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Like, okay - I don't think anyone's saying returning the cart to the corral automatically makes you a good person, it's just a green flag, right? Are you willing to do something that has no reward for compliance and no punishment for abandonment, simply because it's the thing you're expected to do in order to keep a system functioning?

If someone doesn't return the cart regularly, it seems more likely that they're inconsiderate. If they do, it seems more likely that they're decent. But it's one thing out of many that just happens to be publicly visible, so it becomes sort of a benchmark.

It's just common decency and being nice for others. Like not pissing all over the toilet seat. Or if you do, cleaning up after yourself. (I view) Leaving things for the next person to deal with is lazy and just creates a mess for others to clean up.

Putting a shopping cart back where it belongs when you're done with it is like putting trash where it belongs when you're done with it. Doing otherwise leaves things cluttered.

It's simple. If you put away a shopping cart (doesn't matter if back inside, a cart corral, or wherever it's designated), you did a tiny thing that will help someone else you've never met. I very selfless act. It takes minimal effort and makes someone else's life better.

If you don't put one away and leave it somewhere, it means you either don't care, or didn't even bother to think about the person who has to walk around, grab the cart, and put it away for you. You couldn't bother to go out of your way for 10 seconds to help someone else.

This one act can say a lot about a person. Do they think of other people? Do they think of how their actions affect other people? If they are so unwilling to spend 10 seconds to help someone, would they go out of their way to help others that require more effort or time?

It's less about the act itself and more about the principle of not making things unnecessarily worse for everyone else.

I’m from Brazil and I don’t recall ever shopping at a place with a large parking lot, which I believe might be part of the issue.

And yet you probably saw at least a few of those:

• leaving the bloody cart in the way while shopping, forcing others to either push it or go around it
• taking more time than necessary at the cashier for the dumbest reasons, while there's a huge queue behind
• piling up near the bus door, alongside same-minded muppets, making embark slower for everyone than a simple queue
• throwing rubbish on the ground because the bin is 5m thus too far
• walking their dog and lets it shit everywhere, and can't be arsed to pick it up with a poopbag
• driving to a bakery 50m home to buy cigs, even if they're able-bodied, generating unnecessary pollution (and they won't even get faster this way!)
• etc.

I've seen all of those here in Curitiba. (Except the bus thing, that's Campinas.) They all violate the same principle.

If you don't return them for virtue, return them for fear.

I will report you to the cart narcs.

In the UK you need to use a £1 coin to unlock the trolley from the rack, which stays jammed in the trolley. When you lock it back in, the coin is dispensed. Dunno why other countries haven't figured this one out yet.

(also a rant, on a related but separate topic) holy FUCK along the same lines, i really hate it when people lurk in the parking lot waiting for someone to leave so they can park there! like wow, yeah, impede the flow of traffic and pressure the person leaving to hurry so YOU can have that space

i hate it so much, it makes navigating an already-packed grocery store even worse. the ppl at costco are SO bad about this 💀💀💀 just go park further away, you already have a minute long walk to the store, another minute won't kill you!!!

this is my personal bar for whether someone is a good person or not :)

(exception for anyone who legitimately needs the closer parking spots but cannot get the disability parking spots for whatever reason. but they are a TINY minority of people)

Returning the cart, or at least moving it out of the road, means I don't have to get out of my car and ~~lob the cart at your car as you drive off~~ move the cart out of the way to park my car. Decency has nothing to do with what you do for yourself - it's all about what you do for others.

Personally I don't really care where the cart is as long as it's out of the way and not a problem for the store's staff to access it.