Stop giving away free labour to large grocery stores! They want to merge and jack up prices and somehow we are bad if we don’t bring the carts in so they don’t need to hire someone to do it?
Posting the shopping cart theory because people had questions in a separate thread
Submitted 8 months ago by ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net to greentext@sh.itjust.works
https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/cd631a03-875a-4b93-937d-a72bf664283d.jpeg
Comments
RagingRobot@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 8 months ago
No one said to bring it in. They have corrals in the parking lot where you put them.
DrDickHandler@lemmy.world 8 months ago
This had to be a bad joke. Only a low level trash scum of our society could write something like that unironicly.
Etterra@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Work in a grocery store for a month and tell us again how we should all be jerks in a way that will never impact their corporate bottom line but will absolutely make the workers’ lives harder.
RagingRobot@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I worked at a grocery store before and bringing in the carts is the best part of the job lol
M0oP0o@mander.xyz 8 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…”
Hmmmm, I wonder if this is always true. Maybe somewhere there is someone who does not let such things stand.
Saledovil@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
In Germany, shopping carts typically have a deposit system, where you have to insert an Euro into the cart to use it, which you get back when you return it. So that is basically a build in fine for not returning it.
13esq@lemmy.world 8 months ago
They’ve started doing it in some places in America with quarters and it works. Turns out the price of laziness is 25¢ haha.
calcopiritus@lemmy.world 8 months ago
In Spain we used to have the same system. However it’s been a while since I’ve seen it, most carts still have the euro slot, but they are not chained, so you don’t need to insert a coin.
mods_mum@lemmy.today 8 months ago
This is how it works in all of Europe
Allero@lemmy.today 8 months ago
Some people go as far as to use a tool similar to the one mounted on the front cart to extract their money and still not return the cart they took.
grandkaiser@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The wind howls through the empty parking lot as the dim streetlights flicker above interrupted by the faint screech of an unreturned cart, left abandoned in the cold silence, rolling aimlessly across the asphalt. A masked man steps out of the shadows…
“You think it’s nothing. A small act of carelessness, a moment of laziness. But that cart, left adrift, has a price. A price in scraped cars, twisted ankles, in the chaos that spreads like rot in the hearts of men. You see, I don’t care about your excuses. I don’t care if it’s raining, if you’re in a hurry. Order is what keeps us human. And you… you spit on it with every cart left behind.”
Knuckles crack in the darkness
“I’m the reckoning you never see coming. You think no one’s watching when you shove it into the next spot, but I’m always watching. Every cart out of place, every rule ignored, it leads to something darker, something worse. And that’s where I come in—to stop the small sins before they become something more.”
The masked man takes a step forward, his voice low and gravelly.
“I am Cart Noir, the last line of defense between order and chaos. You think it’s just a cart? It’s never just a cart.”
RegalPotoo@lemmy.world 8 months ago
In Germany (and other parts.od Europe as well to be fair) carts need you to put a coin in them to unchain them from their bay, which you get back when you chain them back up - so yeah, kinda, if you don’t put it back you loose your euro
M0oP0o@mander.xyz 8 months ago
Same in Canada, (I hate that I need a loonie to shop with dignity).
Even so, people still leave their carts around. And really that is even worse.
Ghoelian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Same in the Netherlands, and I pretty much never see stray shopping trolleys anywhere around here. Seems to work really well.
geelgroenebroccoli@feddit.nl 8 months ago
Yeah check out the Cart Narcs on YouTube. Absolutely hilarious content.
hate2bme@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Cart Narcs
Entertainmeonly@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
Third option. I park out by an abandoned cart take it inside and use it. Then, like my mother taught me I put it back where I found it.
Am I an animal? An absolute savage? If I then returned the cart after finding it abandoned, then using it does that make me double good?
Etterra@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Yes you are a savage. Putting it back where you found it is not the correct way to do things. It might have been in the 1970s, I don’t know when cart corrals first showed up because people were too lazy to take it back to the front of the store.
Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I don’t think he puts it back where he found it. It’s not worded well but I’m pretty sure he puts it up (aka “returns”) in the property place when he’s done with it.
Megacomboburrito@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Lawful evil
13esq@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It doesn’t make you an animal or a savage, it makes you at best willfully ignorant.
If your mother taught you that 2+2=3 but later in life ample evidence shows you that 2+2=4, do you change you mind or still insist that your mother knew best?
Your mother’s mindset is called “lowest common denominator”, someone else doing something wrong doesn’t make it OK for you to do.
DrDickHandler@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Still an animal.
Reddfugee42@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I agree that people should put the carts where they go, but this whole “I’m a better human because I put carts back” thing just reeks of unredeemable people scouring their existence for a single redeeming property.
toiletobserver@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Seems legit
aaaaace@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
Animals are far better than people.
Redfox8@mander.xyz 8 months ago
Well the discussion started off ok before ending in a rabies infested rant against humanity! Talk about going off the rails!
Anyhow, many people return the trolley so they don’t look bad/feel guilty. That doesn’t necessarily make them ‘good’ or ‘civilised’ and therefore fit into the ‘being forced’ category through peer pressure. Does that make them ‘animals’ and ‘savages’ too?
figaro@lemdro.id 8 months ago
Here’s the thing - the people who don’t return their shopping carts even know that this is a test. If they did, their behavior would change. If you know about the test, it fundamentally voids the test. And that is what makes it valid. If there is no pressure, what do they do?
Redfox8@mander.xyz 8 months ago
But the ‘test’ is peer pressure, no? Which exists permanently in real life so there will always be a portion of people only returning the cart because of that.
PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Goodharts law in action
Rekorse@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Or you could just not judge strangers who are in a rush.
Soulfulginger@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Maybe not ‘good’ per say but it actually does make them civilized. Regardless of motivation, they are being polite/courteous, which is the definition of being civilized
Redfox8@mander.xyz 8 months ago
I’d argue that doing something because of peer pressure is different to being taught or learning to be considerate, so what looks like considerate behaviour from the outside, may just be e.g. avoidance of guilt/judgement. It doesn’t necessarily equate to being civilized.
Plavatos@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Maybe, but in addition it’s like a social fabric/contract. I don’t want carts everywhere dinging my car up or taking up spaces and because no one else wants that either we all (most of us) tacitly accept to return carts to avoid this problem.
Redfox8@mander.xyz 8 months ago
Ah but is that not peer pressure? You and others don’t want your cars damaged etc and therefore critisise people who leave carts around selfishly. This then creates a scenario where people may feel guilty or wish to avoid said critisism and put the cart away as a result.
I agree that social contracts exist, but only between those who accept them and are willing to make an effort for everyone and anyone. Those that do not return the cart are in effect rejecting that contract.
AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 8 months ago
[deleted]13esq@lemmy.world 8 months ago
If you piss on the toilet seat, do you clean it up (free labour as you call it) or hire a cleaner?
DrDickHandler@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Imagine how dense you have to be to think this way.
Glitch@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Yass and when I’m walking into the store I always offer to take a cart for someone walking theirs back, if such a person is within hailing distance.
repungnant_canary@lemmy.world 8 months ago
This is only true in the US. In Europe if you don’t return the cart you can be sure people will give you looks and think about you as an asshole
fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
People in the US give you a look and think you’re an asshole too.
setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 8 months ago
But America bad.
Bongo_Stryker@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Nope, I don’t buy it.
- An estimated one out of every 500 Americans is homeless
- Unarmed noncombatant civilian women and children are being bombed, shot, and starved to death.
- There has been a nearly 70% reduction in wild vertebrates worldwide since 1970
- The leading cause of death among children and teens in america is firearms
Privileged westerners could do something about these things, but they are sipping their pumpkin spice lattes and congratulating each other for putting their shopping carts back because, you know, it’s the ultimate test of moral righteousness. Ugh.
Shampiss@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
You’re not looking at this correctly. No one congratulates themselves for returning the cart.
