Lots of assumptions, making me laugh. Sometimes it’s not about me, or you, or the cart or society. Sometimes the kids are screaming their heads off so fucking loud that the first thought is not only am I going to return this fucking cart 38 seconds across the parking lot, but I am going to keep on walking and let them bake in the sun until they shut up. But seriously, sometimes the kids are taking my attention so much that “proper cart procedure” is the last thing on my mind and all the judgy perfectionists of the world can shove this shopping cart wheel right up their collective ass. hehehe
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Yeah, his/her “bigger problem” is the self-anointed busybodies who will, inevitably, report him to Child Protective Services for briefly walking out of sight of his infant.
No sane parent is afraid of strangers taking their child out of a car seat in under 99 seconds. We’re afraid of the right wing version of people like you, and so many others here on BBS. People who validated themselves by publicly castigating strangers over every little infraction they think can see.
If you find carts strewn in a parking lot on your way into a store, and you find them to be a nuisance, eyesore, or potential source of damage, there is something you can do. If you have two hands and two functional feet you can mitigate the problem by returning a loose one on your way in. The sight of you doing this would - like fixing a ‘broken window’ - encourage sluggards to return their carts as well. You also have the option of returning a cart for them if you see them, say, strapping a tyke into a car seat.
So, just to get a headcount, who among the many who’ve commented here on this thread have returned carts for other shoppers? Particularly other shoppers with handicaps, children or the like?
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That’s funny, because a data point in the negative column that led to me breaking up with an ex was her rude behavior with a shopping cart (bumping into people, cutting them off, then excusing it with “it’s NYC, that’s normal here”. Uh, I don’t see anyone else doing that…).
I sense a bit of a clickbait “rules for dating” advice article coming on- “The first time one of you cooks dinner as a date, make sure to do the grocery shopping together. You’ll potentially learn a lot about whether you have a future together”.
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If I see someone done with a cart right as I’m walking in, often with my little, I will ask “Can I take that for you?” and then put the little in it and off we go. The person is usually relieved they don’t have to think about it and they’ve saved 38 seconds and I can set down the little sooner than I would have. Win win win.
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I routinely make it a point to gather not just one but several carts in my immediate vicinity and not only return them to the nearest corral but will actually take them all the way up to the front door. It’s no skin off my back to help out by leaving the area a little bit better than I find it.
I don’t buy the whole “I’m too busy or distracted” argument one bit. Those are just excuses for justifying laziness.
Right wing version of me?! I am probably one of the most chill people you will ever meet. I don’t give a fuck if you leave your kids in the car or strap them to your back 24x7. It’s not going to prevent me from making a spot judgement about you however.
I raised my kids with a very lax attitude because it’s my nature not to over-react to any situation. Little humans have survived for thousands of years without constant monitoring and they will continue to do so for many thousands more (hopefully).
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Finally! Someone who shares my motivation for returning a cart!
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Another reason to return them is that it is sometimes fun to ride the empty cart like a skateboard - an opportunity for grown adults to recapture for a few moments the fun of childhood.
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I don’t buy the bit that any perceived “breach of the public trust” is automatic assumption of laziness. Maybe other people have other shit going on. You sound sanctimonious. There are exceptions to everything and not everybody is as able-bodied as you are.
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Perhaps a good idea, but certainly not “the first time.”
The first time should be a surprise, on the order of, “Wow, this person can cook? Like, real food?”
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It’s not just rural Tennessee. When I first moved to the Seattle area I lived in a fairly high end apartment building. Yet, there were always shopping carts left just hanging around in the hallways. This always pissed me off to no end.
As someone who basically had to re-learn how to walk after back and hip surgery I can assure you I know first hand what it’s like to be less than fully able. I am just as busy as anybody else yet I still find ways to go beyond the bare minimum of social responsibility.
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I actually have. In fact, I have had my 3 kids (who are teens now) all grab a loose carriage each and put them in the bin.
I don’t do it every time…and sometimes I am as guilty of the abhorrent act of leaving the cart behind (albeit rarely).
I sort of see it as the penny cup. I do not put a penny in it every time…nor do I take one every time. And I do not count each time I do or don’t so lord knows if I break even at all.
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If your economy/social structure is based upon “acculturate people to make unnecessary messes so that the lowest rungs of society will have busywork to do” you’re doing both economy and society wrong.
