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What is 'Shopping Cart Theory'? The test can tell if you are a good or a bad person
Meaww ^ | 6/17*21 | Anusha J

Posted on 03/22/2023 5:42:49 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants

What is the making of a "good person?" Different people use different scales to determine who is good and who is not. Over the years, there have been many factors that have been used to categorize people. And the internet keeps providing more updated benchmarks for us to measure people by. The latest theory that has been making rounds on the internet is the "Shopping Cart Theory" and it can perfectly define a person's character. It is a modern-day take on the trolley problem with a more real-life application and implication.

Depending on how you answer the following question, you are either a good or a terrible person. Would you return a shopping cart to its designated spot after use or would you simply leave it wherever you want? Of course, this is provided that there is no dire emergency. The theory was picked up from a Reddit forum and was posted by a Twitter user for further discourse. Now, let's see what it indicates.

there is no dire emergency. Do you accept your duty to return the cart even though you gain nothing?

"The shopping cart is the ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing," the post explains. "To return the shopping cart is an easy, convenient task and one which we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do. To return the shopping cart is objectively right. There are no situations other than dire emergencies in which a person is not able to return their cart. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping cart. Therefore the shopping cart presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it." So if you chose to return the cart, then you are a good person. At least according to this theory.

The theory further states: "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, you gain nothing by returning the shopping cart. You must return the shopping cart out of the goodness of your own heart. You must return the shopping cart because it is the right thing to do. Because it is correct." The theory then goes on to make some extreme declarations. It reads, "A person who is unable to do this is no better than an animal, an absolute savage who can only be made to do what is right by threatening them with a law and the force that stands behind it."

The theory then concludes by stating, "The Shopping Cart is what determines whether a person is a good or bad member of society." While the original trolley problem was also an exercise to determine a person's ethics, the modern version is less violent while also being more apparent.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Miscellaneous; Society
KEYWORDS: cart; shopping; theory
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To: READINABLUESTATE

Winner. That’s what I told my “kids” when I was doing mentoring/leadership stuff: whatever slot they give you, leave it better than you found it. It’s up to your successsor what he or she does with what you give leave.


61 posted on 03/22/2023 6:11:37 AM PDT by jagusafr ( )
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To: Howie66

There is an art to the shopping cart return: you must stand at the end of the cart return area and push the cart so it nests perfectly with the other carts in the rack.


62 posted on 03/22/2023 6:13:16 AM PDT by I-ambush (We watched the moment of defeat, played back over on the video screen. )
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To: Donbue

Cart wrangler is a terrible job. But it is one that will make you look for a better job.


63 posted on 03/22/2023 6:14:36 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (It's science and therefore cannot be questioned!)
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To: 9YearLurker

I think Aldi does that for all their stores.


64 posted on 03/22/2023 6:16:14 AM PDT by scrabblehack
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To: Blood of Tyrants

I’m a good person


65 posted on 03/22/2023 6:17:42 AM PDT by mowowie
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To: jagusafr

“Winner. That’s what I told my “kids” when I was doing mentoring/leadership stuff:”

I picked it up while on Boy Scout camping trips in the 70’s
The counselor told us “Always leave the camp site better than it was”


66 posted on 03/22/2023 6:19:10 AM PDT by READINABLUESTATE
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To: Blood of Tyrants

There are a couple of guys working at the local Home Depot who would not have jobs otherwise.

Plus - after dragging my cart through 4”+ of snow and slush and puddles of water because the lot does not get plowed too often I’m not to inclined to haul it back. And when I do I often can’t put it in the corral ‘cause they don’t plow the corral so all these carts pile up in front like cattle headed into the chute.


67 posted on 03/22/2023 6:19:11 AM PDT by 1FreeAmerican
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To: metmom

My G-mother used to say “... always act like I am watching you.”

... that worked for my three sons also.


