# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![Thylacine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thylacine/32/1143_2.png) [@Thylacine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacine)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/81 "2004-02-29T21:53:10Z")
Around here the coin in the slot seems to make things worse, people who walk their groceries home in trolleys (which seems terribly masochistic as the wheels were never designed for footpaths or hills or corners, they are hard enough to control in-store) then only have to find another abandoned trolley to hook it to to reclaim their money. We have three major supermarkets within a block of eachother. I have no idea how they decide who will collect the long snakes of differently branded trolleys that wind up in local streets. I have tried to push two at once down the road, it is near impossible, their slightly different designs meant they had no wish to move together. I take my own _granny jeep_ ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/82 "2004-02-29T22:08:49Z")
When I was at university I worked part-time in a supermarket and occasionaly I would have to round up those trollies (carts) and it’s a pain, it’s also dangerous. A little while after I left one of my colleagues was run-over and killed collecting shopping trollies from the car-park. ---
**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, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/83 "2004-02-29T23:06:08Z")
> [@The Green Feather](#): > > If I see you juggling severl kids, I’ll offer to take the cart back for you. Hell, if I see you juggling several kids, I’ll put a dollar in your hat and applaud! ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/84 "2004-03-01T00:05:34Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > And since when is this supposed to be “common courtesy”? I’ve lived in the US for twenty-eight years now, I’m generally pretty polite (Pit threads not withstanding) and this thread is the first I’ve ever heard that I’m under some kind of obligation to return carts. > > Did you miss the part where both me and **Bill Door** said we make sure to secure our carts so they _don’t_ blow around the parking lot? Is any of _this_ getting through? Yes I read that, I think you are probably the wrong people to be getting worked up about this cart thing because you don’t appear to be the people who leave carts actually sitting in blank car parking spaces, forcing people to get out of their car to move it before parking. That is the major gripe I believe. That is also the prime difference between bagging groceries and taking your cart back. Not bagging your own groceries does not prevent people from parking their cars. On a side note. I have never been to a grocery store that has a bagger. I have also never been to one (though I know they exist here) where you bag your own groceries. In the supermarkets I frequent, the check-out-chick/dude has open bags ready on a couple of bag hangers. They swipe the products and place them into the bags in one movement. There is more than one bag open at any time so they can divide different types of product without having to be too selective in intitally picking them up. We do our best to help out by placing the products onto the counter in general bagging groups. We couldn’t bag if we wanted to as the bags are not accessable to us. Do you not have this over there? ---
**Author:** ![Pixiesnix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Pixiesnix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixiesnix)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/85 "2004-03-01T00:27:05Z")
**htns** , **netscape 6** was referring to my post in which I mentioned I had to clean a dirty diaper from an abandoned shopping cart during my daily retail adventures. Leaving the cart in the middle of the store was bad enough. Leaving the diaper in the cart was just the stinky, bacteria-infested cherry topping a parfait of assholery. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/86 "2004-03-01T00:50:51Z")
> [@KCSuze](#): > > . . . the stinky, bacteria-infested cherry topping a parfait of assholery. [**Eve** takes her hat off in awe of **KCSuze**] ---
**Author:** ![Sensualips](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7c8e57/32.png) [@Sensualips](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sensualips)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/87 "2004-03-01T01:17:18Z")
Ohh man, talk about sweating the small stuff!!! You guys who are sooo dead set against her leaving the cart are such nitpickers! As for the guy that says the carts are there for our convenience…I say baloney…they don’t do anything without a profitable premise…It make sense to have large carts so we can carry off more groceries and thus spend more of our hard earned money. We are giving this high school kid a job. As my contribution to that portion of society who have nothing better to do than make life harder for this girl. I suggest taking a shopping cart from the parking lot that someone else has left. After using that, leave it between the front of the cars in a fixed position. This way you have helped make it safer. Honestly, some of the people in here are such narrow minded idiots. Tell me, does hyper-sensitivity and intolerance go along with genius? I should think your minds would have better things to obsess about. If we put all the passion in this one thread into discussing a clean alternative energy source I bet we would be driving clean cheap cars tomorrow… Jeesh!! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/88 "2004-03-01T01:29:44Z")
> [@Proudest Monkey](#): > > The grocery store where I do the majority of my shopping has a bagger at each checkout. I place my canvas bags on the belt first and by the time I have finished paying, the order is completely bagged. How do you get them to do that? When I go shopping, I put my backpack on the belt, and the bagger looks at me stupid, shoves it aside, and puts my stuff in the store’s plastic bags, so I have to stand there and unbag all the stuff and arrange it in my backpack so the weight is evenly distributed while still keeping heavier items from crushing the bread and eggs. The bagger stands there and looks at me stupid while I do this. If I’m having one of those days when my preoccupation level is low enough that it occurs to me that the bagger might not be able to figure out that the obvious (and indeed, only possible) reason I am putting my empty backpack on the belt in front of her is that I want her to put my stuff in it, and say “Put my stuff in this,” the bagger looks at me stupid, bags all my stuff in the store bags, which she then places on top of my backpack. She then looks at me stupid while I lift the bags off my backpack, unbag my stuff, and then repack it in my backpack. Both bagger and cashier continually flash me dirty looks, obviously annoyed at me for holding up the line and getting in other customers’ way while I repack my stuff because the bagger can’t grok the simple concept that if a customer brings her own bag and gives it to you, it’s because the customer wants you to put her stuff _in that freaking bag_. ---
