How lazy can people be?

[radiodave]

Went by Home Depot the other day, and some portly (okay, FAT) lady apparently decided it was too far to walk across the lane (maybe 15 feet) to return her shopping cart. So she leaves it in the handicapped parking spot instead . I came so close to blurting out something to the effect of "Gee, it sure isn't a long way to the cart return, and it looks like a little exercise wouldn't hurt you now, would it?". No obvious inability to walk, not limping along, and she wasn't parked in the handicapped spot herself. Just shoved it from her excessively large Cadillac Escalade which she just finished loading up into the handicapped spot. Instead, I bit my tongue, waited until she left, and took the cart myself since I needed a cart anyway. Just my opinion, but there are lots of reasons why obesity is on the rise, and one of the big ones is folks who are too lazy to even walk 15 feet to the shopping cart return. Instead, they leave it wherever the heck they feel like, so the wind can go blow it into somebody else's car. But leaving it in the HANDICAPPED spot? That's got to be a new low. End rant.

[Danielinheels]

I'm gonna take this one from a different angle. [edited] an overwhelming majority of people do this [/edited] - as a former grocery store employee at a busy location, I'd occasionally go and help the buggy boys retrieve carts. It's rather shocking that people could consciously see four young men, wearing hunter green polos and black slacks already pushing several carts, and still leave their carts right where they finished unloading their groceries.... or worse yet, as you said - push them into the handicapped section. If there's no cart corral near me in the parking lot, I ALWAYS walk my cart back to the storefront. There's nothing that important to where I feel it's beneficial to leave a cart in a parking spot. I hate this degree of laziness. WALK YOUR CARTS TO THE CORRAL OR TO THE STOREFRONT.

[dr1819]

Walmart figured out the solution: They hired people, in part, to take the carts back, in the process employing some of the sons and daughters of the people who're lazy!

[sscotty727]

I'm gonna take this one from a different angle.

EVERYBODY does that shit

Ok, I am going to take a little exception to that. My wife and I ALWAYS, even if it is bad weather, ALWAYS either take the cart to the proper return lane (or whatever it is called) or back to the front of the store if they have none. We have on occasion grapped a few here and there too if we saw they were blocking traffic, etc. So please don't use the EVERYBODY label there.

Secondly, I would like to add another observation. You (radiodave) mentioned about people being lazy, etc. Well, here is another example. Yesterday we had to go to Rockville to go to a kids show and decided to do some shopping there while we were there. One of the shopping centers we went to was a pure nightmare because EVERYONE was circling or blocking traffic waiting for people to come out so they could grab their spot. Well, as I used to live in Rockville (almost 20 years ago now) it took me a while to remember there was a back lot that almost never gets full. After FINALLY making my way through the front lot, I jumped around to the back lot. Sure enough, TONS of spots. Yeah, we had to walk a LITTLE further, but hell, what do these people think you will do once you get into the store????? It always amazes me how people will fight for 30+ minutes to get a close spot when if your willing to walk a few more yards, you can get lots of parking quickly. Unless the mall/shopping center is dead, I pretty much always park further away where the parking is easier to get in (and out) of.

[Dr. Shoe]

here in the UK you have to put a pound coin in a little slot to release a trolley and you only get it back when you return it to the line. It's amazing how this changes the attitude of the fattest and laziest of person. Presumably they know where you can buy a lot of donuts for that sort of money! I've also noticed that people have awful trouble "squeezing" their car between my lorry and another parked vehicle but would easily get their car into a cake shop carpark!

[dr1819]

Sure enough, TONS of spots. Yeah, we had to walk a LITTLE further, but hell, what do these people think you will do once you get into the store?????

Quite a point!

Anymore, unless I'm planning on buying something large, I just park in a distant parking place anyway.

Carrying bags is good exercise! So's walking...

[LE752]

Dr. Shoe, I love that coin-op system, but I don't think it would work here in the U.S.. Airports usually have those things for luggage carts, but you don't get your money back. My work requires me to grocery shop almost every day, and I too ALWAYS bring my cart back to the store, or at least to the closest cart collecting guy. Particularly here and this time of year, when it is either horribly hot or pouring rain. I hate to see those cart guys suffering. Along the same lines, I hate people who don't help bag their own groceries if the bag boys/girls/men/women are busy at other lanes. I am amazed at how appreciative the cashiers are when I bag my own groceries--it saves them the trouble of having to wait until everything is rung up to do so. It also saves me time. I cannot count the number of times I see people just staring at the cashier while their groceries pile up at the end of the belt. I always seem to get caught behind those people, and I'm always in a hurry!

