Each person should take his/her own cart back to the store and put it in the area designated for that purpose. If you encounter carts abandoned along the way, a nice person takes that with them also. I am surpised that this problem would exist at an upscale store like Trader Joes. Sometimes I am forced to shop at the Walmart on Washington Blvd in the Lansdowne area. The problem is rampant there but I always attributed that to the fact that mostly lower class people shop there. Obviously my theory was flawed. I guess it has nothing to do with class and everything to do with being thoughtless, careless and rude.

Shoppers here do it without even thinking twice. I believe it's become the norm in this shopping center.

I am always transporting others' abandoned carts with my own cart to the nearest repository. (Obessive-compulsive, maybe?) The problem of scattered carts certainly is not unique to the Pikesville area!

It's Pikesville. Someone else will move the cart. The shopper needs to get back to their SUV they don't know how to drive and not look as they back out then zoom through the parking lot taking up both directions before stopping in front of the store without their hazard lights on and waiting for someone who was just "running in to pick something up"

What is worse is the problem of backing into and running into abandoned carts in the parking lot when you are focsed on not striking people, not hitting parked vehicles nearby, and not colliding with vehicles moving behind or in front of yours. Scratches and dents sometimes result when you hit the "harmless" carts.

Just saw this link while reading another. The only reason I abandon my car sometimes here is because I have my toddler with me and I'm parked further away. If they had even one cart collect stall in the parking lot, that would help parents so we don't have to leave our baby/toddler in the car alone while we walk out of site and all the way back to the store. I choose to push the cart out of the way rather than leave my child alone.