I am delighted that this is a subject of your commentary today. I am a strong proponent of returning carts for additional exercise, as a safety matter and as an example to others. My two sons, 8 and 12 years old, actually ask to be the ones to return the cart and view it as a privilege. This seems like such a small thing, but there are other implications of not returning the cart and of not doing the other little things in life. A cart in the parking lot is a hazard to drivers, blows in the wind and can damage parked vehicles, is an eyesore in front of the store as well as consuming time of an employee who has to round them up and put them away when he or she could be doing something else. It's the little things like opening a door for someone, saying "Have a great day," picking up a piece of trash someone else discarded or putting away your own grocery cart that make this life just that much more pleasant. Thank you for your continued insight into the small things that build great character.

I loved it. It makes me upset when I see people leave the carts without any respect for others, I have had to come out of my car and put some back in their places so others could have it and no cars would be damaged by a cart left there by someone who most probably had no respect for others. It's sad, and I guess that's why stores now have increased the amount you have to put in the carts so people will have to put the carts back so they can have their money back.

This is a great topic. I did some grocery shopping at a Trader Joe's this afternoon. When I grocery shop, I always look for a cart in the parking lot that has not been returned to the proper area and take it into the store. There are times I only purchase around a dozen items and do not even use a cart to go to my van. All customers should return carts to the cart return area. Do not be so lazy. Everyone can use a little more exercise.

Yes, even with a toddler, I return them. We make a game of it to push them to the front of the store or to the kiosk and then I carry her back. I love it too when people offer to take my cart and I often take others when I'm parking. Its the right thing to do!

You bet I put it back, but quite often when I see folks headed inside I ask them if they will do a favor for me. Voila! New friend. Exchanging smiles and meeting new people is very pleasant.

I totally agree except I would want to make sure that in fact no one would lose their job if everyone (or almost everyone) returned their own cart.

I would feel terrible if I found out that by returning carts we patrons enabled the store to let at least one employee go.

Thank you once again, Michael, for putting into words things that are in my heart and mind. I love to read everything you write. You inspire me to continue to do the right thing even though most everyone around me does not. Bless you.

We could even do more by grabbing a cart in the parking lot that others left behind and take into the store when we are going in. My elderly mother started this to have something to lean on. I have been doing it every time I go shopping. If we all did it, we could reduce the frustration of the carts all over parking spaces.

When I first began dating my husband, there were many things he did that caused me to fall head over heels in love with him: he was kind to his mother and hugged her often, he always had time to help out a friend, he was a patient driver and didn't curse when he was cut off. But one of the most telling character traits I saw was that he always returned the shopping cart to its collection area. I had a lump in my throat the first time I watched him do that. It's a small thing, but I think it says a lot about a person.

I always put the shopping cart back...great exercise, especially if you park at the far end of the lot.

Thanks, Michael! We read this commentary to our middle school students during lunch. Many kids who move to our rural community have very different perceptions of what is appropriate school behavior. We stress the importance of being a community that returns their shopping carts - even when others may not!

I especially liked your emphasis on doing the right thing--even when the majority is not. Thanks for your efforts to shape our nation.

Big believer in returning the carts. The day I get too lazy to return the carts is the day you can put me in a home. What a hassle to pull into a parking lot and try to pull into a parking space except there is a cart blocking your way. Or how about it getting loose and putting a dent in your car. Don't be lazy people and get a little exercise and return the carts.

While I have always taught my children (and my students) the importance of giving back - including returning grocery carts - I was startled to hear a different message from a worker at a local grocery store. Watching me wheel the cart back to the front of the store, he came to me and politely requested I no longer do so, pointing out that it's his job, his livelihood and his family's independence that would suffer. Our local CostCo follows this principle and employs special-education adults to retrieve and return the carts. I frequently offer to help, but I am always reminded, "No thanks, it's my job," delivered with a broad smile and a sense of pride. It is vital that our children learn to give back, yet to do so with an eye on the impact of our gifts: helping or eliminating someone's livelihood. It's important to discern the difference.

