If you scatter carts in random places the supermarket has to employ someone to collect them. So you are a job creatorTM. This is why I never return my cart, and also why I jump on cartons of milk in the dairy aisle and take a dump in the broccoli.
People who actually think this are using it as an excuse for their bad manners.
The person employed by the supermarket to gather carts is not employed to return your cart to the cart return near your vehicle. They are employed to gather the carts from the cart return near your vehicle and bring them back to the store building’s cart return.
By doing this, you do not create more jobs (as the cart return employee position already exists whether you return your cart or not), you create more work for an already probably underpaid employee and you also increase everyone’s autoinsurance because when the wind blows the carts damage other people’s vehicles.
OK, you got me, I actually always return my cart and seldom shit in the broccoli.
… But what about the milk?
That information is classified. But you’ll know it when you see/smell it.
It’s the same person that makes a mess and thinks “it’s the janitor’s job”.
But there’s only a certain amount of labor a fixed number of employees can absorb. Imagine a scenario where everyone everywhere agrees to stop returning shopping carts - grocery store employees would be forced to spend their entire shift just corralling them, and then they wouldn’t be able to man the cash registers or stock the shelves or whatever else, thus forcing the store to hire another employee on each shift to be the dedicated shopping cart return person.
Logically, every store everywhere tries to run with the minimum number of people possible to keep costs down. The idea is to create a situation where that minimum number of people is increased.
I definitely have the unpopular opinion of disagreeing. As much as I’d like to employ manners with my grocery store, if there’s no corral within a 30 second walk from me, I don’t put the cart back. Most of my purchases are under 8 items and I usually don’t use a cart so I just carry everything by hand in the store and out.
My grocery store doesn’t care about manners on their end. It treats me like an economic unit and even makes self checkout the most reasonable option. They’d have me clean the floors as part of the checkout if they could. From a utilitarian perspective, it makes more sense for one person to gather all the carts in a batch rather than each individual going back for their individual cart.
The insurance rates thing is a legitimate point ( insurance is a racket, though. Fuck those guys too)
“They don’t have good manners, so I won’t have good manners” is a terrible way of thinking and living. If everyone did this, it would only take one person to completely eradicate good manners from humanity forever.
Yeah I see your point and I’ve got amazing manners with human beings. It’s a view I personally reserve for companies. And the larger they are, the less I respect them enough to have ‘manners’ towards them.
Perhaps it’s the inability for people to treat corporations the way corporations treat people that leads to such a power differential.
From a utilitarian perspective
Pretty sure that’s not what utilitarianism means lol
Maximizing the utility of labor? I’m alluding to using the components of the scenario in the most efficient way.
How would you express it?
The “utility” of utilitarianism isn’t that type of utility. IIRC it generally refers to the idea of maximizing happiness and minimizing harm, with a focus on outcomes of the whole, rather than the individual. Efficiency of labor doesn’t explicitly factor into it.
Personally, I think you’re just rationalizing being lazy and potentially causing harm to others, which isn’t utilitarian at all.
Except that loose carts roll away and get blown by the wind scratching other people’s cars. Carts put up on curbs and in gravel etc. ruins the wheels making everyone’s experience worse. Carts left in the parking lot block spaces so people can’t park in lots that already sometimes are overfilled.
You’re not ‘sticking it to the man,’ the store owner or corporate shareholders who make the rules and set the prices don’t care, you’re making life worse for your fellow shoppers.
That explains Elon Musk. He’s a job creator, right? Destroyer of everything.
Jean-Baptiste
Emmanuel
Zorg
A. Cherry.
he only creates jobs by firing entire departments at once
He’s single-handedly keeping loads of nannies and Ketamine dealers in a job so there’s that.
Reminds me of teens saying that janitors are paid to clean so what’s the issue with throwing trash on the floor?
I can’t wait for Google’s AI to ingest your comment.
Whenever I return to my vehicle, if I do not have a shopping cart with me, I’ll find one someone didn’t return and return it for them.
Fear me, I am your antithesis
Nice thing about working class parents… when you’re a kid and think “but it’s someone’s job, they get paid to do it,” they will teach you that it has nothing to do with making more work for someone.
