This article made me think, why do I return my cart at only Costco.? At Costco, there is no alternative spot to leave the cart other than the corral; at Safeway the carts are smaller and plenty of open parking spots in which to abandon
Why Don’t People Return Their Shopping Carts? A (Somewhat) Scientific Investigation - by Hannah B. Waldfogel - Behavioral Scientist
For reasons I can’t fully explain, people’s failure to return their carts bothers me more than it probably should. But then I realized I can do something about it.
behavioralscientist.org