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I saw someone leave their cart next to their car and get back in the car. So I grabbed it and put it in the corral a few spaces away. That person drove back through the parking lot to tell me to “mind my own business”. I still get a little schadenfreude about how upset they were over their own conscience and perceived social judgement.
“Be a better person”. Hold onto that one for the next time this happens. It never will though.
“Mind your own business” is such a perfect encapsulation of how completely incapable of self-reflection that person must be.
The cart was no longer their business, but yours. So not only couldn’t they recognise that the judgment they felt came from within, they projected that feeling outwards so hard they ended up sticking their nose into your business about it.
That’s how they avoid learning basic life lessons like, “I should return the cart,” because as soon as they hit the “I should” part they freak out and make it everyone else’s problem.
Why not use the European system where you have to use a coin to unlock the cart from the stack. People are more likely to return the cart if it costs them money if they don’t and if they still leave the cart out some kid or hobo will return it eventually.
Some stores in the US do this, most notably Aldi. It’s kind of a pain in the ass, especially in an increasingly cashless society.
Names a European store.
They sell like coin shaped discs you can put on your keyring, dunno if that’s a thing in the US though.
Yes, I know Aldi started in Europe.
My point was, they have stores in the US, and their stores in the US also do this. Which is unusual for US stores. Trader Joe’s, for example (which is also owned by one of the Aldi companies) just has regular carts without the coin chain things.
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That’s not correct, actually. There were two brothers who inherited Aldi, and they did have a falling out over cigarettes, but they actually split the company in two - Aldi Nord (North) and Aldi Sud (South). As the names imply, they operate the Aldi stores in North and South Germany respectively.
In other countries, either Aldi Nord or Aldi Sud operates the Aldi stores, but they do not directly compete with each other. The exception is the US, where Aldi Sud operates the Aldi stores and Aldi Nord operates Trader Joe’s (which the original owner of Aldi bought from Joe Coulombe in 1979).
Huh, that sounds familiar too. Looks like I screwed this up last time I researched the history of Trader Joe’s for some post like this.
You can 3D print a tool that lets you unlock the cart, then pull the tool back out, so you don’t need to leave anything (coin or otherwise) in the cart to use it.
A good option if it’s available to you, as long as it’s tough enough, would suck if it broke up in there.
They give those out at the shop info where I live
Because we’re not savages, and can return the carts like a civilized society.
“Civilized”
So civilized in fact, there are monetized YouTube channels dedicated to catching & shaming people for not returning their carts.
So it’s kind of like the European system in a way. Instead of getting a coin for returning an abandoned shopping cart, you can get a subscriber count & ad revenue!
That cart narc guy is absolutely obnoxious. Sure I get his angle, and perhaps some people need to be shamed into doing the right thing, but I’m amazed no one has run him over yet.
He had a firearm pulled on him once actually, he walked away very quickly while continuing the bit haha
Yeah I think I saw that, a contractor in his work van in Texas I believe
So civilised.
Well we clearly can’t. Even the existence of corrals shows it’s too much to return a cart to a store we just walked out of with said cart.
Can we just use the nordic system where people are not fucking savages and bring their carts back? I hate people who don’t return their carts but I hate even more when I need coins to unlock the cart. I haven’t carried coins since 2014.
I live in a Nordic country, we have carts which need a coin, most people have a thing on their keychain to unlock a cart, majority of carts are returned.
I need to get one of those, my local (rural) grocery stores don’t have the locking shopping carts and I alway forget to bring a coin when I need to unlock one.
In fact, we are so used to taking them back that we even return shopping carts that we have unlocked without a coin.
Uh, maybe that’s an unfortunate design.
My local aldi does this and still when I get there I find like 3 trolleys scattered around the tiny carpark. I can only grab like two max to take with me to the pen.
Yeah. For a lot of people a quarter is nothing and worth tossing for the convenience of not being a decent person.
Yeah for me the real value here is where the hell am I going to get another quarter. I use my phone to pay and don’t carry cash.
Whenever I go to Aldi (US) there’s usually at least a couple carts with quarters left in the parking lot so I just put them back. The quarters pile up in my car until I eventually bring them inside.
Fine, they can subsidize the cart retrieval employee cost.
