In many places, you can get fined for littering. Even if it might not be very likely, it's more punishment than you'll receive for not returning a shopping cart (unless the place uses carts with inbuilt deposits).
But if i keep my empty beer cans in the car, I can get in trouble for an open container! The law of the land requires me to throw my beer cans in a ditch.
It’s similar to potential energy. Like leaving the cart there adds potential chaos. I’ll wake up in the middle of the night thinking the damage that cart could be doing.
Some people also torture animals for fun. The bar needs to be higher. The point of the shopping cart test is low stakes, no one important is watching, nothing significant to be gained or lost either way--do you do the right thing anyway, because of course?
I’m sure you’re right for some percentage of people, but most pro life, lib-owning pickup truck patriots really think they’re doing god’s work and saving the world from “toxic empathy”. The less extreme ones just think that whatever the bible says is good, so smite the gays, it’s fine, or even try to save them by praying all the gay away. And the poor uneducated Facebook grandmas are just controlled by fear, gullibility, and ignorance. They mean well, and are totally oblivious to how their actions and words (and votes) really hurt real people.
I had this problem yesterday. My SO just left it next to the exit. Would have taken 5 seconds to move it to the rest at the entrance. But noooo im the one overreacting because ppl do it all the time. It felt like littering.
If a person who doesn't put their shopping cart back sits at a table with nine others who don't cap them, you have ten people who don't put carts back.
Feels similar to littering your cigarette butt. It's super common for smokers to not feel anything wrong with throwing their toxic smoker trash somewhere it doesn't belong, even if they wouldn't litter anything else.
As an ethical nicotine addict, I always hated those people! As I kinda felt some type of guilty by association, I always made sure to pick up butts every time I left the beach. Granted it was a fairly popular beach, but I would pick up no less than a half dozen easily spotted butts just walking the 50 or so meters from the water to the stairs, where there were two cans and bags for pet waste, every single time. I really don't get how uncaring and/or lazy most people are.
Faulty premise. If I return the cart, I do not need to navigate my car around the cart as I exit the parking lot. This, alone, is a reason to return the cart to the designated collection zone.
You also normalize returning the cart and impressionable people around you will see people returning carts and increase the probability that they will return carts in the future. Together, these increase the probability that on the future, the carts will be where I want them at the front of the store and not all over the parking lot.
The most ethical decision is to leave your cart at the top of an incline, aimed at any pickup making more than 1 space unusable. Just behind the rear passenger bumper is also acceptable.
Don't forget, these things become fucking wrecking balls in windy storms. So not putting it away during a wind storm means you're a full on pos. Ive seen it sooo many times.
I think this is more of a North American-centric meme. It’s pretty rare in North America to have to put a coin in to use a cart. I think Aldi is the only one I’ve seen do it in the US. Maybe Lidl and Trader Joe’s (owned by Aldi) did it at some point but I haven’t seen it there in years. Basically they’re all German brands operating in the US. Maxi in Quebec used to do it but the past few years when we’ve visited my wife’s parents the carts have been unlocked, although they still have the locks. None of the other stores there even have the locks. Even when we visited her family in France this year, though, it seemed inconsistent. Some stores used them but others didn’t.
What I found to be the biggest difference between North America and Europe was the cart returns themselves. In North America most stores have corrals throughout the parking lot, but throughout the day employees will go collect the carts and return them to the store entrance. In France they also had the corrals but they’re never returned to the store by an employee. Customers grab a cart from the corral near their car and bring it with them to use in the store. That kind of makes more sense, in that it reduces the work an employee must do.
There's an interesting thing I've noticed here in Europe:
Plenty of places, partly due to corona or whatever, you no longer need to pop a coin in. Or you simply ask for a worthless plastic token that you can use instead of a coin.
But because we're all so used to returning the trolley to get our coin back, we've all been trained into returing the trolley, even if there's no reward for doing so.
Bubbles made a healthy enterprise out of ‘fixing’ ‘broken’ shopping carts that he would sell back to the store when they ‘ran out’ of carts. Perhaps a similar business model but likely higher profit margin.
Yes, I get that. My comment was in reference to the person above me, who started they only put them away so the company has to pay someone to bring them back in. If that is really their reason, they could make the company pay more by themselves doing less.
