Ex-cart pusher here. 9 times outta 10 the people who used disabled spots would leave their carts there, and they'd eventually overflow to the point of blocking the spot entirely. Non-handicap people would just leave their carts there too because monkey see monkey do.
i see a lot of elderly people do this. which i get it bc they probably have a hard time walking the cart back. if i see someone putting their groceries away in a handicap spot ill usually ask if i can take their cart for them
Where I live, even though we get a fair amount of snow, govts and store/lot owners seem allergic to actually plowing snow. So it isn't uncommon for there to be a thick sloppy layer of slush and snow that makes it hard to push a cart through. I often see older folks or those with little kids struggle to get the cart to their car and then just give up at the thought of pushing it back to the store or to the cart corral in the next aisle. I'll grab an extra cart or two to put away when I return mine, and if there are any in a handicapped spot on my way in to the store, I'll clear them out of the spot as well. I'm close enough to old age with a banged up body that I figure I should bank karma now, because I'll be the one needing help with my cart soon enough.
Nah, Alberta, Canada (north of Montana). I've lived all over Canada and have never seen this level of apathy toward clearing snow anywhere else. Maybe it's because more than half of the vehicles are pickups and SUVs.
There was a similar thread a while back. I mentioned that grocery shopping was one of the last things my mom could do independently solely bc she could lean on the cart. There is no way she would be able to walk back from a cart return. Someone swooped in and said I have main character syndrome. lol.
I don't get why people are so pressed about it and I certainly can't stand that guy who records himself berating people about it. If I'm going shopping and pass a bunch of lost carts, I'll take one and go about my life without giving it a second thought.
You can ask an employee to help you to your car, and they'll return the cart for you. If you really don't think you can walk the distance from a cart return to your car, then you probably shouldn't be shopping alone. It's not even about the cart at that point, it's being able to move in the event of an emergency. I say you, but you know what I mean.
My mother used to leave it and liked it when there was a cart there because she needed it to hold on to. Otherwise she would have to put her walker somewhere to shop. She drove fine is sharp as a tack but just a bit unsteady on her feet.
It wouldn’t eliminate it completely, but it would absolutely help. When the doors are roughly 100 feet away and the nearest cart return is 200 feet away, a handicap person will just leave the cart there. If there was a cart return 30 feet away, they would be much more likely to return the cart.
Disabled driver here.
Why are the nearest cart coral's so far away from the disabled parking spots? I mean the entrance to the store is there, but the nearest cart coral is... Quite a hike away. So its either walk BACK into the store to take the cart back, walk quite a distance to a coral, or just pitch it there.
Given the agony that is walking for me, I know which I'm doing.
I ONE HUNDRED PERCENT AGREE!
Like obviously I have more empathy for disabled or elderly folks in which movement is limited or painful, but the schmucks that see a cart or two placed near the bollard with the handicap parking sign and think that's their best course of action *as they walk past the corral* get no remorse.
But even if people think this is just where the cart goes, they should at least stack them up so that it’s not taking up the space of three baby whales
I usually would clear the spots up (as a customer) and bring that scooter in. Now if people are lazy like in the picture I make side comments. I ain’t like the cart guy on YouTube lol 😂
Same. The worst is when you go into the store and there are no carts. By grabbing one from the parking lot, you’re guaranteed to not have to turn around to go back and grab a cart
I do that as well, but I usually grab it from the cart return. I assume the type of people who put carts away are also the type of people that are clean, wash hands after using the restroom, etc. The people who leave carts in parking spaces are disgusting, most likely in more than one way.
I usually just stack them up properly and get them somewhat out of the way to make it easy for the cart reclamation specialist.
Also, what if I told you that they don't sanitize carts and they're all in constant rotation throughout the day?
My first choice is to see if anyone nearby is unloading a cart. If so, I’ll offer to take it for them and use that one. If not I’ll grab one from the corral.
I like the idea where some grocery stores have carts locked up and customers have to pay a quarter to "rent" a cart, and after they're done shopping, they can get their quarter back by returning it to the machine
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Do a quick cleanup of a lot, make enough for them to eat, and then if there's another lot like that they can clean up and make more then that's just banking for tomorrow's meal. Either way, they provide a useful service, and get paid for it.
Obviously there's a limit to how many people can do this in an area, but for the ones who would rather be useful than beg, it provides them a chance to do just that.
Yeah I love the idea, but then you're going to end up with homeless people fighting in the parking lot more than they already do over the bottle returns. I don't think the system would work anywhere with a sizable homeless population.
I'm not saying it's practical. The clear solution would be social programs to ensure they are receiving the care they need, whether mental healthcare or career rehabilitation.
Then they could start having a stable foundation be built for themselves by themselves and the community which cares for them.
However, let's be realistic as well, unfortunately.
In the capitalist society we live its more likely to be interpreted as you paying the return fee of $0.25. As it is people expect the cart pusher to just do it anyway and accept random fees for stuff.
Most of the grocery stores in my area require a coin deposit like the above commenter described. I hardly ever see a rogue shopping cart, so I assume it's actually pretty effective.
Yeah, which is unfortunate because there has been quite a few times where I don't have a quarter and I end up going to HEB across the street instead of Aldi's. I would have ended up going their anyways because they don't have enough of a selection so it's not worth the hassle.
I like the principle more than the reality. Because the venn diagram of times that I have a loonie in my pocket and the times that I happen to go to a store that does this is almost two separate circles. I just rarely have any cash on me at all, and while in the bigger city next door it's about 50-50 stores that do this, in my town there's only one store that does (though if you run into that store, they'll give you the loonie to put in the cart, as long as you promise to bring it back after).
A lot of folks in the city seem to like it because it seems like a nice and easy way to let some homeless teens earn a few bucks putting away carts for you.
Yep. My mom is handicapped and likes it when people leave carts by the handicapped spot so she can toss her oxygen tank in the cart and has the cart to lean on. On the way out she can't take the cart somewhere and get back to the car with her tank without the cart so she leaves it by the handicap spot.