68 posted on 03/22/2023 6:20:20 AM PDT by ByteMercenary (Slo-Joe and KamalHo are not my leaders.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

I always take my cart back to the cart corral. Why? Two reasons: 1) It’s the right thing to do. 2) As a teenager I worked at the largest grocery store in Wisconsin and fetching carts from the farthest regions of the parking lot was time-consuming and annoying.


69 posted on 03/22/2023 6:24:13 AM PDT by Kharis13
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To: Blood of Tyrants
Lol, I've always returned the shopping cart.

It annoys me when I pull into a parking space
and a shopping cart is right there blocking me.
My reaction is always "seriously, somebody couldn't put that in the return".

70 posted on 03/22/2023 6:24:37 AM PDT by Tommy Revolts
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To: Blood of Tyrants
To return the shopping cart is objectively right.

At the Costco near me, they removed about half of the shopping cart return pens in the parking lot to make more room for parking. Now a lot less people return the carts to the pens and just leave them in parking spaces. Shopping cart return is a covenant with the supermarket. Customers will return them if the supermarket has a fair allocation of return pens and doesn't make you walk half a mile to return them.

71 posted on 03/22/2023 6:25:09 AM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard (When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

I love all of the excuses being posted by the non-returners.


72 posted on 03/22/2023 6:26:53 AM PDT by Dementon (You're unique! Just like everyone else!)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

I always return my grocery cart to the spot provided for them. I put my groceries in the trunk, place my purse in there, close the trunk, lock the car, put my car keys in my pocket and walk the cart over to where it belongs - even if it’s several rows away. Sometimes another elderly person will be walking from their car to the store and will want the cart I’m returning to use for support. Works for everyone.


73 posted on 03/22/2023 6:28:21 AM PDT by Thank You Rush
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To: Howie66

I was being serious. It galls me to see an errant shopping cart left parked out in the lot. Especially if it’s near one of the cart corrals.


74 posted on 03/22/2023 6:28:43 AM PDT by moovova ("The NEXT election is the most important election of our lifetimes!“ LOL...)
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To: rlmorel

Great story. We both had early lessons on how to direct our anger.


75 posted on 03/22/2023 6:29:42 AM PDT by Raycpa
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To: Blood of Tyrants

I always return it for a bunch of reasons.

1. It annoys the hell out of me when carts are just put anywhere, especially if it means I need to move it to park or get out of my parking spot. So I’m not about to do something that I don’t want other people doing (the old ‘do-unto-others’).

2. My parents and the Navy drummed into me the concept of ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’.


76 posted on 03/22/2023 6:30:34 AM PDT by Dundee (They gave up all their tomorrows for our today's.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

Not valid. The expectation of what to do with your shopping cart varies regionally. Some places actually send someone out WITH you to put your groceries into your car; is accepting such help unethical? Why is it unethical to accept the help of someone hired to round up your grocery carts?

In the last couple of decades, the trend has been more and more places scattered throughout the parking garage to return the carts to. When I see those, which is almost all the time now where I live, I take the hint. But they still round carts up FROM those places to bring into the store. So is using those only partly ethical?

A better test would be people who leave groceries they’ve changed their mind about on the shelves in the wrong place. If the groceries are spoilable, you’re positively evil.


77 posted on 03/22/2023 6:31:15 AM PDT by dangus ( )
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To: V_TWIN

“”Isn’t that only Aldi?””

Evidently - I don’t have a clue what people are talking about as I don’t go to that store - not one close by. Who gives who a quarter and when?


78 posted on 03/22/2023 6:33:04 AM PDT by Thank You Rush
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To: moovova

You have to pay a quarter for a shopping cart? Do you have to pay a quarter to use the stall?


79 posted on 03/22/2023 6:33:13 AM PDT by crusty old prospector
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To: Blood of Tyrants

I relocated from South Fla to Charleston SC two years ago. I was immediately struck noticing the absence of lose carts in the grocery parking lots unlike So Fla. People here are polite. Yet to experience the road range frequently encountered in So Fla.


80 posted on 03/22/2023 6:33:56 AM PDT by HockeyPop
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