I don't understand why merchants haven't done what many on the mainland have.
Require a $20 refundable deposit on carts from customers. If they leave the cart on a median or between cars, the $20 goes into the "new carts" fund.
People being too lazy/entitled to walk 30 feet to put their cart in a collection stall or the front of the store is one of my pet peeves. These people block parking spots and leave a cart where they can damage vehicles if it starts rolling.
I not only take my cart back, but if arriving, i ask someone finishing loading their car to take theirs back. I do that when walking mine to the cart return, too.
All it takes is one jerk leaving a cart in a parking spot for others to figure it's okay and leave theirs.
Hard to believe someone filled up a big cart at Costco - pushing it all over the massive warehouse -- and then can't bother to walk the cart a few more yards to the cart return.
I've seen people fighting a cart to get it up over the curb and onto the grass when they could have walked the cart 3 parking spaces over to the return.
Anyway, if every shopper leaves a $20 deposit, the carts can be returned either in an electronic return rack that locks the cart up and returns the deposit, or to the front of the store where they get their refund.
This might even help the homeless. if I were homeless, I'd stake out the parking lot and watch for abandoned carts. Turning it in for the $20 refund solves several problems at once.