# People who don't return carts ain't always lazy. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 28, 2004, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672 "2004-02-28T23:15:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/41 "2004-02-29T04:19:58Z")
> [@Joe Random](#): > > If you were really concerned about creating jobs for the cart-gatherers, then why don’t you roll your cart as far away from the store as possible before leaving? Your motivation obviously isn’t securing the cart-gatherer’s jobs – in fact, most cart-gatherers do so only as part of their job, spending the bulk of their time doing stuff like stocking shelves and carrying heavy merchandise for little old ladies. . . tasks which you are making it more difficult for them to get around to. No, your motivation is doing as little work as possible. I’d classify that as lazy. I’m sure that in a previous post in this very thread I said that I wheeled my cart as close to the exit as I could and popped the wheels over the curb so it wouldn’t roll away. You should try reading for comprehension. Admittedly, it does make it slightly easier for me, but it’s the better part of a mile from the store to my home, so an extra 100 feet or so is not a big factor. Your assessment of my motivation is incorrect, but I’m sure you’re used to that. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/42 "2004-02-29T04:28:11Z")
> [@Alien2022](#): > > I work at a grocery store, pushing the carts, because I’m a student and need some extra cash. I’m curious–who _does_ collect the carts that people have stolen and left all over town, in alleys and streets and yards? When do they do this? Does the store provide a pickup truck or something? Does the collector make overtime? ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Joe\_Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Random)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/43 "2004-02-29T04:35:50Z")
> [@Bill Door](#): > > I’m sure that in a previous post in this very thread I said that I wheeled my cart as close to the exit as I could and popped the wheels over the curb so it wouldn’t roll away. Perhaps I’ve misunderstood, then. Are you saying that the parking lot does not have corrals (i.e. metal enclosures designed to hold carts) at regular intervals throughout the lot? If so, then I see no problem with what you’re doing. What I have a problem with are people who can’t walk 20 feet to a corral, and leave carts scattered throughout the lot. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Macphisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@Ms\_Macphisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Macphisto)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/44 "2004-02-29T04:39:27Z")
Around here I’ve heard of retired people gathering abandoned shopping carts from around the neighbourhood and returning them to the store for payment. I don’t know how common that is though, I just heard about it recently when one of the suburbs proposed a bylaw that would deprive them of that source of income. ---
**Author:** ![Pixiesnix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Pixiesnix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixiesnix)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/45 "2004-02-29T04:45:11Z")
Sears started providing shopping carts for its customers about a year ago. Since then, carts have been found not only all over the mall, but all over the parking lot, and sometimes even in the adjoining town. In my own personal experience, I’ve had to collect carts from all over the store and the mall. But hey, that’s my job, right? No, it isn’t. I once found a dirty diaper left in a shopping cart in the middle of the store. Guess who had to clean it up? But hey, that’s my job, right? No, it isn’t. It’s not going to break your delicate little hands to push the cart back where it belongs. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/46 "2004-02-29T05:05:53Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Bastards. Thieves. Litterers. Whenever I see someone wheeling their groceries home in a Shop-Rite cart, I innocently ask, “Oh, you can _buy_ those? Where can I get one?” They invariably say, “No, they don’t mind if you take them,” and I answer that “gee, all the signs around the store say that stealing them is a felony.” When we had no car and lived within a mile of the grocery store, we asked the store if we could take the groceries home and then walk back the cart. They always said yes, and that is what we did. Not everyone you see wheeling the cart across town is a theif and not everyone will leave it abandonded. ---
**Author:** ![rmbnxs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9e5f3/32.png) [@rmbnxs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rmbnxs)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/47 "2004-02-29T05:21:35Z")
> [@Bill Door](#): > > Gosh, I won, and I didn’t even know I had been nominated. I have a whole list of people I’d like to thank, now where did I put it? … You left it lying unattended on the ground and the wind blew it into my yard. I picked it up and used it to wipe my ass. Then I threw into your yard, asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Jaade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@Jaade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaade)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/48 "2004-02-29T06:31:35Z")
> [@Bill Door](#): > > And yet, without we cart abandoners, cart gatherers would be unemployed. If you’ve been a cart pusher, you should know the truth. The fewer carts there are to push the harder the job is. They set two people to do the job of three, then one, then they expect the bagger to run in and out of the store to handle the carts in between the other tasks. If there was less work to do there would be fewer people doing it. Are you so obtuse that you think Walmart would pay people to sit with folded hands while customers put their own carts away? Ok, are you aware that most “cart gatherers” are not hired for the express purpose of gathering carts? Maybe this is a difficult concept for you to grasp, but “cart gatherers” are more well known as BAGGERS. Yes, that’s right, in between running around and getting the damn carts from the entire parking lot, these poor kids getting paid minimum wage are expected to bag groceries and escort people to their cars, and load the cars with groceries. I bet you bitch if all the baggers are too busy pushing carts to bag your groceries too… ---
