Rack 'Em Up: A Truly American Dilemma
Lack of Mindfulness or Just Cultural?
Growing up with a dad in the US Army, I've lived in many states here in the USA. One thing that remains consistent everywhere I've been is the lack of care when it comes to where people leave their shopping carts once they're done with them.
I never really questioned it much growing up, as it was just something that everyone did, as far as I could tell. You walk up to a rack or in front of the store where you're going to shop and grab a shopping cart, while giving a smile and nod to the customer next to you. After you finish your shopping, you go outside, walk to your car, unload the cart, prop it up haphazardly on a curb, smile and nod to the person parked next to you, who will now have to navigate around said cart to leave, and head home feeling good about yourself.
The worst part is, there is almost invariably a shopping cart rack fewer than 20 feet away in most cases. In fact, I took the above photo yesterday as I was leaving Costco and there was a rack on either side just out of shot.
The reason I added all of the extra, somewhat humorous details about smiling and nodding above is not just to be facetious. In fact, I believe, for the most part, people aren't purposefully being absent-minded, rude, or inconsiderate – at least not everyone. There are always plenty of individuals who are jerks. I think it has simply become a part of the culture here in America.
A Shock First Time Visiting England
The first time I visited the UK was back in 2007 when @afturner brought me home to meet her parents. As a proud American, the first thing I noticed about the Brits was how much more well-behaved they were in public, and the grocery store was no exception.
In America, when you're in line to check out and another register opens up, nine times out of ten, the cashier themselves will grab people from the back of the line and call them over to the new register. Meanwhile, the people who have already been waiting end up waiting longer than the newcomers. Sometimes people will even compete to get to the new register, leading to grumbling and frustration.
In contrast, in England, I saw people lined up as if they were in a kindergarten class, forming a single file as if half-expecting to be disciplined by the store manager. When a register opens, the line splits off in a logical and orderly way, with the customer who has been waiting the longest moving over first. If you try to cut in line, you'll hear a room full of gasps, some muttering, and you'll be scolded by the cashier. The Brits don't tolerate rude behavior. (Even though those peculiar posh individuals who oddly walk around wearing tweed and riding boots are the rudest folks I've ever met, but I digress.)
The biggest shock came when I went outside and saw not a single stray cart. I watched as each and every customer dutifully returned their cart and placed it in the cart rack. Not a single person left a cart in the middle of the parking lot or on a median. Even the two guys I saw who appeared to be drugged up and were shouting obscenities on the high street earlier that day returned their carts properly.
An Unexpected Cause
I didn't think much about this initially, but there is another significant difference between American grocery stores and British ones – grocery baggers! In the United States, we've always had full-time baggers in grocery stores. They bag groceries, handle shelf returns, and, most importantly for the purpose of this post, they collect carts and return them to the front of the store.
The average British person, as I've come to understand, would feel uneasy at the thought of standing still while a low-paid worker performs the task of filling their bags for them. This discomfort seems to be rooted in the historical class system in England, where servants used to handle menial jobs for the middle class.
So, the issue in the US really has deep roots that go back decades. I recall a childhood memory from the 1980s where I overheard a conversation between an elderly man and his wife that left a lasting impression on me. It was only after careful reflection that I realized how problematic it was.
If I return this cart, then some more teenage kid will be out of a job!
It does indeed sound rather silly when you say it out loud and think about the words. This brings us to the current situation. Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer baggers working in grocery stores, especially with the increasing installation of self-checkout stations. When I was growing up, I rarely saw carts piling up in the parking lot like this because there were always four or five baggers, at least, running around collecting carts at all times. This was something much more common in the 1980s.
I remember my first job was at a Winn Dixie Supermarket in Kentucky. We would bag the groceries, fill the cart, and automatically start pushing the cart out for the customer. Only after they said "no thanks" would we let them go on their own. That eventually turned into "Would you like help out?" which has finally turned into "Have a nice day!" (If you even get that).
So now we have a culture that, in my opinion, developed because there were originally countless teenagers running around the parking lot collecting carts. There was the idea that we were actually keeping them employed by making a mess for them to clean up. Unfortunately, there are far fewer employees to clean up the mess, and we must reckon with the fact that it is just lazy and rude not to return your cart.
I bet that most of you, if you're American like me, have always felt at least a little guilty for not returning your cart if you are one of those who don't. So hopefully, this post serves as your wake-up call! If you were one of the people who always did, then I commend you. I'm happy to say that I've been returning all of my carts for the last 17 years, but before that... I was often an offender myself.
I would really appreciate your support!
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That is very true, they buy in the corresponding places, they fill the carts, they leave, they put the food in their carts, they leave and they leave the shopping carts badly standing in the parking lots and there is no one to take care of them. Here in Cumana in the parking lot of a supermarket, they left the shopping cart where the cars are parked, it was a hill and the cart reached the avenue and caused car crashes, I thought this only happened in Venezuela. Greetings.