[Fogane]

I'm always surprised when I'm offered assistance packing my groceries. Being young, able bodied and otherwise unencumbered, I'd have to be too lazy or incompetant to not do it myself. I guess the staff are just taught to ask everyone.

[ward]

I also take excption to the EVERYBODY comment. I for one in over 25 years and in many different states,and many different stores, ALWAYS take the cart to a corrall or back to the store. There is a store here in the usa that has a cart system that you must deposit .25 cents (a quarter) in a box on the cart to release it from the line. To get your quarter back, you MUST return the cart to the line, and re attach the chain to toe next cart in line. the name of the store is ALDI, and you NEVER see any "stray" grocery carts in their parking lots. They also charge .25 cents per grocery bag, to get customers to bring their own bags to the store to take home their groceries. Also, here in Minnesota, Super Valu grocery stores, give customers .15 cents off their order for customers that bring their own grocery bags to bag the groceries with.

[BobHH]

Well, I usually but not always take my cart back to the corral or to the store front at the grocery store. There are carts all over the lot at times where people leave them, though not in the parking spaces, but between them at the front of the cars. The market clerks round them up pretty often. I do it because everyone else does it - it is the norm. If there is one near when I park, I will take it into the store. On the other hand, Costco has cart corrals throughout the parking lots, and people do return the carts to them. They are too big to leave between cars, though.

[jmc]

OOOH, ya hit a nerve here! This is a personal pet peeve of mine, people who leave shopping carts out in the lot. I've seen the wind kick up and really get carts going too -- they make a nasty dent if they happen to encounter a car along their way. I have also seen shopping carts overturn and crash if the wind blows them into a curb -- they can hit so hard that they sustain damage. And guess who pays to replace the damaged carts in the end -- WE DO as customers of that store! Now I can understand not wanting to take the time to return the cart to the storefront. We are all busy. So I have a different solution -- if my load is four bags or less I CARRY THEM OUT OF THE STORE. What a concept! It's almost as if they put the handles on the bags for just that purpose! If I need the cart to transport an extra-large haul out to my vehicle then I also take the cart back -- probably along with another one I will likely encounter along the way. The Wal-Marts around here not only hire "cart cowboys" to round up the orphaned carts, they also use a little powered pusher vehicle to run long strings of carts back to the store. I'm sure that Wal-Mart could find more productive things for the cart cowboys to do (Wal-Mart seems to know a few things about efficiency) and I'm positive nobody gives away the cart-pushers either. Another ding on all our pocketbooks.

[dr1819]

Dr. Shoe,

I love that coin-op system, but I don't think it would work here in the U.S.. Airports usually have those things for luggage carts, but you don't get your money back.

It's in use here, too, and it works just fine. I think it would work fine in the US, too.

Admittedly, fewer people would return their carts, but that's the beauty of the system - it rewards productive and taxes the lazy - only the lazies would pay for the privalege of leaving their carts in the lot, instead of having that cost passed on to the rest of us.

I think there are a number of systems in other countries which do not cater to laziness like they do in the states. I think the difference is mainly just a mindset. They simply refuse to accept it, and instead create systems whereby the lazy and those who don't pull their weight in society (or commit crimes) pay dearly for it. As a result, many societies overseas are more efficient in most ways than America - less government, fewer police, etc.

About the only problem I do see is the huge cost of taxes overseas, but I think that's more a function of a much lower tax base and omnipresent health care in those countries.

[BobHH]

WalMarts tend to have huge parking lots and lots of auto traffic compared to grocery stores. The road between the store and parking lot is steady auto traffic at the one near me, and many of the people who shop there have kids in tow, so returning carts is really harder for them. I rarely use a cart at WalMart, and return it if I do.

[sscotty727]

For those that feel it is "too much work" or "well, everyone does it" for not returning carts. Those carts have wheels on them and they can roll or be blown by the wind. They also make nice dents in cars. I guess taking others possession into consideration is too much, eh? As far as I am concerned, not returning a cart should be considered on equal ground as litering AND carry a fine as well. I hope those that feel it is "too much work" to return a cart don't mind it next time they see a big dent in the side of their car.

[Dr. Shoe]

Dr. Shoe,

I love that coin-op system, but I don't think it would work here in the U.S.. Airports usually have those things for luggage carts, but you don't get your money back.

