After seeing this discussion being brought up again, I was going to genuinely ask you all to explain where that comes from. 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. I was thinking how come people value this act so much and before starting to write a post here I sent a message to a friend, then it hit me: it’s absurd.
I mean it. The feeling I had reading the comments wasn’t confusion or ignorance, it was the cognitive dissonance of looking at the world I live in and what people decided marks a person as decent. This is one of the moments I really have to stop and check if I’m not actually the crazy one. I really can’t think of something smaller to care about that someone else will defend so vehemently. Really, try me, I’m already broken again.
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 really irks me when there’s a good spot at the grocery or hardware store and someone leaves a cart halfway on a curb in the spot. They take the time to put two wheels up but can’t wheel it 10 feet to the corral? It’s been snowing a lot here lately and sometimes they freeze in place too, so they’re harder to get out. I get heated because it really is so inconsiderate.