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May 03, 2023

Debate over supermarket trolley etiquette heats up after viral video

It’s a classic ethical question: Where do you put your supermarket trolley? Do

It's a classic ethical question: Where do you put your supermarket trolley? Do you return it to a nearby bay or leave it in the carpark?

Debate is raging online over the dilemma after a video of a Queensland shopper leaving her trolley in the carpark went viral.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Gold Coast woman's shopping trolley act goes viral.

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The woman was at a Woolworths in Oxenford on the Gold Coast last Thursday when another shopper caught her on dashcam video.

She can be seen wheeling her trolley towards the bay until she's just steps away - and then she stops.

As the car from which the video is being taken pulls into the parking spot in front of the bay, the woman leaves her trolley just behind the concrete wheel stop.

The driver of the car then gets out to push the trolley over to the bay.

Oxenford shoppers were less than impressed.

"It does annoy me when I see people do that," one person said.

"If people don't (return their trolleys to bays) it could damage the car," said another shopper.

"Unless you’re handicapped or elderly, of course (you should put it back)," one person explained.

Even the man paid to put trolleys away said people should do better.

"It’d take two minutes to walk to a trolley bay and put it away," Mark Gibson said.

"It's not a hard thing."

Others said it's the short distance the shopper had left to go that makes it particularly bad.

"Usually I see trolleys left in parking spots that are ages away from a trolley bay, not five steps away," one person commented online.

"So lazy, like it's right there," said another.

But they admitted to sometimes failing to return their trolley to a bay.

"If the trolley bay is too far, I’m not taking it back and walking three kids through the park lot unnecessary," they said.

"But I don't leave it in the way of cars."

"I put it back if it's that close," another person said.

"But if it's further while I have my baby packed in the car, I will just leave it on the footpath for the trolley person to collect."

-With Josh Adsett

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