Week 27: Cold Cart Retrieval

Wisconsin is currently experiencing a pretty severe cold snap. On Saturday, when I was walking out to my car after the gym in single digit weather, I thought about the retail workers who would be responsible for bringing in the carts from the parking lots that day. Then I thought about all the shoppers who probably would be more likely than usual not to want to walk their carts to their corrals. 

And that's when I finalized last week's activity idea. 

I went home, showered, waited for my hair to dry, and in the early afternoon, when I figured it would be most busy, my boyfriend and I headed out to help clean up some parking lots. 

We started at the Disney World of Saturday errands, Costco, where we found quite a lot of carts needing to be escorted to their resting places. 

One man finished loading his car and asked "Are you taking carts? Because I have one for you." I told him I was. He said, "No, I was kidding; I can't expect you to clean up for me." When I told him I was heading in that direction anyway he acquiesced and said, "You're a real good one; Santa is really going to reward you next year." 😄

After Costco we headed to Target, where we kept on driving because the lot was clear. 

Last up was Meijer, where we were once again put to work, but not nearly as necessarily as Costco. Mark headed to the far side to pick up a handful of carts left in the lot, and I headed to the front walkway to collect all the carts that didn't make it to one of the doors. 

On the way home I told Mark about a lady I talked to in the Costco parking lot (who, for the record, didn't think twice about taking the cart from in front of their car into the store with them) that said she had recently read an article that explained the shopping cart is a litmus test for society. 

I just looked it up and thought it was worth sharing, to at least think about next time you're at the store contemplating returning your cart of leaving it for someone else to take care of. 

Here is it for those interested:

“The shopping cart is the ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing. To return the shopping cart is an easy, convenient task and one 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.”

“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 Shopping Cart Theory, therefore, is a great litmus test on whether a person is a good or bad member of society.”