Why do people leave shopping carts in the parking lot?

[mjkacmom]

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).

Actually, even if everyone put their carts in the corral, they would hire these kids to bring the carts back to the store. As for ppl who say to park by a corral, I live in a congested area - I usually don't always have the opportunity to park by a corral - I park where I can get a parking space. If I'm near a corral, of course I put the cart there.

 

[Goofy'slady]

I always put my cart back and sometimes the carts of some of others too. What kills me is the carts that are left right next to the cart return thingy...I mean come on now!

T.

 

[Tarheel Tink]

Well, I always return the cart. Raised to be that way and just can't see any good excuse. If you ask for assistance it will be supplied everywhere I have ever been, even Walmart. I also do random acts of kindness by taking in carts as people finish with them (particularly older than I or loaded up with kids).

 

[kaytieeldr]

Because the cart corral is totally full, perhaps?
This is frequently the case with our Meijer store. I walk it over to the nearest cart corral, and, if it is full, I leave it in the space just outside.

But you TRY! Often, it's too easy for me to just grab a cart - shoppers seem to think that yellow-striped area between HP spaces is a cart corral (just, without the corral part?). I got thanked by - and then into a very nice conversation with - a Walgreen's employee a few months back, because he was outside on break and I took the simple action of rolling the cart I'd been using a mere few feet, from the parking lot to the sidewalk. His own car had, at the supermarket across the street, recently been the victim of an inconsiderate shopper's rolling cart.

eta: I didn't return the cart because I was being observed; I just do it. For the most part, I figure if I can get my empty cart back to a designated area, there's no reason any of the fully-abled shoppers can't.

 

[ericamanda01]

Are they too lazy to walk it a few extra steps? Everyone is anonymous here so feel free to be honest.

Yes they are to lazy!

 

[npmommie]

Well the store where i shop has one cart corral on one end and one on the other end, thats it.
so when I have the kids I try to park close enough so it takes me only a few steps to put the cart away,

if I can't park close to the corral, I would never leave the kids in the car alone, so yeah, i leave the cart, sorry but the kids are more important than the cart to me. and I don't leave them alone in the car.

and I can assure you I am neither, rude, lazy, or selfish

 

[npmommie]

Well, I always return the cart. Raised to be that way and just can't see any good excuse. If you ask for assistance it will be supplied everywhere I have ever been, even Walmart. I also do random acts of kindness by taking in carts as people finish with them (particularly older than I or loaded up with kids).

HA, the store where I shop doesn't even bag the groceries half the time, so to ask someone to come out and help with my cart.

 

[ravencotygrandma]

I guess I must be one of the lazy people. I don't walk to put the cart away. In the handicapped parking in front of the parking is a space that is open between two parking spaces and I place the cart there. I walk with a cane. I use the store's motor cart while shopping but they are not allow out of the store so I have to use a regular cart to get to the car. Sorry if you think I am lazy but you try living with the pain I have. Believe me if I could walk any distance without hurting I would be more than happy to put the cart away.

Sandy

 

[Magic Mom]

Well, I always return the cart. Raised to be that way and just can't see any good excuse. If you ask for assistance it will be supplied everywhere I have ever been, even Walmart. I also do random acts of kindness by taking in carts as people finish with them (particularly older than I or loaded up with kids).

I'm assuming this is aimed at me. I am sure had I been willing to stand there and wait they would have found an employee to help me out. But standing in pain in a crowded walmart wasn't a choice I was going to make or at that point was even thinking about. Sue me. Again, I wasn't thinking of cart return.
Maybe I was raised with wolves. (they are notorious for rude parking lot behavior)

I knew when I posted that people would try to beat me up over it, and I was right. How funny that people are SO judgemental. But that's just me. YMMV

I have found a simple solution to parking near loose carts. Park at the back of he lot and walk a few extra steps. Its good for you AND saves your car.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Hey! Before you get all dirty rolling around the floor laughing so much, or after you calm down ... next time you go shopping, ASK. See what response you get. Sure you will probably get the open-mouthed stare, or a 'we don't do that here'; but they may surprise you. Or if enough people ask (do you have a lot of friends who shop at the same store?) maybe they'll consider being more customer-friendly.

 

[disneyjunkie]

i make sure i push the cart as hard as i can into the car with the most obnoxious obama bumper sticker.

kidding.

You have an odd sense of humor.

You've "joked" about someone assassinating President Obama, now this.

