I susbscribe to this theory

"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch) 05/19/2020 at 13:12 • Filed to: None

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I was going to say that it goes a little far to call non-shopping cart returners as savage animals who have no place in society...but....

Future next gen S2000 owner > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 13:20

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What if I do it most of the time but sometimes I return it to other carts in their own psuedo cart corral?

Am I only half animal?

Edit: It’s a good theory.

smobgirl > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 13:23

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I am a proper shopping cart returner 98% of the time. One Target near me doesn’t have a single cart return for a good third of their parking lot - I think they had to hit a minimum number of parking spots and ran out of space. So there’s a specific support pole that the regular shoppers have sort of designated as a cart return and I’ll stack mine there with everyone else. Am I a savage animal?

HammerheadFistpunch > smobgirl 05/19/2020 at 13:24

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regular animal.

Gone > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 13:29

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Always return the cart, e ven inside to those places that don’t have cart returns. I made a couple bucks in quarters at an Aldi in the middle of what was a multi-hour deluge once. Apparently returning carts in the rain is asking too much for some. Not cool to leave it for the skeleton staff they employ and I was already soaked , so...  

dumpsterfire! > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 13:29

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I will preach this as the only truth.

fintail > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 13:31

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If I had a store, I think I’d ban people for abandoning carts . Especially irks me at Costco, where there are plentiful corrals, and many signs asking for this minor favor.

Chariotoflove > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 13:32

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People exempt themselves if they’re elderly or disabled, and I kind of get it if they are mobility impaired and have to use the cart like a walker to get to the car in the first place. Thing is, you leave that cart next to the spot, and the next person who parks there (me) can’t get out without dinging his car. I always return my cart to either the cart corral or the store itself because of that.

Which beg the question:  if a Republican returns the cart to the store and no one is there so see it, it he still a Conservative?

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 13:33

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over here you now cant enter the supermarket without a cart.. the idea being it helps keeping social distance if you have a cart to push

sooo...people are now grabbing a cart to get in and then park it inside wander about the whole store before eventually returning to the cart to drop the bisquits they needed in to it and heading for the check out...

*shrugs* im amazed we still havent gone extinct

functionoverfashion > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 13:33

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Pretty good theory. But if you have really small kids in the car with you, how far are you going to stray from the car to return the cart while they’re in there alone? Are you going to drag them across the parking lot with you after already enduring a grocery store trip with small children?

My answer is simple: park next to the corral. 

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 13:38

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What does that make you if you put the cart in the corral backwards so it doesn’t stack with the others and gets in the way?

shop-teacher > smobgirl 05/19/2020 at 13:45

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No, this is perfectly reasonable.

HammerheadFistpunch > functionoverfashion 05/19/2020 at 13:46

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I’ve done the small kid shopping, it’ s not a big deal.  Frankly it’s a nice little mini vacation sometimes to get them in the car, lock it with the windows cracked and saunter over to the corral for 50 seconds of peace.

HammerheadFistpunch > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 05/19/2020 at 13:46

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Anarchist 

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 13:48

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I steal them and give them to the homeless people. 

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 13:48

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This seems to be regional too. Here in Wisconsin most people do return the carts to the corral and you only see a stray cart or two in any given lot. When I lived in Arizona it was like people were personally offended at the idea of having to return the cart to a corral. Most places seemed to be 50/50 between carts in the corral vs carts just randomly left throughout the parking lot.

HammerheadFistpunch > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 05/19/2020 at 13:50

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I suspect heat has something to do with it.  People don’t want to spend much time between AC zones.  It’s certainly no excuse, but maybe it makes people in Arizona who do return carts that much more human.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 05/19/2020 at 13:51

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The latest entry on r/maliciouscompliance

functionoverfashion > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 13:53

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True, our kids are pretty good. But I can imagine a scenario where you wouldn’t want to leave a kid in the car for any amount of time, lest some meddling stranger think that you have abandoned said child in the car and confront you about the unattended child upon your return. Our grocery store’s corral placement can make it quite a walk, if you don’t park close enough. Again, I just park nearby; done. But having a kid throwing a tantrum throws all norms out the window.

Otherwise I like the theory, it’s pretty excellent. I think I just automatically read stuff like that and think “but what if your kid is having a fit” haha thankfully, those days are mostly behind us. 

