The most compelling reason I've heard is a converse to the point that one is making the employee work more to get all of the carts. It's true, but (supposedly) actually beneficial to the worker.
The idea is that working in the store is Bad (essentially because the manager is in the store and the manager makes you do things) and working outside the store is Good because you can work more leisurely even though you have a task to complete. Therefore, being forced to take a long time to gather all of the carts because so many were left outside the corrals is Good. For what it's worth, the idea was introduced to me by someone who claimed to have worked at a grocery store and that their favorite thing to do at that job was to gather the carts because it was so laid-back.
I still return my carts but this would 100% be my (honest) justification if I was ever approached by a cart narc after not returning a cart. If only to see their reaction when I say, with a completely straight face and the willingness to argue the point, "This is a kindness." (Also, it's a bit interesting to me that this was not included as a justification in the videos the author watched.)
For me it is about incentives. I have no reason to provide free labor to a business because I have no reason to believe they’ll pass on the labor savings. I’m also well aware that businesses will save money if they can. If people are all good little cart returners what is to stop the stores from cheaping out on corrals and making them walk further, trading customer labor to line their own pockets? Especially when random strangers will shame them for it?
The line between what services should be included (e.g., checkout) and which shouldn’t (cart return) seems at times arbitrary and at times that it only benefits the business. The moralizing around it is frankly a bit nuts. Is it immoral to place your order with a human if the fast food place has a kiosk? Is having a checker ring you up somehow a moral flaw?
The article seems to ignore the fact that many people use the shopping cart as a walker substitute. It's an accessibility aid and it's genuinely difficult for some folks to return the cart and walk back to their car.
Which still doesn’t make much sense because there are already some walkers which are designed to lock into most types of shopping carts. So you just bring the cart back to the stall, detach the walker from the cart, and use your walker to get back to your vehicle.
And your description also doesn’t explain how those who walked all the way over to the carts in the first place were unable to bring the carts back. Carts don’t magically appear beside vehicles. How are people who can make it to a cart be suddenly unable to bring by it back to that same spot? And with many stores, carts are picked up at the store front and returned much closer to the cars than the store front.
And finally, this doesn’t explain how so many carts are failed to be returned. Is 25+% of our population disabled?
I feel for anyone who is in pain and cannot walk far. But methinks you are making excuses for arseholes and selfish twats that vastly outnumber those who have genuine excuses.
I noticed that myself, and confirmed with a friend: when you begin to get some harsh backpain (before getting a surgery), you find it pleasant to go shopping and be the one using the shopping cart all the way through.
You could be right if people drove standing up. When seated, the pressure on the lower back (L3, L4, L5, S1 vertebrae) is reduced and you can drive perfectly.
The coin operated carts are wonderful and I'm glad that most European stores use them. Why this is so bothersome to North American shoppers I'll never know (actually I think I do know after watching some of the clips).
The idea is that working in the store is Bad (essentially because the manager is in the store and the manager makes you do things) and working outside the store is Good because you can work more leisurely even though you have a task to complete. Therefore, being forced to take a long time to gather all of the carts because so many were left outside the corrals is Good. For what it's worth, the idea was introduced to me by someone who claimed to have worked at a grocery store and that their favorite thing to do at that job was to gather the carts because it was so laid-back.
I still return my carts but this would 100% be my (honest) justification if I was ever approached by a cart narc after not returning a cart. If only to see their reaction when I say, with a completely straight face and the willingness to argue the point, "This is a kindness." (Also, it's a bit interesting to me that this was not included as a justification in the videos the author watched.)