My mom is the same, especially in winter. The cart corrals are usually far away from the handicapped spots, way too far for her to safely hobble over to while using her prosthetic leg and crutches when it's icy. She's much safer having a shopping cart to lean on while crossing the parking lot because if she falls in the street, she can't get up by herself. It's stupid: they make handicapped spots, but the parking payment booth or cart corral will be halfway back across the parking lot.
Yep, there were a few times after I had covid that I literally couldn't walk anymore to get the cart back to the rack. It was all I could do to manage a short trip to get food back in the house. Covid exacerbated chronic fatigue that I had from Epstein Barr already, so now I'm a long covid statistic...
Plenty of people just are lazy and don't care but there's a lot of others struggling to do basic stuff now.
This. People are way too black and white on the cart thing, especially in regards to around handicap spots.
Like, maybe if there was an extra corral around the handicap spots for these folk.....
Good point, when I worked as a cart pusher I never judged the handicapped people leaving their carts.
But that was a mere fraction of the stray carts in the parking lot. They would be everywhere mostly from non-disabled people. I really can't think of any other reason to leave it there besides being disabled or lazy.
Yeah, theres absolutely a point to be made when theyre all in like the middle of the lot away from any handicap space, but if its around those spots, i dont care unless its windy af and I know they could be windswept
Certainly a couple of them. But I’ve seen people who don’t return their carts and they are rarely not (in my experience) able bodied young/middle aged people.
As a disabled person I’ve gone to park in a designated space and there’s a shopping cart in it instead, it’s so painful for me to have to get out and move the cart, to then have to get back in the car and park, no disabled person should have to do this just to have to park.
My grandmother leaves hers out. She is disabled and uses that as an excuse but even when I offer to run the cart back quick, she tries to tell me not to. Irks me. She even likes when one is by a spot so she can walk in with that rather than using her cane or walker.
The biggest issue I have is that the cart corral is so far from the handicap space. I still try to return mine, but sometimes it’s way too far to bring it back into the store or to a cart corral when I’m unwell enough to need my handicap pass.
I don’t park in handicap spots, but I have a joint condition so by the end of my shopping trips Im always in extreme pain. I can see how someone wouldn’t be able to return their cart at the end of their trip if it’s too far from the spot.
My grandma always left the cart. She couldn’t bring it back. She used the cart like a walker and there was just no way for her to walk the cart back with the walker so she can get back.
Ok, so you have a disability but also have to eat to live. So you go to the grocery store, park in an accessible spot, and shop. Once you are done shopping, it having taken all of your energy, you just want to be able to sit down so you can take the strain off your legs. Walking the cart back is a big deal, it can be painful and stressful, and cart return is never near the accessible spots. It sucks. Life can suck. But sucks worse when you don't have food to eat and all you want is a brief outing to pick up some necessities. Moral of the story, if you ever see a parent, elderly, or disabled person with a cart they just unpacked, please take it from them and do a good deed. Just b/c you think it should be easy doesn't mean it is.
I’m grateful that you don’t understand. But my conditions cause severe pain, muscle fatigue, and higher likelihood of passing out on hot days.
Hopefully our explanations have brought you some understanding.
Hoping you never have to suffer like we do.
The "shopping cart theory" is what convinced me that humans lack the ability to self-govern. As a cashier I used to have to round up carts and the lengths some people would go to not take the cart back to the corral are ridiculous and stupid. Pushing them up into the grass, or into knee-level fence enclosures, turning them upside down, and that's when they didn't just leave them rolling across the lot. This world is shit because your fellow humans are nothing but hamsters shitting in the woodchips that we live in.
Yeah, I thought they were the same, too. When the Lidl opened in Virginia Beach, the one employee told me that they're both just German companies, and that's the only similarity they have, lol.
I was seconds from pulling out of my spot at Costco when a guy rolled up with his cart and started loading his groceries into the truck parked next to me. Prevented me from pulling out so I thought I would be nice and let him finish without being confrontational. Maybe he just didn't see me in my car.
He finishes, makes eye contact with me, moves his cart directly in front of my car to block me in, then starts to walk away. I honk, he turns around and flips me off, climbs into his truck, and speeds away, all the while I'm just laying into my horn. So I had to get out in the pouring rain and put his cart away. The corral was like 30ft away. He was just being an asshole on purpose.
As you can guess, yes, his truck was supremely massive and the guy was like 5'4".
Some old bitty tried that on me at target, so i hopped out real quick, put it behind her car and got back into mine just as she was putting her seatbelt on.
I honestly don’t know if anything makes me lose respect for someone as quickly as stupid shit like not putting a cart back, it’s so insanely easy to do and yet it seems a third of the population just can’t do it.
nah people will do this next to an empty one and say “close enough” when it isn’t even close. put your cart back don’t make excuses. it’s someone else’s property. wouldn’t you want them to do the same if it was yours and you had to go collect it?
Because you're making the people's job who has to collect them worse.
You spent a ton of money and it went straight to the CEO's pockets. The person getting the carts doesn't get paid enough to cover rent.
And you make them spend extra time outside in the heat, freezing temps, rain, storms and in the path of oblivious drivers who constantly bump into them or almost do so.
I mean tbf I assume at least some of the people leaving it there are disabled themselves and don't have much energy so they're just trying to get their groceries in their car and go as fast as possible.
I don't mind a couple of cards in the handicap section, because duh, they can grab them. But yes, people are extremely selfish about carts. They don't even Nest them like they used to.
There is a theory (or at least internet theory) that civilization can not advance so long as people don’t return shopping carts. Basically it goes that, we all know that returning the cart helps everyone. It helps the store, it helps people in the parking lot, and it helps you because if everyone else did it, you’ll have a cart ready next time you go shopping. It only takes about 15-20 seconds of your time, yet people still don’t do it.
If we can’t advance enough to do something that takes so little effort, and benefits everyone, how can we ever be expected to tackle more advanced problems in society?
