The Disgusting Cart Habit Reddit Wishes Grocery Store Customers Would Quit

Redditors are known for not holding back, and when it comes to grocery shopping, if a customer has a bad experience (whether because of another patron or the store itself), there's a high chance it'll be a topic of discussion on the threads. But trashiest shopping habit that has the site's users up in arms? It's people leaving behind garbage in their carts, and the entire community is perturbed — from fellow customers to employees. "It [stinks], especially the cart I found with a melting milkshake leaking out of an overturned cup, dripping out all over," wrote a user at r/PetPeeves, who appeared to be a grocery store worker based on their testimony. "I find half-drunk drinks on shelves, in carts, on the curb in the parking lot, and so on. People are pigs."

This isn't the first time shoppers lost it over a question of shopping cart etiquette (in the past some have complained about fellow store-goers abandoning their carts in the parking lot). It likely won't be the last time, either. Sure, dropping a wrapper at the bottom of the buggy or forgetting your cup in the holder might initially sound like mistakes everyone makes at the grocery store, but according to these disgruntled Redditors, these acts aren't innocent, they're intentional. "Today many people are lazy git's and too uncaring to do simple cleanup after themselves," a user complained further down in the thread.

Across other threads, things only got worse when an employee recalled finding a dirty diaper and a banana peel in a shopping cart. The conversation at r/RantsFromRetail kicked off when the user complained, "I'm not your personal janitor or servant here to touch food and cups that were all over your mouth and used napkins with crusty ketchup bits or lipstick marks." The person noted there are trash cans all over the inside of the store and the parking lot, which made leaving trash in the cart seem inexcusable. 

At r/Costco, a user asked why customers there use carts as their own personal trash cans, and described finding raw fish and other unmentionables. Costco appeared to come up as one of the most frequent stores gross encounters, with several shoppers mentioning food court trash. Users also called out Target and Walmart by name, while smaller stores like Aldi appeared to be left out of the rants. Perhaps that has something to do with Aldi's protocol that often asks shoppers to swap their cart at checkout to keep a quicker pace. It stands to reason, leaving the cart behind or handing it off to a cashier would certainly be a deterrent to anyone considering depositing their trash. Just don't get caught lingering and trying to keep your cart — it's one of the common pet peeves noted by Aldi employees.