You return your cart because it’s the right thing to do
I return my cart because it gives me a sense of superiority
We are not the same
Posting the shopping cart theory because people had questions in a separate thread
Submitted 2 months ago by ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net to greentext@sh.itjust.works
https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/cd631a03-875a-4b93-937d-a72bf664283d.jpeg
Comments
CptEnder@lemmy.world 2 months ago
isolatedscotch@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
You return your cart because it’s the right thing to do
I return my cart to get my euro back that I put in to unlock it
ByteJunk@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Mr fancy pants here with full euro coins.
I treasure my red plastic €0.50 coin replica more than my life.
meliante@lemmy.world 2 months ago
You guys still do that?
conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I straighten them because they annoy me lol.
stebo02@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
what I don’t get is when there’s multiple rows of carts, people often put their cart in the row that is already the longest, instead of putting it in the shortest one to balance it out
IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
No one will punish you for not returning the cart
My opinion on this is reason number 8735 why I will never, and should never, be in charge of a country.
TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I too have thousands of reasons why I shouldn’t be in charge of a country, however I do have one good pitch.
My appointment to dictatorship would be guided solely by autism. I guarantee my powers will only be focused upon my two fixations that deal with the general public, trains and healthcare.
If made supreme leader I will not only make the trains run on time, there will be more trains, more hospitals, we would even have trains that can take you to your job at the hospital. I would shape the perfect world for me, and vicariously a more efficient and safer world for you.
Demand Me for dictator 2024
trainbasedeconomy
#nogodsnomasters-onlytrains
Omgpwnies@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Why not put the hospital in the train? Instead of taking the train to the hospital, the hospital comes to you
UrPartnerInCrime@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I just wanted to say “Demand Me for dictator 2024” made me chuckle and you have my pledge
GroundedGator@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’d vote for you.
Ninjasftw@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I often think about how much better the world/ my local area would be if I was allowed to taser people at will for things like that. 😀
SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
Don’t be a lazybones folks!
No1@aussie.zone 2 months ago
🚨🚨🚨Woo, woo, woo! Skiddly-deet!🚨🚨🚨
SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
That’s not where the carts go
ashok36@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I hate this guy. Call people out, sure, but keep your stupid magnets off my car.
The stores don’t give a shit. The customers don’t give a shit. The only one that gives a shit is this guy and his followers. Also, he’s a fucking creep. Watch his video where he went to Australia and followed a pair of women to their house to shame them for walking their cart to the house.
13esq@lemmy.world 2 months ago
He fucking hilarious and you’re a suspected lazybones.
Empricorn@feddit.nl 2 months ago
It’s telling that you side with (what is almost always) the giant billions-dollar corporation and don’t even mention the worker who is probably already being exploited. That’s who cares. That’s who gets extra work, especially out in the cold/rain/wind/snow/hail, with no extra pay.
In line with the original post you’re you’re right: no one will fight for them and no one will fine or arrest you, but don’t pretend people’s selfish laziness impacts no one…
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 2 months ago
Put your trolley away and he won’t magnet your car
JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world 2 months ago
My favorite part about when this gets posted is that there is always someone trying to justify not putting the shopping cart back.
pemptago@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Okay, at the risk of down votes, I’ll take the bait.
My first job was more than 3 years of collecting carts. In that time it’s easy to see patterns like where carts often end up. Some are left out in the open, near a slope where the slightest breeze will animate it. Others pushed up on the sidewalk to the side of the store where there’s not much traffic and they just pile up. And others still will be left along a common walking path, not blocking the path, secure but not stuck.
Those last ones often take care of themselves because so many people walk along that path, it’s trivial to grab it on your way in, and it’s faster than pulling a cart backwards out of the entryway where they’re stored.
Years later, I’m picking up something for my nephew’s birthday party. I park the car. There’s a cart in the position mentioned above: on my way, not blocking anyone, secure but easy to grab. So I grab it, walk inside, do my shopping, come out, unload it. Nearest return is back inside the store, or I can put it back where I found it securely, along the way, but out of the way. I choose the latter. Before I even get in my car someone has grabbed the cart on their way in.
I fail to see the problem. However, the person who grabbed the cart was talking loudly to her grandchild so I could hear, “his legs must be broken since he can’t put the cart back” 😤
TL;DR In a post about returning your carts, a job which I had for over 3 years, the most obnoxious person I encountered was not someone who put their cart in the wrong place, but a passive-aggressive, self-righteous, loudmouth who was so narrow minded they couldn’t see there are spots carts can be left that save both parties time and create no additional work, even as she benefitted.