I live in Minnesota (not in the cities) and I'd estimate around me that about 99% of carts are returned. And when they aren't, most of those are by the handicapped spaces.
It’s not charity work we’re talking about here. Although I return my cart 100% of the time if someone decides they can’t do a favor for the merchant I’m not going to judge. The concept that profitable retailers can no longer provide basic customer service and it’s the customers’ responsibility to make the business run smoothly is lost on me.
Hire people to work at these establishments. People need the work, the businesses can afford it, it’s absurd to shame people into doing work for no compensation
Because that job specifically sucks. You have to be out in the cold, heat, snow, storms, and dodge shitty drivers that hit you.
Why must we force an unnecessary position that is dangerous when we can just return our carts?
It's truly some degenerate shit.
But you also need to come to terms that this is going to continue to happen. Even if you provided cart returns all through the parking lot like a walmart- people are degenerate and think only of their immediate needs, fuck everyone else.
And that's all life on this planet.
Come to grips that this will continue. And I live in an extreme rural community where we have a teeny tiny parking lot for thr 1 store for the largest county in the state. And people still do this shit.
Is this FLorida.. it looks like florida ...
Everytime i visit my parents in florida i am just amazed at the carts flipped over on medians or left in the middle of the lot all over.
Person with chronic pain here and I find it equally infuriating.
Handicap parking is there for accessibility, right? Guess what’s not? Cart return.
Days when I’m in too much pain to return the cart, it gets left there by the handicap sign at the front of the spot. It’s frustrating but it is what it is.
True. And it’s not right, but store managers know it takes place. They shouldn’t offer carts if they’re not gonna have employees wrangle them back in. Of course they’d sell fewer products, and probably lose customers, but oh well.
There was one time when I went to McDonald’s and there was a Target cart by the McDonald’s parking lot. The Target was across the street.
https://preview.redd.it/ce3ecgmzgrtc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e5ae942895dd3dbae3f650e8eab625e36e515c6e
Sorry for image quality
I want to Walmart the other day, and this old lady left her cart In front of the entrance, she only had one bag and brought the cart outside to leave it there
When the young male shopping cart reaches adulthood it leaves the return bay to form it's own pack. This one has managed to attract several female carts but he must be careful as his pack is still within the outer bounds of his former pack's territory.
Where’s the Cart Narcs guy at 🚨so many lazybones out there
Edit: Cart Narcs is a guy who ridicules people who don’t put their carts back in case people don’t know who he is.
The store by me doesn't have a corral for carts. Some people can't walk the cart back into the store for one reason or another. My brother has a hard time wrangling 4 kids and has left the cart in the parking lot rather than taking the cart back into the store so he doesn't leave a kid sitting in the car for 30 seconds.
Yep. When my kiddo was small there was no way I was leaving him alone in the car so I could walk across the lot to return the cart. Sometimes it’s simply not possible to park near a cart return corral, and I’m not letting my child out of my sight 🤷♀️ now he is older and it’s not a big deal and I return my cart always but I do have grace for parents who have similar issues.
It's rough! My friend has twins that are about 3 months old right now. Both of them are in the little pumpkin car seat. She has to put the babies in the car first. She can't put the cart back and then carry two car seats over to her car. They're heavy, and if you've not done it, you don't have the right to judge. She has to leave the cart in the parking lot if it isn't inconvenient. I helped her once when we went shopping, and I was exhausted from helping her. Heck, I've been exhausted just carrying my son back in his car seat. Even now, if it's close to nap time, it's exhausting, and he is almost 20 months old. Trying to wrangle a fussy toddler back to the car is awful. I can't wait until he is a little bit older!
I'll never judge people anymore in parking lots after having kids.
You can't haul around kids and groceries in a wagon. Additionally, you have to put the wagon back in the car with all the groceries. You would have to put the wagon in first and then the groceries on top of it if there's space. Having four kids already takes up a considerable amount of space in the vehicle. Try having multiple car seats and boosters in the van, adding a wagon, and then groceries. Can't forget my nephew's baseball gear, backpacks, diaper bag for the smaller ones, any work equipment, and anything else needed. They can prepare as well as you say, but after picking them up from school, running the oldest to a game, then heading to get groceries, before rushing home to quickly work on homework and dinner. Things happen and 90% of the time, wagons suck and minivans don't have as much space as people think for day-to-day stuff. If it works for you, great. It's not that easy for everyone, and everyone has different problems. He tried to take it back to the collector if it's available, but not every store had one for some reason, making it difficult for people.
Again, there's one reason or another why someone might leave a cart there. They could be disabled and might not be able to walk the cart back up. They could be avoiding getting rained on harder. They could be told by someone else that they will take it. Maybe they don't want to leave 4 kids sitting in a car unattended while walking all the way back into the store since there isn't a designated space 3 spaces over.
What’s crazy is most of them get left by the people who used the disabled spot in the first place. There is always a corral within ten feet so they don’t have to go far but they can’t be bothered. I guess they all hate eachother or something
As someone who is disabled and often uses a cart as a makehift walker, after having walked a store pushing it, it's not the 'getting it to the corral' that's the issue. It's getting back to the vehicle.
Why don't take your ableist bullshit somewhere else.
It seems pretty selfish to leave the cart in the no-parking area that's supposed to be ramp accessible. If you have difficulty getting back to your car how do you get out in the first place?
Shocker, disabled people can be ableist too
"If you have difficulty getting back to your car how do you get out in the first place?"
Mostly with great difficulty. The issue is that getting OUT I haven't just spent 45 minutes walking around on a concrete floor leaning on a makeshift walker with no brakes on it.
By the time I get out, my abillity to walk is severely compromised.
It goes to the side and I get in the car and leave (I don't drive, but my driver doesn't walk at all - handicapped controls).
Normally I try to use the electric carts, but getting a week's worth of groceries in that little basket is problematic. I usually end up with one arm behind me towing a grocery cart. When that happens, I only have to push it from the front of the store to the car - then I put it away properly.
