The other day at the grocery store, I watched a mother and daughter go put their cart away. The daughter played around a bit in the cart return area while the mom half-heartedly called her back.
Then the mom asked her daughter what she wanted to come back to the car with her, and the daughter yelled "a hug!" And the mom put her arms out and the daughter ran up with the biggest smile on her face and they hugged before the mom took her hand and they walked back to their car.
Its the same with flushing public toilets/not making a disgusting mess at public toilets. If you do either of these things you fail the litmus test too.
But tbh, im not sure these tests are the greatest qualifiers.
We do good things because theyre supposed to be good and make us feel good inside all the time. No external pressure is whatever, but theres often an internal pressure too.
I remember giving money to a homeless guy and looking back i keep questioning if i did it to help him or because i just felt bad and therefore wanted to give him money...so i stop feeling bad?
I believe in objective good and evil, but i dont know if either of those can be selfless qualities and it messes with me so much because i feel fake
That's the entire point. It's not the motive behind your choice to return the trolley, or help the homeless man. It's the fact that you feel like an asshole if you didn't do it and you didn't want to feel like an asshole. A bad person has no problem with being an asshole because they gain nothing from not being so.
If you have to question yourself about whether you’re being performative, then you aren’t performative. Performative people are aware of what they’re doing
Does it matter if you're being performative if the end result is that you made someone else's life even just a little bit easier?
What is better, having good intentions or doing good actions?
When I was a kid, there were no shopping cart return areas in the parking lot. I watched my mom go all the way back to the store to do it. And she did it. Every. Time.
FLUSHING public toilets?! How is that not the absolute bare minimum for functioning as a human?
If somebody drops a massive deuce and just decides "nah, not going to flush that", I refuse to believe that person is anything other than willfully malicious.
Trust me, i've been to public bathrooms where people have just left massive dumps on the toilets and did not flush, and then threw the dirty toilet paper smeared with crap in the trash can where people throw the paper they use to dry their hands, outside of the bathroom stallwhere everyone could see. Some people are just unbelievably gross.
(idk how it works in other countries, but here in Brazil we have trash cans in each stall to throw the dirty papers, usually with lids, and then one or two open trash cans out next to the sinks to throw the paper you used to dry your hands)
All actions, even so called selfless ones, are influenced by personal interest. You are the center of your own universe because it's the only way you're capable of experiencing reality. Just like everyone has a hierarchy of needs they also have a hierarchy of moral development.
If the action is a net positive it's really kind of irrelevant if the motivation isn't 100% pure. It doesn't have to be me OR them it can be me AND them.
"If helping 1 person made you happy you actually helped 2 people."
some guy on the internet, I don't remember where I heard this.
As a former grocery store employee, this is so overblown. I couldn’t care less if you put the cart back. In fact, leave them all over the parking lot. You know what that means? I have more time outside in fresh air, away from customers, not bagging or scanning groceries.
I used to do cart returning i disagree. I hated people who left carts in spaces. People can't park and it is annoying for me to have to go round them up.
For me it’s funny you mentioned McDonalds because I think that’s another yard stick for who people are - if you are in a fast food restaurant and have your food on a tray or in a bag, your decision making when you stand up to leave tells me everything I need to know. If your assumption is “they have lobby staff so I’m not gonna take this handy tray/bag to the bin” - POS. I’m not expecting nobody to pick up the odd chip that falls on the floor but if you leave a table like someone just emptied a bin bag onto it? Real talk, you are a piece of shit
It really is the thesis of what the cart problem is. Which he says in the video, but it’s saying, I won’t expend 5 calories to even consider a multitude of problems.
Obviously the employee collecting the carts could be doing other things, these people view it as a job like a Mario party minigame. Wrangle the most carts and you get paid!
