I swear this is a regional thing. Where I live now, it is extremely rare to see a cart outside the return. But I’ve lived in other places where it seemed like no one returned their cart, ever.
I think it’s a peer pressure thing - once it’s the norm, everyone just does it. But if people started breaking that, I’d suddenly start seeing carts all over the lot.
Nah I’ve only been to Aldi’s about 3 times in my life (nothing against it, they just don’t have many locations near me). These are several different chains of stores in different parts of the US.