But the company isn't paying them only when they are collecting carts. They are there on a schedule and have to be there for that allotted time. They don't clock in and out every time they go collect carts.
Correct, but the more time dealing with carts means less time doing other things that need to be completed, meaning they need more employees, this costing them more.
no it's because I'm sick and fucking tired of having to dodge carts all over the place because some lazy Karen thinks they're too important to walk 50 more feet
What is it with every regional grocery store being owned by right winged pricks? Like I moved from a publix dominated area to a Kroger one and it just saddens me that there are no ethical alternatives outside of becoming a homesteader and growing my own food.
Edit; who's out here shilling for billion dollar corpos?
I've always said I was going to run for president on the platform that we have executioners in parking lots who take out people who do not return their shopping cart, but are able to. I think it would solve almost everything.
That's honestly fucking disgusting. Forcing the people to do free labour under the risk of death for massive corporations turning a higher profit from said free labour.
Worked at a grocery store growing up, I confirm this meme wholeheartedly! And now shopping at certain retail places, all able body between the ages of 17 - 30 should work on carts for an entire season so one understands the shity criterions.
There may be urgent reasons for not returning a shopping cart, but I think that at most one in a million shopping carts is actually not returned for such a reason. Usually, the reason is quite simple: poor character.
Always. Lazy assholes leaving their carts where they're not supposed to go is a pet peeve. I will grant exceptions if the person has some kind of legitimate mobility issue, but that's rare.
I used to return the cart when the concept was "return the cart to avoid the grocery store having to hire someone to collect carts, increasing their overhead, thus raising prices".
Then we learned, at least in Canada, that the grocery chains kept prices high after the pandemic well after the supply chains settled down. They even did a second wave of higher prices. They are price gouging so much they've never seen such high profits.
They have also made a move to get rid of regular checkout, pushing robotic checkout so they don't have to hire humans and they can increase their profits even further.
The shopping cart question used to pose itself as "do you help society and return your cart if there is no reward for you."
Let's rephrase it. "Will you do free labour for a multi-million dollar company who is laughing all the way to the bank with record profits while some people in society are going hungry because they can't afford the higher prices?"
Why are you working for free for a multi-million dollar corporation that doesn't give a shit about you? Just leave your cart anywhere. Someone will be along to collect it.
Because I care about the people that work for them. The only person acting like a cold hearted corporation is you. Why have you let their actions steal your humanity? If you can't bring yourself to help out someone making around minimum wage and then use corporate greed as an excuse, you're kind of a piece of shit.
Because I care about the people that work for them.
Give me a break. You are pretending returning a cart is some sort of moral high ground just because it's pointed out you're doing free labour for multi-million dollar corporations with nothing in return for you.
If you REALLY cared for the employees you'd be standing outside the store demanding they pay better so they employees can get above the poverty line and no longer need food stamps to survive.
What kind of 10 year old child logic is that? Unless I can devote my life to a cause there is no point in making anything better? It seems like you've crafted a world view where you get to act like a conservative asshat but with the smugness of a Hasan type loser. So glad I don't know someone like you irl.
85 Comments
carl_dungeon@lemmy.world · 71 pts · 300d
Yeah this is the real test of someone’s moral compass, when there is no reward or punishment but you do it anyway. The “just dont be a dick” test.
Darkard@lemmy.world · 38 pts · 300d
See also: putting rubbish in the bin
rumschlumpel@feddit.org · 24 pts · 300d
In many places, you can get fined for littering. Even if it might not be very likely, it's more punishment than you'll receive for not returning a shopping cart (unless the place uses carts with inbuilt deposits).
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 299d
But if i keep my empty beer cans in the car, I can get in trouble for an open container! The law of the land requires me to throw my beer cans in a ditch.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 299d
well there is a slight gain from it because i don't like rubbish laying around, so if i put it in the bin, it's cleaner.
danc4498@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 300d
I only do it so I don’t feel guilty. So it’s self serving.
samus12345@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 300d
In my case, it would just feel wrong to leave it - that's not where it goes! Sometimes being anal is beneficial to society.
danc4498@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 300d
It’s similar to potential energy. Like leaving the cart there adds potential chaos. I’ll wake up in the middle of the night thinking the damage that cart could be doing.
athatet@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 300d
So what would you have to feel guilty about?