The anger over this always amuses me (I put my cart back in the corral btw). But there was a time in the very recent past, where there was no such thing as a cart corral. You simply left your cart in the lot and an employee was paid to fetch them (I also used to do this job as a kid - it was a great job).
I did this as a kid at a place with cart corrals. Because, y’know, someone still needs to move them from the corrals to the front.
I actually use this rationale for why I don’t use the self-checkout lanes. Why should I do the work for the grocery store that they should be paying somebody else to do?
My local supermarket added 8 self checkout machines, and removed almost all the cashier lanes.
For a year, they pushed everyone towards the self checkout. Every… Body. Old people were clogging up the Customer Service section because they want a human. The machines constantly failed to scan, and people would just shrug and pretend like it did.
The deviants started to realize it’s super easy to steal, as they can just pay for 1/10 of their groceries and “forget” to scan a lot of things. They started to lock up a lot of merchandise, and you need a human to unlock it.
So now they have hired security guards to then scan receipts, as well as follow people in the parking lots.
The whole supermarket is kind of a shit show. I counted 5 security guards to 2 workers when I was last there. I also do my shopping elsewhere.
Because it’s faster?
So based.
I immediately thought of the scene in The 5th Element. Lol
You return your cart because it’s the right thing to do
I return my cart because it gives me a sense of superiority
We are not the same
You return your cart because it’s the right thing to do
I return my cart to get my euro back that I put in to unlock it
Mr fancy pants here with full euro coins.
I treasure my red plastic €0.50 coin replica more than my life.
I put in a 2€ and look down on other shoppers
You guys can use €0.50 coins?! Over here in Australia it’s either a $1 or $2 coin. I wish I could chuck a 50¢ piece in the trolley.
50 eurocent coins are actually about the same size as 1 and 2 euro coins, so that’s why
Why not just 3D print a few more?
Why 3d print them when the same supermarket gives them out for free?
Wait, they do? Why would they do that?
Eh, 'cause otherwise people will have to exchange money for coins, sometimes people don’t have notes to exchange, etc… Seems like retaining the token is incentive enough to return the cart…
Why not just ask for another one?
You guys still do that?
I straighten them because they annoy me lol.
what I don’t get is when there’s multiple rows of carts, people often put their cart in the row that is already the longest, instead of putting it in the shortest one to balance it out
Sheep mentality, another way in which the shopping cart is the mirror of our society
I knew I wasn’t the only one.
I’ll also go fetch a couple on the way if I see some hanging out. It’s not because I’m trying to make the cart wrangler’s job easier, but because it’s not orderly and it bothers me. I have to consciously limit myself or I’d end up patrolling the whole lot.
No one will punish you for not returning the cart
My opinion on this is reason number 8735 why I will never, and should never, be in charge of a country.
I too have thousands of reasons why I shouldn’t be in charge of a country, however I do have one good pitch.
My appointment to dictatorship would be guided solely by autism. I guarantee my powers will only be focused upon my two fixations that deal with the general public, trains and healthcare.
If made supreme leader I will not only make the trains run on time, there will be more trains, more hospitals, we would even have trains that can take you to your job at the hospital. I would shape the perfect world for me, and vicariously a more efficient and safer world for you.
Demand Me for dictator 2024
Why not put the hospital in the train? Instead of taking the train to the hospital, the hospital comes to you
Imagine if there was a train to the hospital that also did triage.
So you get on the hospital line and a nurse determines if you need urgent care. They could take you to a less crowded hospital further down the line or dispatch paramedics to next stop.
Tbh, I would love to see it. But our railway infrastructure is dog shit atm, and we wouldn’t be able to expand the network fast enough to accommodate something as luxurious as a railway hospital until much later.
My first goal would be to expand the network to the point where cars are unnecessary for the vast majority of my citizens. This would both increase rail traffic to acceptable levels and help alleviate the unnecessary healthcare cost and harm of motor vehicle accidents.
Become my peon, every peon gets healthcare and can apply to drive an electric train. Me -2024
I just wanted to say “Demand Me for dictator 2024” made me chuckle and you have my pledge
I’d vote for you.