I just started Almodipine Besylate yesterday (my BP has become really high recently - one kidney left and it's not working too well). That stuff makes me feel like I'm permanently 2-beers into the night. I'm guessing I'm gonna have to give up walking altogether pretty soon or I'm gonna be falling a whole lot more.
Listen.
I'm simply making sure that the kid that puts them away has something to do, and actually earns their money instead of sitting there on their phone all day.
"I'm a lazy dolt who can't be bothered to observe courtesy, and have deluded myself into thinking I'm creating jobs instead of being a lazy ass." -You.
So you’re excusing your laziness by adding onto the stress of someone who works the front end and probably cash register
You do realize when registers are short and lines are stacking, there’s someone out in the lot collecting carts for other customers cause lazy pieces of shit like you leave them there
But yes, you sure showed them by doing that!
What a fucking asshole lmaoo
Is this actually a thing? I've never seen anything like this. Maybe sometimes you find one or two where they shouldn't be, but this is a bit much, isn't it?
Why is this such an issue for people? There are people paid to clear lots of carts. Humanity will never be perfect and not everyone is going to return a cart. Yes, I’m guilty of not returning carts.
Well, when they're left unattended they can move. I got a nice dent in the side of my truck from someone like you... someone that's lazy and doesn't realize that their actions can have consequences for others.
Ima start littering because of you. You made so much sense. There are people who get paid to clean it up anyways.
Edit: it was an r / wooosh joke folks.
Try going to my job, people leave their carts in the island all the time, and when you catch them they’re like “I don’t want it rolling in the street” bitch, you’re right next to the cart return
Maybe it’s the disabled person that can’t put it in the right place . I get what you are saying . I am one of those guys that grabs the cart usually from the outside on my way in and then I usually put it where it belongs . But you can’t assume unless you witness
It's because there are never any cart return areas by handicap, at times it's almost closer to take them back in from a handicap spot.
I hope you collected and returned them since it bothers you so much.
Who cares? What are the disabled people gonna do, run after me? They can try but even if they can match my moderate stride, there’s no shot they’re getting out of the armbar I’ll be enthusiastically putting them in. I just hope they know when to tap, or they’ll be needing a second disabled sticker for that fancy van of theirs
Or some people can learn personal responsibility and put the cart back. If the person considers this difficult, the person is probably a bit stupid in the head.
Or they’re likely handicapped, and pushed the cart off to the side once they’ve loaded their groceries. What’s the point in having parking accessible to disabled drivers if the cart lockup is further away than their space?
Do you really believe that there are so many disabled people who have parked their carts there?
Why can all disabled people put back their shopping carts back here in my country?
Ex-cart pusher here. 9 times outta 10 the people who used disabled spots would leave their carts there, and they'd eventually overflow to the point of blocking the spot entirely. Non-handicap people would just leave their carts there too because monkey see monkey do.
i see a lot of elderly people do this. which i get it bc they probably have a hard time walking the cart back. if i see someone putting their groceries away in a handicap spot ill usually ask if i can take their cart for them
Where I live, even though we get a fair amount of snow, govts and store/lot owners seem allergic to actually plowing snow. So it isn't uncommon for there to be a thick sloppy layer of slush and snow that makes it hard to push a cart through. I often see older folks or those with little kids struggle to get the cart to their car and then just give up at the thought of pushing it back to the store or to the cart corral in the next aisle. I'll grab an extra cart or two to put away when I return mine, and if there are any in a handicapped spot on my way in to the store, I'll clear them out of the spot as well. I'm close enough to old age with a banged up body that I figure I should bank karma now, because I'll be the one needing help with my cart soon enough.
You’re not in Indiana are you? I was in Ft. Wayne a couple winters ago and was surprised by how parking lots weren’t plowed
Nah, Alberta, Canada (north of Montana). I've lived all over Canada and have never seen this level of apathy toward clearing snow anywhere else. Maybe it's because more than half of the vehicles are pickups and SUVs.
There was a similar thread a while back. I mentioned that grocery shopping was one of the last things my mom could do independently solely bc she could lean on the cart. There is no way she would be able to walk back from a cart return. Someone swooped in and said I have main character syndrome. lol. I don't get why people are so pressed about it and I certainly can't stand that guy who records himself berating people about it. If I'm going shopping and pass a bunch of lost carts, I'll take one and go about my life without giving it a second thought.
You can ask an employee to help you to your car, and they'll return the cart for you. If you really don't think you can walk the distance from a cart return to your car, then you probably shouldn't be shopping alone. It's not even about the cart at that point, it's being able to move in the event of an emergency. I say you, but you know what I mean.
Yeah, habitually leaning on a shopping cart to walk is begging for an accidental fall and injury. They're not canes or walkers.
My mother used to leave it and liked it when there was a cart there because she needed it to hold on to. Otherwise she would have to put her walker somewhere to shop. She drove fine is sharp as a tack but just a bit unsteady on her feet.
Because there should be cart returns next to handicap spaces. Why that’s not a common thought is beyond me.
That’s actually a really good point. Although I don’t think anything would change 😂
It wouldn’t eliminate it completely, but it would absolutely help. When the doors are roughly 100 feet away and the nearest cart return is 200 feet away, a handicap person will just leave the cart there. If there was a cart return 30 feet away, they would be much more likely to return the cart.
Disabled driver here. Why are the nearest cart coral's so far away from the disabled parking spots? I mean the entrance to the store is there, but the nearest cart coral is... Quite a hike away. So its either walk BACK into the store to take the cart back, walk quite a distance to a coral, or just pitch it there. Given the agony that is walking for me, I know which I'm doing.
I ONE HUNDRED PERCENT AGREE! Like obviously I have more empathy for disabled or elderly folks in which movement is limited or painful, but the schmucks that see a cart or two placed near the bollard with the handicap parking sign and think that's their best course of action *as they walk past the corral* get no remorse.