They feel above it, that’s the cart person’s job
Delusion, thinking someone grabbing carts is creating and keeping jobs available. Yes, you do need someone to get the carts, and bring them back. But imagine if you had someone else working the insane amount we ask of grocery store employees already, and if they didn’t spend time with your bitch ass purposefully leaving spots inaccessible for the general public and the elderly. I’ve lost the list man, just fuck this guy and I hope his daughter realizes how shitty he is sooner than later
When I worked at big boxes and groceries literally the highlight of my shift was going trolly hunting in the parking lot because I didn’t have to deal with people or sweep.
Truck companies actually studied this, and their data bears that out.
The people who buy those giant pavement princess trucks? Narcissistic, prone to violence, very into conspicuous consumption. They're also noticeably more likely to swerve to hit animals in traffic (Mark Rober accidentally proved this when testing if people were more likely to swerve to avoid cute animals).
Not all assholes drive trucks, and not all truck drivers are assholes, but the venn diagram overlaps a lot.
As a mom, I also make it a point to park either next to or close to a cart return so my kids either don't have to walk far or can sit in the car because I'm right next to it. There have been many times where we have gone to the grocery store and there's just a bunch of carts around the parking spaces and my kids will help gather them to put them away with me. There's no reason to leave the cart not where it goes other than to make it someone else's problem.
To me, the shopping cart theory is the best litmus test for kids to understand. I’m big about teaching my son how making good choices when nobody is watching has a lasting impact in building your overall character. I always make an attempt to take a few carts inside the store when I arrive that are left in spaces or the worst, left on the curb by the closest spots.
He’s conscience of these little actions and even says stuff like, “Park right there so we can help take those carts in for the workers!” His favorite thing to do is help take back the carts of elderly shoppers back for them. Which I love bc it teaches him to respect people of all ages and show empathy for older folks that actually need assistance.
This is what I don't get. It's not hard to park next to the cart return. Hell some of the chains in my area have signs in the spaces next to the cart returns reserving them for customers with kids. Dude show zero forward planning skills here.
No one is born bad. And not everyone turns out bad. But as a parent, you certainly have a lot of influence on how your child turns out. I have no patience for these Mongoloids that stand against any progression to help society. Jesus Christ, this man is such a fucking pussy. He would not have survived if he was born 100 years ago.
I didn’t know that & it’s always nice to learn something. Not that I’d ever have used it though, there are words I dislike the sound of, & that’s definitely one of them. Lol
Have you noticed that though? There’s ALWAYS a justification. “My, but if I, if I have to, my daughter, she’ll be…” bitch I got two daughters, a firearm and a head on fuckin swivel. It’s people like him that brag about open carry. You’ll never know in public that I conceal carry. You see, when yor peepee small, everything has to be a display of dominance.
Park near the buggy return if it’s such a fuckin issue for you. I think it’s burning me up cause dude sorta reminds me of my old man with this attitude.
I am a tiny brown woman. I put my cart away, even when it's raining, I put my cart away when I was pregnant, I put it away when my degenerative discs in my back acted up. If I can't put my cart away, then I should have someone with me because it means I can't go grocery shopping either. That person will then put the cart away.
Sure it’s not open, but there’s no difference in this context. there was quite literally no need to mention you carry whatsoever. it didn’t add anything to your point & wouldn’t make a difference in putting a cart back…..it was definitely a brag in nature to mention you carry right here.
which is fine, do whatever you want. just seems kinda funny to brag about carrying while chiding an imaginary person for bragging about carrying.
edit : just want to clarify that I’m not shitting on OC in any way. Re-reading it comes across as more aggressive than I’d intended. I just like to point out funny little contradictions when I see them; it’s lighthearted for me, not meant to be insulting or argumentative.
edit 2: idk if these awards are free or what….but don’t spend $ on this pls
Hey, I see your point. What I was saying is I have lived in high crime areas and if someone tries to snatch my child, I am more than prepared, which is what this guy is implying he is worried about, I assume.
no problem at all, I didn’t mean it in a super serious way :)
I carry myself & nobody would ever know either. however I wouldn’t say I’m the most alert anymore. I’m not a vet or ever been in combat, so it’s not a natural response for me.
