why cant people return their damn carts?
 

go to any parking lot of a large store with carts, there are carts strewn all over. why the fuck can't people put the damn carts back? often there are carts mere feet from the cart return place. in addition to carts taking up parking spaces and running into cars, it bothers me on another level.

you might think its a small thing, and in the overall picture, it is. but it's indicative of a larger problem, part of the reason we are sucking as a country. there is this laziness, this "the world revolves around me" attitude, this lack of personal responsibility, this lack of sense of community.

really, it bothers me. not cause there are carts everywhere, but because it shows the selfishness and lack of regard for others.

it's the small things that show the big picture, i think.

Indeed. I walk across the damn parking lot to put the cart away. Apparently, this is weird to some people.

Just securing employment, man....

Seriously, I am an offender. You're right, for the most part, I'm just lazy. It also has to do with the social anxiety I experience in parking lots, though. Usually, I'm not a socially anxious person at all, but there is just something about a parking lot that sets me on edge and makes me feel judged.

It's pretty weird actually...

I like putting my cart back. It's satisfying to slam it into the other carts.

Unless I'm parked right up close to the store or buggy home area thing, I'm also guilty. Strange how you mention parking lot anxiety. I'm not sure if that's necessarily my issue, but whenever I'm leaving the grocery store, I rush really fast. Like I MUST get home immediately. So I just leave the cart wherever.

But I realized if I just go ahead and let the bag person walk me to my car instead of me taking the stuff by myself, the cart is put away where it belongs. Easy enough solution.

I always used to return my cart, now I just dont give a rats ass since I'm tired of having to move carts out of my parking spots, that and the economy sucks so they can hire more cart rats.

I am pretty sure people are paid to go get the carts... are you saying that you want these cart wranglers laid off because of your inability to grasp that putting a cart in a little stall is a pretty small gesture in the grand scheme of things?

If there is a cart carriage within a few spaces, I'll return it to that, but I'm not walking that cart all the way back to the inside of the store, then walking back out to my car.

I'm also lazy.

I'm the bastard who rounds up three of 'em and returns them to their rightful place.

The rest of you lazy bastards better not let me catch you doing that nonsense.

Leaving the cart. Parking lot anxiety. Hogwash! It's pure laziness.

If one dents my little $Xk car, I'm going to be all wrath-of-god.

I didn't think this thing was still widely spread?
Over here, almost ALL shops have carts that require you to put a coin in to release the catch.
Which means if you want the coin back, you have to bring the cart back and secure it.

Seems like a small cost/big reward idea that I figured most stores would have taken up by now...


And yes, it's mostly laziness that it doesn't get put back. Especially if you're doing the shopping all alone. If there's 2 of you, it's more convenient, 1 drives the car, the other puts the cart back.
I doubt that's why you suck as a nation though ;)

one of my major pet peeves is people that dont put carts where they go and god help you if I come out of a store and find you in the space next to me getting in your car after having left your cart beside MY car

grrrr

I like to take the carts out of the return and take them all the way to the end of the parking lot and separate them and tip them all over. :rolleyes::thumbsup: jk, of course.

What Charlatan said.

This is one of my pet peeves too. I lasso all of the free-roaming bitches up like someone else said in this thread and put them all in the designated area. It's just pure laziness not to return them, no other excuse.

It is an actual issue because the carts roll into people's cars, or block empty spaces from being taken.

If I see someone leave one stranded, I walk up to it before they have left their parking space and grab it and return it to the receptacle to show them how responsible citizens function.

How could someone be so irresponsible to leave the cart in the lot? You do know that a cart can roll into a car and cause hundreds (sometimes a thousand) dollars worth of damage because of your laziness, right? Guess what, lazy people: if you ever leave a cart in the lot without putting it in its holding area, everyone around you (and I do mean everyone) is staring at you and commenting on how fucking lazy you are. Get a grip.

Yes! I used to be one of those guys who got paid to walk around wrangling carts for your lazy asses. I actually didn't mind it that much, it was kind of relaxing. Good summer job for a teenager who didn't want to do anything anyway.

On a more angry note, I recently had a cart pushed into my new car, leaving a nice ugly dent. I always return my carts. Why wouldn't you want to, anyway? I use it as an excuse to jump on and ride carts around because I'm really only ~5 years old.

Yes...yes. Riding carts rules.

QFT +1

I don't mind when people put them off to the side by islands or structures so they don't roll but leaving them astray in the middle of the parking lot is just downright inconsiderate.

I haven't looked at shopping carts the same since I bought The Stray Shopping Carts Of Eastern North America by Julian Montague.

First reaction: Yeah, bastards! Why cann't you punks put the shopping cart back into the holding area? GO BACK TO YOUR HOME, SHOPPING KARDT.

Second reaction: Why can't kids stay off my lawn?

Some days I am the Heroic Magnanimous Returner of all
the lost stray carts,

Other times, the cart is my cane, a crutch to lean on.
If the snow is deep enough and has turned into
that slippery powdered sugar consistency,
I'll abandon the cart.

I know how to hobble carts.

having been one of the guys who rounds them up and cattles drives them home, it's fucking annoying when people leave them all over the place (at times it's like some actually go out of their way to hide them).

Unfortunatly that idea has become internalised and i have to try very hard to stop myself going round supermarket carparks herding trollies after going shopping.

I always put mine back. Though i'm starting to consider the idea of watching for people who don't put theirs back and running it over and dropping it right behind their car when they are not looking and running away.... Maybe I should leave a nice little note on it to that says "Thanks you for putting your cart away so cars do not get damaged by stray carts".