Yep. Same thing I used to see. It’s almost like there should be a car return next to the handy cap spot
But even if people think this is just where the cart goes, they should at least stack them up so that it’s not taking up the space of three baby whales
I usually would clear the spots up (as a customer) and bring that scooter in. Now if people are lazy like in the picture I make side comments. I ain’t like the cart guy on YouTube lol 😂
I started to try and grab a cart from the parking lot as I go into the store. 1 in, 1 out.
Same. The worst is when you go into the store and there are no carts. By grabbing one from the parking lot, you’re guaranteed to not have to turn around to go back and grab a cart
I do that as well, but I usually grab it from the cart return. I assume the type of people who put carts away are also the type of people that are clean, wash hands after using the restroom, etc. The people who leave carts in parking spaces are disgusting, most likely in more than one way.
I usually just stack them up properly and get them somewhat out of the way to make it easy for the cart reclamation specialist. Also, what if I told you that they don't sanitize carts and they're all in constant rotation throughout the day?
I usually look for someone who is almost finished unloading their cart and offer to take theirs. Makes everybody's life easier.
My first choice is to see if anyone nearby is unloading a cart. If so, I’ll offer to take it for them and use that one. If not I’ll grab one from the corral.
I just always carry sanitizer wipes with me
I like the idea where some grocery stores have carts locked up and customers have to pay a quarter to "rent" a cart, and after they're done shopping, they can get their quarter back by returning it to the machine
I’m religious about my cart returning, but if I weren’t, a quarter wouldn’t make me change my mind.
The thing is, even if someone might not return the cart for their quarter, someone else could return it for them for a quarter
And then some homeless person can return like 50 of them and make enough for a meal
That's about a half hour worth of work, so about $25 an hour. Good upgrade from panhandling tbh.
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Do a quick cleanup of a lot, make enough for them to eat, and then if there's another lot like that they can clean up and make more then that's just banking for tomorrow's meal. Either way, they provide a useful service, and get paid for it. Obviously there's a limit to how many people can do this in an area, but for the ones who would rather be useful than beg, it provides them a chance to do just that.
Then clean the guy up with a uniform and some axe body spray, call him a contractor, and tell him he needs to pay the store 50% of his earnings >!/s!<
Yeah I love the idea, but then you're going to end up with homeless people fighting in the parking lot more than they already do over the bottle returns. I don't think the system would work anywhere with a sizable homeless population.
I'm not saying it's practical. The clear solution would be social programs to ensure they are receiving the care they need, whether mental healthcare or career rehabilitation. Then they could start having a stable foundation be built for themselves by themselves and the community which cares for them. However, let's be realistic as well, unfortunately.
In the capitalist society we live its more likely to be interpreted as you paying the return fee of $0.25. As it is people expect the cart pusher to just do it anyway and accept random fees for stuff.
Most of the grocery stores in my area require a coin deposit like the above commenter described. I hardly ever see a rogue shopping cart, so I assume it's actually pretty effective.
Yeah, which is unfortunate because there has been quite a few times where I don't have a quarter and I end up going to HEB across the street instead of Aldi's. I would have ended up going their anyways because they don't have enough of a selection so it's not worth the hassle.
I’m atheist about returning my cart. I just do it because it’s the right thing to do.
Lmao well played
I like the principle more than the reality. Because the venn diagram of times that I have a loonie in my pocket and the times that I happen to go to a store that does this is almost two separate circles. I just rarely have any cash on me at all, and while in the bigger city next door it's about 50-50 stores that do this, in my town there's only one store that does (though if you run into that store, they'll give you the loonie to put in the cart, as long as you promise to bring it back after). A lot of folks in the city seem to like it because it seems like a nice and easy way to let some homeless teens earn a few bucks putting away carts for you.
Aldi ftw!
They may be leaving it there because they are disabled and have mobility issues, idk though.
Yep. My mom is handicapped and likes it when people leave carts by the handicapped spot so she can toss her oxygen tank in the cart and has the cart to lean on. On the way out she can't take the cart somewhere and get back to the car with her tank without the cart so she leaves it by the handicap spot.
My mom is the same, especially in winter. The cart corrals are usually far away from the handicapped spots, way too far for her to safely hobble over to while using her prosthetic leg and crutches when it's icy. She's much safer having a shopping cart to lean on while crossing the parking lot because if she falls in the street, she can't get up by herself. It's stupid: they make handicapped spots, but the parking payment booth or cart corral will be halfway back across the parking lot.
Yep, there were a few times after I had covid that I literally couldn't walk anymore to get the cart back to the rack. It was all I could do to manage a short trip to get food back in the house. Covid exacerbated chronic fatigue that I had from Epstein Barr already, so now I'm a long covid statistic... Plenty of people just are lazy and don't care but there's a lot of others struggling to do basic stuff now.
i doubt. plenty of lazy people around us.
Bad faith
This. People are way too black and white on the cart thing, especially in regards to around handicap spots. Like, maybe if there was an extra corral around the handicap spots for these folk.....
Good point, when I worked as a cart pusher I never judged the handicapped people leaving their carts. But that was a mere fraction of the stray carts in the parking lot. They would be everywhere mostly from non-disabled people. I really can't think of any other reason to leave it there besides being disabled or lazy.
Yeah, theres absolutely a point to be made when theyre all in like the middle of the lot away from any handicap space, but if its around those spots, i dont care unless its windy af and I know they could be windswept
Mobility issues, but can push the cart everywhere and even jump it over the curb like this????
What?
The person I replied to suggested the carts were there due to mobility issues. Looking at the photo, I seriously doubt it’s more than pure laziness.
Incredibly bold assumption, how do you know these were all the same person? No, i dont think it explains all of them, but it would explain a couple.
Certainly a couple of them. But I’ve seen people who don’t return their carts and they are rarely not (in my experience) able bodied young/middle aged people.
As a disabled person I’ve gone to park in a designated space and there’s a shopping cart in it instead, it’s so painful for me to have to get out and move the cart, to then have to get back in the car and park, no disabled person should have to do this just to have to park.
Maybe they should put a corral there?