MeatsOfRage@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I was also a cart pusher for 3 or 4 years. It wasn’t my only task most of the time I was actually in the store bagging groceries. I loved cart pickup. It meant I could walk around the store parking lot, grab some fresh air and listen to some music. It was a cool little escape from the monotonous in store work and no one was really keeping an eye on me out there so I could take a little extra time.
I’m not weighing in on whether people should leave their carts out just adding some perspective that gathering them up wasn’t like this huge added labor, quite the opposite. If I wasn’t gathering carts I would’ve just been assigned to something much less enjoyable.
hswolf@lemmy.world 2 months ago
While the moment mentioned doesn’t present any immediate problems, it opens up the “well since he put the cart wherever he wanted I can do the same” mindset, we humans learn by example, not all people will stop and acknowledge where and why they are leaving the cart there, they will just do by convenience, we are built this way.
Putting the cart in the correct place is a social agreement, that forgo the convenience of a few to give it to the most.
Imagime if literally all carts were everywhere on the parking lot (an extreme), it would be utter chaos and make massive inconveniences (like people having to remove it from a parking spot to park their car).
The silver lining is, not all conveniences work in all scales.
LordKitsuna@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Honestly for me it’s about was the lot designed by an idiot. Large stores like Walmart and home depot are the worst offenders. If I need to park in the far out of reaches of the lot there’s never any fucking cart returns there.
All of them are grouped up right near the fucking front of the store where it’s least needed, and then there’s nothing at the outer edges. I make sure my cart is somewhere it will not move even in strong wind, but the designers of the parking lot can go fuck themselves for not putting a cart return stall at the outer edges where it makes sense in those massive lots.
Other stores like WinCo and costco seem to have this figured out. Cart returns at regular intervals across the entire parking lot. So no excuse not to return there
AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Or using disabled people as a shield for their (able bodied) poor behavior
areyouevenreal@lemm.ee 2 months ago
For me it was literally the top comment
MeDuViNoX@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
The second one is especially triggering since the parking lot seems otherwise empty. Like they just did it as a weird flex or something.
bitwolf@lemmy.one 2 months ago
Now we know where all the carts should go
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
How did they go out of the car?
gingernate@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Trunk maybe?
ASDraptor@lemmy.autism.place 2 months ago
Flawed. Here, you must insert a coin (or if you have it, a token with the shape of the coin) that will only be returned after you put the cart in the correct place.
So you actually lose something if you don’t return the cart.
grue@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That doesn’t mean the concept is flawed; it just means those businesses were smart enough to put in countermeasures against bad people.
bstix@feddit.dk 2 months ago
It also means that the people who do leave the shopping cart in places without the deposit are the kind of cheapskates who can be bought for a euro. They’re only neutral evil.
True chaotic evil assholes would pay the deposit on several carts only to leave them.
shalafi@lemmy.world 2 months ago
They do this so they don’t have to pay staff to return carts, one of many reasons Aldi is so cheap.
arin@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That means there were enough bad people that businesses wanted to purchase a lock token system at the expense of convenience of customers and overhead costs of their businesses
espentan@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Mhm. That said, only a few places around where I live have “coin operated” carts. I guess the places that do have them got tired of the selfish, inconsiderate sobs who didn’t return the carts.
To me it feels so utterly strange to just dump a cart in the middle of a parking lot and, seemingly, think nothing of it.
GroundedGator@lemmy.world 2 months ago
In the US Aldi requires a quarter. Depending on the area, there are absolutely people who will give up their 25 cents to not walk their lazy ass to return the cart.
Florida is full of inconsiderate selfish assholes.
HairyHarry@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Flawed. Here, you must insert a coin (or if you have it, a token with the shape of the coin) that will only be returned after you put the cart in the correct place.
I present you mankinds greatest invention: Image
Banichan@dormi.zone 2 months ago
What, you gonna knock back some brews?
cmder@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Where I shop there is the token system but you just have to ask the security agent to get a free token. So there is no need to return your cart because you can get a free token each time you got to the store.
andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Seing guides and fake coins to trick it was pretty depressing.
snooggums@midwest.social 2 months ago
That sounds like more work than just putting the cart back…
li10@feddit.uk 2 months ago
That’s common in England, but a lot of larger shops don’t bother with that system.
