Cart Court

I thought cart abandonment  was a pretty black and white offense: You fail to put your cart in the cart corral or bring it back to the store, you're guilty.

The punishment? Well, for now, there is no official "law" against it but if you do it in my presence you will be subjected to evil glares and I may push your cart into the corral for you. So there.

But this cart situation stumped me:

There is a Babies R Us cart in Target's cart corral!

Now, maybe if Babies R Us was right next to Target, I could understand. But BRU is, like, eight stores away! I rarely even walk between the two of them.

Here is what I think happened. This person parked at Target and shopped there. She put her Target goods in her car and then decided to go into Bed Bath and Beyond (next to Target). After Bed, Bath and Beyond, she wandered into Old Navy and so on and so on until she ended up at Babies R Us. She didn't plan to buy anything but Diaper Genies were 30% off! She had to get one. No, three. So she loaded up the genies in a Babies R Us cart and pushed them back to Target where her car was parked. Now, what to do with the cart? "I know!" she said. "I'll put it in this cart corral. At least it won't hit someone's car."

If I were to try her Cart Court, I would sentence her to me taking back her cart to Babies R Us. I wouldn't glare at her though. Her heart was in the right place.