Credibly_Human@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 300d
I dunno man, some people actively vote to hurt and personally discriminate against marginalized people.
I feel like that's a lot more definitive.
salacious_coaster@infosec.pub · 6 pts · 300d
Some people also torture animals for fun. The bar needs to be higher. The point of the shopping cart test is low stakes, no one important is watching, nothing significant to be gained or lost either way--do you do the right thing anyway, because of course?
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 299d
No I steal the cart so I am one basket closer to building Voltrolley
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 299d
Nice move. Never considered this.
Electric_Druid@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 300d
True, but this is more immediately verifiable than figuring out how someone votes.
carl_dungeon@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 300d
The difference is those people think they’re in the right, no pun intended.
Credibly_Human@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 300d
I don't think they do. I think they feel entitled, and so doing the wrong thing to get what is "rightfully" theirs, is justifiable.
carl_dungeon@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 299d
I’m sure you’re right for some percentage of people, but most pro life, lib-owning pickup truck patriots really think they’re doing god’s work and saving the world from “toxic empathy”. The less extreme ones just think that whatever the bible says is good, so smite the gays, it’s fine, or even try to save them by praying all the gay away. And the poor uneducated Facebook grandmas are just controlled by fear, gullibility, and ignorance. They mean well, and are totally oblivious to how their actions and words (and votes) really hurt real people.
Spacehooks@reddthat.com · 36 pts · 300d
I had this problem yesterday. My SO just left it next to the exit. Would have taken 5 seconds to move it to the rest at the entrance. But noooo im the one overreacting because ppl do it all the time. It felt like littering.
SkyezOpen@lemmy.world · 42 pts · 300d
You're dating a monster.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 299d
If a person who doesn't put their shopping cart back sits at a table with nine others who don't cap them, you have ten people who don't put carts back.
Spacehooks@reddthat.com · 3 pts · 299d
I feel like its getting worst as we age. SO started driving angrier past few years. Middle finger and all.
Zidane@lemmy.ca · 22 pts · 300d
If my time on reddit taught me anything... When's the divorce?
Spacehooks@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 299d
Lol I should repeat this if I see it happen again.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org · 12 pts · 300d
Feels similar to littering your cigarette butt. It's super common for smokers to not feel anything wrong with throwing their toxic smoker trash somewhere it doesn't belong, even if they wouldn't litter anything else.
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 11 pts · 300d
As an ethical nicotine addict, I always hated those people! As I kinda felt some type of guilty by association, I always made sure to pick up butts every time I left the beach. Granted it was a fairly popular beach, but I would pick up no less than a half dozen easily spotted butts just walking the 50 or so meters from the water to the stairs, where there were two cans and bags for pet waste, every single time. I really don't get how uncaring and/or lazy most people are.
SARGE@startrek.website · 9 pts · 300d
Spacehooks@reddthat.com · 3 pts · 299d
Wonder if its the same energy as the people that bag the dogs crab and leave it on the trail. Like who does that?
samus12345@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 300d
It's a small red flag, but a red flag nonetheless.
Spacehooks@reddthat.com · 3 pts · 299d
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 300d
Faulty premise. If I return the cart, I do not need to navigate my car around the cart as I exit the parking lot. This, alone, is a reason to return the cart to the designated collection zone.
treesquid@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 300d
You also normalize returning the cart and impressionable people around you will see people returning carts and increase the probability that they will return carts in the future. Together, these increase the probability that on the future, the carts will be where I want them at the front of the store and not all over the parking lot.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 299d
Also I get to be smug
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 17 pts · 300d
The most ethical decision is to leave your cart at the top of an incline, aimed at any pickup making more than 1 space unusable. Just behind the rear passenger bumper is also acceptable.
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 299d
What about aiming it at a line of motorcycles the biker gang rode in on?