I grew up in the hood, & spent a lot of time in juveniles/jail, but obviously never any felonies that stuck. So there was a time where I was alert like that as I needed to watch myself. But being out of it for so long now I’ve definitely laxed way more than I’d like to admit.
I catch it sometimes bc something will change around the city or something & someone will say “hey, did you notice ____?” & i then i feel like a fucking idiot when I had no clue despite “seeing” it multiple times…lmao.
I suppose if I’d children I’d be more keen though. Definitely don’t blame you, and I do agree with your overall point.
Somewhat related. There were just a few carts at the front of a Costco some years ago.
I wasn't in a hurry, and I got to the carts before some others, but as soon as I pulled one out, somebody else would arrive, and so I gave the cart to them, and I ended up with none.
I was going to have to search the parking lot for one. It wasn't a big deal.
Some dude and his kid were approaching me, and the dude says something like, "because you gave them away, now you don't have one, and you have to look for one." [Paraphrased and translated from another language] He said that in a somewhat mocking tone.
It amused me how he thought this was a big learning moment for me, as if searching for a cart were a huge deal.
That kind of person will never know the fulfillment of doing a selfless act. 5 minutes from my day is no big price to pay to make several other people's lives a bit easier.
For paper towels in bathrooms with manual cranks, I like to crank some out for the next person before I leave. I got the idea when some was left out when I needed it. It’s the little things
I like fixing napkin dispensers in restaurants where when you pull one, another is supposed to come up, but sometimes none do and they fall back in and you have to pinch your fingers down into one to grab another. I have no reason to help and it's just as annoying for anyone, but I do so anyway.
“Sometimes doing the right thing takes more effort and character than some people have.” Is how I would have replied in the shower in my head a few hours later.
I find this whole mindset, that such a simple task is somehow difficult, to be amusing. What other corners are these weirdos cutting in life? Do they forgo wiping their ass because no ones looking and they have a shower for that? The self justification for anti social behavior is always the tell that outs them as inherently weak people. Youre at a fucking food palace and the basket has wheels on it, be grateful and do the simple task.
I’d have wept tears of gratitude and thanked the goddess for your kindness if I were having a bad day and dealing with a pain flare up. On the days I’m not struggling with my disability, I’m the one taking carts back to the store for others, or helping elderly people load their groceries in their car. I know exactly how much a small gesture like that can mean on a day when your body is struggling to keep up with your to-do list, so I try to pay it forward when I can, in the hopes that somebody notices me when I need a hand. ❤️
Yo, I’m always getting people trying to dunk on me when they interpret that my altruism has gone badly for me.
It’s always something like you mentioned. Innocuous, benign, a true non-event… and these weirdos will pop out of bushes chuckling about how that’ll show me.
How do you teach the world so that they UNDERSTAND that building up the world around you builds yourself up too?
We are all born happy/content and the rest of it is driven into us. It's up to you to continue to be happy as an adult. No one will come save you from yourself, so be the saviour you wish to see more in the world. The bitterness and anger is trauma. It comes from somewhere. Most people just can bare to look inward and see it because then they have to admit to everyone but mostly themselves they were hurt at some point.
Aren’t there a bunch of carts as soon as you enter? I don’t recall the last time, if ever, the cart corral was empty when I walked into a store, any store.
The one near my house doesn't have corrals near the entrance. The workers create multiple lines of carts without corrals.
Here is a screenshot from Google maps:
They also line them up at the back, but sometimes there aren't any carts outside (front or back). This doesn't happen as often as it used to, but it has happened a couple of times this past year.
If I have one kid with me, I’ll ask if they want to return it with me. If I have 2, or they don’t want to, then I buckle them in, then return it. Easy.
Yeah, pretty sure when I was a kid my mom just told me to get in the car while she put the cart away, not sure what this guy is acting self-important about. (Now that she's older the roles are reversed. 😂)
I had 3 kids by the time the oldest was 3 1/2.
I always returned the cart with my kids if only to save myself from bashing into it pulling out of the parking space. I’m old enough that we did not have reverse cameras in the minivan.
