There are two kinds of people in the world; people who return their grocery carts to the corral, and people who just leave them wherever. (Or steal them. Down the street from a large supermarket in my town, there’s an apartment complex where a lot of immigrants from low-trust society countries live, and there are always piles of shopping carts in front.)
I actually go a step further, I grab my cart from the corral on the way *into* the store, to spare some poor high school kid having to schlep it back in on a hot day. (And it’s always a boy; there are no feminists screeching for gender equality when it comes to dragging on shopping carts on a 90 degree August day.) I don’t get why everybody doesn’t just do that. It’s just more efficient. Sometimes I even pause to straighten out the other carts a bit, but that’s just me.
And this guy agrees with me. People who return carts properly are demonstrating concern for others and contributing to an orderly society. People who just leave their carts wherever (or steal them) are demonstrating pure selfishness. And, to me, laziness and stupidity.
Oops, I left mine in a parking yesterday. Normally I do put it back in the cart bin thing.
I always return the cart to the corral
Is OK James. I sometimes forget to wipe down equipment in the weight room after I use it, but at least I make an effort most of the time.
Speaking as a former “bag-boy” in the 1980s at a Houston supermarket chain, I thank you on behalf of all of us! 😉
Yes, I still do either put it in the “corral” or give it to someone who parked near me who needs one. I also grab any stray carts in the lot and use them to shop with.
Regards,
Peter H.
At my closest Home Depot, there are no corrals to return anything and there’s always someone out collecting. I think they’re trying to turn the parking spaces faster.
Frankly, I park either as close to the door as I can, or as close to a corral as I can for precisely this reason. But I don’t grab a cart from the corral to bring in. I grab one that is NOT in a corral.
The collection in front of low income housing can also be blamed on the lack of vehicles and personal shopping carts. I have never seen them for sale outside of the NYC area. It gets rather difficult to shlep six bags of groceries home without one.
None the less, as long as they are walking there, they should bring a cart with them.
Very apt correlation and one that I have noticed. Along those lines I have watched, in person and in images, of the state of public property after large events. I have noticed that the more radical leftist the event was the more trashed the public property was left.
In my area, I’ve seen women collecting carts in humid 90+ degree heat (and winter cold too), but in general it is a job done by men.
In my area, the grocery stores are too far from housing to be worth taking the carts there. I’ve heard complaints about how minimal the local bus system is – it only runs in the middle of the day, so you can’t take it to and from work and you can’t take it to the store after work.
I was also a bag boy way back when mid to late 70s before there were corrals in a place where everyone was a saint, conservative & family-oriented. The only people that brought the carts back inside or to the front overhang at an Albertson’s were the middle-aged go-getters who felt sorry for the bag boys or who didn’t like to contribute to a messy parking lot.
If I get any “attitude” from a cashier or self-service monitor, I WILL leave the cart all akimbo in the parking lot. As far as the bag boys who don’t bag anymore are concerned; their suffering is character building & their tenure as scullery maids & stable boys is always going to be short.
Unfortunately, not enough of them serve as scullery maids or stable boys in the traditional manner; collared-n-naked. You just can’t find good help any more…
I ride the cart around the parking lot like a dog sled yelling “mush!” What does that say about me?
I’ve always said you can tell if a person ever worked in retail by how they behave in retail establishments. The poor saps who had to retrieve those carts at one time (and yes, I am in that group) don’t typically leave the carts wherever–they will put them in the corral or, if you’re more hard-core, actually push the cart back into the store!
**One of the advantages of grabbing a cart from the corral or elsewhere in the lot is that it’s been “pre-sorted” by its previous user. No wonky wheels, no squeaking–they’re usually in the best condition because no one’s going to push a broken cart around the store and out to the lot. They’ll abandon it in an aisle in the store! (Well, unless they’re a retail grad like so many of us, in which case they will just put it back with the lobby-area carts).
The world would be a much nicer place if everyone was expected to work retail for a period of time. This would curtail a lot of the bad attitudes and prima donna attitudes of certain customers in this world of ours.
Me too, only I yell “Yeehaw!”
I would add treatment of public toilets to the list. I hold the belief that everyone should be required to spend time cleaning public toilets.
People that befoul restrooms not only have no respect for others, they are clueless about the poor schmuck that has to clean up after them. If not clueless, then major-league jerk.
It was thirty years ago, during my university days, but this former supermarket “trolley boy”, (we have never had “bag” boys in Australia), joins with Peter H in thanking you for your kindness towards us, V the K.
My supermarket had a very, very steep ramp indeed. And the summers get very hot.
It is a classy thing to consider others – but all too rare unfortunately
I do the same in both counts – get a cart from the corral, and straighten / push them to the fore. It costs so very little – seconds a day – to be courteous, even to someone you haven’t met, and might never meet. Why not? I call it “being considerate.”
I also say “please” and “thank you,” and hold the door for anyone. Anyone.
This is an example of what people do, without even thinking about it, in a high trust / high responsibility society. Note that such activities are very much on the decline. This tells you where our society is going.
As a bag boy in my mid-20s, I spent one hot San Diego summer retrieving shopping carts all over the North Park parking lot. It was hard work. But, then again, I worked harder than I really needed to. (Henry’s, then Wild Oats, at the time, wasn’t really that into work ethic) Sad, really. I should have just done the bare minimum.