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"No one will punish you for not returning the shopping cart, no one will fine you or kill you for not returning the shopping cart..."
Hmmmm, I wonder if this is always true. Maybe somewhere there is someone who does not let such things stand.
In Germany, shopping carts typically have a deposit system, where you have to insert an Euro into the cart to use it, which you get back when you return it. So that is basically a build in fine for not returning it.
They've started doing it in some places in America with quarters and it works. Turns out the price of laziness is less than 25¢ haha.
In Spain we used to have the same system. However it's been a while since I've seen it, most carts still have the euro slot, but they are not chained, so you don't need to insert a coin.
In Spain a lot of stors disabled the system during covid, for highiene reasons. Some have returned and some still have tbe coin system disabled. Most people return them anyway. There is always the occasional asshole.
This is how it works in all of Europe
The past year or two I've found several stores where they are abandoning it. I presume because people carrying cash, especially coins, is becoming rarer and they don't want to inconvenience their customers?
Strangely enough, carts still get returned even at these stores.
Yes, me too. This only seems to be a problem across the pond.
There's a store chain, Costco or Aldi's maybe? In America here that dies this but it's only a quarter. Which is next to nothing. For reference, a load of laundry is between $1-2 in just a normal machine, plus dry time, (so 4-8 quarters). So just to wash and dry a single load of laundry for me, for example, is 12 quarters, $1.50 each of l for washing and drying.
So that cart deposit thing could use some improvement. Regardless I've never shopped at that store, but I do just return my cart like a civilized person.
Some people go as far as to use a tool similar to the one mounted on the front cart to extract their money and still not return the cart they took.
The wind howls through the empty parking lot as the dim streetlights flicker above interrupted by the faint screech of an unreturned cart, left abandoned in the cold silence, rolling aimlessly across the asphalt. A masked man steps out of the shadows...
"You think it's nothing. A small act of carelessness, a moment of laziness. But that cart, left adrift, has a price. A price in scraped cars, twisted ankles, in the chaos that spreads like rot in the hearts of men. You see, I don't care about your excuses. I don't care if it's raining, if you're in a hurry. Order is what keeps us human. And you... you spit on it with every cart left behind."
Knuckles crack in the darkness
"I’m the reckoning you never see coming. You think no one’s watching when you shove it into the next spot, but I’m always watching. Every cart out of place, every rule ignored, it leads to something darker, something worse. And that’s where I come in—to stop the small sins before they become something more."
The masked man takes a step forward, his voice low and gravelly.
"I am Cart Noir, the last line of defense between order and chaos. You think it's just a cart? It's never just a cart."
In Germany (and other parts.od Europe as well to be fair) carts need you to put a coin in them to unchain them from their bay, which you get back when you chain them back up - so yeah, kinda, if you don't put it back you loose your euro
Same in Canada, (I hate that I need a loonie to shop with dignity).
Even so, people still leave their carts around. And really that is even worse.
Same in the Netherlands, and I pretty much never see stray shopping trolleys anywhere around here. Seems to work really well.
Yeah check out the Cart Narcs on YouTube. Absolutely hilarious content.
Cart Narcs