>There's no people dedicated to collecting carts, it's just a periodic task.
There is, but at that point you're in luxury stores and probably aren't pushing the carts yourself anymore to begin with.
>You have to be out there getting them from the corral anyway
Yes, and the idea of "returning a shopping cart" includes corrals too. That'd the crux of the argument here, people can't even find spots down and put it in the corral.
>The cart thing is just mental gymnastics to make people feel like they have self worth and are better than others.
I can't speak for everyone. But I see it as an exercise in self reflection and tending to your environment. Youre not a better person for doing so, but you contribute to a worse environment if the care isn't there. These little things add up to a broken society.
The mentality that we all need to constantly compare ourselves to one another is in fact another community building exercise. And why hyper individualism is doomed to fail. I simply want to try and understand why the windows are broken and try to take steps to fix it.
Ok, but why does not putting a cart in a coral equate to a broken window, but not facing product does not? As the person collecting carts it took me less time to collect 10 "free range" carts than it would have taken those 10 people to return those carts.
>why does not putting a cart in a coral equate to a broken window, but not facing product does not?
1. Ones an obligation, the other is a duty. The metaphor is about what little things a person does to contribute to society, not what someone is paid to do
2. Unless your full time job is collecting shopping carts, leaving time windows for carts to crash into cars or people or blocking parking spots is what makes the broken window. Picking up the glass shards is something, but not everything when a frsutrated shopper never comes back.
And since I see more confusion here, keep in mind that the US has several shopping cart carrals at any major store. Those corrals still count as "returning your shopping cart". I don't think the article is asking people to put it back in the store. I haven't seen that expectation in the modern day
Ok, so is your primary issue that people don't take the cart all the way to the coral or that they leave them in places that cause problems for people? Because that's two different things.