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?

I don’t think people are grasping that leaving trollies in random places around busy car parks is not just inconvenient for others but dangerous.

not only could they blow across or roll and hit a car, they obscure the view of people driving through the car park. They could obscure a small child so the driver doesn’t see them.

I can’t think of any other scenario where leaving large objects on wheels dotted around a busy traffic area would be acceptable or laughed off.

I think I have a problem. I'm not happy with just putting mine back, I have to tidy up the trollies and make sure they are in size order when I put mine back. My house is a mess though. Have a go at that one Mr Freud...

When you have mobility issues, some days an extra 2 mins does you in!

I'm also intrigued about how the PP with the twins and the toddler and etc etc who can’t be left for a second unsupervised coped with actually going to get a trolley in the first place.

** and as for asking someone to put it back, there are already people who think unless you're in a wheelchair you don't deserve a blue badge space, most of the people on this thread think everyone who does it is a lazy fucker ,I can JUST imagine the thread ' AIBU to say if you can do your shopping and drive a car then you can put your trolley back ?' 🙄

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor

I wonder how said disabled person would feel if the person who was parked next to them had left their trolley and it had blown towards and dented their car?

I'm not saying that shopping with a disability isn't hard, of course it can be. But if you can get a trolley, navigate it around a supermarket, then back to your car, surely you can't blame people for thinking that there may be an element of choice in whether this person returns their trolley to a bay?

I'm not lazy. I make sure the trolley is out of the way but I honestly don't think it is my responsibility. I should make sure it is left safely but that's it. I think the supermarkets are raking it in. I think they should be pleased I am there and want to help me.

I remember when you couldn't even take trolleys out of the supermarket building, they had poles on them and you couldn't get them through the turnstyle thing.

People not returning them to the designated trolley bays is just the height of laziness.

So basically after reading this thread the majority agree that being lazy is not acceptable!! You can dress it up in a million ways but all the excusers are bloody lazy and need to get a conscience or therapy for anxiety!!

Or they could put them on a till or putting stock out instead.

I happen to take my trolley back.
But even so, I'd have seen the red mist if another customer took it upon themselves to be the trolley police and stand there smirking having obstructed my exit.

@ChinBristles "But then how do you get from your car to the trolley in the first place?" At the start of my shopping I am fresher, and have more energy. I can walk to the trolley bay and collect the trolley. After doing my shopping, my situation is quite different.

No, I'm not going to ask someone to return it for me. I feel bad enough about my declining mobility, without rubbing it in. You may not understand or empathise, and that's okay, but that's my reality.

Just leave the trolley in the trolley bay. That is all. If everyone did that then all the trolleys would be floating about the middle of the car park!

but people who don’t see putting their own trolley back as ‘their responsibility’ are also the sort of people who let their kids throw food in cafes as ‘someone is paid to clean it up’, leave public toilets in disgusting states because ‘they have cleaners’ and similar. It just speaks of a huge lack of regard for those around you, and seeing yourself as inherently more important and your time as more valuable.

At the end of the day it’s not the millionaire owner of Sainsburys that’s going to retrieve your trolley in the pissing rain, it’s the staff on the minimum wage.

@YellowLemonshade raises a good point. To what extent (if any) should citizens call each other out on bad behaviour? And how to do it? Sometimes making someone feel consequences for their actions works better than "please put your trolley back"?

But presumably part of the reason the woman in question got upset with me was because I had shamed her. Pulled her up on something she thought no-one would notice or challenge her about. And presumably she will feel it "wasn't my place". But if not me, then who? Tesco ain't going to police the carpark. The interesting question would be - will she think twice next time?

The thing is op there could be so many reasons why she didn't take it back. Being lazy is one of them but there's loads of reasons. We just don't know what's going on in other peoples lives!

@Froodledo I am genuinely sorry to hear about your situation. Is home delivery not an option for you? Do your trolleys have brakes so not blown about in the wind? Can you make sure they are safely stowed so not getting in the way of a wheelchair user/car/child?

If the trolley bay is miles away then I don't.

I wouldn't leave it in the middle of the car park.

@eatingasatsuma that's why I made the thread, to ask the question. Apart from laziness/disability what reasons are there? And she had no children with her either. What could be "going on in your life" that prevents you returning a trolley to the trolley park?

You could have a car full of young kids.

They are lazy bustards. The costs of employing people to retrieve trolleys is indirectly adding to the cost of the shop. So not really helping with keeping prices down. As there is very little unemployment, supermarket trolley collectors could very easily work in another job if they didn't have to tidy up after the lazy ones.

Probably the same people who fly tip 'because I paid my council tax' 🙄

But she didnt have kids with her, as i said.

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor sometimes that last 50 m can feel like you're trying to climb Everest. Additionally, I have had a double knee replacement, and if I fall over, I am unable to get up unassisted. I can make lots of accommodations for this in my house, not so easily in the supermarket.