9.29.2005

Shopping Cart Etiquette

(this post was almost titled "Gripe of the Day" but it was a few days ago, so...)

Okay, so I decide Tuesday on my way to work that I want an orange. Okay, no problem. it's 8:00 in the morning and the grocery store is dead. there are like 5 cars in the parking lot. I choose my space, and then pull through so that I don't have to back up to leave (yeah, i'm that lazy). I go into the store and notice a woman in the produce section. She has probably an 18 month old little girl in the cart with her. I smile and say good morning when we make eye contact. She completely ignores me and keeps on going. FINE, I think. Be that way.

Fast forward about 15 minutes. I check out at the U-Scan with 2 oranges, 2 boxes of tuna helper (on sale) and an unsweetened iced tea. I walk out to my car. There are 2 cars on my side of the parking lot. Mine and a green mini van circe early 90's. Sure enough, the mini van is being driven by the woman from the produce section. She is closing her door as I get to my car. I stop and stare. She has left her cart just sitting in front of my car, in the road, so I would either have to move it or back up through 2 parking spaces (did I mention she had done the pull through, too?). GRRR. I should explain. This just pisses me off in general. They put those cart things all over the parking lot, taking up perfectly good parking spaces, for a reason. If you're so d*&^ lazy that you can't walk 20 feet to the nearest deposit spot, I just want to cuss at you. It's not like the cart things are full or anything. Anyway, so that makes me angry. I turn and look and she's SITTING AT THE STOP SIGN watching me! So, I smiled my best frustrated smile and began to push her cart to the designated location. Which was, by the way, DIRECTLY ACROSS from where she had been parked. Surely her daughter could hold on, strapped comfortably into her carseat, for the whole 20 seconds it would have taken to push it over there.

So, I push her cart to where it should have been and happen to move my hand about 2 inches to the left. Yup, big pile of baby spit up/snot/whatever that I hadn't noticed before is now all over my hand. To which I cuss and gag at the same time in the parking lot. I get to my car, find a tissue, clean my hand and sanitize it using the purel that is always nearby. GRRR. At this point, green mini van lazy butt decides to peel out of the parking lot, almost causing an accident. Insert your favorite choice word here.

So, the moral of the story is this: If you are in the grocery store (with or without a toddler) please take the extra 10-30 seconds to put your cart where it belongs instead of leaving it for someone else. And, if you do have a small child, please clean up anything that leaks from them before doing so.

thank you.

Thus ends my public service announcement.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:26 AM

    Wow, that just stressed me out reading it! Stressed and entertained, I should say. :-)

    love meagan

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:56 AM

    yeah, it was all I could do to not cuss her out, i'll be honest. And i don't usually cuss...that much :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4:37 PM

    thanks for speaking out! :) ew!

    ReplyDelete