Cart Narcs - Addressing the issue of people not returning shopping carts

 

One of the common themes on this blog is articles about people who do not follow the rules of society. It's one of my pet peeves when people just do whatever they want without any consideration of other people. An example of this is when people take shopping carts and then just leave them in the middle of a parking lot instead of returning them to the cart corral.

Returning a cart is very simple yet many people are lazy and can't be bothered to do this. As a result, their cart ends up blocking parking spaces, rolling around and hitting other cars, and causing additional work for the cart attendants.

Recently I found a channel called Cart Narcs which addresses this very issue. The guy from this channel goes around looking for examples of people not returning their carts and then he confronts them about it. He has a uniform as well as a body camera to record the situations. As you might imagine, they tend to be very entertaining!

Typically he waves down the offender and lets them know they left their cart in the lot and reminds them of the nearest cart corral. Most of the time people try to come up with an excuse such as “They pay people for that” or “Everyone else is doing it.”  Sometimes they just flat out say they don't care.

One some occasions, they admit they were wrong and begrudgingly get out of their car and return their cart. These are great interactions when someone gets that little reminder and they decide to do what they should have done in the first place.

For the other people who refuse to return their carts, it usually escalates into a confrontation with them swearing and getting all riled up. The Cart Narcs guy can be pretty persistent and does not give up until they return their cart or angrily speed away. He even puts magnetic bumper stickers on their car that lets people know they do not return their cart.

While putting things on their car might be going over the line a bit, I appreciate the work this guy is doing by promoting common decency when it comes to returning shopping carts. One thing is for sure, after an interaction with this guy, these people will never look at a shopping cart the same way again.

The channel seems to be pretty popular so hopefully it spreads the word and encourages more people to return their shopping cart when they are done with it. We need more people like this taking the initiative to help make the world a better place!

People who put signs and advertisements on utility poles, lights, and posts

Recently I have been noticing a lot of advertisement signs being posted around the community illegally. Usually they are attached to electrical poles, or even zip-tied to street lights or signs. Sometimes they are stuck in the ground and sometimes they are even stickers that are stuck onto signs and poles. These advertisements are usually promoting some business or service and they give a phone number to call.

I am a stickler for rules so it bothers me when I see these kinds of signs randomly posted in places where they are not allowed. Most communities have an ordinance prohibiting the attachment of signs to these fixtures. These signs create clutter and distraction along side of the road and when they fall off, they become large pieces of litter.

There are fines that can be issued for posting signs like this, but I have a feeling either the fine is too low, or the ordinance is not being enforced as much as it could. Most signs and ads like these usually have contact information so it should not be too hard to track down the owner who is responsible.

If we want to keep the communities clean of unsolicited advertisements, we need to make sure these rules are enforced. If you have noticed a lot of these signs popping up in your area, I recommend start reporting their location to the village or city so they can be taken down and the parties responsible can be held accountable for their actions.