**Author:** ![pilot141](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e0b2c6/32.png) [@pilot141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pilot141)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/49 "2004-02-29T07:22:53Z")
> [@Alien2022](#): > > I work at a grocery store, pushing the carts, because I’m a student and need some extra cash. > > I don’t mind getting your carts that you push all the fuck over the place and leave for me to get. I don’t mind it at all. I get paid the same whether or not I bag your groceries, or if I’m out collecting the carts that assholes like you left all over the place. I don’t care if I’m out collecting the carts that you left, instead of helping some old lady who can barely walk with her groceries. > > I get paid the same $6.91 an hour. > Basically, the only real accomplishment that you can possibly attest to, is degrading the quality of your own in-store experience. I don’t even want to hear you bitch about how long it takes to get your groceries or if you have to bag them. Guess why? I’m out collecting the carts that you ass fucks pushed all over the lot, and left them there for me to go and get. It’s my job isn’t it? > > Fucking hypocrites. Apparently this is the only post in this thread that **Bill Door** has not read. Yes, if the town is populated completely with lazy assholes then the stores probably must employ full-time cart-gatherers. This means EXTRA people on the payroll to collect carts left all over the place by lazy assholes. That means that my food/clothing/whatever is more expensive because of the lazy assholes. If the town only has a FEW lazy assholes, then they may not have a full-time cart gatherer. They may assign this job to a bagger. So while said bagger is out collecting the carts of the lazy assholes, I end up bagging my own groceries or spending ten minutes in the express lane because the cashier has to bag everyone’s groceries. So the few lazy assholes in town make my shopping experience worse. Either way, I call **Bill Door** a lazy asshole. No matter how you slice it, my shopping experience is lessened because of you. Once when leaving Target I loaded my stuff into the truck and then proceeded to return my cart to the collecter (a good distance away). When I got back my GF asked me why I did that. I answered “Because we live in a society, and this is one of the things that greases the wheels of society.” You can choose to be the grease, or you can be the sand that grinds up and slows the gears of society to a halt. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/50 "2004-02-29T07:40:45Z")
> [@Jaade](#): > > Ok, are you aware that most “cart gatherers” are not hired for the express purpose of gathering carts? Maybe this is a difficult concept for you to grasp, but “cart gatherers” are more well known as BAGGERS. Yes, that’s right, in between running around and getting the damn carts from the entire parking lot, these poor kids getting paid minimum wage are expected to bag groceries and escort people to their cars, and load the cars with groceries. > > I bet you bitch if all the baggers are too busy pushing carts to bag your groceries too… Speaking of baggers, couldn’t all of the arguments used against people who don’t return their carts\* be used against people who don’t bag their own groceries? After all, if everyone did it themselves, they could lay off all those baggers, which would save shoppers _way_ more money than they’re spending on having some guy run around the parking lot every couple hours gathering carts. It might even add up to a whole cent per shopper! Imagine that! \*Except the car damage arguments, of course. > [@pilot141](#): > > Once when leaving Target I loaded my stuff into the truck and then proceeded to return my cart to the collecter (a good distance away). When I got back my GF asked me why I did that. I answered “Because we live in a society, and this is one of the things that greases the wheels of society.” > > You can choose to be the grease, or you can be the sand that grinds up and slows the gears of society to a halt. That’s right, **Bill**. You not returning your cart to the corral is going to lead directly to the collapse of Western civilization. It happened to the Romans! ---
**Author:** ![pilot141](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e0b2c6/32.png) [@pilot141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pilot141)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/51 "2004-02-29T08:16:32Z")
Not directly. Indirectly. Lazy assholes are the same the world over. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/52 "2004-02-29T08:37:10Z")
I stand corrected. Improper shopping cart storage _indirectly_ led to the fall of Rome. ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/53 "2004-02-29T08:42:44Z")
Sure did. All those barbarians were coming and the Romans needed to gather up their arms and armor, but some selfish fucker had left the shopping carts all over, so it took em forever, and then they were overrun. ---
**Author:** ![netscape\_6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8c91f0/32.png) [@netscape\_6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netscape_6)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/54 "2004-02-29T08:49:59Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Speaking of baggers, couldn’t all of the arguments used against people who don’t return their carts\* be used against people who don’t bag their own groceries? After all, if everyone did it themselves, they could lay off all those baggers, which would save shoppers _way_ more money than they’re spending on having some guy run around the parking lot every couple hours gathering carts. It might even add up to a whole cent per shopper! Imagine that! Actually alot of discount groecery stores do exactly that. They even charge you for bags. Save-a-Lots is a local example.The prices are pretty good too. ---
**Author:** ![netscape\_6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8c91f0/32.png) [@netscape\_6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netscape_6)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/55 "2004-02-29T08:53:12Z")
> [@GMRyujin](#): > > Sure did. All those barbarians were coming and the Romans needed to gather up their arms and armor, but some selfish fucker had left the shopping carts all over, so it took em forever, and then they were overrun. That dirty diaper that butthole left in one of those carts was how the plague got started. ---