 

[IluvKingLouis]

Most of the people I see are.
The only time I ever did was when my daughter was an infant and it was raining. I'd put her in the car first then the groceries and I wasn't going to leave her alone in the car while I returned the cart.

I was just going to say the same thing. It was when my DD was an infant and/or quite young. I would park close to a planter area and pop the first two wheels into the planter/gravel so that it wouldn't roll into a parked car.

 

[npmommie]

Hey! Before you get all dirty rolling around the floor laughing so much, or after you calm down ... next time you go shopping, ASK. See what response you get. Sure you will probably get the open-mouthed stare, or a 'we don't do that here'; but they may surprise you. Or if enough people ask (do you have a lot of friends who shop at the same store?) maybe they'll consider being more customer-friendly.

LOL, I predict the open mouthed stare, hehe

its funny at our local walmart i have had clerks ask all the time if I need help, they gladly offer and help out, I never even had to ask. thats one good thing I can say about walmart. and also if they are in the parking lot getting carts and they see you at your car 9 times out of 10 the kid comes over and takes the cart for you.
its not a super walmart though so no groceries,
one even helped me get my dd's barbie car into the back of my car, it had to come out of the box, and he came out to my car and did it all for me and i didn't even ask

anyway, back to the other topic, yes the open mouth stare is most likely what I will get at the grocery store,

I do most of my shopping at BJ's anyway, and hubby comes along most of the time and when he doesn't its not an issue, because they seem to have a lot of cart corrals, and i can most always park near one.

 

[jrmasm]

If you can manage to walk the store, you can manage the extra 20 feet to return the cart. And the kids excuse I wish I knew about that when my kids were small. I didn't know I was exempt from returning carts. Since they're bigger now, I ran out of time to use that excuse.

 

[kaytieeldr]

How much bigger? And if they're REALLY big, well, who's going to get into it with you, anyway

And yes, I'm kidding. I rarely advocate just leaving a cart. Next time, it may be YOUR car that gets dinged, or you find you can't get into your car without first moving carts left next to the door by other inconsiderate shoppers.

 

[profdsny]

Are they too lazy to walk it a few extra steps? Everyone is anonymous here so feel free to be honest.

Generally, yeah. Lazy, and thoughtless, and generally not caring for other people or their property. And, as such pretty class-less and low life.

 

[Magic Mom]

If you can manage to walk the store, you can manage the extra 20 feet to return the cart..

Of course you're only guessing, because you can't really know what people can manage if you aren't dealing with what they are dealing with.

 

[kinntj]

Yesterday at the grocery store, man and teenaged DD, parked next to the cart corral, left the cart in their parking spot --THAT is lazy.

That is lazy. On my lazy days I park right next to a corral, just so I don't have to walk far once DD is in the car. On nice days DD and I walk the cart back to the corral together. Target in my area is bad for runaway carts. I've had to catch one coming down the hill on a windy day.

 

[VickiVM]

I put mine away every time with one exception.

Costco. THe parking is so tight and the corrals poorly placed.....usually the person waiting or your spots yells out "I will take your cart"

It must be right because I rarely see alot of freerange carts at Costco.

Costco is the worst. My husband and I go together to Costco (like a date, sadly) and when we see someone heading to their car, I'll take their cart from them in exchange for their parking spot.

 

[Nancy]

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.

They still need to hire them to get the carts from the corral into the stores, to keep the parking lot clean and to also do cleanups in the front vestibule area. Plus in the winter here the lots kids are shoveling the sidewalks, the crosswalks and keeping the handicap parking areas free from snow. Lot kids would hardly ever bag but if cross trained in cashing they might get called in to cash when it got busy.

I'm assuming this is aimed at me. I am sure had I been willing to stand there and wait they would have found an employee to help me out. But standing in pain in a crowded walmart wasn't a choice I was going to make or at that point was even thinking about. Sue me. Again, I wasn't thinking of cart return.
Maybe I was raised with wolves. (they are notorious for rude parking lot behavior)

I knew when I posted that people would try to beat me up over it, and I was right. How funny that people are SO judgemental. But that's just me. YMMV

I have found a simple solution to parking near loose carts. Park at the back of he lot and walk a few extra steps. Its good for you AND saves your car.

But those carts become flying machines in the wind. Even if parked far away if it is a windy day those carts can go pretty fast across a lot. We had one that actually left the lot and hit a car driving in the street. That was scary and very dangerous. It just happened to be left in a way that when the wind got it the car was in a spot where it went out the driveway. Chances are it would never happen again, but it did cause an accident.