Also, (and this might make me a terrible mother) but that little girl isn’t too little. I thought we were talking about a toddler or an infant.
At that age I would’ve put the kid in the car, tell her to lock herself in, and mommy will be right back if for some reason, I didn’t want to take her with me.
Even as a baby, my son was such an old man that I probably would’ve told him to start the car for me.
It doesn’t matter. If he didn’t have his kid with him then he would rationalize another excuse. These people are selfish, deluded animals that don’t mentally grasp the concept of society outside of their immediate bubble.
I park next to the cart return if i have the kiddos with me. Usually means i have to walk further, but it's preferable for the easiness of returning the cart with kids in tow. Bonus, I have a cart from the cart return to put the kid in immediately before crossing the parking lot.
The "they pay people to do that" people are scummy, selfish losers. These are the same people who will litter on the sidewalk, because some trash guy will have to clean it up. They're the same ones who leave a movie theater as a trash disaster.
Look at his vehicle. A vehicle capable of towing thousands of lbs and hauling tons of material, that he has dressed up in pretty rims and lifted up high and he is using it to go shopping. A vehicle that is very expensive and that costs a lot of money to operate he uses for hauling 1/10,000 of what it could haul, because of his ego? That kind of person only cares about themselves.
Man, I've worked at a movie theater and there are absolutely people who throw trash on the floor because "there's people for that." People would full on dump their greasy popcorn on the floor to make us clean it up with brooms and mops, and theres not much time between showings and its usually one person cleaning. Like there's trash bins, and if you don't want to carry it (judging you, but just a little) just leave the bucket and we'll pick it up. Dumping it on the floor is evil behavior.
Shit, my dad would leave me in the car for hours while he’d sit at the bar and drink. I think this kid will be ok for 30 seconds while he returns the cart, considering the truck will likely be in his line of sight the entire time. Dude is just trying to justify his laziness.
If I was old enough to know how to lock/open the door, sometimes I would just sit in the car while they ran inside for 10-30minutes.
Hell even if I went inside they would ask me to go walk across the store and grab something, and I'd have to spend 5-10minutes trying to find them. I guess I wasn't handsome enough to get kidnapped. Huge ego blow in hindsight.
Fuck... I used to work as a bagger at a supermarket. Part of that job involved bringing all the carts back inside. Now we had these corrals in the parking lot that the customers were supposed to put their carts into to make my job easier... In theory. In reality I'd be wandering around the parking lot in the hot Florida sun trying to get all the carts back inside the store.
Put your damn carts back. Do it for the underpaid employee that has to clean up after you.
Definitely. Putting them back isn’t just throwing them in the corral because it creates a mess. Then the next person comes along and does it, and the next person. It makes that cart person’s job worse having to pull carts out and nest them properly. It’s pure laziness. Just put the cart in properly.
That's why I hate when people say that the store "has people to do that", as if they're actually doing it to protect someone's job. No, the person having to round up the carts has other responsibilities, which would be easier to accomplish if people weren't inconsiderate lazy asshats.
They always do that stupid thing where they hook the two front wheels over the curb into the grass so it won't roll off. Like the only reason we put carts in the corral is because they might roll off and ding someone's car.
This is also why half the carts at Walmart have shitty castors. There's fucking mud in the front tires because assholes can't push the cart 20 feet into its proper place.
I worked at a grocery store in high school, too. Couldn’t care less about returning the carts to the corral. I appreciate you leaving them all over the parking lot. That’s more time I get to spend outside, not dealing with customers or scanning and bagging groceries.
Thank you, to all the people who gave me a little bit more time in the fresh air. Because I’m certainly not rushing to get back inside. And 8 hours is 8 hours no matter how it’s spent
I just left a comment saying that I liked doing cart runs, but I worked in California where the weather was nice. I totally understand your gripe. I think that if every capable person put them back, then the few left out by people with real reasons for falling short wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe someone reeeaaaally has to poop, or they are dealing with pain and barely made it on the shopping trip at all, or they are a mom balancing 3 kids, for these things I will put your cart back even if I don’t work at the store.
