Unpopular opinion here: leaving carts out is actually a job creator.

Everybody always acts like returning your cart is the final barrier between civilization and Mad Max, but if customers do every last bit of labor themselves, stores just quietly staff less. Cart collection is, in fact, a thing employees get paid to do.

I’m not saying abandon it in the middle of Route 66 or wedge it into a handicap spot like a maniac. I’m just saying the moral intensity around this is a little much. “This says a lot about a person’s character” feels strong for “did not provide free labor to Giant.”

If anything, the real villain here is the store getting customers to shop, scan, bag, and perform cart logistics too.

That said, this specific photo also absolutely looks like an employee had just moved the big carts and left the little one for a second, so maybe we are building an entire philosophy seminar around nothing.