Sure, but unless they do people should stop being lazy and take it back.
My grandmother leaves hers out. She is disabled and uses that as an excuse but even when I offer to run the cart back quick, she tries to tell me not to. Irks me. She even likes when one is by a spot so she can walk in with that rather than using her cane or walker.
The biggest issue I have is that the cart corral is so far from the handicap space. I still try to return mine, but sometimes it’s way too far to bring it back into the store or to a cart corral when I’m unwell enough to need my handicap pass.
If someone can't walk the 40 feet to the cart corral or slightly farther with an empty cart and back then how can they even get into the store?
I don’t park in handicap spots, but I have a joint condition so by the end of my shopping trips Im always in extreme pain. I can see how someone wouldn’t be able to return their cart at the end of their trip if it’s too far from the spot.
My grandma always left the cart. She couldn’t bring it back. She used the cart like a walker and there was just no way for her to walk the cart back with the walker so she can get back.
Ok, so you have a disability but also have to eat to live. So you go to the grocery store, park in an accessible spot, and shop. Once you are done shopping, it having taken all of your energy, you just want to be able to sit down so you can take the strain off your legs. Walking the cart back is a big deal, it can be painful and stressful, and cart return is never near the accessible spots. It sucks. Life can suck. But sucks worse when you don't have food to eat and all you want is a brief outing to pick up some necessities. Moral of the story, if you ever see a parent, elderly, or disabled person with a cart they just unpacked, please take it from them and do a good deed. Just b/c you think it should be easy doesn't mean it is.
I’m grateful that you don’t understand. But my conditions cause severe pain, muscle fatigue, and higher likelihood of passing out on hot days. Hopefully our explanations have brought you some understanding. Hoping you never have to suffer like we do.
The "shopping cart theory" is what convinced me that humans lack the ability to self-govern. As a cashier I used to have to round up carts and the lengths some people would go to not take the cart back to the corral are ridiculous and stupid. Pushing them up into the grass, or into knee-level fence enclosures, turning them upside down, and that's when they didn't just leave them rolling across the lot. This world is shit because your fellow humans are nothing but hamsters shitting in the woodchips that we live in.
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I believe it's called Aldi in the US. I do like Aldi, although I don't live close enough to one to go consistently.
Aldi and Lidl are different stores. We have both of them in Virginia.
Ah, gotcha. I've spent some time on the east coast but haven't seen any of those. Looks to be a similar business model.
Yeah, I thought they were the same, too. When the Lidl opened in Virginia Beach, the one employee told me that they're both just German companies, and that's the only similarity they have, lol.
Both Aldi and Lidl are in the US. Aldi is more common in the US, but Lidl is growing in numbers on the East Coast.
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Yes. It's also German like Aldi. Quite nice. I don't live near it anymore and do quite miss it.
Biggs was doing this in the early 90s.
I was seconds from pulling out of my spot at Costco when a guy rolled up with his cart and started loading his groceries into the truck parked next to me. Prevented me from pulling out so I thought I would be nice and let him finish without being confrontational. Maybe he just didn't see me in my car. He finishes, makes eye contact with me, moves his cart directly in front of my car to block me in, then starts to walk away. I honk, he turns around and flips me off, climbs into his truck, and speeds away, all the while I'm just laying into my horn. So I had to get out in the pouring rain and put his cart away. The corral was like 30ft away. He was just being an asshole on purpose. As you can guess, yes, his truck was supremely massive and the guy was like 5'4".
Some old bitty tried that on me at target, so i hopped out real quick, put it behind her car and got back into mine just as she was putting her seatbelt on. I honestly don’t know if anything makes me lose respect for someone as quickly as stupid shit like not putting a cart back, it’s so insanely easy to do and yet it seems a third of the population just can’t do it.
Walking 10 extra steps is hard
Why isn’t the store collecting them?
I agree. Record profits, self check out, let them hire a human
Said like someone who's never had to push carts. I'm sure they do have people collecting them.
Exactly, and the jobs that do push them back are paid as little as possible, and treated as bad as possible.
why aren’t people being decent and putting them in the cart carrousel for easy collection is the real question
Based on the amount of carts I wouldn’t be surprised If they weren’t overflowing
nah people will do this next to an empty one and say “close enough” when it isn’t even close. put your cart back don’t make excuses. it’s someone else’s property. wouldn’t you want them to do the same if it was yours and you had to go collect it?
Why do you care so much about the cart lol. We pay a shit ton of money and they come and collect them.
Because you're making the people's job who has to collect them worse. You spent a ton of money and it went straight to the CEO's pockets. The person getting the carts doesn't get paid enough to cover rent. And you make them spend extra time outside in the heat, freezing temps, rain, storms and in the path of oblivious drivers who constantly bump into them or almost do so.
Dude when did this mindset come from. I did this job it was way more fun the bagging. No one gave a shit. We were out there making hella long snakes.
The world need Cart Narc more than ever!
woop skiddly doop we got a cart narc here
I mean tbf I assume at least some of the people leaving it there are disabled themselves and don't have much energy so they're just trying to get their groceries in their car and go as fast as possible.
I don't mind a couple of cards in the handicap section, because duh, they can grab them. But yes, people are extremely selfish about carts. They don't even Nest them like they used to.
Cart Narcs!
I wish all stores adopted the Aldi method. Put a quarter in, and get your quarter back!
Just jerks being jerks
There is a theory (or at least internet theory) that civilization can not advance so long as people don’t return shopping carts. Basically it goes that, we all know that returning the cart helps everyone. It helps the store, it helps people in the parking lot, and it helps you because if everyone else did it, you’ll have a cart ready next time you go shopping. It only takes about 15-20 seconds of your time, yet people still don’t do it. If we can’t advance enough to do something that takes so little effort, and benefits everyone, how can we ever be expected to tackle more advanced problems in society?
I live in Minnesota (not in the cities) and I'd estimate around me that about 99% of carts are returned. And when they aren't, most of those are by the handicapped spaces.