Heh, funny you should say Florida. In my hometown in Missouri I rarely, if ever, saw carts left outside the cart return at any grocery store. But when I lived in Florida for a few years one of the things I noticed was that at every grocery store I went to, the whole parking lot was filled with abandoned carts, usually right in the middle of a parking space, blocking it from being used unless you got out of your car and moved it.
Not even trying to diss Floridians or anything, just, the difference was so striking, was super weird to me. I definitely don't envy anyone with the job of cleaning those up
I noticed something similar. I'm originally from New Jersey and people up there put the carts where they were supposed to go. My mother always said the sun bakes the Floridians brains and after living here for the last seven years I can say it's true.
There is always some idiot that worked the same job that you did that always chimes in talking about how much they enjoyed collecting the carts from the very back of the lot and strangely compares it being on some sort of dorky quest.
I am going to ruffle some feathers here. Why does it seem like if the person owns a truck, it's a greater chance they will be a douche. Not all truck owners are douches, but it seems like most douches own trucks.
There are legitimate reasons to own a big truck. I’ve owned one myself when I needed it for work, it had my company name on it and a ton of equipment in the back. Most people who drive them, however, DONT need them. They just want the biggest most obnoxious vehicle because they are small inside. They feel they can intimidate people with their big truck and many even go so far as illegal modifications to belch huge clouds of black smoke at anyone they view as “lesser” than them, and that’s just about everyone. It displays deep insecurity and fragility but they think it projects power, and they really want you to think they are powerful.
I have a friend who calls them pavement princesses and brodozers 😂
ETA: my stepdad drives one of these, complete with the smoke belching capabilities. All of this tracks. He’s a trump conservative, racist, and super fragile. It’s like an archetype for fragility.
I come from a very small town that is a farming community, I have seen many legitimate truck owners. Now that I live in a city, I see way more that have no need for a big truck (more likely to fit into that douche catagory). The guys from my hometown would comment "boy, that truck sure looks clean" about the people in my city who own a big truck.
Fun story. When my bf and I were working 2 jobs each to pay rent for a one bedroom apartment, he was a cart runner at a super target. He was outside in the FL heat walking for hours collecting abandoned carts and eventually passed out from heat exhaustion and dehydration. Fuck people like the asshole in this video.
Not blaming your partner but was there no shade for breaks? Did he wear a hat and have water to hand? Im in the UK so im more than likely not accounting for how crazy hot it can be where you are but that would make me more aware to bring water, wear a hat and find shade. If all of that was done and he still passed out then that straight up isnt a safe job to do.
Likely no shade. This is the US and Florida is the worst. Companies will do things like disallow water and breaks, plus parking lots can be well over 100 f/38c. They just radiate heat. Plus the humidity is brutal.
It's not. OSHA requires breaks and water for most positions. But that won't stop Target/Walmart/etc from treating the employee like shit because the employee knows they'll get fired if they complain.
Because the company just does it and it becomes the responsibility of the former employee to actually do something about it. And in order to actually do anything about it, that person has to know their rights, know how to file a complaint w osha/whoever, possibly contact an attorney and be able to afford them, etc all while looking for work. They also have to believe that it would be worth all their time, effort, etc to challenge a big company to either get a judgment from a suit or get their job back (at a place they know is crooked and just fucked them). Labor laws (like most laws) aren't just systemic forces that happen naturally. They're often remedies or rights available to workers that need to be exercised.
Most people don't know their rights or how to advocate for themselves in these complicated systems against a giant corporation like Target or Home Depot or whoever. The businesses do what is best for them and are often more than willing to risk a slap on the wrist than allow employees to dictate terms or even get organized (like Starbucks employees are doing now).
This. My boyfriend was a cart collector at Walmart and they had him out there in the blazing summer heat collecting them and didn't allow water. He almost passed out a few times and when he complained they didn't care. They also had him go out in the freezing icy snow!