My work requires me to grocery shop almost every day, and I too ALWAYS bring my cart back to the store, or at least to the closest cart collecting guy. Particularly here and this time of year, when it is either horribly hot or pouring rain. I hate to see those cart guys suffering.

Along the same lines, I hate people who don't help bag their own groceries if the bag boys/girls/men/women are busy at other lanes. I am amazed at how appreciative the cashiers are when I bag my own groceries--it saves them the trouble of having to wait until everything is rung up to do so. It also saves me time. I cannot count the number of times I see people just staring at the cashier while their groceries pile up at the end of the belt. I always seem to get caught behind those people, and I'm always in a hurry!

No wonder many Americans are so lazy! If you waited for someone to pack your bags for you here you'd wait a long time!

Paper bags! What's that all about? You can only carry one or two bags of groceries! At least with our plastic carriers you can take six bags or more!

[Dr. Shoe]

For those that feel it is "too much work" or "well, everyone does it" for not returning carts.

Those carts have wheels on them and they can roll or be blown by the wind. They also make nice dents in cars. I guess taking others possession into consideration is too much, eh?

These people would be the first to complain if a trolley damaged their car, they'd probably want to sue the company...

[dr1819]

No wonder many Americans are so lazy! If you waited for someone to pack your bags for you here you'd wait a long time!

Paper bags! What's that all about? You can only carry one or two bags of groceries! At least with our plastic carriers you can take six bags or more!

Makes sense - saves trees, don't have to worry about environmental pollution... (because it takes them 50,000 years to biodegrade)...

I think airbags are called for on carts to save cars from embarrasing dents. But who would pick up the tab for that?

[Calv]

My next door neighbour walks home from the shop with their shopping cart and currently have 3 in their back yard. Perhaps they are hoping the carts will find their own way back to the store Calv

[jo]

Yeah, but Dr. Shoe, the US paper bags are absolutely massive and degrade faster than plastic bags do. You can probably get the contents of at least three UK carrier bags into just one of their paper bags; and, "paper" is a mis-nomer, some of them are very heavy duty.

[hoverfly]

Pfffff....I just grab a cart before I go in and when I am done I just tuck it either in the corral for them in the lot or I place it where it won't roll into another car.

[Dawn HH]

I always return the carts to the cart station. Both Mickey and I can't walk very far so we both have handicap placards for our cars. Fortunately, the cart station is very near to the handicap zones. What really gripes me is the illegal parking in the handicap spaces or sometimes there will be handicapped cars legally parked in their respected spaces, and some clown will park in the stripped space between the handicap spaces. Those stripes are to allow room to fully open the doors and allow space for wheel chair loading. When that happens and there is no sign that the car or truck belongs to a handicapped person, I immediately notify the store manager and he handles the situation. Cheers--- Dawn HH .

[sscotty727]

Dawn, Even worse, I have seen people shove their carts INTO handicap spaces so that no one can park there. I have even witnessed one cart there and then people follow suit and put there there as well, until the whole space has a dozen or more carts.

[Dr. Shoe]

A woman once parked on the paved area right ouside the doors to our local Asda. This was closer than if she'd parked in the disabled bay. When she came out her car was clamped, this is one of the few occasions that I have ever cheered to see a clamped car!

[raccoon]

We have the coin operated carts here, too.

Where I live, the mall and the parking lot are equipped with an alarm system. When (well... if) caught taking the cart out of the parking lot, you'll get fined at least 25 Euros.

[Danielinheels]

edited first post I made, seems as though I rubbed a few folks the wrong way. my apologies for that. Bravo-Zulu to those of you who are the exception to my emotionally-charged statement.

[Guy N. Heels]

We have the coin operated carts here, too.

Where I live, the mall and the parking lot are equipped with an alarm system. When (well... if) caught taking the cart out of the parking lot, you'll get fined at least 25 Euros.

Abuse of the carts and outright theft is a real problem here in the US. Technically, anyone who takes a cart out of a store and fails to return it is subject being charged with feloneous theft (carts are usually worth about $100 and because of ancient laws, felonies usually start at around $20), but it's never enforced! :x But matters get much worse when people just shove then into ditches and waterways to get rid of 'em.

I have seen the coin operated carts for about 25 cents and, since the store is new, I don't know yet how well that's working out. But clearly there will be no end to the problem unless the individual has some incentive (monetary deposit or otherwise) to return the carts. Otherwise nobody wants to do the right thing.