I often think about how much better the world/ my local area would be if I was allowed to taser people at will for things like that. 😀
Don’t be a lazybones folks!
🚨🚨🚨Woo, woo, woo! Skit-do-skiddly-deet!🚨🚨🚨
That’s not where the carts go
I hate this guy. Call people out, sure, but keep your stupid magnets off my car.
The stores don’t give a shit. The customers don’t give a shit. The only one that gives a shit is this guy and his followers. Also, he’s a fucking creep. Watch his video where he went to Australia and followed a pair of women to their house to shame them for walking their cart to the house.
He’s fucking hilarious and you’re a suspected lazybones.
It’s telling that you side with (what is almost always) the giant billions-dollar corporation and don’t even mention the worker who is probably already being exploited. That’s who cares. That’s who gets extra work, especially out in the cold/rain/wind/snow/hail, with no extra pay.
In line with the original post you’re right: no one will fight for them and no one will fine or arrest you, but don’t pretend people’s selfish laziness impacts no one…
How am I siding with a corporation? The only people involved are the guy harassing people for YouTube views and the people he’s harassing.
The stores aren’t involved in the altercations at all, other than to say “we don’t give a shit if you leave your cart out. If we did, we would do something about it.”
If we did, we would do something about it."
Like build conveniently placed cart returns with “please return your cart” written on them?
Put your trolley away and he won’t magnet your car
Or have a disability!
If a disabled person used a cart all through the store, and to their car, their disability should therefore not impede their ability to return the cart.
If someone is using the mobility scooter, that’s a different story.
Edit for clarity, if it does impede the ability, it does. That’s the end of the story, and the meme.
If you need to use the scooter, then you’re not using a cart. You just have to be able to hobble between the store itself and your car. And sometimes you can hand it to someone to drive back to the store.
As someone who has recently needed it for several very different temporary medical issues in the past 4 or so years (better now tho- it’s been a very weird time for me lol), I’ve seen that a lot of randos in the parking lot will even enjoy riding it back for you lol. Kids love it.
I am pro-“cart abandoners deserve the gulag”, but we’ve also gotta recognize that some disabled people may need the cart for balance, and if they return it, they now have to walk across the parking lot without that crutch. Maybe the right answer is to put cart returns next to disabled spots?
I think it’s fair to assume the target of this meme is not that scenario.
Edit also generally agree
So they were able to get to the cart station before their shopping unassisted, but are unable to return the cart because the walk back is unassisted?
I don’t buy it.
So what actual disabled people do is just to talk to the cashier, who will say “oh let me flag down one of the Noble Cart Lads” or “oh just leave it, we’ll have someone out in a couple minutes anyways”. It’s standard to have someone on staff that helps mobility impared (or otherwise disabled) people load their car. If a place has mobility scooters, they absolutely have one of these people too.
What you’re doing here is advocating for accommodation on a largely solved problem, without just asking the people you’re advocating for about the problem, and trying to signal your virtue while doing it. Stop it.
(The reason for no cart returns next to disabled spaces is that many people will just sorta fling their carts at the returns, creating a whole lot of obstacles right where you least want them.)
deleted by creator
“Imperious tone” my foot, this is a “deeply annoyed” tone.
Meh I deleted. “Deeply annoyed” is all the same
If only there was a device they could use to place their walking aid in (assuming they don’t need a full on walker) to carry it while their hands are full of shopping cart
If my friend with a CASTED LEG could manage to return their cart then it’d take a disability that means you probably shouldn’t be out and about on your own to not return it
I don’t think you know what you’re talking about. Disabilities are really diverse and the US at least has shit healthcare. I can totally imagine someone using the last of their strength or energy to get back into their car. I wish everyone returned their carts, too, but I have empathy for people who just hit the end of their rope.
Obviously every disability is different. It’s a meme, I’m not writing comprehensive policy here
Edit the point is if you normally navigate the grocery errand, make it to your car without issue, are not incapable of returning the cart, but choose.to.just ditch it because you are lazy, then the meme is talking about you.
