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.

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.

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 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.

I put them back in the cart corral.

Mainly because the business has to pay someone to go get them.

I reject the premise. One already gained something - the loan of a cart. Returning it repays the debt.

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 get back your 1€ though.

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.

The solution is to be so broke you dont need a cart to finish grocery shopping.

sad hungry noises

where's the question? yes

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?

The trolley return is the decent human checker of the world.

I was so close to cross-posting this back before I realised

Can't we please just kill some people?

I gain the satisfaction of doing my part to keep society turning.

There may be urgent reasons for not returning a shopping cart, but I think that at most one in a million shopping carts is actually not returned for such a reason. Usually, the reason is quite simple: poor character.

Always. Lazy assholes leaving their carts where they're not supposed to go is a pet peeve. I will grant exceptions if the person has some kind of legitimate mobility issue, but that's rare.

I used to return the cart when the concept was "return the cart to avoid the grocery store having to hire someone to collect carts, increasing their overhead, thus raising prices".

Then we learned, at least in Canada, that the grocery chains kept prices high after the pandemic well after the supply chains settled down. They even did a second wave of higher prices. They are price gouging so much they've never seen such high profits.

They have also made a move to get rid of regular checkout, pushing robotic checkout so they don't have to hire humans and they can increase their profits even further.

The shopping cart question used to pose itself as "do you help society and return your cart if there is no reward for you."

Let's rephrase it. "Will you do free labour for a multi-million dollar company who is laughing all the way to the bank with record profits while some people in society are going hungry because they can't afford the higher prices?"

I NEVER return my cart now.

Always. I will give someone a talking to if there is a return nearby and they don’t use it.