Retail Trash

I am distressed and ashamed to report that fellow members of my society have been treating the world with intense selfishness and malignant apathy.

I'm not quite sure why, but people in retail stores are constantly leaving their food trash on the shelves. At first it was a simple Jamba Juice cup in Target. Then it was an annoying Target cup in Toys 'R Us. And then my rage boiled over with the free Coscto samples strewn about the warehouse.

Maybe this problem has been around my whole life. Maybe I'm just becoming more aware of the problem like a scab I've been picking at for the last few months, bleeding more with every aggravating scratch.

Retail stores have trash cans to use if we are sensitive enough to take a few seconds and search. And if there aren't trash bins in the store, the cashiers almost always have trash cans under their checkout lanes.

This retail littering is completely irresponsible. Leaving trash in the stores wrongfully assumes that it is the employees' job to clean up after the wanton disregard for cleanliness. When employees are forced to act as garbage collectors, time is taken away from their other, more important, customer-service duties.

I sympathize. It's easier to throw our trash on the ground than to find and touch a sticky waste receptacle. But it's also easier to steal what we want rather than to purchase. To use violence rather than forgiveness. Surrendering to our own selfish instincts leads to a breakdown in functional society. Part of living in the world of Targets and Costcos is sacrificing our own selfish needs for the betterment of the other retail shoppers.