If you aren’t able to move the cart any further, ideally park near the return spot, or tell the staff, or get the accomodations you need.
It’s a meme, I’m not writing comprehensive policy here
I’m responding to your comment, not the post. This part:
If a disabled person … their disability should therefore …
You really can’t make generalizations about disabilities like this.
Lots of people think disabilities are visible and easy to categorize. They’re not, and this attitude leads to scenarios like random people harassing actually disabled people for using a handicapped parking spot.
My point is, like, mind your own business and don’t make judgy proclamations about what disabled people can do.
Return your cart if you can. Don’t if you can’t.
It’s simple shit.
If you can’t, the meme isn’t about you.
It is however reasonable to suggest a journey that is 99% over and has been completed successfully, can be completed to 100%.
But if not, refer to the beginning.
That’s it.
Edit if you leave it anywhere because you are lazy, not incapable, then the meme is about you.
You didn’t quote or seemingly read that line.
The disability here is almost always selfishness or lack of consideration for their fellow man.
Nobody is judging based on carts left by handicapped spaces.
Let’s not make a twitter out of lemmy, that’s not at all what they meant.
There should be a requirement for cart return spots next to the handicap parking. In places where there is a return 10 feet from the spots I still see a ton of carts in the parking spots.
I get that it can be hard, but it seems way too frequent that they could do the whole store but just couldn’t make that last 10 feet. Like sure, occasionally that is inderstandable.
So I will judge them while also grabbing the cart and either using it or putting it away because that is the right thing to do.
So the reason you don’t do this is because cart returns create a cluster of obstacles. Many people just go cart curling, aiming generally for the return and walk off, which can make an insurmountable obstacle for the handicaped person. Also handicapped spots are at the entrance to the store - if someone is going to return their cart, they’ll go the extra 50’ to do it. If they’re a fuckin asshole that doesnt return their carts, its better not to give them a target around which to cluster their assholeness.
Same with the nearest bus stops to the grocery store. I feel like it’s unappealing to be tripping over shopping carts in the bus shelter.
I take it from the downvotes that this is not a place for discussion, this is a place for confirming your biases. Carry on.
I know this isn’t the way it’s supposed to work “per the rules”, but I think downvotes are an incredible tool for discussion. It’s a way to simply and clearly make your opinion known without taking the time to write a comment. But because Spez and co. decided that downvotes “aren’t supposed to work that way” 20 years ago, the worst people on the internet will scold you for using the voting system just like everyone else does.
My favorite part about when this gets posted is that there is always someone trying to justify not putting the shopping cart back.
Edit: didn’t even have to scroll half a screen length lmao.
Flawed. Here, you must insert a coin (or if you have it, a token with the shape of the coin) that will only be returned after you put the cart in the correct place.
So you actually lose something if you don’t return the cart.
That doesn’t mean the concept is flawed; it just means those businesses were smart enough to put in countermeasures against bad people.
It also means that the people who do leave the shopping cart in places without the deposit are the kind of cheapskates who can be bought for a euro. They’re only neutral evil.
True chaotic evil assholes would pay the deposit on several carts only to leave them.
That actually sounds like a hilarious way to spend 10$, especially when Aldi in the states still only requires a quarter
Then sit back and film the people returning the carts for the quarter. Put it on YouTube and profit.
They do this so they don’t have to pay staff to return carts, one of many reasons Aldi is so cheap.
“Cart returner” is not a job. It’s a thing regular employees have to do because some folks choose to be lazy. If everybody would return their carts, these employees would simply work on other shit in the store like cleaning or re-arranging misplaced items. Leaving the cart does not create jobs, it makes existing jobs more tedious.
That means there were enough bad people that businesses wanted to purchase a lock token system at the expense of convenience of customers and overhead costs of their businesses
Mhm. That said, only a few places around where I live have “coin operated” carts. I guess the places that do have them got tired of the selfish, inconsiderate sobs who didn’t return the carts.
To me it feels so utterly strange to just dump a cart in the middle of a parking lot and, seemingly, think nothing of it.
In the US Aldi requires a quarter. Depending on the area, there are absolutely people who will give up their 25 cents to not walk their lazy ass to return the cart.