The stores in our area do not have a place to return carts. They used to. Now they have baggers who ask if you need help. So if you don't want help taking the cart to your car, are you obligated to take the cart back inside the store?

I would like to comment about the shopping cart essay. It is on my top ten list of pet peeves. After wondering why other shoppers do not return their carts when they so easily could, I get frustrated because they are also the customers who will complain the loudest about lack of customer service in stores. If they would think, for a minute, if that employee who is searching the parking lots for carts were in the store manning a cash register or offering assistance in other ways, their shopping trip might have gone much smoother. In the end, I do return carts because it is just the right thing to do.

How funny is that? I had the shopping cart virtue talk with my two sons, 9 and 12, just a few weeks ago. It was almost as if the scenario was pulled directly from our story. It is a shame that more people do not instill the small values into their children's lives on a more constant basis. It is like the play-dough commentary; they absorb everything in their environment. Why not push them to absorb the small things that seem insignificant now so when they are older they can use it as a parable for what we were trying to teach while they were sponges.

My wonderful husband always collects shopping carts on his way into the grocery store. If he happens to walk by someone who is almost through loading groceries into the car, he offers to return that person's cart, too. No wonder I love this man with all of my heart!

I love reading your commentaries and look forward to the lessons I learn from your thoughts on becoming a better person. However, I think I disagree with you that returning shopping carts is a righteous thing to do.

When I have dinner at home, I try to be sure to help my wife clean up the dishes when we are through with our meal. However, when I go out for a nice dinner, I do not feel a moral responsibility to help the bus boy clean off the dishes from the table at the conclusion of my meal or to get up and get my own water. Although I know the bus boy works hard and might really appreciate the help, I know he does not expect me to help him with his job. In fact, if everyone cleared their own dishes, the poor bus boy would be out of a job.

When I go shopping at the supermarket, I know the owners of the store want to provide me a service that makes my shopping experience convenient and pleasant. Having someone retrieve my cart for me is part of the service the store management wants me to enjoy. At many markets, I often see them even offer to help take your groceries to your car if you had made a large purchase. I would not consider someone less moral if they accepted that service.

So on this one, I think you have gone overboard a little. However, you are still batting about 98% in my book.

We put our carts away because we are expected to. The stores have to pay people to corral them when people don't put them away.
This is all part of our moral compass. As adults, we should know this and we should pass this knowledge on to our children.

This really has nothing to do with shopping carts--it's an almost imperceptible (in the short view) exercise in self-forgetting and simple acts of love. If I can't return the shopping cart or clean the lint trap in the laundromat dryer or use my turn signal, what right do I have to talk about fairness, justice, or compassion? I appreciate that you have made it a lesson in "what kind of person do I want to be?" It's an exercise not just of the feet but of the spirit. Thanks for the reminder.

I guess I am wrong...I always told my sons (20 and 12) that everyone puts the cart back when it is a beautiful day - that says little for your character. When it is cold, windy, rainy or snowing and you take the time to put the cart back - that shows real character. But evidently not everyone does put the carts back, even on beautiful sunny days. I totally agree it should be done - every time without fail.
I am just awaiting the commentary on people who don't use their turn signals...truly a pet peeve of mine :)
Thanks for the words of wisdom!

I used to put the cart away, but with the high unemployment rate I now leave it out in the lot. Leaving it out creates demand for labor, which decreases unemployment. Nationwide, I would imagine thousands of jobs lost if everyone returned their cart. I explain it this way to my children, that we are helping people get jobs, not being lazy ourselves. I also have my kids pick up trash and help with nonprofits, so it's not as if they are learning to be helpless everywhere, just where it will inherently create jobs in a recession. I guess that's the result of my 8 years of economics education. (P.S., I would imagine that taking one's cart to the farthest fringes of the parking lot would create even more labor demand.)

In this day and age of unemployment, I believe I am keeping someone in a job to retrieve shopping carts. I used to return them, but not now.