Well, sure, if that’s what this was, but it isn’t. First of all, it isn’t a mess, it’s just a random distribution. If all carts were returned to corrals (of which there are typically several per lot), there’d be just as many carts to return to the store, it’d just take slightly less time and virtually no less effort by the cart wrangler.
The logical end to the “you must corral or you’re a bad/lazy person” line is that you must return the cart to the store’s indoor staging area or you’re a bad person. But if that were universal there’d be no cart wrangling and I can assure you their time would not be spent making your shopping experience better: their job would not exist. Is it paternalistic, or realistic, to acknowledge that there are many, many jobs that would not exist if we all did everything for ourselves, especially as a free service to corporations?
I don’t care what others do with their carts as long as they don’t ram them into my car. Likewise, as long as I’m at least as careful no one should care what I do with my cart. There aren’t enough hours in the day to worry about petty shit like this. Corral or don’t, it won’t make any difference to society or the economy. And as a signal of laziness or bad manners or really anything at all, it’s very weak tea.
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That’s great that you have made a recovery. The next part of the journey is developing compassion.
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Yeah – it happens. Sometimes I’m parked really far away and it’s pouring down rain, or some other circumstance where I otherwise am not willing to put in the effort to return the cart to the point of origin or a corral. Whenever this happens I at least make the effort to position the cart in such a way that it won’t roll away and hit someone’s car. Usually by placing the front or back wheels over a curb stop or something (as demonstrated in the OP). And yes, I feel bad about it.
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I think there is the issue. It isn’t your place to judge someone else’s parenting job. We all raise our kids within our own comfort levels. You stated above that you think someone’s kid has self esteem issues because they don’t want to leave them unattended for 30 sec. I can think of a variety of reasons a parent may not. A kid with extreme Autism would be a text book example of that. Your comment about “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.” well…yes they may very well have bigger problems in truth. Your comment is meant to imply snark and cynicism to what those problems may be as if you are eye-rolling and saying “first world problems”. That may not be the case.
Someone else had commented “if you can’t leave your kids in the car alone for 30 sec with fearing them being taken you live in a bad place” well…yes! Some people do live in bad places. And while they wish they didn’t, its where they are and what they can afford. there are those real life bigger problems.
I in general principal agree with what I think your stance is…it isn’t too difficult to return a cart, even grab a stray one or two on your way. You loose your way IMO when you inject judgment on people’s parenting style its effect on their kids and as a way to justify your condescension. Saying “you are the most chill person you will ever meet” and following it up with “I don’t give a fuck” and a comment about judging someone having not walked the proverbial mile in their shoes negates the former entirely.
For someone who doesn’t care…you’ve made an awful lot of comments.
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@jannamark and @knoxblox
I wasn’t going to admit I do it to until at least two other adults did!! My 16 yr old is mortified when I do it.
@ficuswhisperer That’s what I always do too. if I do leave it, I leave it somewhere out of the way of harm.
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Not everyone here hides behind anonymity. But if this is your motivation to be a anonymous troll, good luck.
How so? I’ve seen carts at the far end of massive parking lots, behind buildings, or even blocks away (although I’ll concede that I doubt those are usually retrieved). How would leaving the carts in corrals, which tend to be closer to the store, be “virtually no less effort?”
As several people in this topic have noted, this used to be the reality.
Again with the broken-window fallacy.
The fact that fixing something something creates economic activity does not mean that the thing having never been broken would not create equivalent economic activity in a different way.
If the store didn’t need to hire a cart wrangler, they would perhaps have money to hire someone else to organize the shelves. Or another cashier for the weekend. Or to replace some of the broken wheels on the carts, or any of a dozen other things that would each employ the same number of FTEs, in the end, as hiring a cart wrangler.
In addition, I don’t see someone spending 8 hours a day wrangling carts (perhaps on a weekend). There are two 24 hour stores open near me: do they really have people working all night wrangling the nonexistent carts in the lot?
Of course not. You could argue that every job falls into that category, except perhaps farming, or hunting/gathering. Again, though, if people didn’t litter, there’d be no need for other people to go around to pick up that garbage. That’s hardly a good argument for littering.
“I don’t care about , therefore no one should care about ” is not a very persuasive argument.
You could say the same about any kind of manners or etiquette. That doesn’t make etiquette, which is, at its heart, about treating other people with respect, worthless.
Perhaps not, but it could make one person’s day a little bit better, while not making yours particularly worse. Isn’t that a good thing?
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If my shopping experience was really poor I will leave the cart in the middle of the parking lot. Passive aggressive perhaps?
