The Kroger where I do my own shopping as well as Instacart shopping is atrocious for carts. Not only do people just leave them all over the place, but there are some days when there aren't enough carts for the customers. That particular store has a really bad problem of people stealing the carts. There's a lot of homeless in the area, plus it's on the rough side of town so I guess maybe people just do it for fun too. Even though I am not employed there, I still make sure to push in a cart every single time I go inside (because I don't trust that there will be one available inside for me) and I always put it back when I'm finished because it drives me nuts how people just leave them everywhere. I have literally never in my life just left a cart out in the middle of the lot, it takes a certain type of person.
Have you ever seen the cart police videos on YouTube? Here is a good one, you'll get a kick out of it.