I agonize over this regularly: There are folks at the grocery store whose primary job is collecting and returning the carts. Are we, even just a little, depriving them of gainful employment by our self-indulgent urge to do the right thing and feel better about it?
Do I return the carts? Probably 93% of the time. But I cannot say I feel okay about it.
Of course I generally shop myself. If a grandchild is along, then we make a big deal about doing the right thing, and I suffer in silence at the prospect of unemployment at the grocery store.

This is one more example of how we can exercise and strengthen our character. I challenge all who have read this to not only return your cart but to park far from the store entrance (so others who need to can park closer to the store entrance) and to take a cart or two back as you head into the store.

Putting away one's own shopping cart or putting away a cart that someone else left are examples of doing the right thing, albeit small things. Other examples that people see you doing and that serve as good examples include helping a stranger with a heavy object, asking an elderly person if he/she needs help with something at a store, holding the door for anybody, allowing a patron with fewer objects in the cart to go ahead of you in line. All of these examples of random acts of kindness make others feel good and cause a ripple effect on those with whom they interact. Doing the right thing is very contagious.

Yeah! This is one of my pet peeves also! It is so inconsiderate not to put your cart up--either in the spaces provided in the lot or in the store if need be. Stores provide the carts for our convenience. We can at least honor their efforts by putting our carts up. I cannot stand to have a cart block a parking space or, worse, to see one rolling across the lot and crashing into cars or other objects. Thank you for posting this topic.

A recent newcomer to our area, Aldi Grocery Story, reportedly keeps their carts in a locking rack. To get a cart, one must deposit a quarter, which is returned when the cart is securely returned to the rack. While this probably ensures at least a limited return of the carts to the proper location, it certainly reflects poorly on the character of shoppers.

Thank you, Mr. Josephson, for telling people that the little things do count. The saying that goes around my place of employment is "Don't sweat the little things. They are all little things." If we don't teach our children the little things, then when it comes to the big things, ethics and character go out the window.

My daughter-in-law has a 4-year-old and an infant. She does not put the cart back. Her first responsibility is to the children being safely buckled in their seats in the car. Knowing this, I look for busy mothers when I pull into the store parking lot and offer to take their carts back for them.

I have to say I am bewildered at the views you all jump to conclude to. The fact that not returning a cart reduces your character? In fact, this action alone helps raise the morals in the young community. It helps teach them that hard work pays off. I say this because my first job was working at a grocery store in which one of my duties was retrieving carts from the parking lot. Yes, I did provide customer service inside the store and was near the cashier and could learn what customer service was all about. It is hard work that pays off.... haven't we been told that our whole life? If everyone returned their carts, I would not have had the opportunity to get a job where hard work paid off. I now work for the county and make a substantial amount of money. But it took hard work to get here and I appreciate what I do now and that I'm not pushing carts in the middle of summer when it's 100 degrees outside. I am in this plush office working in the air-conditioned building. My job at the grocery store took me right out of high school working hard and knowing that only the hard workers would advance and not have to push carts and bag groceries anymore. You ever heard of the low man on the totem pole? That's where you need to start. What happened to the world of hard workers? Why does everyone think something should be handed to them? Probably because they didn't have a job or responsibility that made them work hard to get where they are.

I think Mr. Josephson's message is being taken out of context here by the comments I have read. I agree that there are people who do good just because it is the right thing to do. Not because everyone else does it. He was making a scenario up so you could visualize and take the concept and go with it. Please, I ask that you leave your carts in the parking lot, even if you take it to the corral, where they have allocated a spot for them. Don't take them all the way in the store or to the front of the store. In this economy, we all need a job and this mindset of taking the carts back could potentially eliminate someone's job, thus causing a domino effect and we all know how ugly that can get.

I return carts as well but would like to add that the idea of putting a person out of a job is not the issue. The store is obligated to provide goods and services at a competitive price. This makes them stay in business and make a profit for the investors. In doing that, the cost of people to round up carts is part of it and increases prices or reduces profit. The idea that we must make a mess to employ someone only leads to the littering of trash issue. Just think how many we could employ if we just threw trash out the window on the road. Also, to address the bus person at a dinner from a previous post, the diner is expected to tip that person via the waiter/waitress who serves them. When was the last time you tipped a cart retriever?

