Why do people leave shopping carts in the parking lot?

[lovesmurfs]

Another reason to love Aldi's. They have a chain attached to each cart, and to get a cart, you put in a quarter. To get the quarter back, you return the cart. Silly, but I never see any shopping carts in the lot!

 

[Duckfan-in-Chicago]

I don't think they were ever hugged as children.

 

[rie'smom]

I don't put mine in the cart corral but I don't leave it in a parking space either. Why don't I put it away? I guess because I'm rude, lazy, and stupid.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Uhm, maybe it's cultural? Where I'm from, no one would dream of putting their cart back in the store. If we started doing that, the store would be able to cut back on the hours of the high school/college kids and the nice young mentally challenged men who work as baggers. Half their job is to round up carts!

Now, when I lived in NE, I put my cart in the corral or pushed it back to the store. Here though, if there's a corral, I'll put it there. If not, especially at the smaller grocery stores, it goes in a cluster with the other carts.

DH was a bagger in high school and college, and it's SOP to leave the cars in the lot at most grocery stores and part of his job was round up carts. He'll even "stack" them sometimes when we're at our grocery store, just so the baggers will have an easier time with their rounding up later.

But take it back in? I'm not giving anybody any reason to cut anyone's hours.

 

["Got Disney"]

I always return my cart no matter how far I have to walk. It makes it easier for the person collecting them and also keeps the parking lot from being cluttered

what I hate is when you see someone take there cart and push it into an empty parking space...I have gone right in front of that person and taken the acre and put it where it goes.

I have also gotten dirty looks for doing it from the person who left it there.....I just look at them and smile and say...I'll just take this back with mine.

 

[rie'smom]

Uhm, maybe it's cultural? Where I'm from, no one would dream of putting their cart back in the store. If we started doing that, the store would be able to cut back on the hours of the high school/college kids and the nice young mentally challenged men who work as baggers. Half their job is to round up carts!

Now, when I lived in NE, I put my cart in the corral or pushed it back to the store. Here though, if there's a corral, I'll put it there. If not, especially at the smaller grocery stores, it goes in a cluster with the other carts.

DH was a bagger in high school and college, and it's SOP to leave the cars in the lot at most grocery stores and part of his job was round up carts. He'll even "stack" them sometimes when we're at our grocery store, just so the baggers will have an easier time with their rounding up later.

But take it back in? I'm not giving anybody any reason to cut anyone's hours.

This is a job that many high school kids get and that is the real reason that I don't put away my cart. Some of these young people are doing this to save money for grauation or college. If we all put away the carts, the stores woldn't need them.

 

[Humphrey Bear]

Another reason to love Aldi's. They have a chain attached to each cart, and to get a cart, you put in a quarter. To get the quarter back, you return the cart. Silly, but I never see any shopping carts in the lot!

We have a chain called Heinen's around here that doesn't allow carts out the store at all. You drop your cart at an area by the door and drive your car around. Then they load your car up for you.

 

[DaisyD]

Because they are lazy slobs that think the world revolves around them. I had three kids with me at times and still managed to keep the carts out of the parking lot. I would leave my cart full of food in the parcel pick spot, walk the kids to the car, load them up, drive all of us to the pick up area, then load the groceries. All while my kids were warming up in the car. Kids are no excuse for being lazy.

 

[finallygoingtoWDW]

Usually I put mine in the cart lot when I am done, but when I hurt my back a couple of years ago, I didn't even push the cart to the end of the parking space. It was all I could do to get myself into the car and in the store. Pushing the cart any further than to the door of my car was impossible at that point, I was in so much pain.
So now I try not to judge people that leave them out, maybe they have a good reason.

So how did you get from the car to the store? And how did you walk around the store?

In all honesty the times I did not return it to the store or corral were when my children were very young. I would put them in their car seat and get the car going to warm it up on cold winter days or very hot summer days and I refused to leave my infant in a running car to return a cart.