Oh wow, perhaps it is not only a problem here. At any rate, I hope people can learn to be better about it everywhere.
It must be like this, education must be present in all communities in the world. I really liked your publication because of the disorder that occurs in supermarkets worldwide, with the food shopping carts, they no longer even pay people to do the work of taking them to their places, They intend for the same buyers to also do the work of taking them to their supposed location. Greetings from Venezuela.
The Kroger where I do my own shopping as well as Instacart shopping is atrocious for carts. Not only do people just leave them all over the place, but there are some days when there aren't enough carts for the customers. That particular store has a really bad problem of people stealing the carts. There's a lot of homeless in the area, plus it's on the rough side of town so I guess maybe people just do it for fun too. Even though I am not employed there, I still make sure to push in a cart every single time I go inside (because I don't trust that there will be one available inside for me) and I always put it back when I'm finished because it drives me nuts how people just leave them everywhere. I have literally never in my life just left a cart out in the middle of the lot, it takes a certain type of person.
Have you ever seen the cart police videos on YouTube? Here is a good one, you'll get a kick out of it.
Omg haha,I watched part of it. Gonna finish it in a bit. That's great!
That is good to hear that you always return yours. Would you say that most people your age and younger return them, or is it just a ghetto thing? When I sit in thr parking lot and watch people it seems about half and half.
I love that guy. The dude is obviously roided out so nobody will mess with him and he gets away with basically anything due to his massive size and Russian intimidation tactics.
The people I see leaving their carts around the lot are almost always older than myself. So yes, people my age (31) and younger seem to be good about returning their carts.
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Oh that is so funny because it's true! I had friends in the 80's who worked for grocery stores bagging and collecting carts, even helping people to their cars with the groceries. What a difference it is today. Self check out and you are on your own. Personally I would be embarrassed to not return a cart because that is what I was taught to do from the time I was a kid.
I never really thought about shopping in England, but you're right. People are much more courteous. Here in the US it seems like it's every man for himself, especially when looking for parking spaces in any big city. Common courtesy has disappeared over the last thirty years in the US, and you're cart example is a perfect example of it. If even one more person returns their cart after reading this post you have a made a difference. If you could only get this published on front page of a major newspaper, if only they still existed too...
Haha, the way some people in this country are, they'd just get mad at me and say "I'm sorry you hate America! You can just move over to England if it is so great." lol! Some people just can't take basic criticism. But you are right, if just one person changes their ways it's worth it.
I agree that not returning shopping carts is lazy and rude. It's not fair to the people who work in grocery stores, and it makes the parking lot an unpleasant and unsafe place to be.
I think part of the problem is that people don't realize how much time and effort it takes to collect and return shopping carts. When we leave our carts in the parking lot, it means that someone else has to go out and collect them, which takes away from other tasks that they could be doing.
Another problem is that shopping carts can be dangerous if they're not returned properly. They can roll away and hit people or cars, and they can also be used as weapons.
I have seen shopping cars roll out of the parking lot, pick up speed and go right out into the main road into traffic. They can really get moving around, especially on windy days! It's so easy to just put them away when your done with them.
I do it pretty much all the time for the most part. Actually , it is pretty rare that my wife and I go shopping these days. Ever since Covid we have our groceries delivered. We just can't stand the crowds at the store. Costco and Sam's club would be the two exceptions. We walk through those, but we always put our carts back.
We were doing the delivery shopping the entire time Covid was happening. We recently stopped for kind of a weird reason... Well, I must preface it by saying that we were getting delivery from Costco. The weird reason was that we were having trouble getting rid of all the huge boxes they put everything in. Our bins were overflowing every week between food delivery and Amazon packages.
The other reason was that the shoppers kept not getting certain items but charging us anyway, and also picking out super under-ripe fruit. I know it sounds nitpicky but we ended up having to go exchange things and deal with refunds so it was just easier to go to the store at this point. If you have a good shopper, I suppose it works out nicely!
Ah yeah, I see how that could be a pain. Our Costco doesn't allow people to shop for you. We have a regular lady that usually picks up our order and she treats us well. The times she doesn't get it are a bit dodgy though. My biggest thing is when shoppers don't feel like looking for something so they just tell you the store is out. I mean BS the store is out of canned beans, you're just lazy!
Yeah, exactly. We had this happen many times where they would say something is out, when I knew there was a big pallet of something.
we don't have many big supermarket here in my place, so that this kind of cart problem and culture is not happening. But yeah sometimes there are some people who just quite lazy to just leave the shopping cart laying out there in the car park.