Tekamul > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 13:54

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I’ve never not returned a cart.

I do enjoy a mostly empty lot at night, where I can hone my skills, seeing from how far away I can accurately return that cart. 

PS9 > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 13:56

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People don't want to be governed. But people also don't want to deal with the consequences of rampant chaos. They would create a psychological structure for themselves that tells them the cart will somehow find a way back to the corral, but then begrudgingly agree to coin cart enforcement policy after most of them obtain the camry dent. 

Just Jeepin' > Tekamul 05/19/2020 at 14:02

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I once saved a car from a cart when a g uy near me decided to launch it at the corral. Obviously something better done when there aren’t cars around...

For Sweden > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 14:07

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I also subscribe to it’s corollary , the Do You Wear a Mask in Public Theory.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 14:10

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But on the flip side we have cold here in Wisconsin, and even in the dead of winter you don’t typically see a ton of abandoned carts. 

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 05/19/2020 at 14:10

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A monster

This is what we'll show whenever you publish anything on Kinja: > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 14:13

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Fwiw twice in the past month I’ve gotten to the front of the social distance line to find no carts, no hand baskets because covid , and ultimately had to carry loose groceries through the store.

I remember a time before cart returns, where the stores employed an actual person to continuously collect them and return them to the front of the store throughout the day so that they might be used by the next customer. They also had a second employee at each till who’s sole function was to neatly bag the items which you had just purchased, place the bags into your cart, and would arrange to help you load them into your vehicle if you were unable to do so yourself. You could even choose paper, plastic, or even both at no additional charge . What a time to be alive!

They weren’t great jobs necessarily, minimum wage for sure, but they provided a valuable service and were often staffed with members of the community who had special needs. It’s a shame that corporations put profits over people, put the onus on the customer, and killed an opportunity for the differently-abled to earn some money, interact with the public, and leave feeling fulfilled.

These days I return my own carts, if I’m lucky enough to get one to begin with.

  Now get off of my lawn.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > fintail 05/19/2020 at 14:16

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Chinese style camera and social point system, but only for Costco.

HammerheadFistpunch > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 05/19/2020 at 14:16

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Cold breeds headriness, heat breeds laziness.

UserNotFound > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 05/19/2020 at 14:30

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The more I hear about Arizona, the more I feel like the state  motto is, “YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO! ”

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 05/19/2020 at 14:33

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But not a wild animal. Just a garden variety monster.

PyroHoltz f@h Oppo 261120 > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 14:37

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Two comments:

I’ve been known to put the cart at the nearest curb when the corral is chal ked full and even at times if it’s less than full, there I said it.

I’m curious if you could make a case that putting the carts away by the user is taking a job away from someone? It’s a silly socialist or pro- union perspective but I imagine someone’s thinking it.

Thomas Donohue > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 14:43

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Inevitably, someone always argues that “I don’t return my cart because they have someone that does that. It creates jobs.”

I try to find those people, and leave my cart right up against their passenger-side door.

haveacarortwoorthree2 > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 14:44

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As a grocery store cart getter/pusher in my long-ago youth, fuck those people that can’t be bothered to put the carts in the corral. And it is even worse when they refuse to return them in winter, as most of the time you are running out to grab carts in tennis shoes and maybe a long-sleeve shirt between doing your other tasks. I always wanted to hide in the temporary police towers in the parking lot and shoot these lazy people in the ass with a bb gun.

HammerheadFistpunch > PyroHoltz f@h Oppo 261120 05/19/2020 at 14:45

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1. you monster

2. It’s an interesting question, sort of related to a comment I just left about robot building by LZone about the value of removing work from people. On the slider of cost of living and efficiency I think we need to be very balanced. On the one having more people do more smaller jobs I think would be net good for the world in term of emotional health and less wealth transfer to the top. On the other hand it makes goods and services far more expensive and vulnerable making cost of living substantially higher. In an ideal world we would be much more content with paying more for less so that everyone has slightly more equitable share of the worlds wealth. In the world we live in ...return your cart.

HammerheadFistpunch > Thomas Donohue 05/19/2020 at 14:46

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These are the trickle downers. It’s awfully convenient to say, but worthless.    

