There’s two WOMEN in the story; there’s only one lady.
My solution: Wait at the checkout counter for her. When she checks out - loudly (as in shouting) while you hand her 75 cents proclaim to everyone that you feel bad about only giving 25 cents to somebody who is so desperate for income that she has to steal a cart from you. Say," I would feel so much better if I at least offered this less fortunate person and herhusband $1.00. Would anyone else here care to help these poor unfortunate souls?"
Bad pit title. It is not about the quarter. It is about someone who lacks the values to actually go out in public. She has a damaged honor system .
There are THREE women: [ol]
[li]OP[/li][li]Frazzled Mom[/li][li]Cuntbag[/ol]The frazzled mom gets the benefit of the doubt. And the OP is a lady, whether she wishes to accept the title or whether she doesn’t.[/li]
I like the Hulk Hogan pose idea. To quote Stewie Griffin: “SOMEBODY’S wearing her ovaries on the outside…”
I recall a little old lady cutting in front of me in line in a deli in Toronto on one occasion about 25 years ago – if that isn’t proof that people in Ontario can also be rude, I don’t know what is. 
Well, I wasn’t counting the OP. The mom gets the benefit of the doubt for being a lazy; the cart thief is the non-lady.
(Can I stay in the thread even if I don’t curse? I prefer to reserve my vulgarities for truly horrid offenses.)
Look, you guys are forgetting a very important part of the market place, survival of the fittest. If you can’t hold on to a cart, you don’t deserve to have it.
Good point. Let’s get Rand Rover and Carol Stream in here to rip tumbleddown a new one for not being ruthless enough to snatch the cart back from the old woman. Give her a real SDMB welcome. And again for not having the foresight to bring two quarters with her. That’s some poor life-choices behavior, right there.
That’s the REAL initiation; never mind the squid and goats.
You guys are clueless optimistic fools. It’s not how it works in the real world.
In all likelihood, when she retrieved the quarter, she noticed it was a very rare quarter minted with two head sides, and worth $2 000. While she was marvelling at her discovery, the manager came to tell her that being the 100 000th cart user, she had just won the grand prize, a two weeks long cruise to the Bahamas.
The OP should learn that a good deed (closing the car’s door) never stays unpunished.
People like this are why I don’t shop on black friday.
I went into office max, grabbed one of the last chairs from the display of $25 office chairs and got about 20 feet set it down to get a better grip on in when a little old lady walks up grabs onto it it and starts trying to drag it off. I rather loudly pointed out that it was mine and tried to pick it up at which point she pushed me as hard as her maybe 140 pound self could have, and started to drag again. So I sat on the box. She stepped back, and struck a pose, fists clenched like she was going to hit me. My reply “Please, go for it, give me a good excuse to teach you the manners your father failed to” She said “you are an asshole” and marched off, to find another victim I guess.
I can think of few times in my life where I wanted to hit somebody more. People who depend on the civility of the average person to avoid assault need to have their ass kicked a few times by random people. I think there should be a community service award for finding people like this and bashing their face into tile floor a few times.
I’d be willing to part with several quarters if Aldi would open a store in Albuquerque…well at least we finally got us a Trader Joe’s.
Good for the OP. I’m the sort that, seeing someone leave thier cart in the lot, rather than returning it, will go grab the cart and move it behind thier car so they have to move it to get out of thier parking space.
Finally…a couple of years back I followed a Volvo with it’s rear door open for three blocks. The woman and teenaged girl in the front seat were both talking on thier cell phones and looked like they nearly pissed themselves when when I walked up to the open door at the first stop sign and asked if they’d like me to close it for them.
But in the ensuing media spectacle, tumbleddown sees and identifies the woman and goes and pees on her doormat. WIN!
Only pee? Don’t we have a Doper here who would take a crap on her doorstep?
Well, yeah, but we probably have Dopers who would have climbed into the cart in the store to take a dump, too. Obviously, tumbleddown is a wee (pun not intended) bit more refined!
Now ya see, where I come from, if you do that, the victim is perfectly justified in shooting you in the ass with a BB gun. However, I have never actually seen this happen. Stealing a cart I mean. But it would be sweet, just so I could see an asshole getting shot with a BB gun.
But if you leave the cart in the cart corral with the quarter still in it, it’s fair game, as long as you also leave the cart with the quarter in it when you’re done.
In addition, when confronted with a situation where you have no correct change for a cart, it is fine if you lurk around the cart corral waiting for people taking their carts back and ask if you can give them your incorrect change for their cart.