Ive been to ~7 grocery stores ~80 times in the past couple weeks. Was driving instacart at night to get some bills paid I was worried about. Not once did I come across carts that were just in the parking spots/street, they always are in the cart holders that take up parking spots. I standardly pull my cart from one of those and wheel it into the store which leaves it at a net 0 move when I put it back… That said, with the number of people who are hunting for jobs right now that I know, this may be the first time I would say the store hiring someone to return carts is another employed person. Kroger really isn’t going to go bankrupt supporting the local populace with 1 extra job. Publix on the other hand has employees actively asking to take my cart before I can close the trunk. Had been pretty impressed by it. One day I went to 4 different Krogers, it is a bit interesting to see the difference in the stores based upon the people/house cost that live in the areas.