I have two children and still manage to put the carts away. Sometimes the kids like to help.

This is a job that many high school kids get and that is the real reason that I don't put away my cart. Some of these young people are doing this to save money for grauation or college. If we all put away the carts, the stores woldn't need them.

So you're helping the economy by leaving the cart in the parking lot to damage people's cars? That's good. Keep the auto body workers employed as well.

 

[DizneyPhile]

They know that Barry and Congress will clean up after them...

 

[DaisyD]

This is a job that many high school kids get and that is the real reason that I don't put away my cart. Some of these young people are doing this to save money for grauation or college. If we all put away the carts, the stores woldn't need them.

Are you serious? So leave them to roll around the parking lots doing damage to cars that could possibly be owned by some kid that needs that car for traveling to college. I think I've heard everything now.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Uhm, maybe it's cultural? Where I'm from, no one would dream of putting their cart back in the store. If we started doing that, the store would be able to cut back on the hours of the high school/college kids and the nice young mentally challenged men who work as baggers. Half their job is to round up carts!

This is a job that many high school kids get and that is the real reason that I don't put away my cart. Some of these young people are doing this to save money for grauation or college. If we all put away the carts, the stores woldn't need them.

Not buying it (and not apologizing for not buying it).
As far as I know, for the most part, 'bagger' and 'carriage person' are no longer two separate jobs - except maybe in really, really large stores/lots - and haven't been for years.
Stores assign people to collect shopping carts BECAUSE shoppers leave carts willy-nilly throughout the lot; they don't hire carriage collecters SO shoppers can be inconsiderate (or lazy, or any of the other excuses that have been or will be used in this thread).

 

[FayeW]

It takes a special kind of lazy to leave the cart in the parking spot right next to the cart corral!

That really bugs me.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

 

[snarlingcoyote]

You know, I'm just that lazy and inconsiderate that I'm really beginning to consider this a silly thread and I'm not furthering the cause any longer. . .

 

[lillygator]

well because here in my town of FL, people get paid $11 an hour to bring them back in.

 

[MoniqueU]

Because they are lazy slobs that think the world revolves around them. I had three kids with me at times and still managed to keep the carts out of the parking lot. I would leave my cart full of food in the parcel pick spot, walk the kids to the car, load them up, drive all of us to the pick up area, then load the groceries. All while my kids were warming up in the car. Kids are no excuse for being lazy.

We don't have those kind of grocery stores here in Southern California and it is hotter then hell in the summer. I no longer even go to the grocery store so I don't have this issue anymore but I sure appreciated and looked for a spot with a cart right near my car when my kids were little. Getting a toddler in the cart, a baby carrier attached to the basket and holding hands with a preschooler or getting him to hold on to the cart all while trying to balance the baby carrier was a chore in and of itself. Getting it back in my area is not a huge priority and I am sure the next overwhelmed mom that didn't have a parcel pick up area appreciated it to. I never left it in a spot but secured it in the planter area in front of the bumper stopper thing.

 

[S. C.]

 

[NHdisneylover]

Another reason to love Aldi's. They have a chain attached to each cart, and to get a cart, you put in a quarter. To get the quarter back, you return the cart. Silly, but I never see any shopping carts in the lot!

That is the way it works here in Germany--except that the coind needed is one Euro (about $1.25 lately). It was a pain at first to make sure I always had a Euro on me--but I LOVE this system becuase you never see people abondoning carts all over the parking lot. DH and I have commented that they should do this in the U.S. many times. Funny how when there is money at stake people suddenly find they can manage to return the cart even if they have young children, etc

 

[rparmfamily]

Pouring down rain in Florida in the summer (perhaps almost as hot as hell?) with a newborn and a 2 yr old...yeah, that would be the one of very very few times I've pushed mine up on the curb/tree planter thingy and not gone down to the end of the row the next aisle over.

I do notice here in HI they are like every other aisle and they are spread out, I always put mine away now but sometimes it isn't close.