The internet is full of hot takes on what people should do when they are finished with their shopping cart. Some think it’s fine to leave it wherever, while others believe returning it to the store is the only polite behavior.
Many folks have no problem leaving their cart next to their parking space; others not only return their own cart but feel the need to police others. The laws of responsibility can vary from state to state, with Oregon criminalizing the removal of carts from the parking lots of establishments.
No matter the state or local laws, none of them give permission to do what this Redditor did. As a private citizen, it was his responsibility to stay in his lane, so to speak.
He posted on a subReddit where members can present a situation and ask whether or not they were a jerk for their behavior. This post sparked a lot of conversation, most of it calling the man out.
What did he do with the shopping cart?
The man, OP, started by saying he was leaving the local hardware store when he noticed a woman leaving her cart in the middle of the parking lot. He assumed she was lazy rather than disabled, based on his opinion alone.
He spoke into her open window, telling her to put away her shopping cart. Unsurprisingly, she told him to do it if it mattered to him so much.
Rather than taking the cart to the return, he smugly placed it in the flatbed of her truck.
He makes light of the employee’s plight who was tasked with helping her. A smaller young guy, he lacked the size and strength that OP confessed it took for him to get the cart onto the truck.
Rather than being a gentleman and helping the kid out, he bolted. At this point, he thought he was done with the subject. He disregarded the signs that are legally required by law to be put in the parking lot. At the same time, he disregarded the clerk.
Social media is a thing
Apparently, this man did not realize that the woman with the flatbed truck also had a smartphone. She snapped a picture of him and shared it in a local social media group.
In addition to a picture of the man, she shared an image of a dent in her truck. While he isn’t certain, it seems that it came from when the employee had to remove the cart from her truck. He also suggests that perhaps she is lying about the dent’s origin.
The woman said that she felt threatened by OP, which he denies doing. He attacks her as he describes her post. Although he describes himself as “a really big guy,” he fails to see how she could feel threatened by him yelling at her through the open truck window.
The majority speaks
The overwhelming consensus on Reddit was that this guy was in the wrong. In fact, people analyzed his behavior on multiple levels, giving him very little leeway.
People were quick to point out that while she was in the wrong, he only compounded the situation. When she brought the store clerk into it, OP should have gotten out of his vehicle and moved the cart.
However, he chose to drive off, leaving it to a smaller person to navigate moving the awkwardly shaped cart off of the truck. So, it was no longer the two of them involved and he left the younger guy trying to figure out the situation while being yelled at constantly by the woman.
In his post he accuses the truck driver of potentially lying about the dent in her truck, completely missing the fact that a weaker person, or people, were stuck removing the cart from her truck’s flatbed.
Friends, family and the folks down the street
His spouse discovered what happened when she saw his picture on social media. As he was leaving the parking lot, the truck owner snapped a picture of him and posted it in a local group.
Now, his significant other is very angry and “humiliated” because of his behavior and the knowledge that everyone in town will soon know. They have children, so she is also keenly aware that the parents of their friends are also going to know.
While this might have been enough to make some folks think twice, OP doubled down. In the post, he even asserts that he doesn’t think he was a jerk because he just wanted her, the woman with the cart, to “stop being so selfish.”
OP thinks that he was in the right, teaching the truck driver to not be so selfish. However, his wife’s reaction is giving him pause, leading him to Reddit.
What do you think?
Have you ever encountered a situation like this? What would you do? Do you think he did the right thing, or are there better ways to deal with his frustrations?
Please, let me know your thoughts below!
Comments / 0