And if said employees don't care in the least and recognize that that "designated" area is for the convenience of those who don't know how to properly stow a cart so it doesn't roll, then, yeah, your opinion IS irrelevant and your self-righteousness is misplaced.
Here's the actual case: 25 years ago, I worked as a grocery clerk. My job was to round up the carts. Every single one of us in that role felt that the right answer was "take your cart back to the corral, return it to the store, or leave it in a place where it won't roll into a car." Any of those were acceptable. None of us cared in the least whether customers put the carts into the corrals. The corrals were there for the convenience of the customer, not us. As long as the cart was properly put up so it wouldn't roll, all was good. And not a single one of us complained of carts that weren't in corrals. I know for me personally, it wouldn't have even occurred to me that it was an issue.*
So, a week or so ago, when I saw this thread, I ran it by someone I know who is a teenager working at our local Wal-Mart. I just wanted to see if maybe either I had been missing something all this time (possible) or if times had simply changed and the expectation is different now than it was when I worked that job. His response was, basically, confusion over why it would even be an issue. If the cart wasn't rolling into cars and wasn't on the other side of town, he didn't care. And he didn't know anybody who would.
So, again, if the only people being effected don't hold to your arbitrary made-up rule, forgive me if I laugh off your passing judgment on things that really aren't your business.
*The only caveat to that is, "within reason." Namely, if you brought your cart way to the outer limits of the entire shopping center lot where it wasn't even near our store, that wasn't cool. But, by and large, people didn't do that.