Cart Narcs ... I mean, I get it, but when did this become a thing?

[jaybirdsmommy]

This one is easy... think ahead and park next to or close to a corral. That way you have the cart immediately to put the kids in it.

How did they get from the car to the cart to begin with if they rely on it? Again, park near the corral to start with. It's easier at the start AND at the end.


Actually, IMO, there are only a few reasons for not returning a cart. No, you're not responsible for someone else's cart.


So would you go into the store and make a mess intentionally? After all, an employee would have to clean it up in addition to their other duties, so they can use the extra pay, right? What a strange validation.

My mother can walk but she likes to have the cart for stability. She can manage the short walk from the handicapped spot to the store without one. She can NOT manage a much longer walk from a cart corral in the middle of the parking lot. Especially if the lot has been recently cleared and there are no carts in the corral.

There aren't always parking spots next to corrals anyway.

There is no correlation between leaving a cart in the parking lot and intentionally making a mess in the store. Most stores have someone whose job it is to bring in the carts. That's their job (or at least part of their job). As long as the cart isn't left where it can roll into someone's car, it isn't the heinous crime people are making it out to be. It is definitely not an indication of the type of person someone is.

 

[sam_gordon]

My mother can walk but she likes to have the cart for stability. She can manage the short walk from the handicapped spot to the store without one. She can NOT manage a much longer walk from a cart corral in the middle of the parking lot.

If someone is parked in the handicapped spot, I'll give them a pass.

There aren't always parking spots next to corrals anyway.

You just aren't willing to park out far enough.

There is no correlation between leaving a cart in the parking lot and intentionally making a mess in the store. Most stores have someone whose job it is to bring in the carts. That's their job (or at least part of their job).

Didn't you say "the staff getting the cart can use the extra hour of pay"? So you want to give them something to do to earn money. That's why I said if you leave a mess in the store, you're giving an employee something to do to earn money.

As long as the cart isn't left where it can roll into someone's car, it isn't the heinous crime people are making it out to be. It is definitely not an indication of the type of person someone is.

How do you leave the cart where it can't roll into someone's car? Put the wheels on the curb where a tree is? So the cart is sticking into a parking spot blocking it?

I agree it's not worth confronting someone over, but yes, I will mentally judge them. Just like I do for people who double park.

 

[VandVsmama]

This is a stupid attempt by the video-producer to bring in more ad revenue for themselves. And it's a dumb thing to get worked up over.

 

[Heather07438]

Most people don't want their car dented with stray carts or see the 10 closest parking spots occupied by abandoned carts.

Why assume the person must be a horrid 'center of the universe' type. Who knows what that person is dealing with. Maybe they do deserve a pass this time. Getting aggressive and feeling like a superior cart returner has its own issues. A glance is as far as any punishment should go.

Cart Narcs should make bumper stickers: "Please return your cart". Give them out and put them on all their friend's and family's cars Raise awareness, not hostility (if it's just so important).

 

[FigmentSpark]

If someone is parked in the handicapped spot, I'll give them a pass.


You just aren't willing to park out far enough.


Didn't you say "the staff getting the cart can use the extra hour of pay"? So you want to give them something to do to earn money. That's why I said if you leave a mess in the store, you're giving an employee something to do to earn money.


How do you leave the cart where it can't roll into someone's car? Put the wheels on the curb where a tree is? So the cart is sticking into a parking spot blocking it?

I agree it's not worth confronting someone over, but yes, I will mentally judge them. Just like I do for people who double park.

Actually, I said that about the extra hour of pay. I didn’t mean people should intentionally make a mess to create that extra hour. I meant that saying some poor worker has to do that job is not a reason to shame someone into putting their cart away.

re parking close to a corral, thats not always possible, particularly in a busy lot. And cart corrals aren’t always in the farther areas of the lot. Their often closer to the store, so assuming someone doesn’t want to park far away is a error. That spot may be their only choice.

Giving handicapped people in a handicapped spot a pass is mighty big of you. What about the person who doesnt quite qualify for the handicap sticker or could not find a free one in the lot? Or maybe the person has one, but is feeling comparatively good that day and leaves the handicapped spot for someone else. Or maybe their injury is temporary and they don’t qualify for that spot.

i totally agree that people shouldn’t leave a cart to bash into someone else‘s car, but often that only happens on windy days. You can’t say the person who left the cart intended that malice.

Anyway, I’m just saying it shouldn’t be something people judge others for.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Just shock jocks with nothing better to do being shock jocks. As long as you tie your brain behind your back before you click play, it's funny. I liked the one where the Karen, and she totally was a Karen says he's on store property and she's getting the manager. She actually didn't work for the store. He says he doesn't want to talk to the manager. She tries to say he has to and it's too late. He then says watch this. My legs actually work. He takes too steps and says, now I'm on the sidewalk. HAHAHAHAHAHHA!!

HEHEHE. You are this close to being on the ground. No I'm already on the ground. See my feet touching? I'm highly trained in running away. HAHAHAHHA. I can't believe people are getting this mad over someone telling them to put their cart in the rack. Of course who knows how many they shoot to get the ones that make it to air.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Raise awareness, not hostility

love this line!!!!

 

[mom2rtk]

Of course you should return your cart. I always do.

And of course this is a needlessly combative thing to do. I actually see what they're doing as worse than what the non-returner is doing. Because the threat of escalation is there.

 

[nicolita3]

Like other have said 99% of the time I'll return my cart. But every now and then the grocery store will be packed and I have to park at the very end of the lot. I also live in Arizona so when it's summer and this happens and I have a bunch of frozen stuff I will turn on my car to get it to start cooling off. Well, I don't like leaving my car running and having to go half a lot down to return it. So yeah I will leave it in those instances, but it isn't often.

