You are right, I was being a bit hyperbolic. It’s equivalent to picking stuff up off the shelf and setting it on the ground. No damage to the product and would take workers more time to pick it up. Might as well start doing that every time you go to the store.

Near the corral doesn’t take a lot more time to pick up from in the corral. I agree that leaving then in the corral is fine, someone still has to pick them up from there. But leaving the cart randomly outside has the potential to cause issues for others, completely ignoring the business owner.

As someone who has previously put carts away for a job. No, not only does leaving carts out make it more annoying to pick up it can also damage other people’s vehicles, and take up parking spots. Carts roll around or are difficult to see and can get hit. This is the equivalent of saying to just knock stuff off the shelf as you walk through the store, an employee would have to pick that up and it would just cost the company money.