Hjalamanger@feddit.nu 2 months ago
It’s the opposite here in Sweden, in some larger supermarkets you did need a coin but in no smaller shops
Anyways that’s all gone now since no one carries coins anymore
ThoranTW@lemmy.world 2 months ago
As a combination cart pusher and cleaner for a supermarket, absolutely fuck anyone that doesn’t return their cart or worse, throws it into a gardenbed
AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’ve always told my family I like to build up “cart karma.” You get karma by bringing a cart in with you from the parking lot, or returning the one you use after. You lose karma by leaving your cart in the parking lot. Even if I’m going in for a single item, I’ll take a cart in from the parking lot with me and leave it in the rack by the store.
I don’t really care about cart karma, it’s just a way of saying that it seems like the nice thing to do.
whome@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
That goes for everything you can return but don’t have to. You can throw your trash away after the movie, you don’t have to leave it in the theatre.
CaptKoala@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
I take other people’s trolleys back on my way because I’m not a piece of shit.
Frog@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
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 by returning the shopping cart.
Cart Narcs. Those guys are fucking crazy. They were doing their thing in Texas. I’ve read stories of idiots pulling out guns for less.
oneofmany@lemmy.world 2 months ago
BUT! What if the parking lot is four miles long and there are no cart returns anywhere and you’re tired because you’ve been working 20 hour days with no time off and it’s 140 degrees outside and the grocery store is exploiting their workers and you haven’t eaten in days and you have a disability and the carts are coin operated and this is literally the only way to solve the unemployment crisis? WHAT THEN??
Samsy@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Murica, fucked up because of shopping carts. In germany you have to put money in the cart, and get it back while bringing the cart back to where it is from. Problem solved.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 months ago
I’ll do you one further. It is morally correct to take a cart from the parking lot to use in the store rather than grab one from inside the store.
SSJMarx@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I’m a fan of the Capitalist Realist Shopping Cart Theory, myself.
Putting shopping carts away is bad for society and you should stop doing it.
The reason is that putting a shopping cart away requires labor, labor requires a person to do it, and the person who has to do it is employed by the grocery store.
Thus, if enough people refuse to put their shopping carts back, enough excess labor will be generated at grocery stores around the country that they will be forced to hire more people to do it, creating jobs.
QED
SmoothLiquidation@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I would add scooping dog shit is another test. There are people out there who will bag the shit and then leave the bag on the ground for the poop to steam in for a few days before they put another bag right next to it to keep it company.
halvar@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Don’t know about you people, but here in Hungary (Eastern-Europe) I haven’t ever seen a cart not returned at least as far as I remember.
TheImpressiveX@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
To shop is human. To return is divine.
Aeri@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I uh, avoid taking a cart, because I have a big ass reusable shopping bag. I’m not sure where that leaves me.
Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’ve gone out of my way multiple times to put up multiple cats that were blocking parking spaces, including handicap spaces. While the handicap ones make it seem like the person is an extra asshole, I wonder if it’s the handicap person that leaves it there and it just moves into the space. There’s are very few stores that put a corral by handicap spaces.
another_kbin_addict@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Likewise if you’re a smoker - you should go directly to jail.
UnrepententProcrastinator@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Around here there are definitely consequences in the form of pesky looks and headshakes. Well at least coming from me.
echodot@feddit.uk 2 months ago
I was bored this was going to be a comment about what I put in my shopping cart.
But I can tell I’m an individual of extreme self-discipline because after I filled my shopping cart with chocolate and vodka I return it to the carousel.
Everyone praised me.
OmegaMouse@pawb.social 2 months ago
Interesting idea… Is human morality (in situations where no punishment exists) a result of the societies we live in and our societal expectations, our upbringing, or is there some inherent morality (guilt from doing something bad, or satisfaction from doing the right thing) within most people?
Whilst I do live somewhere that has trolleys with coins, sometimes you get one that is damaged and doesn’t require a coin. Yet I still return those ones, because why wouldn’t I? It only takes a minute.
ikidd@lemmy.world 2 months ago
What if you take them home to burn leaves in?
recently_Coco@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
Another possibility is that people that don’t return the cart may not be having their needs met. A person who is tired after walking across the hot parking lot may not return it out of a desire to maintain a modicum of health. Or, perhaps, they may not think about it because their cognition is temporarily hindered by hunger, exhaustion, or some other carnal need.
On Maslow’s hierarchy, I’d say if a person meets all of their physiological and safety needs they are more likely to return the cart than those who do not.
gandalf_der_12te@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
Plot twist: I don’t use a shopping cart. (I always use the textile shopping bag that I bring from home.)