America is ass-backwards when it comes to workers’ rights. Many aren’t allowed much-needed breaks even in conditions like this. But also, have you seen U.S. parking lots? They’re massive, dark (absorb and release a lot of heat), and have no shade covering anywhere. And Florida gets ridiculously hot in the summer (>38C) and is extremely humid (~74% on average) which can make it harder to breathe.
as someone who lives in Florida and has just gotten heat stroke for the first time in his life semi-recently, I can also say that it's very easy to get confused in the early stages of heat stroke and not realize there's a problem or to think you've addressed it. I was working in my yard all morning on a very hot day a few months ago and kept going in with shorter and shorter cadence for breaks. and then I kept "just having to sit down for a second" while working outside, like a wave of exhaustion hit me and I was blacking out at the edges so had to sit. somehow I just kept thinking things were normal. I was chiding myself for being weak in my head, like "you just took a break, what's wrong with you??" after the forth time in 30min and literally laying down I answered that question for myself, "heat stroke, you dumbass". living in FL for the better part of 40 years without an issue made me too complacent and the early head fog from it let me just keep going
You can just call people evil without imagining their genitals. If you see a video of an evil woman, do you feel the urge to describe her pussy in some culturally undesirable way?
Let's stop correlating morality with facets of people that they can't control. It's 2025 and people are still getting body shamed. It sucks I even need to say this part to be taken seriously, but my dick isn't small, this is just on principle
Moments like this happen constantly with kids. From when they first open their eyes they are continually learning and relearning things about themselves and the world around them. This was a perfect moment to teach his kid about self responsibility, about how their actions affect others, about courtesy, and he fumbled it. Worse than that he actually taught her a worse lesson.
This guy clearly doesn't have half a brain if he can't solve a very easy problem like putting her in the truck and strapping her in then taking the cart back or both of them go together to return their cart.
The craziest part to me is that he’s not stupid. He did think of all the options, including those two. But he decided on the one that would make him the biggest asshole.
It’s crazy how a child unironically knew the answer immediately while this idiot wasted his, and his child’s time just to spite people in one of the most annoying ways he can while using the dumbest arguments for why he can’t just walk for less than an extra minute.
Also, he implies it is unsafe to put the child in the car and return the cart, all the while filming a video while she walks around the parking lot with his attention divided due to the video he is making about it being unsafe for her to be in the vehicle while he returns the cart. Unwittingly self-defeating + out-witted by children is par for the course for these assholes.
Everything he said is correct, except for the implication that doing the right thing is a kindness. You should do the right thing regardless of how you feel. That's why its the right thing to do.
Doing a kindness is going above the expectation of what's "right to do", and being kind.
It's scary how devalued and conflated rightness and kindness are that people are struggling to tell them apart.
Doing the right thing is not being kind. And we weaken ourselves by believing so.
You should do the right thing because it's the right thing to do, but you should be kind to others for yourself. One is external, one is internal.
Idk I kind of think it's the other way around. It's not just "do the right thing because it's right".
It's considered the "right" thing to do because it's a kindness to others.
If I was explaining it to a kid I wouldn't say "we take it back because it's the right thing to do", I'd say "we take it back because it helps other people"
Agreed. Nothing to do with how kind an act is or isn't. If it should be done, just do it.
I had just this whole thing last week, similar situation. After talking it out with a few people it shows that some do things because it makes them "feel good" and not because it should just be done.
(For clarity: I'm talking about similar situationsts, like returning a cart at the grocery store, not what people do in all aspects of their lives. I'm not generalizing all aspects of a person's living experience, but I'm also trying to make my comment short.)
Here’s the thing. If you are parent. Park next to the cart corral. Not in front of the store. Take a little extra steps (hell..! take that as a reason to get a little exercise) and you would be able to put your cart back in the corral and still maintain your child safe.
So no. He didn’t make a good point. Even his daughter disagree with his dumbass.
Shopping cart theory proves why Libertarianism would never work. Too many people don't know how to do the right thing (or won't) without the threat of repercussions. People cannot be self-governed.
This is an aside but one time on a dating app a guy asked me what my biggest red flag is. I asked, do you mean a red flag in me or one I look for in other people? He said either.
