I made a quick trip to Menard’s yesterday morning. I was inside for maybe 10 minutes, and in that time the car I parked nose-to-nose to did not move. However, while I was inside, someone did decided to jam a shopping cart between my vehicle and the one opposite mine. They didn’t do any damage to either car. But I did get super annoyed. The cart corral was about 15 feet away, and some person not only couldn’t be bothered to walk that far on a beautiful spring morning, but they also decided to put their cart where it was touching two other vehicles.
Making that weirder was, on my last visit to Menard’s, I was about to pull into a parking spot when someone literally walked in front of me, shoved their cart into the space I was attempting to use, and then left. I was not parked next to the corral, or in fact anywhere near it.
What.
The.
Fuck?
People, man. They’re the worst.
Anyway, yesterday I was reminded of an article I saw linked on Friday, so I looked it up. Sadly it’s more social science-y in its explanation that I would like, but apparently there are deep reasons why folks refuse to return their shopping carts to the proper location.
Why Don’t People Return Their Shopping Carts?
As far as I’m concerned, there are only three explanations for why someone does not return their cart.
1) They have a small child(ren). I get this. I still think it’s manageable – I did it for many years – but sometimes it’s especially difficult. More so if the weather is bad.
2) The person is physically constricted in some way from doing it on their own. Of course, if they get their cart around the store and to their car on their own, they should be able to make it to the cart corral. But I’ll at least entertain this option.
3) They’re an asshole.
And I think we can all agree #3 covers about 92% of the people who leave their carts in the lot.