Aussie’s ‘infuriating’ car park act proves sad reality

While many would like to think they’d do the right thing, this photo reveals otherwise, and it’s angered hundreds of people.

A photo of an abandoned shopping trolley has exposed a lie many Aussies have made about the etiquette of putting the carts back when finished.

The simple image showing a Coles trolley discarded in a car park and taking up the corners of four separate parking spaces struck a nerve among Aussies who are fed up with people not acting for the greater good.

But the kicker is – the trolley, shared to the r/Australia Reddit forum, was left mere metres away from the actual trolley bay.

It also comes after data revealed the vast majority of Aussies said they return their trolley to the bay.

“Too much to ask?” the poster wrote alongside the post, which resonated with hundreds of frustrated users.

“This would absolutely do my head in. People are lazy, and you’d get treated like absolute crap for just doing your job,” one commenter, a former trolley collector, shared.

“I used to dread school holidays and Christmas it would be so much worse.”

A photo showing a trolley left just metres away from the trolley bay has infuriated Aussies. Picture: Reddit

#TrolleyGate angers hundreds of Aussies

“The same people who leave the trolley out would be first to complain and loudly when anyone does anything that even slightly inconveniences them,” another added.

“People can be the worst sometimes,” one Redditor replied, while someone else described it as “sheer a**holery,” and a third person called it “mind-blowing”.

Others theorised that the offender was a parent and used their kids as an excuse to not return their trolley.

“It’s always, ‘Well it’s not safe to leave my kid in the car’ but also ‘I can’t possibly carry my kid back to the car’. I’m honestly sick of it, I get that times are tough but there are so many lazy parents these days and we’re already seeing the result of it,” they said.

Most Aussies claim to return their trolleys

The ‘trolley problem’ isn’t new.

As part of news.com.au’s 2023 Great Aussie Debate, we asked Australians whether they return their trolley to the bay after unpacking their shopping.

The survey, which asked 50,000 people about a range of divisive topics from the mundane to the serious, revealed some interesting insights into this behaviour.

Of those surveyed, 75.6 per cent said they return their trolley to the bay, while 22.2 per cent admitted that it “depends how far away the trolley bay is”.

Just 2.2 per cent confessed that they don’t return it.

So it seems like for many, in theory, returning their trolley is a no-brainer and almost an instinctive act of common courtesy.

But as posts like this one and many others reveal, it’s far from the reality.

75.6 per cent of survey respondents said they return their trolleys. Picture: AAP/Carmela Roche

So, why might this be?

When it comes to surveys about people’s values, behaviours and etiquette, there’s a phenomenon called ‘social desirability bias’.

It’s when people answer questions in a way that paints them in the best possible light, rather than telling the truth, according to ScienceDirect.

In this case, the question of trolley-returning might be more sensitive than people let on.

With the stigma around ‘bad behaviour’, respondents may over-report ‘good behaviour’ like returning their trolley and under-report ‘bad behaviour’ like leaving it abandoned.

It’s hard to say whether that 2.2 per cent who admit they don’t return their trolley is an accurate reflection, or if it’s more an indicator that people know it’s a shameful behaviour.

Yet another Coles trolley dumped in the middle of a parking spot, in an underground carpark. Picture: Twitter/SamanthaX_real

Trolley returning is the ultimate litmus test

According to a viral post on X (formerly Twitter) in 2020 that detailed the ‘Shopping Cart’ theory, returning a shopping trolley can indicate whether you’re a good person or not.

The social experiment was said to be the “ultimate litmus test” for whether a person is capable of self-governing.

“To return the shopping cart is objectively right. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping cart,” the post read.

“Therefore, the shopping cart presents itself as the apex of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it.

“No one will punish you for not returning the shopping cart. No one will fine you or kill you for not returning the shopping cart, you gain nothing by returning the shopping cart.

“You must return the shopping cart out of the goodness of your own heart. You must return the shopping cart because it is the right thing to do. Because it is correct.”

Originally published as Aussie’s ‘infuriating’ car park act proves sad reality