If you don't return your trolley at the supermarket, why is that?

[ChinBristles]

A woman today, in a P&C space with no child (but that's a different argument) just let her trolley blow away after she'd put her shopping in the boot. I retrieved it and put it behind her car so she couldn't get out. She was raging!

Why do people not return their trolleys?

What? Every trolley I’ve seen has a brake

Laziness and selfishness are the only two reasons.

If you don’t return your trolley then you are putting other people’s cars at risk. Even if Tesco pays someone to collect them it’s likely one poor person in a huge car park who is doing other things, they’re not hanging around to collect the trolleys of individual shoppers. It only takes a second for your trolley to drift into someone’s car.

We live in a lazy and selfish society OP. See also parking like a twat and driving distances that are quicker to walk. Disability withstanding of course, although tbh parking like a twat is not acceptable in any circumstances.

But @FFS090722 do you take steps to stop your trolley hitting cars when it's windy? Or do yours have brakes like a pp? (I've never seen that either!)

Big trolleys not the small one

I'm guilty of this if I have the DC in the car (they're still little) and don't want to leave them unattended to put the trolley back. I sometimes don't want to traipse them across the busy car park to push it back. I hold my hands up to this!

They probably have children who drop litter at school and refuse to pick it up, saying it's the cleaner's job.

Being disabled and it being hard is fair - they should put trolley return points next to the disabled spaces, recognising that people might find it harder. Just "I don't want to" though...

I never saw people doing this when I was growing up, is it a new thing or an area thing or a badly designed car park thing? Michael McIntyre says something about it but I'd never seen it then either.

I think it's just common sense if you can return it you should. I always remember my parents returning the trolley so to me it is just what you do. It seems unsafe to just leave them standing around, don't they get in the way? You wouldn't just park randomly across the middle of the road in the car park, you'd park in a designated space - makes sense to do the same with a trolley.

There are people employed to collect them but they are supposed to collect them from the return point and move them closer to the store. Not round up stray trolleys from all around the car park.

I don't know but I would like to know why there are never any twin toddler trolleys near the P&C spaces? I have to search the bloody car park to find one leaving both babies in the car. If you are going to abandon your trolley near the P&C spaces could it be a twin one please?

@growinggreyer yep some trolleys have a flip button thing on the rear left trolley wheel. Used to be really annoying when they got stuck and your trolly did a weird three wheeled stuck skiddy half circle manoeuvre in the opposite direction to the one you wanted it to go in.

Our scruffy neighbours in the estate across the way have a communal trolley park. They take a trolley and nip up to supermarket with them, take it back for the other neighbours to help themselves.
Though this is also the same estate where they buy and sell shoplifted goods on the cheap.

Do you live near me? 🤔 Sound like my neighbours 😂

All the supermarket car parks I've been to have trolley return points spread quite evenly around them and we would generally try to park close to one so leaving DC in the car to return the trolley (with car still in line of sight) isn't really a huge issue, either they're strapped into a car seat, young enough to sit in the trolley until returned or old enough to walk sensibly.

The only ones with brakes here are the ones with car seat attachments and the brakes are often broken.

@ChinBristles I push it alongside the nearest bollard which is usually directly in front of my car
(Empathy with the name ,OP!)

To those that say it’s someone else’s job - do you not flush toilets because that’s someone else’s job too? Or not put items back on the right shelf/fridge/freezer, because that’s someone else’s job?

I get the disabled problem - yes it would
make sense to put a trolley bay adjacent to them.

Drives me round the bend

I gave someone the eye in the Sainsbury the other week and she must have noticed as she said really loudly to her friend "oh I always like to leave mine here because I always find it easier to find a trolley myself when it's not in the bays!" 🤔

Even when I had small children I still made the effort to take trolley back it's not hard... Keep child in trolley empty shopping into boot take child in trolley back to trolley park ...carry child back to car (or hold their had while walk back to car depending on age )

Do you not do your shop online?

My word there are some entitled and selfish people on here

Lazy, entitled fucks leave them (not including disability reasons). Same as why they park in the parent and child spaces cos they can't be arsed to walk 20 yards more or they don't want their precious car damaged etc......

The country has got so much more selfish and lazy it pisses me right off. Oofff feel better after that rant.

Comment above is aimed at the ‘I can’t be bothered, it’s too far’ replies only

@FFS090722 oh tell me about it! I'm not even 40 yet. I have white skin and dark hair but Lumea didn't work for me. Vaniqua cream, on the other hand, amazing! I get it for £60 on Dr Fox website. A tiny bit goes a long way.

Agree, there should be trolley bays right next to the disabled and P&C bays.

I mean to think that not that long ago, our ancestors used to hunt their own food 😂 and here able bodied people are, complaining about walking half the length of the car park. It’s no wonder the health of the nation is so poor.

I actually remember writing a post similar to this a couple of years ago and I had my arse handed to me on a plate.

Various responses such as people appreciating them being left nearby and other weird shit.

Glad to see the Mumsnet mentality has improved slightly and people actually agree with as I still think it's ignorant as fuck!

I actually did this once. both my newborn and 2 year old were screaming blue murder and like a twat I had parked miles away from a drop off and offloaded the kids back into the car before I realised I then had to get the trolley back. If anyone saw the state of me they would defo have let me off on this occasion.

Wouldn't even occur to me not to put it back. People who don't are lazy arses.