Why not use the European system where you have to use a coin to unlock the cart from the stack. People are more likely to return the cart if it costs them money if they don’t and if they still leave the cart out some kid or hobo will return it eventually.
Where I am people do not trust people and shopping carts are coin operated.
I saw someone leave their cart next to their car and get back in the car. So I grabbed it and put it in the corral a few spaces away. That person drove back through the parking lot to tell me to “mind my own business”. I still get a little schadenfreude about how upset they were over their own conscience and perceived social judgement.
“Be a better person”. Hold onto that one for the next time this happens. It never will though.
“Mind your own business” is such a perfect encapsulation of how completely incapable of self-reflection that person must be.
The cart was no longer their business, but yours. So not only couldn’t they recognise that the judgment they felt came from within, they projected that feeling outwards so hard they ended up sticking their nose into your business about it.
That’s how they avoid learning basic life lessons like, “I should return the cart,” because as soon as they hit the “I should” part they freak out and make it everyone else’s problem.
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Come on. I think we can assume that if someone is physically incapable of putting a shopping cart back, they’re not included in this. But then I do wonder how they were using the shopping cart in the first place.
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This is such a dumb take - doing unpaid labour for corporations is what makes someone a good person? Nah.
That’s a weird take. The shopping part is provided to you for free for your convenience. Not returning the shopping cart means you are creating a nuisance for other people who are coming to the store to get the things that they need. It is blocking parking spots, potentially going to damage somebody’s car, and no longer in a centralized location.
Not returning it is inconsiderate in multiple ways.
I return the shopping cart entirely out of the fact that ai fucking hate it when people leave the cart in the parking space. But yeah if theres a concrete sidewalk or something I may leave it there if the return area is a row of cars away.
The shopping cart theory, as written here, starts as a litmus test for whether a person is capable of self governing and descends into two paths:
- If you do return the cart you are doing it out of the goodness of your heart and because it is correct; and
- If you don’t you are no better than an animal, a savage, who does what is right only because there is a law in place or you are forced to.
Self-governance: Are you a good person or a monster? There is no middle ground.
WRONG there is a third option where i take the cart home and eat it with my teeth 😬
Become ungovernable