Thomas Donohue > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 14:51

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HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 15:33

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I’ve never been to Arizona but after dealing with Texas heat for a few day’s I couldn’t agree more.   

interstate366, now In The Industry > Thomas Donohue 05/19/2020 at 15:55

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There’s got to be a better way!

Roadkilled > PyroHoltz f@h Oppo 261120 05/19/2020 at 16:05

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I wouldn’t say that leaving carts anywhere is a good way to create work, or that returning carts takes away somebody’s job. All it does is make someone’s job harder and it creates a problem for the other customers.

If I stay at a hotel, should I intentionally mess up the room to create more jobs for housekeepers? Should I make a mess in public bathrooms to create more jobs for janitors? Neither of these makes sense to me. The company is only going to hire a fixed number of people to do certain work, particularly in businesses where margins are thin. In my opinion, t he person responsible for cleaning up the mess only gets further behind in their work when customers are careless.

If leaving carts everywhere created more jobs, you would see more people cleaning carts out of parking lots, and you would see fewer carts spread around because they would get clean up. Instead, carts get left all around the lot until somebody has free time to round them up, and that probably only happens once or twice a day.

Textured Soy Protein > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 16:06

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The Food Lion by my house that’s been my low key quasi secret well stocked and not-too-heavily trafficked grocery store during the pandemic has no corrals whatsoever. All along the front sidewalk facing the main lot, t here are bollards (or some other kind of barrier for which I don’t know the specific name) where the gaps are just a little too small to fit a cart through.

The smart move is to park in this side lot where there’s a little gate in the bollards that you can take a cart through.

Inevitably, people leave a bunch of carts all up in that enclosed-by-bollards sidewalk instead of bringing them back to the cart place inside the door. But I religiously bring my cart all the way back inside. The only exception is if an employee is outside collecting stray carts anyway and they offer to take mine. 

Kiltedpadre > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 16:22

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How does Aldi skew these results?  You still aren’t actually punished in any way, but you do have a personal loss by abandoning your quarter.

Captain of the Enterprise > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 17:18

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This applies to people leaving their gloves on the ground outside their car right now too. 

HammerheadFistpunch > Captain of the Enterprise 05/19/2020 at 17:28

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gloves and masks.  I see it way too often.

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 18:40

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Both our local supermarkets provide trolleys. However, they lock together and the only way to get them apart is to push either a $1 or $2 coin into the lock. If you want to get your coin back...you have to lock up your trolley back in the corral. Works a treat...

smobgirl > Textured Soy Protein 05/19/2020 at 19:30

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What kind of asshole designed that place? That’s awful!

smobgirl > HammerheadFistpunch 05/19/2020 at 19:32

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This is one of those days when I typed a reply, promptly forgot about it, and was completely puzzled by my notifications.

Textured Soy Protein > smobgirl 05/19/2020 at 19:39

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It began life as a Circuit City back in the day. It’s part of a shopping center with a ton of very popular restaurants. My guess is when the Food Lion went in, the landlords of the center vetoed cart corrals .

From what I can recall of my childhood accompanying my mom grocery shopping in the 80s before cart corrals were a thing, all the grocery stores around here had similar cart holding pens. Of course, they also had drive up loading into your car which this Food Lion lacks.

It’s really no big deal to just park in the side lot and bring the cart thru the gate there.

oldmxer > HammerheadFistpunch 05/20/2020 at 01:53

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me too

Rufant > HammerheadFistpunch 05/22/2020 at 17:43

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We have the German grocery chain Aldi here. Which is an interesting business model in many ways (if you’ re interested in such things) enabling them to work on lower profit margins than a conventional supermarket. One of those ways are the trolleys require a $1 or $2 to release them and this is returned when you return the trolley, all built into the trolley handle. It is an almost faultless system, except as the above photo shows. The trolleys with kids seats have their own bay, a good couple of metres further on. I mean, who has the time to go there, when I can get my dollar back here?

Excellent post. It is one of my pet hate subjects :)

Textured Soy Protein > HammerheadFistpunch 06/22/2020 at 15:47

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Replying to you in an older post so as to be out of view. A m I perma-banned or what? It was my understanding from Dusty this was some kind of unspecified “time out.” Either way, whatever.