Unpopular Opinion: No Need To Return Carts

Circa June of 1937 history is made when the Humpty Dumpty Supermarket in Oklahoma City rolls out the first shopping carts. I say history was made because according to the inventor of the shopping cart Sylvan Goldman, NOBODY used the carts. He ended up having to hire a group of women to faux shop with the "folding baskets" as they were known then. It was only then that the trend to shop with a provided cart began.

Fun Fact: Five minutes after the trend took off, the first car in the parking was dented by a runaway cart left in the parking lot. Okay, I made that up. You know vehicles made in the 1930's couldn't be dented so that couldn't have happened.

Anyway, fast forward to today. Out comes a study called the shopping cart theory whereby your kindness and consideration is measured by your willingness to return the shopping cart back to its point of origin upon completion of use.

According to the shopping cart theory, here's where I fail as a qualified good person.

I constantly get the stink eye from those sitting in their vehicles when they observe me simply leaving my grocery cart in the parking lot upon completion of loading my goods. My theory, is there is a person who is ALWAYS in the parking lot collecting the carts.

I know this because every time I go to the store (and it never fails) I will get blocked into my parking spot by a line of about 300 shopping carts. It's like being caught by a train , only the train of carts is behind you. So sorry, but it is vital I unload and escape as quickly as possible. I swear the shopping cart collectors have my vehicle tapped and await my arrival to start the parking lot collection of menacing carts to line up behind my vehicle.

In my defense, I don't leave the shopping cart in the middle of my parking spot (good gawd man, I'm not an animal) but after seeing this study, I will promise you that I am going to do my best to make sure the cart is at least in the vicinity of shopping cart corral. Maybe this will make me (in shopping cart theory anyway) a somewhat tolerable person instead of good or bad?

So where do you fall on this scale? Are you a goody-two shoes or a menace to society like me? Leave your thoughts and I'll see you in the parking lot at Target sometime this week.