The point here is that the simple act of returning the shopping cart is the baseline of ethical behavior. This is just illustrating that society’s individualism is so strong that this simple act of spending 10 seconds to keep the place in order is often ignored.
Of course people that return the shopping cart can be ignorant assholes as well. But the point is that this extremely basic act is severely lacking in society. Therefore we can’t expect, as you said more advanced ethical values. Such as using ones time and energy to make changes to other foreign countries
Bongo_Stryker@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
I mostly posted my rant just to be contrary, but I still feel like there is something erroneous to this argument, even tho you do make it seem clear and sensible.
I offer Japan as an example: the whole country is very neat, tidy and orderly. People know that if you see garbage, or something out of place, you put it where it belongs. People take the personal responsibility to clean up after themselves very seriously, and willingly clean up after eachother. As it was explained to me, 'If you’re the first person to see it, then you are the person to take care of it."
So you would expect this baseline indication of ethical behavior to translate into other domains. Surprisingly, people who as a group score very well on this test of self-regulation and ethical behavior test seem to have a systemic problem with violence, sexual abuse and sexual harassment against women. aljazeera.com/…/sexual-assault-in-japan-every-gir…
It could be that individuals not putting things away is a sign of a deeper societal issue, but group or individual fastidiousness doesn’t seem to generalize to broader ethical adherence.
svcg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
So why haven’t you stopped the bombing?
barsquid@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I’m sure they’ll get around to it right after they finish the eating this next vertebrate.
Bongo_Stryker@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Great question. It turns out protesting doesn’t seem to have that much effect, unless a lot more people participate.
deltapi@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I bet you’re fun at parties.
Bongo_Stryker@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Maybe I deserved that. But come to my house we will play some groovy bongo rhythms and I’m sure you will have a good time.
AgentGrimstone@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I’m going to start recording people not putting their carts away. Endless content for my future channel.
TwitchingCheese@lemmy.world 8 months ago
AgentGrimstone@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Gadammit.
But also: Sweet.
TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 8 months ago
Three type of people.
People who return carts, those who don’t, and those who record it for marginalized ad revenues
joel1974@lemmy.world 8 months ago
[deleted]AlexisFR@jlai.lu 8 months ago
What are you on about?
theonetruejason@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Oh you know, just the standard bad parents using their kids to justify shitty behavior instead of using an obvious solution like locking a car door.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
I… don’t understand. Are their children coming with them for the entire grocery shopping experience, and then just being left completely alone while the parent returns the cart? Could they not just bring the child with them to the cart return?
ReluctantMuskrat@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I think most parents get their kids in the car first because kids hanging around in the parking lot with cars pulling in and out is hazardous and kids can be don’t. Hard to keep an eye on them while you’re unloading things so you put them in first. Then of course if it’s warm out the car is hot and kids will be complaining so the parent starts the car to get the AC going while they secure the kids and then unload the groceries. Once done of course they have to decide… walk away from the running car with your kids inside and put the cart away, or not. I can understand why sometimes they dont.
clara@feddit.uk 8 months ago
other than dire emergencies
if you got to ditch the cart for safety, that’s fine
fuzzzerd@programming.dev 8 months ago
Agreed completely, yet the amount of carts not returned in just about any parking lot indicates most people aren’t playing by this logic.
hex@programming.dev 8 months ago
I like how it’s just women who are worried about their kids being kidnapped.
Snapz@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Wrong. The correct act is to put the cart out of the way of others, but not in the corral.
You then help provide a job to a person that capitalism wants to take away. They want your free labor. And then they provide less and less corals to save those extra pennies, knowing that you’ll walk. Fuck them.
BackOnMyBS@lemmy.autism.place 8 months ago
I think it’s similar to weights in a gym. Leaving them on the barbell is a jerk move. Returning them to their correct staging location is the ethically correct thing to do. Whenever I see them left on the barbell, I imagine a fantasy where the person has a team of horn players follow them around and play for them to announce their superiority.
desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
counter argument: it is someone else’s job to put the cart away.
