I want others to return their carts so I expect the same from myself. Unironically, we live in a society, so that means cooperation for things to run smoothly
This is Contractualism. If anyone wants to learn more about this moral philosophy, you can read Scanlon's What We Owe to Each Other, or for a better time, watch The Good Place.
I've done cart balancing enough times to say it's really not a big deal. I'd rather collect stray carts than distribute the ones sticking out over three parking lot lanes to emptier cart sheds. I also used to feel bad for staff etc, our manager did carts a lot, other stuff etc again, but when I really think about it, fuck supermarkets.
As far as being a nice person or whatever, I will hand over the cart to someone arriving as I'm leaving. I will not take their coin because I use a shim that cannot be retained by the lock to unlock the cart rather than a coin.
As someone who's had the job of bringing carts in before... why are you redistributing them instead of bringing them inside? Was that just the policy at whatever store you worked at.
Justify not putting the cart back without the root reason being that you're selfish (too lazy, in a hurry, not my job, cart return is too far away, etc). Go ahead, I'll wait.
i got hit by a car while trying to return the cart and the medics forced me to go to the hospital despite my dying wish being for someone to return the cart
The cart is probably either damaged, or has your blood all over it, or both, so it's in no condition to be used right now anyways. Thank you for at least trying to return it, I'll spread the word about your GoFundMe (for either your bills or funeral).
If it's a nice day it gives the employee in charge of rounding up carts a chance to go outside and no longer be under the direct eye of management, and maybe even get to see a beautiful sunset in the evening.
When I worked at Whole Foods I loved when a cart was way in the outfield. I got some fresh air and I didn't have to deal with angry customers.
I'll give you this one, because your intentions are good. I will suggest, however, that not everyone who is collecting carts has the same outlook. This would be highly season- and weather-dependent as well.
You do gain something though. By not contributing to the problem the overall likelihood that other people also don't contribute increases because they see a cart put away instead of a herd of them roaming the parking lot. Same as being polite when you aren't required to be.
Society exists because most people choose not to be assholes.
"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law."
The categorical imperative, Immanuel Kant
Oh yeah smart guy? Then is it still a categorical imperative if returning the cart will somehow result in greater harm than good, say if the employees are paid based on the number of carts they retrieve from improper positions? If not, then what use are maxims if they cannot take into account the specifics of a situation? Are they just a matter of logical coherence, or can they be used for actual decision-making?
The shopping cart thing is no longer a good test of character. The whole idea is there's no reward for doing it and no punishment for not doing it. Now that everyone knows that there's a large contingent of the population who could be judging them for their actions, it's not the same thing anymore. It's more like a test of how a panopticon situation effects people.
Id like to run a test where we silently observe cart return behaviour on hidden camera, and compare return rates with when we station people outside the shops to stare at cart users who are loading their shopping into their cars
Tldr funny cart moment from a guy who didn't realize I could see him until too late
I was once chilling in the car for a second after putting groceries away when the guy adjecent to me finished unloading, pushed the cart about 2ft away, made eye contact with me, then proceeded to act like he was stretching and not stepping back toward his car. It was a comical amount of time between the stepping away, eye contact pause, awkward stretch and grab the cart again
I would not be surprised if you got different behavior at different stores and at different times.
Walmart would be way down there next to Dollar Tree. Aldi's at the top because it requires a quarter - which is worth far more than $0.25 because who carries change anymore?
These things aren’t just tests of characters. They also generate character. It’s a feedback loop, and it’s okay if you do things with a known context of judgment, because just adhering to the rules grows your credit with society.
Here in finland you have to insert a coin in there. It gets released when you chain the shopping cart back to another shopping cart or the roof thingy where they go. Works like a charm. Very few loose carts
Robotic carts needs to happen. It would be so easy. Someone would make a fortune. Give the carts arms and bow ties, and you can fire your entire human staff.
I figure if I'm annoyed about the problem then I shouldn't contribute to it. It's also very quick and easy, even if the cart return is a whole 50 feet away. People that don't are just very lazy.
Carts go in the store, placing them in a cart return does nothing because an employee still had to go fetch them. If you actually cared you would walk the cart back into the store.
They are in a big stack that can be moved all at once. If there's a free roaming cart blowing around the parking lot an employee would probably have to go get it individually so it doesn't attack the cars.
Ha, no, I'm more sadistic. I leave it in the lane. Then watch out my mirrors to see how many cars drive around it instead of stopping to at least move it out of the way.
No. Not only will I give a worker a better thing to do than interacting with some schmuck (this is seasonally dependent, and depends on the worker), I will impede the progress of cars through the parking lot, which is funny, and good, because I hate the parking lot. If I do this enough, I will singlehandedly force everyone to park farther and farther back in the parking lot, as spaces are taken up by uncompressed carts, walking more and more to get to the store. Minorly decreasing the revenue of the mega-chain as people refuse to drive, and increasing the cardiovascular health of everyone shopping at the store. Decreasing traffic, perhaps even decreasing car-centricity. Society would be better off, if we all refused to return the carts, and perhaps, I do not want to compromise on my moral code and ideal for a just society, just because nobody else is doing it. We are manipulated, out of our willingness to be just to those around us, into creating a collectively unjust society.
So, really, I'm like some kind of hero. Everyone should be thanking me, for not returning the carts. Everyone should be thanking me, for shitting on the street. After all, when someone steps in it, it will simply illustrate to them the injustice that is a lack of access to public restrooms. They'll intuit that, I'm sure of it, probably it would be communicated from something in the smell, if I had to guess.
The world is on fire, society is crumbling, fascism is on the rise all around the world, the wealth gap is widening to an absurd point, ai is being used to turn the world into a giant dystopian surveillance state, and many of the words ecosystems are on the verge of collapse.
Why are shopping trolleys something you even think about?
Because people tend to think on the way from the store to their car. And they wonder what kind of people just leave their carts out in the parking lot when there is a cart return just over yonder.
Although... people not thinking when they are going from the store to their car could very well be the cause of this.