Also I discussed this with someone in the UK once and they pay an entire pound for a cart… we do quarters because it’s the largest denomination common coin in the US.
You can and will replace the coin with something worthless of equal shape and size.
Some might think it’s the price for a cheap shopping cart. In German there was a comedian who did a prank call at a store, telling them he bought 500 carts for 500€ and use them as rabbit cages.
German
ComedianThe math ain’t mathing here.
German humor is no laughing matter
Oh of course the Europeans have done it better than us
This is how it is at about half the big grocery stores where I live in Canada
Food Maxx in the U.S. employed this in low income areas to prevent cart thefts. So, that’s nice.
I’m Geordi.
I’m disappointed Q isn’t on this.
Covered by the original’s post text: “Q intentionally leaves his cart in the blind spot behind the most expensive car in the lot.”
Q: increases the gravitational constant of the cart collection area until all the carts fall into it. Keeps going until a singularity forms and the planet is destroyed.
Oops! Disappears with a blink
Q: with a bright flash Captain Picard becomes Captain Picart
Q shops with 1 cart for each item he has, and returns them all upside down.
Can you put names with all these faces? I can only do three. Updated with trash@lemm.ee 's help, we’ve now identified 4.
Top right is Beyond Belief Fact or Fiction “we made it up” guy.
I assume this is funny answers only? Some kinda woooosh? I think a lot of Lemmy could name them all, given how popular Trek is on here.
I’m Levar Burton. This is Reading Rainbow.
I’m also the guy in column 2, number 5.
Counterpoint:
The Wholefoods in Redmond, Wa is known as Hellfoods by their employees because of how cold people are there and how overbearing management can be. It also is in one of the most beautiful parts of the country. When I worked there, I love the warm summer evenings when I could go out to the outfield to fetch a cart because I got to be outside and no longer under the micromanagement that is retail.
When I would clock off, sometimes I’d nab a cart and send it out on purpose for the guy behind me to give them an escape.
Did every other employee feel the same way as you? Because otherwise that’s not a counterpoint.
But you could say the same for the original premise- not every employee hates getting rogue carts, in fact many like getting them.
I gave an anecdotal point, but the broader argument simply questions one of the assumptions of OP.
Yeah bringing in the carts is one of the best parts of some jobs
That original 4chan post is like Jordan B Peterson level, which says more about JBP than the 4chan poster.
Maybe we should make a game show titled “Are you more intellectual than a right-wing grifter?”.
I’m so in the minority here, but I have a different perspective.
I worked at a grocery store for years, with about a third of my job being cart duty. I loved it when people left their carts outside of the corrals, for a few reasons.
First, if a lot of people did so, I would point it out to whoever was the manager on at the time before I went outside. My manager knew that I would take longer before coming back in, and that would give me more time to stroll/relax/enjoy the outdoors before coming back in to customer craziness. Having those extra minutes because my manager didn’t know how long I should take was nice.
Second, sometimes I had to walk way the hell out to the edge of the parking lot, which was really nice for a long walk away from customer craziness. Such walks were very nice when the weather was nice.
Third, it was job security. Working during the recession made my managers want to let as many people go as they could, but customers who made it so even the most efficient cart duty workers took a while to clear the lot effectively kept more of us employeed than management would have employed otherwise.
For those reasons, whenever the weather is nice, I try to leave my cart in a weird spot that is anchored by something. I realize that many other cart duty folks probably dislike me for it, but I know I appreciated it when others did this. So I do it for the folks like me.
I know all of the arguments against it and I’m not trying to debate here. Just sharing a different perspective; sometimes, leaving your cart in a terrible spot can be nice for some of the workers.
whenever the weather is nice
I definitely don’t miss helping out with the carts on a freezing winter morning in Colorado and trying not to fall on my ass.
Interesting point. So it’s more like
Cart? Returns Leaves Thinks return is right 😇 👿 Thinks leave is right 👿 😇
It cracks me up that “shopping cart returner” is a full-time job for Costco employees. One of them randomly told me he’s been doing this full-time for 7 years. 🤦♀️ But he seemed to genuinely enjoy it so okay. Exercise, fresh air, vitamin D all day every day.
I personally always return my shopping carts to their proper locations.
