I don’t mean just returning your shopping cart to the cart area, but actually sliding it back in. At my grocery store, some people half ass stack it back in or don’t at all. This drives me nuts because when I come to return my cart I have to fix the mess before I can return mine. Plus, I don’t want the workers who collect the carts to do any more work than they already do.
I caught this one guy who was returning his cart and I had to wait until he was done. Instead of stacking his cart, he just left it there in front of the stack and I said, “C’mon man!” He was surprised and said, “Oh!” then immediately stacked his cart.
I always slide the cart in. It’s rather satisfying when it slides and chucks against the cart in front, sort of like an acknowledgement of the attachment.
I believe I desperately need some new hobbies, on a side note.
If it’s like an outdoor shelter, I never bother. Haven’t even thought of it until now. If it’s actually inside the store, then there’s limited space and it should definitely be nested.
Edit: I guess on rare occasions I’ve seen a shelter that’s pretty full and had to nest it just so it’s in the shelter. They’re usually almost empty, though.
No, it’s best to leave your cart in the carpark where it blocks cars, to incentivise taking the bus.
fuckcars is leaking again!
Damn I gotta subscribe to that comm, I want MULTIVERSE users to see it
Not mine, credit to Portuguese Geese
I think if you’re going to go through the trouble to return your cart to the cart area then yeah, slot that bad boy into the stack the way it’s supposed to go. Otherwise it’s like those people who pick up their dog’s poop and just hang the bag on a tree branch for someone else to put in the trash. Either do the thing, or don’t do the thing. Doing it halfway just makes a different kind of mess.
I found out a new (new to me at least) bit of cart-return etiquette last year when I was using the handicap parking spaces for a couple months following ankle surgery. Grocery carts double as walking aids for a lot of people with mobility issues while they’re at the store. Many people with those issues will purposely leave their carts in the handicap area as a courtesy for the next person with mobility issues so they can have it right away and not have to struggle all the way to the cart area. So there’s at least one instance where not returning your cart doesn’t make you a horrible person.
No, but I usually do it, anyway.
Yes, it is common courtesy to return your trolley appropriately.
I’ve only really seen the system abused when visiting countries like the USA, shoppers seem feral over there.
Exactly. Some things just work in every civilised country.
Some stores seem to have removed about half of icart returns. My Costco barely has any, same at the two Walmarts in town. The Costco is only a couple of years old, so its parking lot was designed without them. Cart gets pushed up on the median. Both Walmarts actually took them out. The store is who broke the social contract. At least it gives some employee a chance to walk around outside for a while.
Seems wild. Are employees not a relevant cost factor?
As an American, it’s my god given right to be shitty and make the lives of children and underprivileged and/or retired people as terrible as possible to make myself feel good. As the founding fathers intended.
People in New Orleans are so shitty that they just don’t have cart stalls. It would be pointless because nobody would bother.
Yes its common courtesy. Its lazy and disrespectful to just toss your cart however and just expect that the store’s minimum paid staff should deal with your mess
I usually organise them when I bring mine back to fix other people’s laziness.
Yes, but it’s a minor thing. Like, if that’s the moral line you won’t cross you better be some sort of ascetic saint, lol. Some people are just anal about these things because of their neurodivergence (I’m one of those, although it’s mild), and as such it’s important not to randomly harass someone for it… I’d just put it in its place and forget about it. 🤷
Of course it is?!
In Germany, everyone does it. Yes, I think it is common courtesy. It is a matter of basic respect to others.
It’s not like it’s difficult or a lot of effort. You specifying it against “just in the area” - maybe you have more space for carts, but if you already move it into the designated area, I don’t see that aligning it could be significantly more effort or time investment.
Ehm, yes, but in Germany you also put a Euro into the cart to release the chain, and need to return the cart to get it back.
Not so sure this would work here without that…
Real pros carry a thing to unlock the carts without a coin. A small metal piece on your key chain or wallet dies the trick. We still return the cart every time. This is just common sense.
I’ve seen a lot of supermarkets recently where the mechanism is still there but all the carts are unlocked, so that you don’t need to insert a coin anymore. At least where I live this works just as well and people return their carts into the stack. We were probably conditioned to do it during the last years when the coin was still necessary, and now it just sticks.
I remember that a lot of supermarkets did that during the pandemic.
Not everywhere anymore.
