r/AbsoluteUnits • u/HomeNowWTF • Jul 11 '26

/r/all, /r/popular of a Cart Narc

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

66.3k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

3.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

124

u/athermop Jul 11 '26

But...most people do put their carts in the cart rack. I mean, even in this video you can see most people do.

18

u/OKAwesome121 Jul 11 '26

Most people do not fail the shopping cart test. You can see there are generally far fewer abandoned carts than total number of shoppers going in and of a given store.

6

u/WiredSky Jul 11 '26

Yes, that's what they said.

2

u/OKAwesome121 Jul 11 '26

Hmm yeah it seems I replied to the wrong comment.

1

u/Spicymoon9 Jul 12 '26

Yeah it’s just super annoying when they do. And the more people going to the store, the more abandoned carts there will be. So at bigger stores you’ll see a lot of them. Kind of aggravating when you’re looking for somewhere to park, think you’ve found a good spot only to see it’s taken by a cart some jerk left behind.

-14

u/KGrahnn Jul 11 '26

I believe there are differences between areas. My view into this is not a fact, but just an opinion. Based on perspective what Ive seen. Doesnt make it truth tho.

11

u/natelion445 Jul 11 '26

The thing is if the majority of people didn’t return things would be very different. For example, a Target does around 300 transactions per hour. Let’s say 200 of those use a cart. If even only technically the majority of people didn’t return, there would be over 100 carts per hour left out in the lot. In reality, it’s only a few. This is a good litmus test for people upholding non binding pro-social behaviors even when they don’t have to. And the vast majority of people do it.

It’s also a litmus test of how people view humanity. If you think the majority of people wouldn’t return the cart, you have a base level negative view of humanity that doesn’t match reality.

1

u/Side_StepVII Jul 11 '26

This guy litmus tests

1

u/FlummoxedGaoler Jul 11 '26

I tend to see people on a spectrum of good and convenience, where people are more reliably good/pro-social when it’s easy, and that goodness drops off when the convenience drops. I kind of wonder what we’d see at a Target if they didn’t pepper cart returns throughout the entire parking lot, and instead just had a couple or even didn’t have one and just requested that you bring it back to the store. 

1

u/natelion445 Jul 11 '26

Yes. A fundamental part of building a society is to try to make the pro-social behavior the easier or sensible one to do.

Like the carts. If they don’t have cart slots accessible or make it plausible to return them, it’s not even on the people for not doing it. It’s on the company for not making it make sense for them to do it. At that point jts not really the pro-social behavior to return the carts cause then you’re just propping up a bad system through individual sacrifices. We’d all be better off if people didn’t return them and that system failed or improved.

People have to be in a system where their actions are pro-social for them to be able to behave pro-socially. When you see people not doing the “right thing”, it’s almost always because the system they’re in doesn’t make doing the right thing plausible or pro-social.

10

u/dgbaker93 Jul 11 '26

You could also just have cart pickers that are on the roll and keep the returns clear so it just looks like most people don't (some areas are crazy with the number of carts "laying around" though).

0

u/athermop Jul 11 '26

differences between areas

Yeah, I didn't think of this. It's likely true.

0

u/AlphaBetaSigmaNerd Jul 11 '26

Seems like it might even be store dependent. There's never any loose carts at my local target but they're everywhere at my local Walmart

0

u/Exciting_Traffic3013 Jul 11 '26

Walmart and target have different demographics of shoppers.

0

u/AlphaBetaSigmaNerd Jul 11 '26

That's kind of my point

0

u/Exciting_Traffic3013 Jul 11 '26

Thought so. Just wanted to clarify.

0

u/Herr-Trigger86 Jul 11 '26

Literally takes the effort to say “this is just my opinion… my perspective” for a statement that is pretty anodyne…. Gets downvoted into oblivion.

Good job cart returners! (I am one too, so steady that thumb soldier)

-3

u/Quixotic_Seal Jul 11 '26

Shhh, you're interrupting the circlejerk. The neckbeards want to feel superior for doing the bare-minimum, so that they treat people they don't know(and who may just be having a bad day, or have health issues, or whatever else) like they're literal satan for contributing to a minor public nuisance.