_lilith@lemmy.world 2 months ago
hmm no this seems wrong. If the parking lot is a mile long and there are no cart returns it makes me a bad person if I rack the carts in a line with all the others in the boonies? If you are getting abandoned carts its probably because you don’t have enough cart returns, not because people are bad
floofloof@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
If you scatter carts in random places the supermarket has to employ someone to collect them. So you are a job creator^TM^. This is why I never return my cart, and also why I jump on cartons of milk in the dairy aisle and take a dump in the broccoli.
RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 2 months ago
People who actually think this are using it as an excuse for their bad manners.
The person employed by the supermarket to gather carts is not employed to return your cart to the cart return near your vehicle. They are employed to gather the carts from the cart return near your vehicle and bring them back to the store building’s cart return.
By doing this, you do not create more jobs (as the cart return employee position already exists whether you return your cart or not), you create more work for an already probably underpaid employee and you also increase everyone’s autoinsurance because when the wind blows the carts damage other people’s vehicles.
floofloof@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
OK, you got me, I actually always return my cart and seldom shit in the broccoli.
someguy3@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It’s the same person that makes a mess and thinks “it’s the janitor’s job”.
Bacano@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I definitely have the unpopular opinion of disagreeing. As much as I’d like to employ manners with my grocery store, if there’s no corral within a 30 second walk from me, I don’t put the cart back. Most of my purchases are under 8 items and I usually don’t use a cart so I just carry everything by hand in the store and out.
My grocery store doesn’t care about manners on their end. It treats me like an economic unit and even makes self checkout the most reasonable option. They’d have me clean the floors as part of the checkout if they could. From a utilitarian perspective, it makes more sense for one person to gather all the carts in a batch rather than each individual going back for their individual cart.
The insurance rates thing is a legitimate point ( insurance is a racket, though. Fuck those guys too)
SSJMarx@lemm.ee 2 months ago
But there’s only a certain amount of labor a fixed number of employees can absorb. Imagine a scenario where everyone everywhere agrees to stop returning shopping carts - grocery store employees would be forced to spend their entire shift just corralling them, and then they wouldn’t be able to man the cash registers or stock the shelves or whatever else, thus forcing the store to hire another employee on each shift to be the dedicated shopping cart return person.
Logically, every store everywhere tries to run with the minimum number of people possible to keep costs down. The idea is to create a situation where that minimum number of people is increased.
bstix@feddit.dk 2 months ago
That explains Elon Musk. He’s a job creator, right? Destroyer of everything.
Bricriu@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg
stebo02@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
he only creates jobs by firing entire departments at once
Halliphax@lemmy.world 2 months ago
He’s single-handedly keeping loads of nannies and Ketamine dealers in a job so there’s that.
yamanii@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Reminds me of teens saying that janitors are paid to clean so what’s the issue with throwing trash on the floor?
smeenz@lemmy.nz 2 months ago
I can’t wait for Google’s AI to index your comment.
BugleFingers@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Whenever I return to my vehicle, if I do not have a shopping cart with me, I’ll find one someone didn’t return and return it for them.
Fear me, I am your antithesis
blazeknave@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Nice thing about working class parents… when you’re a kid and think “but it’s someone’s job, they get paid to do it,” they will teach you that it has nothing to do with making more work for someone.
paddirn@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I actually use this rationale for why I don’t use the self-checkout lanes. Why should I do the work for the grocery store that they should be paying somebody else to do?
ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
My local supermarket added 8 self checkout machines, and removed almost all the cashier lanes.
For a year, they pushed everyone towards the self checkout. Every… Body. Old people were clogging up the Customer Service section because they want a human. The machines constantly failed to scan, and people would just shrug and pretend like it did.
The deviants started to realize it’s super easy to steal, as they can just pay for 1/10 of their groceries and “forget” to scan a lot of things. They started to lock up a lot of merchandise, and you need a human to unlock it.
So now they have hired security guards to then scan receipts, as well as follow people in the parking lots.
The whole supermarket is kind of a shit show. I counted 5 security guards to 2 workers when I was last there. I also do my shopping elsewhere.
zeekaran@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
Because it’s faster?
Kongar@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
The anger over this always amuses me (I put my cart back in the corral btw). But there was a time in the very recent past, where there was no such thing as a cart corral. You simply left your cart in the lot and an employee was paid to fetch them (I also used to do this job as a kid - it was a great job).
marzhall@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I did this as a kid at a place with cart corrals. Because, y’know, someone still needs to move them from the corrals to the front.
idunnololz@lemmy.world 2 months ago
So based.
Crashumbc@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I immediately thought of the scene in The 5th Element. Lol