Some years ago they had a person going around collecting and storing the trolleys. Then they switched to the coin thing, sparing staff.
Now I experience some already dropping that too. Just take and put it back in.
If I remember correctly, the coin thing was dropped during covid for some reason.
The stores also usually provide you with plastic coins to use instead of euros, so…
It’s annoying when people don’t stack them in the corrall, but the people who just hook the front wheels over the curb where they parked are literally Hitler. They can’t be bothered to even make it to the cart corral, and take effort to push the wheels up. They deserve untold pain.
My Costco has one corral in like 6 lanes. Nah, fam. Do you have any idea how fucking big that parking lot is? Conversely, there is frequently a cart waiting at my parking spot when I find it. I use it and then leave it for the next person to park there. Efficient!
This one right here, officer.
If cart parking is provided I use it. I’m not walking clear back to the building. You can eat my shorts.
Some supermarkets here require a token to use. That token is returned on the complete restacking of your trolley
It does well enough at training our population.
We’ve had that in Germany for many years but for the last few years, many supermarkets in my region have stopped using the tokens. Looks like the “training” worked though, as I still never see any unreturned shopping carts on parking lots.
Same in Austria. Noticed our Lidl removed the coin/token slot recently.
This is happening in the Netherlands as well.
At the Aldi in my area many of the token mechanism are broken, so the carts are always loose. They get put back by people anyways, which makes me happy.
I went to an Aldi not realizing they would have this, I do not carry pocket change. Asked clerk to break a bill for change, he just handed me a quarter from the till. I’m like, thanks I’ll bring this back I guess, he said he didn’t care. Oookay. Still not sure what to do with that free 25¢, invest it maybe.
We absolutely need this
They recently stopped using this in the area of Germany where I live. I hate the change. People immediately started leaving their carts all over the place. It’s crazy that €1-€2 deposit was the only thing holding people back from being jerks.
I’m in Germany too, nobody leaves their trolleys sitting around.
That sucks. I noticed our Lidl did the same (maybe other supermarkets, too, haven’t paid attention), but people still return the carts. This is in Austria.
If the supermarket starts spending more on labour/lost carts than they were losing with lost business/upfront cost, they may bring them back.
I wonder what the conversation is between supermarkets. They have to know the one spending upfront for these devices is training the local population reducing the other’s running costs.
There’s only one shop within 400km of where I live that uses these.
People here do seem to do a reasonable job of returning their trolleys to the bay.
I think most of the trolley collectors are disabled in some way, so their jobs will be subsidised.
I think most of the trolley collectors are disabled in some way, so their jobs will be subsidised.
A bit beyond the scope of the post. But instead of supermarkets using society to subsidise their labour costs, we could use supermarkets to subsidise society. Tax the wealth and institute a UBI.
details of oppression uwu
Tap for spoiler
goodwill is the sweatshop SNAP applicants are shunted to for less than min wage, if they aren’t otherwise meeting the work requirement instituted…
Honesly idk if it was 2017 or a last ditch Busch Jr thing. Certainly tried.
i like to mention it, bc i talked to some caseworker and counciling staff who were unaware, despite their clientel relevance.
Sucks if you can’t handle a concrete box full of light and noise and the reek of harassed strangers. After some training videos, of course.
Go usa. (fortunately urban gardening and grocer coop is improving…)
Forced or underpaid labor of anyone, esp minorities anyware is hella bad. uwu down with labor extortion.
I worked one grocer that had the ghost of a union coughing out, and we had a light duty round and a low key vibe on night stocking. The bored jocks and people who wanted a temperature change did the cart grabs. Not just whoever was on some dole voucher(general).
All supermarkets here do. But some people have removable tokens you can just pull out. And nobody botheres to chain them up again. But people still put them back properly
The problem I have with this is that it’s a barrier of using the shop if you don’t have a £/€1 coin on you. There’s an Aldi by me where the trollies have this lock on them, but the Tesco opposite doesn’t so I’ll just not go to Aldi as I can’t get a trolly.
Absolutely true, it does present a barrier. I had a token attached to my keys for my own sanity.
Now that token perminantly lives in my car after the clippy thing broke. If I’m shopping for enough things to need a trolley, I have my car. My peers all have these things in the cupholder/ashtray of their center console.
The timing worked out, I had the token attached to my keys while I was without a car, and it broke just in time for the arrival of the car.
