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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: Blood of Tyrants

i once returned a cart to the good will store after finding it left in a field.

does that make me a bad guy?


21 posted on 03/22/2023 5:52:57 AM PDT by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world or something )
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To: Blood of Tyrants

About 20 years ago, I saw a woman move their cart from the parking lot over the curb and onto the grass. I said, “saw that.” (The cart return corral was nearby like they all are.) She launched on me like a tyrannosaurus karen. I shook my head at her and walked away. The lazy old bat.


22 posted on 03/22/2023 5:53:15 AM PDT by KingLudd
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To: Blood of Tyrants

I sometimes gather extra carts.


23 posted on 03/22/2023 5:53:40 AM PDT by Bloodandgravy
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To: Armscor38

I think part of it is I can’t stand seeing someone get their car needlessly pinged, and part of it is so that whenever I come in, I don’t want to navigate around them.

Plus, it looks third-world to have them just all over the place. Now, it is the norm.


24 posted on 03/22/2023 5:53:50 AM PDT by rlmorel ("If you think tough men are dangerous, just wait until you see what weak men are capable of." JBP)
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To: Raycpa

100% of the time when I shop at Aldi’s.


I do the exact opposite. I think “let me donate 25 cents to the next person”. If I have just emptied my cart and I see someone getting out of their car, I’ll say “have my cart” without an expectation of payment.


25 posted on 03/22/2023 5:54:22 AM PDT by ChronicMA
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To: metmom

honor is a gift a man gives himself.


26 posted on 03/22/2023 5:54:51 AM PDT by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world or something )
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To: Blood of Tyrants

Oh sure. It’s noble to ruin entry level jobs for those who need work and are willing to work. Just like self checkout, you are not helping anybody. If it makes you feel good though, go for it.


27 posted on 03/22/2023 5:55:00 AM PDT by Colorado Doug (Now I know how the Indians felt to be sold out for a few beads and trinkets)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

I’ve pushed some hundreds of yards in the woods/ logging roads, closer to a gate on the road, but I was going that way, anyway. Loaded up some trash along the way. I’m not pushing them a 1/2 mile or more farther to the various stores they belong to. I might climb down or rig a line to pull one up a slope. Make of that what you will. Mostly, I don’t like seeing them in the woods. Apparently some homeless people are bad people.


28 posted on 03/22/2023 5:55:04 AM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: moovova

That’s just how I was raised. :-)


29 posted on 03/22/2023 5:55:14 AM PDT by Howie66 (Let's Go Brandon!!)
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To: kiryandil

I do the same. Sometimes there are no carts in the store, so I automatically bring one in from outside.

Once I load up the truck, I return it to the proper place and never leave it in the lot.


30 posted on 03/22/2023 5:55:15 AM PDT by GeorgiaDawg32 (q11)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

Shopping carts left scattered all over the parking lot are an illustration of why socialism and communism fails.


31 posted on 03/22/2023 5:55:28 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: moovova

“I always take my cart back...to get the quarter.”

Isn’t that only Aldi?


32 posted on 03/22/2023 5:56:37 AM PDT by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave!)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

I’ve always returned my cart because I like to show off knowing how a cart return works.


33 posted on 03/22/2023 5:56:39 AM PDT by GMMC0987
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To: Blood of Tyrants

Never used to be concerned about cart return until I bought my first new car. Parked it in the back forty to be safe but there was a loose shopping cart that dented the door. I was sick. Ever since I will put mine back and round up nearby loose ones too.
PS. That was the only damage on that car ever!


34 posted on 03/22/2023 5:56:48 AM PDT by griswold3 (Truth, Beauty and Goodness ; Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat)
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To: kiryandil

“I actually bring a cart or two in when I first go into the store.”

If the carts in the parking lot are anywhere near where I park, I always take a cart from the lot into the store. Only a couple of stores in Central Virginia have the quarter requirement so there’s almost always a cart to take back in.


35 posted on 03/22/2023 5:56:57 AM PDT by Portcall24
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To: Blood of Tyrants

My wife taught me that the best parking spots are those near the cart returns.


36 posted on 03/22/2023 5:57:06 AM PDT by Raycpa
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To: NeverTyranny

WalMart, before a good storm is fun to watch. People stocking up, and unloading in the rain will leave carts wherever they finish with them. After the storm, the carts are blown up against the curb on the leeward side of the parking lot, like so many leaves.


37 posted on 03/22/2023 5:58:05 AM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: Gay State Conservative

LOL! Right on.


38 posted on 03/22/2023 5:58:25 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Free the J6 Heroes! Now! Heroic J6 Lives Matter. (HJ6LM))
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To: SaveFerris

“Some people at Walmart will make extra effort to jam one up on a curb rather than return it”

At least it won’t roll into someone’s car.


39 posted on 03/22/2023 5:58:41 AM PDT by TexasGator
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To: Blood of Tyrants

I always return things I use to there proper place. And, if there are carts that lazy, unethical people leave loose in the parking lot, I generally gather those so they are not a hazard or impede others parking. It disgusts me that so many people are so lazy they can’t return the cart they borrowed to its corral, which is usual a very short distance away.


40 posted on 03/22/2023 5:59:15 AM PDT by rigelkentaurus
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