**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:** [March 1, 2004, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/89 "2004-03-01T03:05:04Z")
> [@1920s Style Death Ray](#): > > Yes I read that, I think you are probably the wrong people to be getting worked up about this cart thing because you don’t appear to be the people who leave carts actually sitting in blank car parking spaces, forcing people to get out of their car to move it before parking. That is the major gripe I believe. That is also the prime difference between bagging groceries and taking your cart back. Not bagging your own groceries does not prevent people from parking their cars. Odd that this thread has run to two acrimonious pages when no one is arguing in favor of the “major gripe,” isn’t it? > [@](#): > > On a side note. I have never been to a grocery store that has a bagger. I have also never been to one (though I know they exist here) where you bag your own groceries. In the supermarkets I frequent, the check-out-chick/dude has open bags ready on a couple of bag hangers. They swipe the products and place them into the bags in one movement. There is more than one bag open at any time so they can divide different types of product without having to be too selective in intitally picking them up. We do our best to help out by placing the products onto the counter in general bagging groups. We couldn’t bag if we wanted to as the bags are not accessable to us. > > Do you not have this over there? Mostly just in the express lanes, in my experience. ---
**Author:** ![Pixiesnix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Pixiesnix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixiesnix)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/90 "2004-03-01T04:18:14Z")
**Eve** , you just made my week. 🙂 In my other posts, I neglected to mention my mother. She not only puts her cart into the corral, she gathers nearby carts and pushes them into the corral as well. I like to think she helps balance out the cart leavers. But really, she shouldn’t have to. No one’s making her do it, of course, but if it weren’t for the people who leave their carts, she wouldn’t feel the need to do so. That’s just the kind of person she is. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/91 "2004-03-01T04:30:23Z")
[QUOTE=autz] [QUOTE=CanvasShoes] Not disputing you, but just curious. How on earth do you manage to carry a tiny baby in its carrier, a toddler, a purse on your shoulder, AND keep hold of two small children TOO, clear across a parking lot from the cart korral to the car? My gosh, your arms must be killing you by the time you get to your car. > [@](#): > > Baby is in his carrier on the cart, toddler is in the cart, kids are walking next to the cart. We return the cart. Then I’m carrying the carrier, and the 3 kids who are walking hold hand and we walk back to the car. > > It’s really not that hard. It’s the exact same way we do it wen we first arrive at the store, just in reverse. Wow, it sounds impressive to me, I only had two children, 12 years apart. Most people with kids I see nowadays won’t hold hands and walk quietly together, that’s why I was asking. Most moms with kids I see are havng a hard time just having one child halfway behave to and from the store (not to mention inside of it :D). My mommie hat is off to you. ---
**Author:** ![bare](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bare/32/471_2.png) [@bare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bare)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/92 "2004-03-01T05:01:53Z")
I’m guilty of often not returning carts and haven’t seen this mentioned. I have some difficulty walking very far and find that pushing a cart and supporting myself somewhat on it really helps. I love it when I find loose carts in the parking lot. That way I have something to help me into the store. I also make certain that when I do leave a cart, that it is not blocking parking, nor will it take off on its own. ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/93 "2004-03-01T05:19:02Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > You call that an answer? I call it bullshit. Why aren’t they comparable? Why are we expected to return carts, but not expected to bag our own groceries? “That’s the way we always do it” is _not_ a valid answer. It never is, no matter what the question. Okay how about this – in most U.S. stores, there is a person whose job description includes bagging groceries, be that person the bagger or the cashier. We are not expected to do this because it is explicitly included in what they are meant to do. Dragging carts from all over the parking lot of the supermarket is not explicitly included in the job of the person sent out the get carts, they are meant to get carts from the clearly labeled, specially arranged corrals the store has provided _as a courtesy_ to the customers. That they must drag carts from all over hell and gone is not a part what they are hired to do, it is what they are **forced** to do by assholes like yourself who haven’t the common sense to understand that the signs which read “Please Place Your Carts Here” apply to you too. > [@](#): > > And since when is this supposed to be “common courtesy”? I’ve lived in the US for twenty-eight years now, I’m generally pretty polite (Pit threads not withstanding) and this thread is the first I’ve ever heard that I’m under some kind of obligation to return carts. Can I presume that you’re developmentally delayed in some fashion? When you are done using something which does not belong to you, you put it back where the owner tells you it belongs. When you are functioning in polite society, you do not create extra, unnecessary work for someone because you’re too lazy to do what needs to be done yourself. Most children have worked that out – if in theory moreso than practice – by the age of ten. > [@](#): > > Did you miss the part where both me and **Bill Door** said we make sure to secure our carts so they _don’t_ blow around the parking lot? Is any of _this_ getting through? It’s getting through, but it’s meaningless. You’re not putting the carts where they belong, so who gives a damn what piddling little effort you put forth? That’s like wanting credit for clearing the table when all you’ve done is stack the plates on the sideboard. Big friggin deal! ---