 

[ArielRae]

I was a Home Depot Lot Attendant. Those carts are terrible to work with and that is one place hardly anyone takes the time to put them away. I will rarely leave my shopping cart on the side out of the way. More times then not I do put it away. I also like to grab a cart left in a parking spot while on my way into a store to use for my shopping so it is no longer in the way of anyone in the parking lot anymore. I don’t see many people who do that. So I think the little amount of times I am in a situation I need to leave the cart and can’t put it away is made up for everytime I put one back or grab one left out by someone else. I will say if you do put your cart in the cart corral PLEASE push them all the way in to the back of the corral and into one another. Don’t leave them over flowing out of the cart corral cause you were to lazy to push them together they take up less space and makes it easier for the Lot Attendant to grab them if they are already stacked.

 

[b2k1121]

My mother can walk but she likes to have the cart for stability. She can manage the short walk from the handicapped spot to the store without one. She can NOT manage a much longer walk from a cart corral in the middle of the parking lot. Especially if the lot has been recently cleared and there are no carts in the corral.

There aren't always parking spots next to corrals anyway.

There is no correlation between leaving a cart in the parking lot and intentionally making a mess in the store. Most stores have someone whose job it is to bring in the carts. That's their job (or at least part of their job). As long as the cart isn't left where it can roll into someone's car, it isn't the heinous crime people are making it out to be. It is definitely not an indication of the type of person someone is.

So shouldn’t we make that crappy job a little bit easier for them by collecting all the cars in the corrals? Just because someone will come get the cart doesn’t mean you should just leave it wherever your want.

You aren’t a bad person if you leave your cart in the lot once. But it probably is an indication of the type of person someone is if they do it routinely.

 

[DuskKodesh]

Interesting, this wasn't a bit I was aware of, then again as a store worker you better believe 100% of the time I put my cart in the corral when I shop.
I'm not sure where I stand on this callout style prankery. Perhaps the person is in pain, sick, needs to leave in a hurry? In which case why be a rear-end to them? Just let them go. This sounds like some odd ploy for attention, I mean you have that much time you could simply help the person out or just take the cart and give them a snippy remark if you truly must. Pushing a cart behind a vehicle ventures too much into liability territory.

Also yes, the cart wranglers are hourly employees but the way corporate manages things now means that there are never enough employees, we ALL multitask, and there's always a task list bigger than anyone's shift. Rearranging items on the shelves, spilling a drink, or leaving carts all over isn't helping the employees, it's not"making more work". It's adding another bulletin point to an already long list of tasks we have to do in a short prescheduled shift.

 

[greg9x]

While making a video show over it is a bit much... not returning carts is one of my pet peeves, it's lazy/disrespectful and there is no reason not to do it.

I liked Germany's way to handle it... you had to put a Euro coin in a clasp on the cart to free it from the other carts. To get your coin back, you had to take the cart back and reconnect it to the other carts. If for whatever reason you didn't take your cart back, someone else would get paid if they did.

 

[design_mom]

I'm 45 years old, until sometime in my 20s the norm was to unload your cart and place it at the head of your parking spot. This was the way shopping worked since the late '30s when shopping carts were invented.

I'm 47 and also remember when they started installing cart corrals. Before there were cart corrals you were supposed to return your cart to the store, not leave it in the parking lot where it'd roll around and dent other cars.

So, if you're shopping alone with your little ones, you put them safely in their car seats and... what do you do with this cart when the return is across the parking lot? Between leaving my kids or the cart, my kids win every time. A cart narc's nastiness isn't as bad as having my kids kidnapped or removed by social services for neglect.

My kids are pretty much grown now, but I never put them in the car before I returned my cart. I put my groceries in the car, pushed the cart (with kids) to the cart return area, took the kids out of the cart, and carried/walked them back to the car. The choices aren't "abandon the kids" or "don't return cart."

I think there are VERY few reasons why someone would be "justified" in not taking their cart to the cart corral... but that "bit" sounds stupid, and pushing the cart behind someone's car is an even bigger jerk move than not returning the cart.

 

[Wiltony]

I liked Germany's way to handle it... you had to put a Euro coin in a clasp on the cart to free it from the other carts. To get your coin back, you had to take the cart back and reconnect it to the other carts. If for whatever reason you didn't take your cart back, someone else would get paid if they did.

Came here to mention this, glad I found someone else did already! Seems like a good system. Carts are still "free" to use, as long as you return it. And if you don't, you're essentially charged for the convenience of not doing so -- no guilt required, and then there is a nice incentive for someone else to return it.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I liked Germany's way to handle it... you had to put a Euro coin in a clasp on the cart to free it from the other carts. To get your coin back, you had to take the cart back and reconnect it to the other carts. If for whatever reason you didn't take your cart back, someone else would get paid if they did.

I'm in Massachusetts (U.S.) and our Aldi's does that as well!

 

[teller80]

This thread reminds me of this, but I don't think returning carts is necessarily a generational thing.

 

[wildride]

Honestly these people are pathetic, if this is your life I feel sorry for you.

 

[Micca]

This thread reminds me of this, but I don't think returning carts is necessarily a generational thing. View attachment 500060

I'm def a Boomer (OK? ) but I was taught that stacking everything together was poor etiquette for the people seated at the table. I'm all for better treatment for wait staff, but they do get paid and tipped (in most cases.) Is it that much more work to pick up individual plates & flatware?

 

[VandVsmama]

So shouldn’t we make that crappy job a little bit easier for them by collecting all the cars in the corrals? Just because someone will come get the cart doesn’t mean you should just leave it wherever your want.

You aren’t a bad person if you leave your cart in the lot once. But it probably is an indication of the type of person someone is if they do it routinely.

I regularly do not put my cart in the designated place. So I think that officially makes me a tool.