Stowaway@midwest.social · 12 pts · 300d
Don't forget, these things become fucking wrecking balls in windy storms. So not putting it away during a wind storm means you're a full on pos. Ive seen it sooo many times.
remon@ani.social · 11 pts · 300d
You get back your 1€ though.
jqubed@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 300d
I think this is more of a North American-centric meme. It’s pretty rare in North America to have to put a coin in to use a cart. I think Aldi is the only one I’ve seen do it in the US. Maybe Lidl and Trader Joe’s (owned by Aldi) did it at some point but I haven’t seen it there in years. Basically they’re all German brands operating in the US. Maxi in Quebec used to do it but the past few years when we’ve visited my wife’s parents the carts have been unlocked, although they still have the locks. None of the other stores there even have the locks. Even when we visited her family in France this year, though, it seemed inconsistent. Some stores used them but others didn’t.
What I found to be the biggest difference between North America and Europe was the cart returns themselves. In North America most stores have corrals throughout the parking lot, but throughout the day employees will go collect the carts and return them to the store entrance. In France they also had the corrals but they’re never returned to the store by an employee. Customers grab a cart from the corral near their car and bring it with them to use in the store. That kind of makes more sense, in that it reduces the work an employee must do.
Hyperrealism@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 300d
There's an interesting thing I've noticed here in Europe:
Plenty of places, partly due to corona or whatever, you no longer need to pop a coin in. Or you simply ask for a worthless plastic token that you can use instead of a coin.
But because we're all so used to returning the trolley to get our coin back, we've all been trained into returing the trolley, even if there's no reward for doing so.
funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 300d
I reject the premise. One already gained something - the loan of a cart. Returning it repays the debt.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org · 4 pts · 300d
If you were really selfish, you could steal the cart and try to sell it for scrap.
porksnort@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 300d
Bubbles made a healthy enterprise out of ‘fixing’ ‘broken’ shopping carts that he would sell back to the store when they ‘ran out’ of carts. Perhaps a similar business model but likely higher profit margin.
7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 9 pts · 300d
I put them back in the cart corral.
Mainly because the business has to pay someone to go get them.
RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 300d
Same reason spill shit on their floors
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 299d
I don't put the gym weights back so the employees can get a workout also. Youre welcome. /$
Frozengyro@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 300d
They have to pay someone to get them if you don't put it in the corral, plus it would take longer
Electric_Druid@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 300d
They also don't take up as much space in the lot and don't get blown into random cars. It's pretty clear-cut.
Frozengyro@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 300d
Yes, I get that. My comment was in reference to the person above me, who started they only put them away so the company has to pay someone to bring them back in. If that is really their reason, they could make the company pay more by themselves doing less.
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 300d
But the company isn't paying them only when they are collecting carts. They are there on a schedule and have to be there for that allotted time. They don't clock in and out every time they go collect carts.
Frozengyro@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 300d
Correct, but the more time dealing with carts means less time doing other things that need to be completed, meaning they need more employees, this costing them more.
samus12345@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 300d
Aztechnology@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 300d
mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 300d
no it's because I'm sick and fucking tired of having to dodge carts all over the place because some lazy Karen thinks they're too important to walk 50 more feet
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 300d
What is it with every regional grocery store being owned by right winged pricks? Like I moved from a publix dominated area to a Kroger one and it just saddens me that there are no ethical alternatives outside of becoming a homesteader and growing my own food.
Edit; who's out here shilling for billion dollar corpos?
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 299d
"What are you gonna do, stop eating?"
They get off on it I think.
pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 300d
The trolley return is the decent human checker of the world.
Sweetpeaches69@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 300d
I've always said I was going to run for president on the platform that we have executioners in parking lots who take out people who do not return their shopping cart, but are able to. I think it would solve almost everything.
samus12345@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 300d
But it's kind of like "God fearing" Christians - if they only do it out of fear, not because it's the right thing to do, does it really count?
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 299d
Hey, they said sorry to their imaginary friend after fucking you over repeatedly. That's not good enough for you?
IndridCold@lemmy.ca · -2 pts · 300d
That's honestly fucking disgusting. Forcing the people to do free labour under the risk of death for massive corporations turning a higher profit from said free labour.
You need to rethink your moral compass.
mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 300d
work on your sarcasm a bit, it doesn't quite come across well enough tbh
Smokeydope@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 299d
dan69@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 299d
Worked at a grocery store growing up, I confirm this meme wholeheartedly! And now shopping at certain retail places, all able body between the ages of 17 - 30 should work on carts for an entire season so one understands the shity criterions.
