I have very young children, meaning very often I can walk away from the car after getting them in their carseats and unloading the groceries or whatever and be gone for about two minutes before one or both of them start losing their minds and getting scared. If the shopping cart return spot is more than two minutes from my car (round trip), then the cart gets left exactly two minutes (round trip) closer to the return spot and in a spot that doesn't inconvenience a) anyone parking, b) anyone leaving, and c) the employee that will eventually have to return it to the store.

Ideally, I catch someone walking inside the store on my way and ask if they'd like the cart, but not always.

That's just how it is, I don't feel bad about it. I don't know if you all live somewhere where these cart return chutes are more available, but most large parking lots here are the size of like two football fields and they have three total return chutes.

What irritates me is how often the "parent parking" spots are filled with people that get into their cars with no kids. They are typically located right next to the chutes, and it is great because you don't have to walk short children through a parking lot, you can put them in a cart, and then walk in where cars backing out can see the little kids.

I seriously rarely see people with kids using those spots. 100% some of the people in this thread are using the parent parking spots without kids, returning their shopping cart right next to where they're parked, and then judging people for not returning their carts.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Why is this shopping cart meme so prevalent all of a sudden? I've seen like five unique memes about it in the last few days, not just reposts but three completely unique memes

Why is this particular meme everywhere this week?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Why is this shopping cart meme so prevalent ... I’ve seen like five unique memes ... three completely unique memes ... Why is this particular meme everywhere ...

Yeah, kinda makes ya wonder just what "meme" means. ;-)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (5 children)

I go to Buehlers where my stuff gets conveyor belted outside and they put it in my car for me. I need not return the cart because it does not leave!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Capitalist has entered the chat.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Rokos shopping cart

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Again american with their "blame the customer instead of pushing bussinus to hire people full time"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Should the stores have valet service patrolling the parking lot for your cart? Or should I just make sure to leave my cart parked uphill from your car?

Or maybe I should just make sure that there’s an empty cart inside every empty parking spot. That sounds like a fun sunny-day community anarchy event.

The best thing of the corrals is, when used properly, empty spots are actually empty and you don’t have to worry about stray carts slamming into your parked car. Unfortunately, they are rarely used properly.

Making work easier for the dude who has to go out to collect them is just gravy.

But there’s a segment of the American population that doesn’t want to do what’s best for ”nearly everyone, eventually”…they want to do what’s best for “me, now”. Even if most people (themselves included) doing the former automatically results in the latter. Basically prisoners dilemma. Same reason we still have Covid, same reason we can’t have public healthcare, and same reason a few kids collect lead at school every now and then.

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