This is mostly an American thing. They/we tend to be more entitled and very selfish. Often making excuses for bad behavior with lines like "I'm keeping people employed". No stupid, you're increasing our groceries because of your selfishness.
Now I live in Taiwan and have visited many countries and found out that this is not the norm. Most people care about the community their live in and oftentimes put back their carts.
Another example of American entitlement. Americans often throw trash on the ground in parking lots because the trash cans are too far away or they can't find one. Again the same excuses, "Keeping these people employed".
In Taiwan(and Japan), if you can't find a trash can, you take your trash home with you. You actually have a hard time finding a bin in public here. But our streets are typically very clean. Because we care about the community and the people here are less selfish.
And you'll be heavily fined if you don't carry your trash home. Personally I prefer public trash cans, especially when I'm visiting a place hours from home. That way I can enjoy being there rather than carrying soggy trash with me for ten hours. But to each their own.
No but really, I find that grosser than litter. Litter isn't pleasant and it eventually gets into bad places like water, but I'd much much much rather a bunch of litter around than having to carry (many types of) trash around.
This is not to say that I personally litter on any but biodegradable stuff (apple cores ex), just that I can get it if theres no bins.
Gross? Are you taking dumps in trashbins or wtf?? Carrying basic trash (packaging? Plastic? Paper?) in a bag isn't gross if done properly.
But I do agree that having trashbins is just easier. It's just that some places don't have them (wildlife parks, mountains...).
Just institute a back seat compost system like I did as a teenager. You just have to stir it up every once in a while.
Bonus is nobody asks you for a ride or for help moving, and eventually, you can just leave your windows down and the raccoons will do most of the work for you.
You absolutely won't have the savings passed onto you if the store fires one of the cart managers. That's the same logic as thinking self checkout makes store prices cheaper. Maybe if every store were locally owned it might work that way, but we're far from that sort of system.
I return the carts and I don't litter, but lets not lie about the effects of cart returning on socioeconomic outcomes. That's bullshit and you know it.