{"id":1482,"date":"2022-03-27T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-27T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/?p=1482"},"modified":"2022-03-27T23:10:43","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T03:10:43","slug":"return-shopping-carts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/return-shopping-carts\/","title":{"rendered":"Return Shopping Carts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A lot of the things we talk about as \u201clittle things that can change the world\u201d is head stuff: \u201cBe Willing to Be Wrong;\u201d<\/a> \u201cDon\u2019t Take Things Personally.\u201d<\/a> But remember, when we began looking at these Spirit Moxie Conversations about \u201clittle things,\u201d we emphasized physical action. Our first \u201clittle thing\u201d post was \u201cUse Revolving Doors\u201d<\/a>! Really. It is what we do, as well as who and how we are, that makes a huge difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Shopping<\/figure>
\n

I\u2019m suspicious that maybe returning shopping carts at the grocery store and, now, at many big chain stores is a particularly United States problem. People rushing out of a store with a week or month\u2019s worth of stuff, packing it into their SUV, and driving off after just pushing their shopping carts toward the end of their parking spaces is a scene from US suburbia. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

OK, so you don\u2019t do that. But why is \u201creturn shopping carts\u201d such an important little thing to do? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loose shopping carts cause accidents. Some literally run away and crash into cars. They have hit people. Loose shopping carts create more work for store associates, but note they do not create more jobs. There are still people who come outside and bring these carts into the store when they are safely in their corrals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"carts<\/figure>
\n

Just because you are using a shopping cart is not an excuse to take it home. Over a million shopping carts are stolen every year. You see them on the street, in apartment complexes, and in yards. It costs a store between $100 to $400 to replace one. This averages out to an extra $10,000 a  year or so reducing your favorite store\u2019s bottom line. Those costs are passed along to you and everyone else that shops there. (Stats compliments of Google.)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\"Wallet<\/figure>
\n

As an example consider Aldi<\/a> a Germany-based grocery store chain popular as a no-frills alternative in the United States. At these stores, customers pay a quarter (US$.25) to use a cart and then get the quarter back when the cart is returned. This helps the returning part but doesn\u2019t decrease theft. Some people think that the quarter gives them the right to keep a couple hundred dollars\u2019 worth of equipment. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

So, part of this post considers how our actions affect the economy vs our convenience. An earlier post asking for examples of such actions was  famously sparse. We simply don\u2019t think that way. Writing this Conversation suggests other ideas of positive ways to support the economy and environment to me, but I don\u2019t want to have it all be about my ideas. I want your <\/em>thoughts. Add a comment to this post. Or post in the Moxie Movers Facebook group.<\/a> Or write your own post. Send it to me at info@spiritmoxie.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a \u201cshopping cart theory\u201d that went viral. That theory says you can determine someone\u2019s moral character by whether they return shopping carts. Yes, there are arguments about whether this is true.  But I think it is true that returning shopping carts is \u201ca little thing that can change the world.\u201d Thoughts? What would you add?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

__________________________

All photos are by Spirit Moxie

From the top:
Shopping carts at a corral at a Fred Meyer<\/a> grocery store
Target<\/a> carts left by a bus stop
A quarter or twenty-five cents<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lot of the things we talk about as \u201clittle things that can change the world\u201d is head stuff: \u201cBe Willing to Be Wrong;\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t Take Things Personally.\u201d But remember, when we began looking at these Spirit Moxie Conversations about … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[32,46,45],"class_list":["post-1482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main-conversation","tag-making-a-difference","tag-responsibility","tag-shopping-carts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DJHl-nU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1482"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1498,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482\/revisions\/1498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}