactly what “Not giving a sh*t about anyone but themselves” looked like. Everything involving shopping causes me debilitating anxiety (I’m talking about the can’t continue shopping, need to panic it out in my car for a few minutes type of panic attack), yet I can still manage to get a cart where it belongs after I calm down because I just can’t be that inconsiderate asshole.
I am one that actually enjoy putting away the abandoned carts.
1. I get extra steps on my exercise plan.
2. I do it because the senior citizen that leaves it behind looks very tired.
3. I do it for the mother that is struggling with her young toddlers.
I was putting my groceries in my car at Freddy’s in July, and there was a large group of carts shoved up loosely on one of the medians in the lot. Suddenly, someone on the other side of the median shoved another cart into the bunch, starting a stampede of carts. The carts plowed into me, knocking me down. I ended up with a broken leg and damaged ligaments in my knee. Please always put your cart away!
Just good manners. I always return my cart and others too. What is so hard about that?
Thanks Hasso. This is one of my pet peeves about going to the store. Prior to bc (before covid) my wife and I would make a practice of pushing any carts we found on our way from the car to the door. Now we are hesitant because we have no idea who touched it last or whether it could be infected so we leave it alone. Paranoia – guess a little, but it is better to be safe than risk.
While on the subject of carts. On occasion we have seen one of the motorized carts abandoned in the walk way. Now don’t get in a huff, I know that some folks need these to cover distances in the store and respect that need. However, my question is was there someone with the user? If not how did they get the cart in the first place? Seems to me that if they can walk to get the cart they should have the same consideration as expected from a mobile person and return it.
By the way, I’m in my late 80’s and still return my damn cart.
Hurray for you Hasso.
While a lot of it is laziness, as a mother with small children, there were lots of occasions I would have been out of sight of my children while returning a cart and while it may only take a minute, it only takes a minute for someone to kidnap your child, even if you do lock the doors.
A simple solution to the cart problem is to go back to the days when a bag boy/girl would help you with your groceries. They’d walk out with you to your vehicle, put you groceries in your vehicle, then take the cart back to the store. I remember when Fred Meyer used to have curb side service. You would leave your groceries with an attendant who would give you a number and then you would drive through, had them your number and they would put your groceries in your vehicle.
When I was in west Germany in the mid 1970s protecting all you people from the communists ,the Germans came up with a solution to the problem. They simply charged you a small fee for a cart, and when you returned it to the rack your money was returned to you. If you were too lazy to return the cart someone else would and claim the money. Problem solved.
I have been saying this for years. I think that in some cases it’s pure laziness, but in a lot of others it that they have their head in the clouds doing their shopping and dealing with the dozens of things they have to do each day that they don’t stop and think about how it affects others. The part that gets me is those who use gloves mask and disinfecting wipes then leave them on the floor, in the carts or on shelves. HELLO PEOPLE WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC. THOSE ITEMS ARE POTENTIALLY INFECTIOUS. PICK THEM UP AND THROW THEM AWAY YOURSELF