The only exception was when I was a mother of babies in those 50 lb baby carriers, the chores were immense, putting groceries into the car and putting the baby into the car and then what, I can’t leave the baby in the car while I push the cart back to where it belongs, so put the baby back into the grocery cart and push the grocery cart back to the cart return, then carry the baby back to the car? I’m exhausted all over again PTSD just thinking about it.
And in those situations it’s a rare treat to get a parking spot right next to the carriage return, but that has its own risks, getting shopping carts rammed into your car while you’re parked there.
I go out of my way to offer to return peoples carts for them, generally anyone but especially women with children and the elderly. To me its no big deal to mash a couple carts together and return theirs with mine.
Do you guys have parking spots for new and expectant mothers yet?
Yes those exist in some parking lots now, The first time I ever saw one was when my youngest child was about 3 years old. by then I didn’t need it any more. My kids were walking.
InB4 “If everyone returned their shopping carts it would eliminate jobs” idiots come into the thread.
The people putting the carts back are spending what, 1-2hr/8hr shift doing carts? The rest is either cleaning or stocking so it’s not like they won’t just do more of that.
I take it one further and bring in a cart from between spaces, someone is finishing using packing away groceries, or already in the station and bring it back into the store to use. And as a single person struggling with the increasing cost of groceries, trying to keep my weekly trips under 80$. I can carry out everything I get by hand, leaving the cart in the store.
Returning the cart to the station is like bare minimum and still many people can’t even do that.
It’s surprising to me US carts don’t have to be unlocked by a coin (which you get back when you lock your cart again), it’s like that in every supermarket I know in France and Germany and probably many other European countries.
You can misbehave but it costs you a little bit, and if you do someone has the opportunity to make a buck off you by cleaning after you.
In fairness, that’s been phased out in many places.
I suspect less out of faith in humanity and more out of the reality that many people don’t carry cash, much less change, anymore and they kept annoying the cashiers.
Yeah it’s hard to justify carrying coins around, they’re not worth much, whereas euro coins still carry some value (1€/2€).
When I arrived in NYC a few years ago, I got cash from the ATM and then tried to take a bus to our airbnb in Brooklyn, it was $2.75 per ticket, only payable in coins… like we’d have 44 quarters in our pockets :-)
I keep a few quarters in my car for ALDI specifically. If I forget: I don’t get a cart and put the groceries in my reusable bags. Or nab those giant cardboard containers ALDI employees stock with and leave around.
The busses don’t take metro card? I’ve only ever ridden the subway in NYC.
They probably do (it was 10 years ago) but we had just arrived from the airport and had no idea how it all worked
They do now, that whole OMNY system
I think it’s because Americans don’t have dollar coins.
The USA has like 26 various prints of dollar coins. Only two of witch are not a standard weight and size. Those two also being the oldest and more rare of all the versions. We could absolutely start using them as they are still minted on a regular bases. For the life of me I still don’t understand why they are so rarely used.
I had never seen that before in my entire life until an Aldi opened here.
This should be a do-or-die grade in the finals, globally. And don’t let anyone know when or where they’ll be evaluated and graded, make’em think the Civics teacher/professor will stalk them around town, putting together their resupply patterns, and grading their mall etiquette. That’ll put the fear o’God in’em!
Which defeats the whole purpose of the test - it has to be done not out of fear of consequences but out of a sense of duty.
This is basically the same as people that need their religion to define their morality.
Yeah but they tend to be the worst. This is the same crowd that will be a raging cunt all week but once a week they go listen to a sermon and somehow that absolves them of being an ass the prior week.
Completely agree with you! But that may be a bit idealistic at this point, to be honest, and it pains me to accept it, too, believe me! I’m starting to think more in the lines of “doing the best with what we’ve got,” and we ain’t got much…
Edit: of course I was joking in my initial comment, just to dispel any potential uncertainty! But everything with its grain of truth and all that…
I prefer the Gom Jabbar but the Shopping Cart seems like a viable alternative.
Gom Jabbar always seemed like a pointless task. Are you “human” by being able to willingly withstand physical pain? Some people have higher pain tolerances and willpower; doesn’t make them beasts.