If there is no cart corral near by, I at least hook a front wheel into landscaping so that it doesn't go rampaging around and damage vehicles. I'm not going out of my way to reduce some minimum wager's job security.

One of my top 5 pet peeves.

This is just going to be from my heart to those who leave cards scattered about, or next to other cars.

You are a lazy fucking douche bag who needs to have their car smashed in with the same cart that you are leaving. What self important task do you have that you cannot spare 20 seconds of your life to put a cart back???? Think about it, you leave that cart there and if its windy, the cart will roll away. Likely smashing into another persons car, a car paid for with hard earned dollars.

There seriously needs to be a liability for carts, hold a deposit of $5 on a card. Not a quarter, that's enough to ignore.

Fucking hate, hate hate hate those lazy bastards..

-


+1 To that sir!
--


Thanks, I feel better now. :)

No wonder most the world is overweight if it's such a struggle to push a cart a few extra metres and then walk back to your car. God forbid people should burn an extra calorie or three.

I put my cart back so that other folks don't damage their vehicles because I left a cart in a random area. A little personal respsonsibility is not a bad thing and it's not hard to do.

I almost always put the cart back. It's lazy and selfish not to.

I also used to push carts at Sam's Club in Phoenix during the summer back before those pussies had motorized cart pushers.

There is only one greater parking lot sin then leaving your shopping cart laying around: parking in a handicap spot when you don't have/need a handicap tag.


The level of laziness involved in both of these actions should be embarrassing to the violator.

What about those lazy bastards who park right up on the front side-walk zone. The clearly marked no parking, fire lane, zones...

Depending on the day, and my mood, if they park there in front of me while driving. I don't go around them, pull right up as if I wasn't aware of what they were doing. Wait a few seconds, then honk the horn for a good enough time to embarrass them. (I'm aware my self as well, but the overall goal has been met. ) :thumbsup:

Around this town, it's rare to see a free-floating cart. Most people, including my SO and I, put their carts back. It's also not uncommon for someone to offer to take your cart back with their cart, or for someone heading into the store to shop to offer to take it as their cart. Hooray for living where people are nice!

I try to park right next to the cart return, so that I don't have to go searching after I unload the groceries. When my son was younger, I really didn't want to leave him alone in the car to travel 10 spots down to return the cart, so I picked this parking method.

Please do not do this.
Some things are best left as fantasy.


I witnessed a near tragedy, when a hurried harried sort,
backed out quickly, and sent the cart hurtling towards
the two toddlers, that he did not take the time to see, behind his vehicle, either.

This is the weirdest dichotomy I've come to learn from reading this thread.

According to the accounted majority here, we're all bastards as soon as we step onto the painted parking pavement. As to which type, depends upon our thinking pattern and subsequent actions ruled by them.

We either maintain a nature of oblivion to those around us and after us, causing us to single-track our assertion that "we" have no further obligation to anyone else, for there are those whose entire description is to complete the task we left abandoned, and we are free to drive off to conquer more chores to the day.

Conversely, there is another side to us that push and play upon the grounds. We mosey and round up the stray carts as modern-day cowboys are wont to do, and disparage the usual civil folk for their ineptitude to complete the ritual of the "shop cart routine".

Lazy bastards and industrious bastards, the entire lot of us, it would seem.

After reading through this thread, I've realized I'm actually quite the parking lot douchebag...

Aside from the whole cart thing (though I do always prop the cart on something nearby so it doesn't move), I also have been known to park the car in the "No Parking" zone and wait in it while whoever I'm with goes in, my old car had a fake handicap sticker on it, and I park in senior citizen and expecting mother spots.

Perhaps that's why I have parking lot anxiety. Subconsciously, I know everybody's looking at me thinking "What a lazy douche!"...

punk..tell em you have a bit missing from your ear, and that its your diability because you cant hear from it properly.


me. i return my carts...especially if i put money into it. sometimes i feel generous and leave it so one of the low paid indian labourers can be content with the US quarter they just made. they have to work almost half an hour for that, so its nice giving back sometimes

I always put my cart back but I always get within 10 feet of the cart holding area and roll it as hard as I can and see if I can get it to "enter" the other cart in front of it. Like in pool I like to see if I can make one or more at the same time.

Before anyone yells about dents on cars or me acting like I'm 5, I always do this when there are no other cars around it. Or I will use the one at the back of the lot with no cars around it. I use that as an excuse to ride around on the back of the cart in the parking lot.

What really bothers me is the (excuse my language) cunts who take a trolley (cart in american) to the basket only checkout.

If ANY person does that in my opinion they should be tarred and feathered and thrown out of the store.

Basket only checkout like a speedy checkout? Basket = less items = speedy (Like our 12 items or less lanes)

Yes, the express checkout which is only for people with a basket rather than a shopping cart (or sometimes x number of items)

Sometimes I ask people (politely) if they noticed it was a basket only lane, some people apologise and go to another lane, but many dont.

If someone refuses, my voice goes grey on them and in me

"Taking me for a cunt would be the worst mistake you ever made in your life" I say

As they hesitate I pick up a garden rake and ask

"How about I smash this rake into your face so hard that you'll have to wear a scarf for the rest of your life?"

Then they leave the basket only lane normally

__

(the last part is a fantasy...)

I admit at times if I am far from one of the return spots I leave it, but then again when I park there I hope someone else left one so I would not have to find a cart. My wife however does not let me get away with this when I am with her (unless she is not looking shhh).