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 300d
I gain the satisfaction of doing my part to keep society turning.
samus12345@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 300d
I gain the satisfaction of simply putting things where they belong.
Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 300d
Does the cart need to be returned to right at the entrance of the store or is it acceptable to return to a mid parking lot cart corral?
SkyezOpen@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 300d
That's what the corrals are for, I'd say either is morally good.
samus12345@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 300d
The meme literally shows a corral.
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 299d
The solution is to be so broke you dont need a cart to finish grocery shopping.
sad hungry noises
IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 300d
where's the question? yes
Ceruleum@lemmy.wtf · 2 pts · 299d
Can't we please just kill some people?
Deceptichum@quokk.au · 2 pts · 300d
DandomRude@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 300d
There may be urgent reasons for not returning a shopping cart, but I think that at most one in a million shopping carts is actually not returned for such a reason. Usually, the reason is quite simple: poor character.
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 300d
Always. I will give someone a talking to if there is a return nearby and they don’t use it.
samus12345@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 300d
I just glare at them judgmentally, knowing there's nothing I can do to make them a better person.
samus12345@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 300d
Always. Lazy assholes leaving their carts where they're not supposed to go is a pet peeve. I will grant exceptions if the person has some kind of legitimate mobility issue, but that's rare.
danc4498@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 300d
IndridCold@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 300d
I used to return the cart when the concept was "return the cart to avoid the grocery store having to hire someone to collect carts, increasing their overhead, thus raising prices".
Then we learned, at least in Canada, that the grocery chains kept prices high after the pandemic well after the supply chains settled down. They even did a second wave of higher prices. They are price gouging so much they've never seen such high profits.
They have also made a move to get rid of regular checkout, pushing robotic checkout so they don't have to hire humans and they can increase their profits even further.
The shopping cart question used to pose itself as "do you help society and return your cart if there is no reward for you."
Let's rephrase it. "Will you do free labour for a multi-million dollar company who is laughing all the way to the bank with record profits while some people in society are going hungry because they can't afford the higher prices?"
I NEVER return my cart now.
BeefandSquints@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 300d
The problem is, that the only person you punish is some 16 year old making minimum wage.
IndridCold@lemmy.ca · -3 pts · 300d
It's not a punishment. It's part of the job.
If we keep putting away carts and self checking our groceries, that person won't have a job.
BeefandSquints@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 300d
They take in the carts from the designated cart returns.
IndridCold@lemmy.ca · -3 pts · 300d
Why are you working for free for a multi-million dollar corporation that doesn't give a shit about you? Just leave your cart anywhere. Someone will be along to collect it.
BeefandSquints@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 299d
Because I care about the people that work for them. The only person acting like a cold hearted corporation is you. Why have you let their actions steal your humanity? If you can't bring yourself to help out someone making around minimum wage and then use corporate greed as an excuse, you're kind of a piece of shit.
IndridCold@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 299d
Give me a break. You are pretending returning a cart is some sort of moral high ground just because it's pointed out you're doing free labour for multi-million dollar corporations with nothing in return for you.
If you REALLY cared for the employees you'd be standing outside the store demanding they pay better so they employees can get above the poverty line and no longer need food stamps to survive.
BeefandSquints@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 298d
What kind of 10 year old child logic is that? Unless I can devote my life to a cause there is no point in making anything better? It seems like you've crafted a world view where you get to act like a conservative asshat but with the smugness of a Hasan type loser. So glad I don't know someone like you irl.
BabyVi@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 300d
Why stop there? You could leave a bunch of little messes around the store so the wage slaves have plenty to do.
IndridCold@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 300d
If they keep purging human workers over profits, I just might.
interdimensional_sharts@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 300d
Being lazy under the guise of helping people get jobs?? Gimme a fucking break 😂. Lemmy never ceases to amaze me
IndridCold@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 300d
Massive grocery chains don't give a shit about you. They are happily starving society for more profit.
If you think taking your stupid cart back is some sort of noble deed, you're a sucker. All you're doing is helping the CEO keep his overhead down.
Wilco@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 300d
This just changed my mind on the trolley problem.