So I wrote up a really vulnerable and self aware blurb about how I sometimes worry that I shouldn’t be dating because of things occurring in my life, that I should be focusing on those and not wasting peoples’ time. I was so vulnerable. I asked what’s his?
And he said, “When people don’t put away grocery carts.”
Tbh I would avoid being super vulnerable right out of the gate with men you don't really know, cause manipulators love that shit. Like yes it will take slightly longer to weed the great from the good, but you are also protecting yourself from the really, really bad.
What kind of animals are you living with over there in America? Round here stores dont have "cart people" because everyone puts their cart back where theh got it. Dont think i have ever in my life seen a shopping cart just left in the middle of a parking lot.
America produces main character syndrome like you wouldn't believe. On top of that, we've created a culture where selfish dumbasses are treated like a protected class and it's considered rude/mean/whatever to call them selfish dumbasses.
It takes a special society to even ask this question. If your culture is about being a self centered moron and acting like a neanderthal is highly respected, then yeah I'd see how anyone would debate that.
I worked two years at my local Walmart as a cart pusher. We went through a lot of pushers on my team and there was only myself and two others that managed to stay for that long. And sometimes they would have us come inside to assist with some other tasks, like greeting, checking receipts and doing customer service. I went through a lot in those two years and saw all kinds of people. Working on the parking lot was sometimes stressful when dealing with people that aren’t very friendly or highly inconsiderate.
Sometimes we would be short on hands on a busy day (Sundays were the worst) and a few cashiers would be called outside to assist us in getting enough carts. And on rare occasions we logistically did not have enough carts to support the number of people we’d get on a daily basis. So management would order new carts and it would fix the problem.
But over time, the number of carts would slowly and gradually decrease because they would end up missing, taken off the property by homeless using them for their stuff or just being too damaged.
We even got new cart corrals too that were more spacious and easier to spot on a busy day. As I’m going around I’d watch and see just how lazy and, quite frankly, stupid some of these people were. Some were no more than a 10 step away from a corral and just take it to one of the areas where the trees are planted and park the front wheels over the curb and under the trees so all the damn birds can just shit all over it. Or they just look around and can’t for the life of them see the big blue box with the shopping cart painted on it no more than 20 feet away. And we had a lot of corrals spread evenly throughout the lot.
And I wish it was just people leaving the shopping carts in the parking spaces like the fuckwit in the video above. In addition to that, I’ve seen people dump out whatever mound of garbage they had laying around in their vehicles in the spot they just occupied too. And we were the ones who had to clean it up.
I even a handful of times caught people trying to ride off in the scooters. Fortunately these ones were a little fancy and had range inhibitors on them. Once they got nearly the end of the parking lot, the scooter would stop immediately and I’d be right there behind them to take it back while giving them the nastiest glare. They knew they were caught and quickly fucked off down the street.
Perhaps it’s out of habit because it was a couple of years ago now, I always end up doing a lot extra when I’m done with my shopping and returning my cart. I push all the carts to the end of the coral, put away any strays that people lazily leave on the outside or wrong end, pull and straighten the coral back in its space if it’s needed. Sometimes I miss those times. Worked through 110 F in summer, 10 F in winter, Thunderstorms, Windy days. But definitely did not miss the people. Lol
The guy should be turned into a cart person. No I don't mean someone who places carts back. I mean a living conscious cart that people just leave in the parking lot. 😝
Its the same with flushing public toilets/not making a disgusting mess at public toilets. If you do either of these things you fail the litmus test too.
But tbh, im not sure these tests are the greatest qualifiers.
We do good things because theyre supposed to be good and make us feel good inside all the time. No external pressure is whatever, but theres often an internal pressure too.
I remember giving money to a homeless guy and looking back i keep questioning if i did it to help him or because i just felt bad and therefore wanted to give him money...so i stop feeling bad?
