‘Are they for real?’ Growing carpark trend infuriates shoppers

A Sydney shopper was left fuming after making the discovery while trying to find a car spot. How angry would this make you?

Picture this. You're driving around your local shopping centre struggling to find a parking spot. After what feels like an eternity of searching, you finally find one, only to discover that you can't drive in it because someone has left not one but THREE trolleys in the spot. 

Like this:

3 trolleys were connected and sitting in a vacant car spot. Image: Supplied

Immediately you're annoyed, right? Understandably so.

But what if I now told you that not only are the trolleys dumped into a perfectly vacant car spot, the spot was also located RIGHT NEXT TO THE TROLLEY BAY!

I'm sorry, I'm angry (if the caps didn't already give that away). But seriously... are people actually for real?

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This happened to me the other day while visiting a local shopping centre in Sydney's south west.

While the trolleys left there was enough to make me rage, what was even worse was that the entitled shoppers who used them last really wanted their gold coins back, so decided to connect them to the other random trolleys located outside of the bay in order for that to happen.

With three trolleys connected, that means it was more than just one shopper who decided this was a good idea!

Now, before you ask, yes the bay had room for them and yes they were able to be connected to other trolleys in the assigned area.

Nothing was broken to explain this behaviour. They could've had their coin returned easily with just a few extra steps taken. 

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The trolley bay just didn't look right. Image: Supplied

The selfish act is a carpark trend

Put simply, it's rude. It's selfish. It's lazy. It's entitled behaviour. And alarmly, it's actually a carpark trend!

Let's talk about this for a second. 

It's not unusual to see trolleys pushed to the wall of a car park at the end of a spot. Many people do that and I get it. Sometimes people are in a rush and there aren't enough bays around closeby. Dare I say it, I might've even done that once or twice when I was in a hurry or had a really young child sitting safely in their car seat already. 

It's a common sight and also a common sight is seeing the trolley men driving in their little buggies picking up all the rogue trolleys dumped in different areas of the car park. 

A few months back, I distinctly remember being 'thanked' for walking towards a trolley bay positioned a little further away from where my car was parked. I laughed and said to the man: "you don't need to thank me - it's where they go!"

We then had a little discussion about how his day was often spent playing 'Where's Wally?' with random trolleys people have dumped around the carpark. 

"It's a little selfish isn't it?" he asked me at the time. And I agreed - albeit feeling a little guilty for that time I might've done it myself. 

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Seriously? Is this how lazy we are now? Image: Supplied

The people have spoken - stop this behaviour

Speaking to some regular shoppers, I wanted to put the feelers out there to see if other people found this behaviour as annoying as I did. 

"Unforgivable. Not only does it take literally two seconds to take the trolley back, but it’s so disrespectful to other shoppers," Ally agreed. 

"Ugh! Why?! Isn't it just as much effort to return the trolley to the proper bay?" another mum questioned. 

And dad Joel chimed in with: "Had a trolley roll into my car once because some bloke was too lazy to walk it another 20 metres. People who don’t return them are bad eggs."

Even the parents, who are often put out by having to walk the extra distance with tantruming kids in tow to do the right thing were on my side. 

"I'd be p*ssed! I usually have 1-3 children at any one time, usually screaming, fighting and demanding snacks. I shouldn't also have to discipline random people who are lazy," Jordana shared. 

"Can people get any lazier? It's not that hard to return them to the trolley bays," mum-of-three Emily agreed.

But there were a handful of others who weren't as offended as some of us.

"At first, I would be pissed. But then I would remember that this is absolutely something I would do myself, so I'd be forgiving of the lazy/time-poor person who tangled the trolleys and go find another spot," El shared. 

"Just move it out of the way and let the trolley guy handle it, what's the big deal?" another parent said. 

If you've made it this far into the article, thanks for sharing in my rage. And while I acknowledge my complaint might be tipping over to the petty side of things in life, what's pettier is being the person who couldn't be bothered walking 10 more steps to do the right thing. 

Originally published as ‘Are they for real?’ Growing carpark trend infuriates shoppers