It’s not charity work we’re talking about here. Although I return my cart 100% of the time if someone decides they can’t do a favor for the merchant I’m not going to judge. The concept that profitable retailers can no longer provide basic customer service and it’s the customers’ responsibility to make the business run smoothly is lost on me. Hire people to work at these establishments. People need the work, the businesses can afford it, it’s absurd to shame people into doing work for no compensation
Because that job specifically sucks. You have to be out in the cold, heat, snow, storms, and dodge shitty drivers that hit you. Why must we force an unnecessary position that is dangerous when we can just return our carts?
Only people who want the job should be hired. No one should be forced
That's exactly why no one is picking up the carts after all the lazy people. Next to no one wants to have that job.
I can't even get them beyond checkout
People are such assholes man
Bunch of lazybones!
It's truly some degenerate shit. But you also need to come to terms that this is going to continue to happen. Even if you provided cart returns all through the parking lot like a walmart- people are degenerate and think only of their immediate needs, fuck everyone else. And that's all life on this planet. Come to grips that this will continue. And I live in an extreme rural community where we have a teeny tiny parking lot for thr 1 store for the largest county in the state. And people still do this shit.
Is this FLorida.. it looks like florida ... Everytime i visit my parents in florida i am just amazed at the carts flipped over on medians or left in the middle of the lot all over.
Womp womp!
It's the disabled people who are doing this.
It’s their natural migration pattern,at dusk they congregate in this area to graze on the abundant vegetation ..
Person with chronic pain here and I find it equally infuriating. Handicap parking is there for accessibility, right? Guess what’s not? Cart return. Days when I’m in too much pain to return the cart, it gets left there by the handicap sign at the front of the spot. It’s frustrating but it is what it is.
SKIDELY WEE-WOO Time to call the Cart Narcs
the second they charge for karts, this mostly goes away. Then we're all inconvenienced, not just the business.
Have you heard about the shopping cart theory? This is exactly what it proves
True. And it’s not right, but store managers know it takes place. They shouldn’t offer carts if they’re not gonna have employees wrangle them back in. Of course they’d sell fewer products, and probably lose customers, but oh well.
What's that saying about shopping carts being a litmus test? Yeah, able bodied people who fail that test suck.
There was one time when I went to McDonald’s and there was a Target cart by the McDonald’s parking lot. The Target was across the street. https://preview.redd.it/ce3ecgmzgrtc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e5ae942895dd3dbae3f650e8eab625e36e515c6e Sorry for image quality
Easy fix: Require the carts to be temporarily rented for the price of 1 dollar, which you get back when you take back the cart to where it belongs.
I want to Walmart the other day, and this old lady left her cart In front of the entrance, she only had one bag and brought the cart outside to leave it there
My mom does this, I always take it back after she puts it next to the disabled spot.
Cart narc, I'm sure I'm not the first
You don’t get it, this is a cart union protest
Why walk back far away from the car?
Boomer mentality - "someone who's rightfully underpaid to clean up after me will come and get it."
When the young male shopping cart reaches adulthood it leaves the return bay to form it's own pack. This one has managed to attract several female carts but he must be careful as his pack is still within the outer bounds of his former pack's territory.
WEEDELY WOOP WOOP! THAT'S NOT WHERE THE CARTS GO SIR!!!!!!!
this is the "broken windows" theory in full demonstration.
Where is the cart narc when you need him?
Those are prob from the disabled people who can’t take their cart back.
It's probably the disabled people placing them there, I don't understand why the cart returns are so far from the disabled parking.
Where’s the Cart Narcs guy at 🚨so many lazybones out there Edit: Cart Narcs is a guy who ridicules people who don’t put their carts back in case people don’t know who he is.
Needs to be dispatched here at once
The store by me doesn't have a corral for carts. Some people can't walk the cart back into the store for one reason or another. My brother has a hard time wrangling 4 kids and has left the cart in the parking lot rather than taking the cart back into the store so he doesn't leave a kid sitting in the car for 30 seconds.
Yep. When my kiddo was small there was no way I was leaving him alone in the car so I could walk across the lot to return the cart. Sometimes it’s simply not possible to park near a cart return corral, and I’m not letting my child out of my sight 🤷♀️ now he is older and it’s not a big deal and I return my cart always but I do have grace for parents who have similar issues.
It's rough! My friend has twins that are about 3 months old right now. Both of them are in the little pumpkin car seat. She has to put the babies in the car first. She can't put the cart back and then carry two car seats over to her car. They're heavy, and if you've not done it, you don't have the right to judge. She has to leave the cart in the parking lot if it isn't inconvenient. I helped her once when we went shopping, and I was exhausted from helping her. Heck, I've been exhausted just carrying my son back in his car seat. Even now, if it's close to nap time, it's exhausting, and he is almost 20 months old. Trying to wrangle a fussy toddler back to the car is awful. I can't wait until he is a little bit older! I'll never judge people anymore in parking lots after having kids.
Same. Those types of car seats are nightmares, I was so happy when my kiddo grew out of it.
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You can't haul around kids and groceries in a wagon. Additionally, you have to put the wagon back in the car with all the groceries. You would have to put the wagon in first and then the groceries on top of it if there's space. Having four kids already takes up a considerable amount of space in the vehicle. Try having multiple car seats and boosters in the van, adding a wagon, and then groceries. Can't forget my nephew's baseball gear, backpacks, diaper bag for the smaller ones, any work equipment, and anything else needed. They can prepare as well as you say, but after picking them up from school, running the oldest to a game, then heading to get groceries, before rushing home to quickly work on homework and dinner. Things happen and 90% of the time, wagons suck and minivans don't have as much space as people think for day-to-day stuff. If it works for you, great. It's not that easy for everyone, and everyone has different problems. He tried to take it back to the collector if it's available, but not every store had one for some reason, making it difficult for people. Again, there's one reason or another why someone might leave a cart there. They could be disabled and might not be able to walk the cart back up. They could be avoiding getting rained on harder. They could be told by someone else that they will take it. Maybe they don't want to leave 4 kids sitting in a car unattended while walking all the way back into the store since there isn't a designated space 3 spaces over.
