- cross-posted to:
- neat@lemmy.world
Because they are dicks? Is there any reasonable justification for not returning your cart? Claiming to be creating jobs is just BS. Either you strive to be a productive part of society or you only look out for yourself. The shopping cart indicator is a decent tool for separating these two types of people.
there’s no industrial poetry for this. “Be kind…please rewind” reminded people to not be dicks.
Return the cart…do your part.
Return the cart…or smell a fart.
Try the German solution. To get a cart, you have to put a Euro into the cart to unchain it. When you return it, you chain it back on and get the Euro back.
Works for many years now, and people have been conditioned to it, so they return even “hacked” carts (there are tools to unchain them without a coin).
We have an Aldi in my little redneck American town. Not sure I’ve ever paid the $.25. Most people look for an incoming customer to hand off to.
I’m a Midwestern transplant to Los Angeles. Honestly? It’s fucking hard to return your cart in Los Angeles. While my past self would call anyone out returning their cart an asshole, I can’t anymore because 90% of stores here just refuse to put out any cart corrals.
Over 500 Cart Narcs videos where watched to get this data. It was a fun read!
People will leave their trollies anywhere but in car parks. Bicycle rqcks? Fair game. Foot paths? Yeah sure. Car parks? Nah that would inconvenience people.
I think you’re onto something. My gut tells me it related to car culture, but it could also be some specific cultural entitlement related to something as simple as “the customer is always right” and “have it your way” mentality.
It’d be fun to figure out if this happens elsewhere in the world. I don’t think it happens much in Europe, but I only live in one of the countries, Denmark, and we all have to use a 10 or 20 krone coin (like 1½ dollars and 3 dollars) or a token that fits (often free from the store) to “rent” trolleys and I think that psychologically help give some temporary feeling of ownership of the cart making one more likely to return it.It’s not the coin. It’s the education. We European aren’t educated as selfish people.
And I just noted that in my little, American, redneck town that you usually don’t have to stick the quarter in the Aldi cart as someone will come along and hand you their cart.
Of course I was badly generalizing. I’m sure there are lots of human people everywhere.