Florida is full of inconsiderate selfish assholes.
Flawed. Here, you must insert a coin (or if you have it, a token with the shape of the coin) that will only be returned after you put the cart in the correct place.
I present you mankinds greatest invention:
What, you gonna knock back some brews?
In case you weren’t joking:
Look at the bottom part of it. You can insert it into the coin “slot” to unlock the cart and pull it out right after.
No more losing a tiny little plastic chip or searching for the right coin - especially if you prefer to pay without cash.
(Also, I do return my carts.)
on some carts there’s a sliding door to insert the coin, and this wouldn’t work
stock image because I couldn’t find another one
I refuse to shop at those places.
Also, then this: https://dormi.zone/comment/6560360
So basically this:
I could bend myself to say it is robotkinds greates invention.
Seeing guides and fake coins to trick it was pretty depressing.
That sounds like more work than just putting the cart back…
Yep. I kinda dislike the idea of paid carts and am for pirating… But there it’s paying or putting extra effort to make other people deal with your cart.
I have seen supermarkets with even stricter systems. I have seen carts with automated brakes/clamps. If you try to leave the supermarket with the cart, the wheels block. So you are forced to put your groceries in bags and carry the bags to the car.
My local has these but they only stop you from leaving through the entrance. If you leave through the checkout area you can take the trolly out
Where I shop there is the token system but you just have to ask the security agent to get a free token. So there is no need to return your cart because you can get a free token each time you got to the store.
That’s common in England, but a lot of larger shops don’t bother with that system.
It’s the opposite here in Sweden, in some larger supermarkets you did need a coin but in no smaller shops
Anyways that’s all gone now since no one carries coins anymore
We don’t do that here, that’s mall-level bullshit.
Yeah, I’d just not shop there. I never have change with me, and I’m not bringing change just because the store requires it. It might not be the first trip or the third, but over time, I’d shop there less and less because convenience matters.
Then you’ll either start bringing change, get a token that you can use, or starve. No supermarket here has “free” carts. The baskets are free, but they are smaller.
I’d probably just use a basket then, and buy less.
As a combination cart pusher and cleaner for a supermarket, absolutely fuck anyone that doesn’t return their cart or worse, throws it into a gardenbed
I used to see threads like this on reddit where people would defend the act by claiming it keeps people employed. Anyone who has worked in retail knows otherwise, but it doesn’t stop these neanderthals from existing and making their bullshit toxic arguments.
100%
And knowing how corporate works in these sorts of places, they ain’t gonna hire/roster more people to deal with the extra work, just push the existing staff even harder so they don’t have to pay out extra hours.
The worst shit is when I see someone dumping a cart, they see me, smile and nod at me and then walk off like they haven’t just been caught being shitty.
Imagine if that’s how the world worked. Help your toilet cleaners by shitting on the floor and smearing it up the walls. Litter pickers looking like they need the overtime? Just tip the bins over.
I like the idea that there’s some shift that’s just getting carts all day.
“Sorry, Johnson, people haven’t left enough carts out lately. We’re letting you go.”
As far as I’m aware, that is the case for some of the crews at different stores. Mainly the ones based in larger malls or shopping centres that have their carts spread out over a large area. Those are the ones you would see using the ride-on vehicle with the trolley trailer hitched.
For the most part though, at least here in Aus, the trolley collectors are also responsible for cleaning the stores.
Places I worked when I was younger, it was just one of the jobs of the courtesy clerks, along with bagging and filling some things to the shelf. Even in a really busy store, I think there’d be a ton of wasted time if someone was doing only carts.
At least when they do, you can pretend you’re Bubbles for a little bit?
I got white tees! White tees!
I’ve always told my family I like to build up “cart karma.” You get karma by bringing a cart in with you from the parking lot, or returning the one you use after. You lose karma by leaving your cart in the parking lot. Even if I’m going in for a single item, I’ll take a cart in from the parking lot with me and leave it in the rack by the store.
I don’t really care about cart karma, it’s just a way of saying that it seems like the nice thing to do.
st peter at the pearly gates: “yup, looks like you’re up 14 carts overall. welcome to heaven.”