**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:** [March 1, 2004, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/94 "2004-03-01T05:46:38Z")
> [@TeaElle](#): > > Okay how about this – in most U.S. stores, there is a person whose job description includes bagging groceries, be that person the bagger or the cashier. We are not expected to do this because it is explicitly included in what they are meant to do. > > Dragging carts from all over the parking lot of the supermarket is not explicitly included in the job of the person sent out the get carts, they are meant to get carts from the clearly labeled, specially arranged corrals the store has provided _as a courtesy_ to the customers. That they must drag carts from all over hell and gone is not a part what they are hired to do, it is what they are **forced** to do by assholes like yourself who haven’t the common sense to understand that the signs which read “Please Place Your Carts Here” apply to you too. It’s not part of their job? You mean, they don’t get paid to do it? Cause if they do, _then it’s part of their fucking job, you twit._ If you drop a jar in the store, do you personally mop it up? Do you check expiration dates in the dairy section, just to help out? Do you gather up the handbaskets at each checkout counter and put them by the front door? I doubt it, because the store has employees to do that. That’s the _entire point of going to a store in the first place._ Newsflash, dipshit: there is no expectation on the customers to return carts to the store. NONE. I have never, in any store I have been to in my life, seen a single sign requesting that the customer return carts. It is understood that _that job is the responsibility of the store employees._ > [@](#): > > Can I presume that you’re developmentally delayed in some fashion? Yeah, fuck you too, you hysterical fucking moron. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/95 "2004-03-01T05:55:51Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > this thread is the first I’ve ever heard that I’m under some kind of obligation to return carts. _SMACK_ Snap out of it, boy! Haven’t you seen those BIG FREAKING SIGNS they have on the cart corrals that say “Please Return Carts Here” (or some variation thereof)? Yeah, that means they expect you to put the carts there when you’re done with them. Or at the very least, they’d _like_ you to. ---
**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:** [March 1, 2004, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/96 "2004-03-01T06:14:13Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > _SMACK_ > > Snap out of it, boy! Haven’t you seen those BIG FREAKING SIGNS they have on the cart corrals that say “Please Return Carts Here” (or some variation thereof)? Yeah, that means they expect you to put the carts there when you’re done with them. Or at the very least, they’d _like_ you to. No, I haven’t. Never. They don’t have them at any supermarket I’ve ever been to. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/97 "2004-03-01T06:25:46Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > No, I haven’t. Never. They don’t have them at any supermarket I’ve ever been to. They don’t have cart corrals, or they don’t have _signs_ on the cart corrals? ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/98 "2004-03-01T06:53:17Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Odd that this thread has run to two acrimonious pages when no one is arguing in favor of the “major gripe,” isn’t it? Well, this thread started by referencing another thread, in which, the major gripe was the fact that someone had to get out of their car to move a shopping trolley before parking. You are right, no one in this thread has explicitly talked about having their parking spaces blocked, but when they talk about being inconvenienced, and “rude behaviour” then I believe they were not originally talking about supermarket workers having to collect them, but the way in which they invade parking spaces and also risk damaging cars. The thread has since moved off track. Away from the specific annoying behaviour of leaving trolleys in parking spaces, to the more general matter of not returning trolleys to the collection lanes. Your more recent posts even give the impression that the places you go to don’t even have collection lanes. I am reminded of the threads where someone complains about tailgaters. Someone else says “well if you moved over to the slow lane, we wouldn’t tail gate”. The thread then continues over several pages with people arguing various points until people finally start to realise that the OP was talking about single lane mountain roads, and the defenders were talking about multi lane highways. In short, I don’t think very many people in this thread are arguing from the same page. ---
**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:** [March 1, 2004, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/99 "2004-03-01T07:07:21Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > They don’t have cart corrals, or they don’t have _signs_ on the cart corrals? The signs. A lot of places have the corrals, but there by no means standard where I live. ---
**Author:** ![WILLASS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/54ee81/32.png) [@WILLASS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WILLASS)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672/100 "2004-03-01T07:17:40Z")
**Miller** , for the sake of argument lets suppose that where you shop doesn’t have signs or corrals. If this is the case then fair play, you are not in any way in the wrong. On the other hand, if you take a cart from a corral would you not just put it back where you got it from once you were finished regardless of being told to do so with signs? I was brought up to put anything I borrow (and you are borrowing it) back where I got it from. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-return-carts-aint-always-lazy/231672.md?page=6)