In response to what Leon Nachenberg said: When I go to a good restaurant, I do not bus the tables, but I do place everything in a neat pile so the busboy or waitress does not have to clean up after me. All they have to do is pick up my plate, silverware and napkins and place them in the bins that they are using to clear the tables. If I or some of my companions waste something liquid, I help to clean that up. I am not doing the wait people and the busboys out of a job, I am just allowing them to clean my area quicker so they can go to the next table. We can always make things easier on the next person.

I am not a saint. There are messes that I inadvertently leave for others to clear, but when we are aware that something will cause some people to have to work harder than they have to, we can do things to make their lives easier. Even the waitperson.

As prudent and appropriate as the above article is to the subject of character, let's be careful not to demonize or judge those who do not return carts. I've been the recipient of many a dirty look when pushing my cart forward and to the side of my vehicle in a store parking lot. Reason being, I have three small children buckled in seats. Why don't I walk them with me to the cart return, you ask? We live in Florida where the temperature on the pavement is at least 100 degrees in the summer. I'm not going to leave my children alone in a burning hot vehicle, nor am I starting the vehicle, running the air, and leaving it unattended. I will return my cart to the appropriate location when and if I am able to park near a cart return area. Otherwise, I will push my cart to a safe area not too far away from my vehicle. I'd appreciate it if more people would have the courtesy to ask to take my cart (this has happened in the past, but not all the time) and use it themselves. It's as important to our character that we don't judge others for not returning their cart. We should remember that morality or character isn't something that we manufacture for ourselves and it's also not appropriate to glorify ourselves when we've done the "right" thing. Remember, you never know the other person's situation in life or their troubles. Now, having said all that, I do understand that there are those who do not return carts because they just don't care. However, for that, a heart change is necessary that goes way beyond returning a cart to the correct area and your judgment upon them doesn't bring them any closer to the truth found in good character.

Michael, thanks for the article and commentary, but I think some of the people are missing the point, at least from my view. The point in this article is to be doing what is right even if it appears to be small, insignificant, more difficult or not the popular option. Michael just used the story of the shopping carts as a metaphor, not the topic.

Americans often take for granted the freedoms we enjoy. In other countries there are mechanisms in place to avoid the problem of abandoned carts.

Supermarkets in Spain and other European countries require you to put a coin in the connected cart to release a small chain and lock from the line of carts. When you are done shopping, you return the cart to the original location to reconnect the cart and get back your euro coin.

I always return shopping carts back inside the store. I think it is a common courtesy. People today tend to think only of themselves and not other people.

Gracias, Mr. Josephson, por estos comentarios tan hermosos y enriquecedores. Disfruto mucho sus comentarios y los comparto con mis estudiantes. Mi opinion a su comentario es el siguiente: En la vida tenemos dos opciones, o somos arrastrados por el mundo, o batallamos y nos mantenemos firmes, defendiendo nuestros valores, sin dejarnos manipular por el mundo. Nuevamente muchas gracias Mr Josephson.

I am markedly disappointed at so many comments from readers justifying the practice of leaving carts in the parking lots. Hot pavement, loss of employment, etc. The fact remains that stores put up clear signage requesting that people put carts in storage areas - often far from the store. This protects employment, and increases convenience for the shopper. When I was a child, no such storage areas existed and we returned our carts to the building. These comments demonstrate - for me - the level of negative entitlement we now have in this society and support the need for character education all the more. It seems to be a truism that the more we do for people, the less they do for themselves. Creation of cart storage areas in the middle of parking lots is a perfect example. People who clean up are busy enough with regular day-to-day tasks. They are not in danger of losing their jobs if we don't give due diligence to being responsible. This is just another subtle justification for refusing to be our brother's keeper even in the simple things. It is a telling measure of the same character concerns addressed in this venue daily. Every comment should be supportive of this message. The fact that they are not is indeed a sad commentary.

