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.
this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2025
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See also: putting rubbish in the bin
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).
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I only do it so I don’t feel guilty. So it’s self serving.
In my case, it would just feel wrong to leave it - that's not where it goes! Sometimes being anal is beneficial to society.
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.
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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.
You're dating a monster.
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.
I feel like its getting worst as we age. SO started driving angrier past few years. Middle finger and all.
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.
I'm sitting in the break area right now, there's 3 bins for people to toss their cigarettes in, yet the ground is littered with them.
It's fucking disgusting.
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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.
even though you gain nothing
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.
Also I get to be smug
You get back your 1€ though.
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.
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 reject the premise. One already gained something - the loan of a cart. Returning it repays the debt.
If you were really selfish, you could steal the cart and try to sell it for scrap.
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I put them back in the cart corral.
Mainly because the business has to pay someone to go get them.
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Before college I worked at a grocery store and initially I bagged groceries and gathered the carts
I always wonder if this meme is put out there by some penny pinching Kroger executive trying to justify paying off more of their bottom line workers.
My perception though is of a small grocery store with like 20 carts max and gathering up wasn't a big deal....having seen how many the guys at Costco pull at once looks pretty rough on the other hand
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?
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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?
That's what the corrals are for, I'd say either is morally good.
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where's the question? yes
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.
I was so close to cross-posting this back before I realised
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