Faulty premise. If I return the cart, I do not need to navigate my car around the cart as I exit the parking lot. This, alone, is a reason to return the cart to the designated collection zone.
You also normalize returning the cart and impressionable people around you will see people returning carts and increase the probability that they will return carts in the future. Together, these increase the probability that on the future, the carts will be where I want them at the front of the store and not all over the parking lot.
Faulty premise. If I return the cart, I do not need to navigate my car around the cart as I exit the parking lot. This, alone, is a reason to return the cart to the designated collection zone.
You also normalize returning the cart and impressionable people around you will see people returning carts and increase the probability that they will return carts in the future. Together, these increase the probability that on the future, the carts will be where I want them at the front of the store and not all over the parking lot.
Also I get to be smug