Stranger danger! Seriously though, no one wants your kids.
I live in Silicon Valley. Both the Whole Foods and the Trader Joe’s have tons of carts in the parking lot, all the time. Neither of these is what I would call a low-cost store, nor a low cost of living area. People are just lazy, or maybe in this case entitled.
Not to be a dick but if you can’t leave your kids alone for the 38 seconds it takes to return a cart to a corral then you have bigger problems in life.
If you don’t want to use the cart, don’t use it.
I don’t understand how you using a cart and then failing to return it, is somehow the store’s responsibility.
It’s unfortunately quite difficult to convince those that benefit, or think they might benefit, that this is the case.
Not to be a dick. But it you leave a toddler or infant alone in a car for more than 10 seconds you probably should have your parental rights revoked.
it wasn’t this guy, was it?
Seriously? And we wonder why kids have self esteem issues
In which case I revert to “social attitudes” which are of course far, far less geographically specific. 
I’m just happy this thread led me to discover this:
Hey, I get it. You see the world your way, and you want everyone else to see it that way too. If only everyone did things the way we want, the world would be perfect!
It’s just a shame there are valid reasons people need to leave the cart behind–or do anything else different from us: It makes it so much harder to be judgmental.
That’s what I interpreted @Lot_49’s tone to be. Maybe I’m overly optimistic, most likely I am being, given the general public (and this forum) attitude toward soc. I do lament that this kind of (actually probably technically social psychology) fluff is the only thing that makes it to the press under the banner of sociology. All the hard, gritty work that underlies poverty, religion, homelessness and race relations study get hidden behind another title, or ignored completely. 
You right-ish. Before cart receptacles outside you drove up and someone loaded your car if you had more than a couple of bags to carry (or even if you only had one bag). At least that’s how all the local grocery places did it before the chains moved in during the 80’s.
WOW. I guess you’ve never had a child that could take control of a vehicle in 10 seconds. What did you do to limit your posterity or their potential?
I recall my first official taxes deducted job was a bag boy at a local supermarket. My duties were: clean the bathrooms and store. Stock shelves. Recieve shipments and store them properly. Bagging groceries. And OFC…carriage round up.
Parking lots today can be much larger and more dangerous with larger volumes of people moving through your. So I appreciate for the safety of the associate who has to round up carts that there are carriage bins for customers to leave the cart at. Smart and makes sense. Even if it takes up prime parking real estate at times.
In the end I do not think it’s a sign that someone is a heathen or savage and horrid human being because they do not return a cart. Nor are they the second coming of Christ because they do. There are a variety of reasons for people to not do it. (In a hurry. Return too far. Kids in the car. Maybe they are simply freaking exhausted from running around all day for those little brats and just want to go home and have a drink dammit!!)
Ok maybe that last has been me many a time.
I personally do not like stray carriages having found my car dinged more Han once because of it. I also do not like parking next to the returns because people sometimes launch the cart at the bin from distance and don’t pay attention that the cart misses and whacks the closest car.
Simplest answer to why: they have more important things to them to do and do not want to spend the extra 45sec to return the cart.
Does it make them a bad person. No. Is it a bit inconsiderate. Sure. Is it the end of the world and unchecked cart mayhem will over take us. Maybe. cartpocalypse?
From my point of view, you created the mess by taking the cart from its holding area to the car, for the benefit of easier transport of your groceries. Yes, the store benefited by it, but then, a restaurant benefits by giving people glasses of water (or they certainly wouldn’t do it for free, without asking).
Let’s see where that logic takes us.
Nowhere did I say that there were no valid reasons to leave the cart behind. You seem to be implying that there are no valid reasons to return the cart-- that somehow, the store by the act of providing the carts, has the onus to round them all up and that the consumer, by taking the cart, accepts no responsibility.
No. I’m not a hovering parent. But it only takes 30 seconds for an unattended infant or toddler to do themselves harm or be taken.
But you feel free to raise your kids however you want. Good luck.
You’re right, sociology is full of fascinating stuff, and in truth Scientific American isn’t a scholarly journal. But this just seemed a bit too obvious.
I understand. You want to look down on people that behave a certain way. I won’t interfere.
My high school buddies who were supermarket stock boys always loved getting sent out to collect carts in all but the worst weather. They’d get outside into the sun and air and also, usually, catch a quick buzz to make their boring minimum wage day go faster. They always told me to leave the cart as far away from the store as possible, but make sure the manager could see it out the window.
So, the worse the weather is, the more likely I am to return the cart. On a gorgeous day I purposely leave it out.