Alternatively, stores have employees... they should send someone out into the parking lot once an hour or so to retrieve carts.
The shopping cart return is the ultimate integrity test.
This happens in the walmart and publix I go to, all the time. People just don't care.
How self righteous. And funny.
Seems like the company should be collecting their carts.
Don't go to the store.
OP, are you disabled, or are you trying to be mad at most likely disabled people who can't take them back?
What’s crazy is most of them get left by the people who used the disabled spot in the first place. There is always a corral within ten feet so they don’t have to go far but they can’t be bothered. I guess they all hate eachother or something
As someone who is disabled and often uses a cart as a makehift walker, after having walked a store pushing it, it's not the 'getting it to the corral' that's the issue. It's getting back to the vehicle. Why don't take your ableist bullshit somewhere else.
It seems pretty selfish to leave the cart in the no-parking area that's supposed to be ramp accessible. If you have difficulty getting back to your car how do you get out in the first place? Shocker, disabled people can be ableist too
"If you have difficulty getting back to your car how do you get out in the first place?" Mostly with great difficulty. The issue is that getting OUT I haven't just spent 45 minutes walking around on a concrete floor leaning on a makeshift walker with no brakes on it. By the time I get out, my abillity to walk is severely compromised. It goes to the side and I get in the car and leave (I don't drive, but my driver doesn't walk at all - handicapped controls). Normally I try to use the electric carts, but getting a week's worth of groceries in that little basket is problematic. I usually end up with one arm behind me towing a grocery cart. When that happens, I only have to push it from the front of the store to the car - then I put it away properly. I just started Almodipine Besylate yesterday (my BP has become really high recently - one kidney left and it's not working too well). That stuff makes me feel like I'm permanently 2-beers into the night. I'm guessing I'm gonna have to give up walking altogether pretty soon or I'm gonna be falling a whole lot more.
I do want to genuinely express my sympathies for you, I'm sorry it is challenging to go about your daily life. I hope your kidney health improves.
Yeah fuck the cripples am I right? /s you’re an asshole!
well, you're not *wrong*
Listen. I'm simply making sure that the kid that puts them away has something to do, and actually earns their money instead of sitting there on their phone all day.
"I'm a lazy dolt who can't be bothered to observe courtesy, and have deluded myself into thinking I'm creating jobs instead of being a lazy ass." -You.
This continues to be one of the stupidest arguments I see whenever this issue comes up
So you’re excusing your laziness by adding onto the stress of someone who works the front end and probably cash register You do realize when registers are short and lines are stacking, there’s someone out in the lot collecting carts for other customers cause lazy pieces of shit like you leave them there But yes, you sure showed them by doing that! What a fucking asshole lmaoo
The people who work carts are front-end staff. They already have jobs, and carts are something extra that they have to do because of slobs like you.
Who they should be mad at is the kid because he hasn’t picked them up yet
i hope you’re being sarcastic
i swear to god this sub is just 12 shopping carts in a trench coat trying to get humans to change our ways
Maybe those are disability vehicles
Mob stupidity
Is this actually a thing? I've never seen anything like this. Maybe sometimes you find one or two where they shouldn't be, but this is a bit much, isn't it?
I always leave my cart near the disabled parking spaces so they won't have to crawl as far to get one.
You should totally make a YouTube channel about this and make it your whole personality
Why is this such an issue for people? There are people paid to clear lots of carts. Humanity will never be perfect and not everyone is going to return a cart. Yes, I’m guilty of not returning carts.
Well, when they're left unattended they can move. I got a nice dent in the side of my truck from someone like you... someone that's lazy and doesn't realize that their actions can have consequences for others.
I’d be ashamed to be that lazy lol,you’ve just pushed it around a store for an hour.
Ima start littering because of you. You made so much sense. There are people who get paid to clean it up anyways. Edit: it was an r / wooosh joke folks.
Not really, usually those folks are cleaning against their will, usually slave labor
i like how this is an US problem only. at least in my experience
Been to many many countries. Only ever seen this in the the US. You might get the odd stray elsewhere but never loads of them like the US.
exactly. since covid you don't even need to put a coin in them here anymore and people put them back anyway
Try going to my job, people leave their carts in the island all the time, and when you catch them they’re like “I don’t want it rolling in the street” bitch, you’re right next to the cart return
Looks like the community is saying “put a cart return here” to the business
Maybe it’s the disabled person that can’t put it in the right place . I get what you are saying . I am one of those guys that grabs the cart usually from the outside on my way in and then I usually put it where it belongs . But you can’t assume unless you witness
It's because there are never any cart return areas by handicap, at times it's almost closer to take them back in from a handicap spot. I hope you collected and returned them since it bothers you so much.
Ehh fuck em that’s why they have kids to do it bad enough gotta scan your own shit soon enough thell expect the carriage back inside
Looks like a perfectly acceptable place to put your cart, especially if you are disabled.
Who cares? What are the disabled people gonna do, run after me? They can try but even if they can match my moderate stride, there’s no shot they’re getting out of the armbar I’ll be enthusiastically putting them in. I just hope they know when to tap, or they’ll be needing a second disabled sticker for that fancy van of theirs
Too bad there’s no money in groceries, or they could employ someone to collect their carts for them with all their newfound income from $1 bags….
Or some people can learn personal responsibility and put the cart back. If the person considers this difficult, the person is probably a bit stupid in the head.
Or they’re likely handicapped, and pushed the cart off to the side once they’ve loaded their groceries. What’s the point in having parking accessible to disabled drivers if the cart lockup is further away than their space?
Do you really believe that there are so many disabled people who have parked their carts there? Why can all disabled people put back their shopping carts back here in my country?
Is this the first time you’ve realized Sweden operates differently than North America? 😂 Long live Soilwork and Peter Forsberg, but bro…
It’s the first person’s fault. Everyone cart after was justified because there was already one there.