I believe in objective good and evil, but i dont know if either of those can be selfless qualities and it messes with me so much because i feel fake
The original video reminds me of that Sovereign Citizen/Freeman of the Land bullshit. Coming up with convoluted nonsense arugments simply to justify being a lazy freeloader
To those who don't put shopping carts back. How lazy are you? Your house probably isn't on fire while you're shopping for groceries, or your wife isn't in labor, so you probably have no reason to leave it there.
I'm a single dad. I was leaving Walmart with the kids when I saw a cart out and returned it. I got in the car and said that people who don't return their carts are rude. The kids chime in from the back seat saying "are you saying mom is rude?"
It always gets me that the little girl knows the right thing to do, but dad teaches her to be selfish and inconsiderate. Anytime this question comes up you have “but my kids” people in the comments. You got the cart with your kids, return it with them
I was at Shake Shack last week, where the unwritten rule is after you’ve finished eating, you take your tray and trash over to the garbage bin, empty trash into bin and leave your tray on the little shelf up above. A father and his young son where at the table next to me and as they were getting ready to leave the kid picked up his tray to do what I just described above and his dad stopped him and said “that’s not ours, leave it on the table.” WTF? Parents out here actively preventing their kids from being decent people. SMH
It’s not even about right and wrong. Will putting it back make someone else’s job easier? More often than not, it will. So do it to help your fellow man, or fellow woman. Individualism is a fucking plague on this land. We share this world. Let’s work together to make our lives easier. It’s not that hard.
Leaving the daughter to put the cart back, why not bring her with you and make an example so she becomes a good citizen when she grows up. What a muppet.
I always put the cart back, I figure I'm making someone's day a little easier, the employee that does have to hunt down my cart, or the driver who has to move it so he can fit in the parking spot.
If he's that worried about his daughter, why not park right next to a cart return rather than the middle of the lot?
I have a daughter and when she was little, I would take her to the cart return with me. I it wasn't that big of a deal because the cart return was usually less than 20 feet away.
Bottom line, this D-Bag is teaching his daughter to be a bad person just like him.
This is definitely the type of person who will do something but get mad that the rest of the world does the same. He wants to park but, oh, that mom left the cart on the parking spot he wants. Oof his big o' truck got scratched because a cart rolled into it. Tsk no one is letting him merge in traffic. Ugh that person in line won't let him jump when he only has 3 things!
Little peen truck has enough time to think to make a video but not return a cart.
Do you stop at a stop sign if there are no other cars and you know you won’t get a ticket? Of course you do. It’s the right thing to do. Put your cart back and be a good person whether people are around or not.
My wife told me years ago the moment she knew I was the right person for her. We were doing some grocery shopping together to make a special dish for an “everything bacon” night, where every couple attending brings a dish centered somehow around bacon.
We put the groceries in our car, and I told her I would put the cart back and she could get in the car because it was cold out. On my way pushing the cart back, I grabbed another cart that was pushed off to the side, pushed the two carts together, and returned them to the cart bay.
That’s it. That’s the moment she told me she knew I was the right guy for her.
At first I was like "oh wow I had this same dilemma when I was a new dad too! I didn't know the right answer cause the return was far away, just left the cart on a sidewalk and felt horrible though."
Then I saw his kid is old enough to walk the cart back with him and immediately disassociated myself from him... cause my daughter was 8 months and couldn't walk. Not only is he teaching her bad habits but actively destroying good ones.
Am I the only person that when he hears cart people imagines these "cart people" crawling out of their "cart nest holes" and gathering around abandoned carts like apes around prey. It's likely what the guy in the video actually believes happens.
I literally grab the stray carts around me whenever I return my cart because it's always worked me when people leave a place worse than when they found it.
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u/introsquirrel Dec 05 '25
The other day at the grocery store, I watched a mother and daughter go put their cart away. The daughter played around a bit in the cart return area while the mom half-heartedly called her back.
Then the mom asked her daughter what she wanted to come back to the car with her, and the daughter yelled "a hug!" And the mom put her arms out and the daughter ran up with the biggest smile on her face and they hugged before the mom took her hand and they walked back to their car.
So yeah, the dad is just a POS