I think the idea was that you knew that it’sa test and that you’d die if you remove the hand, so it’s less willpower and more reasoning over instinct/fear, at least in theory. You have to presume the box is at least tuned to different people’s pain thresholds or whatever.
Also, the text pretty much says that Mohiam is doing it wrong more or less on purpose:
“Enough,” the old woman muttered. “Kull wahad! No woman child ever withstood that much. I must’ve wanted you to fail.”
If you give the benefit of the doubt that Herbert figured out the practicalities and wasn’t going by rule of cool (which he absolutely was) the implication is that the person administering the test has some control of the itnensity and you’re supposed to deal with some pain you’re supposed to hold, not become convinced that your hand is a charred stump like Paul is.
That, and the movie verisons amp the whole thing up a lot, so it comes across a bit differently.
I thought it was less about the charred stump and more of another activation of his powers. Turning the inner eye, conquering it, knowing it won’t come out a burning stump, because his whole arm and body would be that way if it was actually on fire.
Well, it can’t be that in the context of the story, because as it’s presented, they give this test to pretty much everybody they train, including Jessica (although Mohiam clarifies that “seldom” to men).
Don’t get me wrong Paul and all the other Dune protagonists don’t need much encouragement to go supersaiyan on your ass, and this often comes in similar circumstances, but this particular first example seems to mostly be Paul taking his finals and things getting intense because his examiner turns the dial to eleven. In the book it isn’t even that big of a deal, he just says the litany once, has the vision of his hand getting melted for like a paragraph and Moiham goes “phew, I went a bit hard on you there for a second and poofing away”.
Also, this doesn’t relate to anything else, but I went back to find the passage for this and man, both her and Paul are such little shits to each other in this bit. He calls her “old woman” and threatens to have her killed, she mocks him for being so privileged he has to know about poisons as a a teenager… They’re so sassy, and neither movie quite nails that part.
It was always more about the triumph of the mind over the body. When the body is screaming to run away, the mind retains control. That is what makes someone Human.
It’s an interesting definition of humanity, but certainly not a definitive one.
In the real world, sure.
In the context of Dune, it is a question of whether you can maintain your logic in the face of pain or danger, or whether you will be ruled by your instincts when push comes to shove. And that question is a vitally important one when taken in the context of choosing a new leader or ensuring that someone (in this case Paul Atriedes) is able to handle the pressures of their given task. An animal will be ruled by its instincts while a human can overcome them by force of will. If you are not a human then you are an animal. Animals can still be treated with respect, but they are unfit for leadership roles because a frightened animal driven by fight-or-flight response is unpredictable and dangerous. A cornered king can be reasoned with, but a cornered animal will gnaw its own leg off to escape a trap.
Put like this sounds pretty lame yes.
I think the theory goes too far, tbh. If we’re being a little bit realistic, a difference between animals and members of human society is that animals cannot and do not obey laws. Higher order animals obey direct threats of punishment, such as if you’ve trained them not to shit on the floor, but that’s not the same as law. With a law, you are aware of the consequences without having directly experienced them.
An animal only respects consequences after directly experiencing them.
I am willing to accept into society those who obey (just) laws without directly experiencing the consequences. They ARE better than animals, they are not savages, they are not bad members of society. They are doing the bare minimum necessary to belong to society; indeed, their existence is the reason we form societies at all. You might not want to be friends with them but they aren’t animals.
While the conclusion of this post goes to far, I do think it nails it right in the first sentence: if you return the cart, if you do what is correct without need for a law, then you are capable of being self-governing. You would make a good anarchist, for example, because your social group would function well without laws.
Every time I fail to return a shopping cart on a beautiful spring day, the grocery store’s Cart Gatherer thanks me kindly and calls, “Thank you kind citizen for giving me leave to leave the hellhole that I was stuck in because the world is filled with assholes who are stealing my job! I want to be in the sunlight! Don’t take that from me!!”
I disagree with returning the shopping cart being an act of free will. There is a lot of societal pressure to do it for some people, or to not do it for some other people. And there is always the risk that someone who you know will walk see you not returning, and tell all your friends about it. Or want if your boss happens to see you? What would happen then?
So yeah, better quickly return it. Better than having to deal with all these unknowns.
Why the downvotes?