When I was in college I worked at a grocery store where my primary task was retrieving carts. When the store ran a contest to reduce the number of carts left out, it worked so well that my job was eliminated. Prices were never adjusted down to reflect the reduction in expenses (and never are). Leon Nachenberg is correct that the carts and their retrieval are provided as a convenience and service by the store. It is all about staying competitive with other stores. (Think about it: would you do your weekly shopping at a store that had no carts?) Jennifer W also has a good point that circumstances such as having children with you make a difference. I usually return carts to the corral, but that is more to prevent them from damaging other vehicles or blocking parking spaces than to reduce costs.
In the long-run, paying an employee to retrieve the carts is minimal compared to the actual costs of buying and maintaining those carts. So, if good character is demonstrated by returning carts, wouldn’t better character be exemplified by not using carts at all? Or not shopping at all, but growing your own food? I mean, who gets to be the great arbiter of good character? And isn’t setting oneself up to be the singular judge of good character the ultimate sign of poor character?

BTW: The reason we tip busboys but not “cart retrievers” is that busboys make a much lower hourly wage that their employers assume will be supplemented by tips. Restaurant workers are not subject to the same minimum wages that others are, so even with tips their wages are far below the average grocery employee.

There is no Cart Retriever job. When they aren't stocking shelves, bagging groceries, cleaning up spills in aisle 4, they have to go out into the parking lot and return carts. Almost all stores offer racks out in the lot you can use conveniently and quickly. My son has been returning our carts since he was 10 yrs old and understands it's the right thing to do - no rationalization, no justification for not doing it. For those who return them, keep it up.

Who would have thought a discussion regarding the courteous return of something you borrowed would raise such ire! I always return my cart to the corral, mostly because I don't want loose carts damaging my vehicle, so I lead by example. I suppose the people who feel this action is detrimental to the job security of the clerks who round them up are the same people who leave popcorn, sodas, and other trash on the floor beneath their seat in the movie theatre as they exit. I take pride in picking up after myself in every situation and leaving things as I found them. It's just that -- personal pride.

Return your cart, of course. Return someone else's, you bet. Our section of town has a problem with people taking the carts to their places of residence. (No car, I guess). I find them all over the area. I load them up and take them back to the store.

You are not taking a person's job away if you return the carts to the corral - the person still has to come and gather them and return them to the store.

We as a society have let our morals go to hell. You don't return the carts because.... "because" is just an excuse. It doesn't matter what you put in the blank for "carts." It's all the same for not doing the right thing. If you can't do the right thing in the parking lot, then you must not do the right thing at any time. If you did the right thing, then you would not run the red light because you're tired of waiting your turn, because you're in a hurry and who cares about the rest of the world? Your time is more important than anyone else's. So what if you block the intersection after the light turned red? So what if I park in the handicapped space using grandma's tag and she's not with me (or better yet no tag at all)? I'm in a hurry. So what if you throw trash out the car window? You don't have to say thank you to the person who just held the door open for you because you don't owe them anything. You don't have to return the extra change the cashier gave you because it's their mistake (now there's someone who will lose their job). You can "so what" anything, but that does not mean it's right. If you live your life doing the right thing or at least trying all the time, then this world would be a better place. I realize it takes all kinds, otherwise we would not have prisons, police, etc. Talk about taking away someone's job. Could you imagine, you do the right thing and a police officer loses his/her job. A prison doesn't have as many wards so a guard loses his job. What in the world would we do with all the extra tax money that this would free up? But oh, wait a minute, you can't do the right thing so we don't have to worry about any extra money now, do we? All criminals have "because" excuses. They deserve the money more than you, their life sucks, they are better than you. All these little pebbles of morality add up, so if you don't think returning a shopping cart where it belongs is important, think again.

The issue is not really about putting away a shopping cart but about civility. Respect for others and their belongings. How many of us returned to our car only to find a shopping cart has run a foul of it? As for "I don't put my cart away because there are people hired to do that for minimum wage," really? That job is not a job in and of itself but a task that employees with other job responsibilities are burdened with.