Alpha71@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Hey, I have asthma and there have been days where I’ve barely had enough energy to make it back to my car let alone put a cart back. Not everybody is having the same day you are.
Kedly@lemm.ee 8 months ago
Look man, you can occasionally be selfish or lazy without immediately being an absolute drain on society. Is not putting the cart back ultimately a dick move? Yeah, but its also an incredibly minor dick move, and maybe I’ve already used up all of my fucks for the day.
Microplasticbrain@lemm.ee 8 months ago
People always crow about this shit, “oh the poor workers having to retrieve carts”,“oh its so bad and lazy”, and then you point out that some workers like the time they get to spend outside walking and suddenly under the scooby do mask its just some guy that doesn’t want his car dinged by rogue carts.
chaosppe@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Depends on your beliefs. There are people who believe in being judged for every action by an almighty force or being, so it’s probably not absolutely perfect. I might be smitten in my next life for it.
DarkSirrush@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Costco is the only place I don’t always return carts, since around here the cart returns can get very far away, but curbs you can tuck them away on are everywhere. That, and they have staff just for gathering carts constantly.
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 8 months ago
In the UK you have to put a £1 coin in to unlock it. Whenever you return the trolley back, it gives you the coin back
WorldwideCommunity@lemm.ee 8 months ago
TIL I’m mostly a good person but sometimes I am also no better than an animal and an absolute savage who will only do right when threatened. Interesting. Another thing is that I’m grateful for other savages who don’t put their carts back cause I don’t have to walk so far to get a cart.
Zozano@lemy.lol 8 months ago
This got me thinking, what is a “true neural” position.
Finding another cart which isn’t returned, and adding yours to it.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
aaaaace@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
I return mine because its an opportunity to get more steps in.
After taking it outside boundaries so a wheel locks up.
Look at tge people returning them in the lot, mostly fat and/or wealthy.
nutsack@lemmy.world 8 months ago
society made me like this
Avenging5@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
In my country we have dedicated people in the parking who literally follow you, can even push and collect the cart from you.
inbeesee@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Typically parking lots are filled with cars, and I need to drive between the parked cars. If a cart is in the way it makes it harder for me to leave, just saying
Grass@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
nah fuck that shit. there are staff paid to do it and if the store can’t afford that staff they are fucking lying. they have earned this with the price fixing and gouging and I’m not giving them any more of my time than absolutely necessary.
Soulfulginger@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Well, guess we know what kind of society member you are
Grass@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
And a bunch of people here seem to adamamtly judge people with idiotic metrics based on nothing.
I’d be willing to bet up to $2k, more if I had it, that more than half of the serial killers that went quiet before being caught put their carts away and actually chained them in properly too.
If it’s left maliciously in a genuinely bullshit spot, then sure. If it’s placed in a way that doesn’t block anything or hit someones car then I really don’t see the problem. When I worked the grocery store it was literally the easiest task. Chain a few carts together, put them in the shed, repeat, easy. It was a fucking nightmare when I had to break apart the chain of carts spanning the entire lot and balance them without hitting any cars or getting hit by a car, which actually happened to a couple of the other workers.
And let’s not forget the anti mask/vax losers that harassed other shoppers. They put their carts away, and not only that they stuck around if someone wearing a mask approached and didn’t let them take the cart. The walmart and similar store memes are not only a real, but a regular occurance and much worse and more irritating when you work at a store.
JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Every fucking time
There’s always one
TriflingToad@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I work at a grocery store and get paid $13 an hour to bring them back inside. With my experience being shown to you, I hope this expression can have some more effect as to further express my perseption of your actions.
Fuck. You.
PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
I never considered the counter argument: Americans are too stupid to operate shopping carts 😱
Apparently there is some validity to that.
But assuming basic human competency that the rest of the world casually exhibits, successfully putting your shopping cart back is a mark of common decency and failure to do so is either a moral failing or a sign that the person should absolutely NOT be allowed to drive