I am guessing you have a lot of open markets where you are at if no supermarkets? I actually like those a lot better. When you go to the supermarket, you often end up getting too much food which goes to waste! At least that has been my experience at times.
This got me laughing hard right?
On the other hand, it is a good thing to stay orderly and organized, the little act of orderliness goes a long way to keep spaces like that free and safe.
Yeah, I do joke about it but it does make life a bit easier when everyone is on the same page. They are the same way over there on the highways. Most of the cars actually follow the rules and people go slow in the slow lane and pass in the passing lane. Wow! I can't even imagine that over here. It's all speeds in every lane here.
https://twitter.com/JunaidFazal1111/status/1719224515820216437
I also went shopping yesterday with my friend, it was a beautiful place, I made a post about it, everything was available under one roof.
Nice! Very cool.
Thanks alot.
Ah hah! You've hit on my rule for judging what kind of a person someone is. Because there is absolutely no consequence for not returning the cart to the cart corral. There might be some consequence to society: wind might blow a cart into another car and damage them. But to oneself there is no consequence or nearly none. This makes it a perfect tool for judging someone's character.
I always return my cart, no matter how far away from a cart corral I might be. And I'm usually pretty far because I like to park at the far end of the parking lot, not to avoid my car getting hit by bad drivers or anything, but just to force myself to walk more.
Interestingly, in Japan almost everyone returns their carts to the cart corral. Some don't, but most do. I don't think this is because Japanese people are morally better, on average, than Americans though. I think it is because they feel social pressure much much more and so they get paranoid and think everyone is looking at them and judging them if they don't promptly return their cart.
This social pressure might be what caused the actions you saw in the UK.
Honestly, I think the lack of social pressure in the US is a bad thing a lot of the time. I mean, it's good. The US had a lot of that pressure before the hippy movement turned society on its ear. It's mostly good that it's gone. But for some things, I think the result has been more negative.
That's true! I definitely think that more people put them away than did when I was growing up. Especially the younger generation as @daltono commented. It is interesting to see how not a single person in my comments has admitted to ever not racking their cart. Haha! Perhaps those who are into cryptocurrency are more conscientious than the general public. I have to personally admit that there was a time when I would sometimes not put my cart away properly. But I NEVER once just left a shopping cart free flowing out in the middle of the parking lot like I see people do these days. What the heck? It is worse than lazy, it's like you said:
I have definitely seen this happen before.
Well said! That is a very good point. That is really how I was trying to describe the way people behave in England in general but I couldn't think of a good term to describe it at the time of writing. Sometimes social pressure can be a bad thing, such as when religious bigotry or racism becomes a norm. But when it drives beneficial behavior it is great!
Or perhaps we are all liars 😃
I admit I have sometimes wanted to be lazy and just push it against one of the trees out there or something, but when that happens I have a voice in my head that says "Don't be lazy" and "Lazy is not an excuse for being a bad person" and that makes me do it.
No no, I don't think you are all liars.. lol! Maybe I just feel guilty because I used to do it from time to time, many years ago. I was raised around a lot of really ghetto people and it rubbed off on me. It wasn't until I grew up and moved away that I realized how most things I was taught were very wrong.
I do give myself a little credit though. Many people go their whole lives without looking at themselves and trying to be better.
That's really fantastic. Good on you! I agree—most people never look at bettering themselves. It's a shame. As Arnold Schwarzenegger says, you should be able to look at yourself in the eye in the mirror every morning and tell yourself that you are doing your best to improve.
And I am not going to argue with Arnold! 💪💪💪
https://twitter.com/LovingGirlHive/status/1719427736853467585
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I have experienced it many times here in Pakiatan. That's Really Frustrating.
It's amazing how people just have no awareness of things happening around them. It just takes a moment to realize that there were people already waiting in line for much longer! Yes, very frustrating.
https://twitter.com/jewellery_all/status/1719473094530683214
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https://twitter.com/lee19389/status/1719700289253503085
#hive #posh
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When you have people who do not appreciate things it is a sign of bigger issues.
Once upon a Time in many parts of the United States there was an exceptional amount of respect especially when the consequences could be extremely dire.
These days less and less respect is happening.
And it is definitely not like your saving someone's job anymore.
Excellent post however.
People have always had a weird attitude that they think if they make a lot of money, or more than someone else, then they must have worked harder and are entitled to step on the person with less. But nowadays it seems this behavior is spreading to the general public which is really bad.
That's the truth. People really just make up lots of justifications to excuse their bad behavior. We really just have to be a bit more mindful, and think about the consequences of our actions on others as well as ourselves! Thanks for commenting.
You're very welcome and excellent work on your post. I can't wait to see even more excellent thought-provoking posts from you.
👍😉I will do my best!
Really appreciate it!