There are many things that people do not know about other people’s lives; therefore, it is often a good idea to go easy with various assumptions. Yet, sometimes, knowing almost nothing from a person’s backstory, one can identify a Karen in a parking lot.

At least this Redditor did who happened to notice two of them and made a decision to confront the women about their grocery cart left in the middle of the parking lot. Needless to say, they were surprised to be bothered and also confused… as they called her ‘Karen’.

More info: Reddit

A person confronted two women who left their cart in the parking lot and was told to put it back herself – which she did, yet it wasn’t enough

Image credits: Paul Seling (not the actual photo)

The person saw two women about to leave their cart and she “reminded” them about it in a friendly manner

Image credits: Shabaz Usmani (not the actual photo)

Image credits: skillz7930

The women told her to do it herself, which she was about to do when they called her ‘Karen’

Image credits: Vitor Paladini (not the actual photo)

She tried to clarify by what logic she is a ‘Karen’ when they are the ones who leave their stuff for others to handle

A person shared their encounter with two women and their shopping cart on a subreddit community online called ‘Entitled People’. 

The OP’s story started as she was walking back to her vehicle in a parking lot and noticed that two women were parked two spaces away from her and four spaces away from the shopping cart return. 

The younger woman was putting a toddler in a car seat, and the older one was standing there talking to the younger one, while their grocery cart was left in the middle of the parking lot.

The person did think for a minute they might still put the cart away, yet it quickly became clear they were about to leave it as they were getting in the car and putting on their seat belts.

What the OP did was to give them a kind “reminder” as she rolled her window down, got their attention, and said, in a friendly voice, that they forgot to put their cart away.

What the women responded, though, was that if it’s so important to her, why wouldn’t she do it herself?

Which the person was actually about to do. However, as soon as the woman got out and got the shopping cart, the two women called her Karen. Who knows, but they (might) have been projecting.

As per the OP’s response: “Sure, you leave your stuff out for other people to deal with because you can’t be bothered but I’m the Karen.” And yet, this wasn’t enough for the two women as they probably needed to leave the woman convinced her intuition did not mislead her.

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So their argument went as follows: just as the woman returned, the older woman all of a sudden screamed “My husband got carjacked a month ago, you f*****g b***h!”

Trying to stay reasonable, the OP noted it to have nothing to do with returning their shopping cart, but the Karen team just won’t give up, as they retorted “you don’t have anything better to do than hang out in parking lots,” and their effort to “win this” already had the woman laughing.

As she started walking back to get in her vehicle, the two women refused to let go and shouted about why she won’t go find a kitten to save, so she said she was sorry they got caught being a shitty people, making them flip her off and drive away. Apparently, they were really angry about it and probably proved their Karen-like character.

Team Karen also presented some unhinged excuses and tried to shame a person for having nothing better to do

Image credits: Clark Young (not the actual photo)

The effort already had the woman laughing, and she added she was sorry they were caught being shitty people

When it comes to returning shopping carts, apparently there is a widespread “cart returning” theory online, which is somewhat similar to the points brought up by the original poster.

According to this theory, whether or not a person chooses to return their cart or tends to abandon it somewhere in the parking lot is a good criterion for judging their character, because there is no legal obligation to return the cart to the designated spot, only to not take it out of shopping center’s territory. 

In other words, the person won’t get punished using legal measures and if he chooses to return the cart, it might suggest he cares for other people around him, mostly workers who might need to interrupt their other tasks to collect carts.

Commenters started a similar discussion under the OP’s post, as Redditors pointed out that people’s behavior tends to get weird when it comes to carts. For example, some shared how people would move their carts just in front of another person’s vehicle despite them standing there, adding that, kindness aside, it also benefits everyone to not have rogue carts rolling around and blocking parking spots.

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Others noted that somebody even pushed their cart at them thinking they worked there, so they just let it roll…

While some brought up that in some places, people get paid to collect carts, r/Horror_Raspberry893 argued that somebody actually gets pulled away from the job they’re paid to do to collect the carts from the corral, and gets complained at by ‘manglement’ if they’re not done fast enough.

Redditors shared their takes on the situation

Image credits: Douglas Bagg (not the actual photo)

Image credits: Clark Young (not the actual photo)

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