**Author:** ![pilot141](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e0b2c6/32.png) [@pilot141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pilot141)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/56 "2004-02-29T10:44:45Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I stand corrected. Improper shopping cart storage _indirectly_ led to the fall of Rome. Exactly. If Rome had had keyboards, all of those lazy assholes would have been online defending their actions in the parking lot rather than defending the empire. Since we have no written evidence of this, we can assume they spent their time bitching verbally about the shopping cart situation up until Rome was overrun. Why is this so hard to understand? 😉 P.S. I’m done here, but I still think that people who leave their carts laying around are lazy assholes. Roman or not. ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/57 "2004-02-29T11:27:29Z")
> [@Bill Door](#): > > And yet, without we cart abandoners, cart gatherers would be unemployed. You’ve trotted out this **bold faced, plainly damned stupid _lie_** in two threads now. You aren’t saving any job, you’re making the job more difficult and less efficient than it needs to be because you can’t get common courtesy or basic concepts of a fairly simple work process through your damned thick skull. > [@Miller](#): > > Speaking of baggers, couldn’t all of the arguments used against people who don’t return their carts\* be used against people who don’t bag their own groceries? Clearly not, as it isn’t common courtesy or generally accepted that Americans bag their own groceries. They aren’t comparable issues. > [@Miller](#): > > After all, if everyone did it themselves, they could lay off all those baggers, which would save shoppers _way_ more money than they’re spending on having some guy run around the parking lot every couple hours gathering carts. It’s not primarily an issue of cost, it’s an issue of being polite, of being a good member of the society in which we all must live. It’s about not creating unnecessary work for poorly paid store employees and not creating a dangerous situation for other shoppers who face damage to their cars from carts drifting around all over the lot. Is _any_ of this getting through? ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/58 "2004-02-29T11:36:48Z")
The way this problem has been dealt with in the UK , especially over carts ( or trolleys as we call them ) being taken off site , is to make the store responsible . This then makes the store put in place measures to ensure that the carts are not taken off site. This is an extract from the relevent law :- \*Section 99 Where any shopping or luggage trolley is found abandoned, the local authority may remove the trolley. Local authorities can collect abandoned shopping (and luggage) trolleys, store them and charge owners for their return. Adopting a deposit system, installing obstacles which prevent trolleys being taken off the site or publicising a trolley collection service will help control this problem and prevent retailers being charged for trolley collections.\* ---
**Author:** ![WILLASS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/54ee81/32.png) [@WILLASS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WILLASS)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/59 "2004-02-29T11:57:20Z")
I didn’t realise that most Americans don’t bag their groceries themselves, we have the option here but it is generally only taken up by the elderly or lazy. I’d feel like a bit of a plum if I requested my bags were packed for me plus they’d probably bugger my system up. With regards to trolley deserters, I think this is just plain laziness. Yes you don’t have to do it; in fact you don’t _have_ to do anything - that includes being a lazy asshole. **Bill Door** used the example ‘When you stay in a hotel, do you make your own bed?’ Well, as a matter of fact I do and I also have a quick tidy up as I was brought up to clean up my own mess and also to treat others as I want to be treated myself. Just because it is someone’s job it doesn’t mean you have to make it as hard as possible then try and convince yourself that you are somehow doing them a favour by giving them a job in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/60 "2004-02-29T14:18:26Z")
> [@dwalin](#): > > How do they manage _that_? Is the thing that locks the cart electronic or mechanical or can you tell? I doubt it’s electronic, as it would probably break fairly easily. The Martin’s just two blocks away had this feature when it first opened, and AFAI can tell, this is how it worked: One of the rear wheels of the cart had a little flashing light (sensor) of some kind that was receiving some sort of “signal” from special lights in the store and around the parking lot, to the perimiter of the parking lot. Once the flashing light could no longer sense the special lights in the store or parking lot, that wheel would stop spinning, making pushing the cart very difficult. Well, the way some of the folks in this neighborhood got around that was to pry the box that was attached to the shopping cart wheel off with something. I’m guessing replacing them wouldn’t have been cheap, and the store never bothered. By the time about half of the carts didn’t have the sensors any more, the store just deactivated them all, and now the carts, with and without sensor boxes, are seen all over the neighborhood. I apologize for the atrocious English in this post. I was up _very_ early this morning. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672.md?page=4)