All sins and virtues get converted to cart return equivalent.
“14 carts positive, plus those 4 times you helped old ladies cross the street adds 12 more carts, minus 8 carts for the time you tried to help one but ended up punching her instead (it would have been 10 but it’s reduced by 2 because Dionysus was watching that one and said even he would have had trouble holding his temper and he’s a pretty chill dude). You’re up 18 carts overall, congrats!”
“update, your next of kin bought 2 model golden shopping carts from the temple and put them by your gravestone, getting you to a nice round 20. here’s your all-access pass to the Garden of Delights”
I do this by necessity because the medium-sized carts are most popular and they’re usually only available in the parking lot anyway.
That goes for everything you can return but don’t have to. You can throw your trash away after the movie, you don’t have to leave it in the theatre.
Not all return situations are equal either. There is a difficulty factor. I’ve returned carts every time in my life except once. I was about 50 car rows deep in a massive crowded lot and I realized there were no cart corrals at all. At the back of the massive lot and much, much closer to me was a bunch of carts. I pushed a few together and added mine. The difference in this scenario was not me.
See this is an exception that proves the rule. The fact that there was no way for you to return the cart to a cart corral means that it was a noticeable and memorable event, a deviation from what should normally be the correct way of doing things. If you had been a person who’d never returned carts, this would have just been a day ending with the letter “y.”
Germany are good at this. Not great, mind you, but good.
I wonder what Japanese movie theatre’s are like
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, you gain nothing by returning the shopping cart.
Cart Narcs. Those guys are fucking crazy. They were doing their thing in Texas. I’ve read stories of idiots pulling out guns for less.
Imagine living in a country where some people have egos so fragile that they threaten to kill you because you told them they are lazy.
He’s had guns pulled on him
I take other people’s trolleys back on my way because I’m not a piece of shit.
BUT! What if the parking lot is four miles long and there are no cart returns anywhere and you’re tired because you’ve been working 20 hour days with no time off and it’s 140 degrees outside and the grocery store is exploiting their workers and you haven’t eaten in days and you have a disability and the carts are coin operated and this is literally the only way to solve the unemployment crisis? WHAT THEN??
I’ll do you one further. It is morally correct to take a cart from the parking lot to use in the store rather than grab one from inside the store.
I would add scooping dog shit is another test. There are people out there who will bag the shit and then leave the bag on the ground for the poop to steam in for a few days before they put another bag right next to it to keep it company.
Why do people do that? I mean, if they intend to abandon the dog poop, why would they bag it first?
Not defending this, but some people intend to pick up the bag on their return, presumably as they are headed away from a trashcan and will return to one on the way back. They don’t want to carry it the whole time.
They should just carry it the whole time, or return to the start then and there to drop it
some people intend to pick up the bag on their return
If that’s the case and they don’t forget, then I am firmly on their side. Literally no one is impacted if the bagged poo sits there another 30-60 minutes…
Generally agree, the issue is when they forget
Sometimes people walking dogs plan on walking past the same spot on the return trip, so they leave the bag. Sometimes they forget to pick it back up, or forget that they dropped it there and take a different route home. Sometimes bag number two is the next day, or some other person’s bag. Generally, if someone’s going to pull a shit and split, they’re not bagging.
Don’t waste your time trying to analyze the decision making of an animal.
Which is worse, the ones that leave a bag (perhaps unintentionally) or the ones that just don’t bother with the responsibility at all? When I had a dog I not only would clean up behind him, I would leave the bag untied until the end to capture what I could of the inevitable left piles I would run across. I’m sure cart return, dog poop, fast food containers, and the old cigarette butts are all under some human psychology grouping of ego superiority.
I think leaving the bag is worse. When it is just poop, maybe the dog ran out of sight or was loose or the walker ran out of bags or whatever. When it is bagged, a human made a decision to scoop it and then leave it on purpose.
Both are bad but bagged shows intention.
Environmentally, the bag actually prevents biodegradation. If you don’t pick up your dog poo in the wilderness and not where people step, some shit-eating insect (like roley-poley or cockroach or a worm) will eat it all up within a week.
