So I've decided to take a crack at my first "soapbox" blog. I have fun reading other people's so I thought, "What the heck!". Here goes---
I have very intense feelings about people's inabilities to return shopping carts to their rightful place. The other day I was at HobbyLobby. As I was walking to my car, I noticed two women chatting in the parking lot. One of the ladies decided it was time to "return" her shopping cart and proceeded to walk across from where she was, past my car, and deposit it with a bunch of other lonely shopping carts in the parking lot. I wasn't so upset by the fact that the carts were all by my car as I was by the fact that if she had walked another 50 feet, maybe even less, she would have been able to return her cart inside the store. I really feel that our inability to return carts to their proper places (either back in the store or in a designated area in a parking lot) reflects largely on our society and screams how lazy we are. I mean, come on! People!! Have we become so lazy, busy, stuck on ourselves that we can't take an extra 20 seconds to return a shopping cart to it's rightful place?
I was horrified a few weeks ago when I read a story on MSNBC that talked about a hospital in the downtown LA area that was taking patients that did not have a home to a dangerous drug and prostitute infested area and dropping them off. One patient even said they wanted to be taken home to family in Pasadena, but was denied the request. What has our society come too? I know it's a stretch, but I think there is a link here between this hospital and shopping carts. We have become such a society of ease, that even when people become an inconvenience we treat them as shopping carts. Dropping them off wherever we feel instead of maybe taking an extra 10 minute drive to deliver them to their rightful place. Very sad!
Any thoughts?
5 comments:
yes, megs, i've been where you are - frustrated with people and their lack of cart-returning abilities. i USED to ALWAYS take my carts back to the spot where they should go. USED to though. why the change? i think there are lots of reasons, but i'll just list a few (but don't hate me, i do return 9/10 of my carts back to their spot). one reason - somedays 2 kids just wear me out, especially 2 kids at a grocery store. so sometimes i just do not have the mental energy to take the cart back to where it should go. another reason: once i was out with my mom-in-law and she remarked how she liked having a cart close to her car since it made it easier for her. and i agree - i absolutely LOVE it when there is a shopping cart (bonus if it is a "truck" cart!) right by my car. i'll even try to find a parking space by one if i can! it's much easier to stick the kids in them right away than carry one fidgety boy in my arms and have another fidgety boy pulling my arms. so lame excuses. but, like i said, i do return my carts 90% of the time.
why stop now, i've already written a novel? but, yes, our society is really focused on ME, ME, ME. not ME as in emily k. m. - but that would be nice - but on our own selves. and this is encouraged by the "world" to focus on ourselves. i think that is why people can drop off people in horrible places and not think bad of themselves - after all, they were thinking of themselves and that's what we are told to do in order to be happy and have fulfilled lives.
whatever. someday people will realize how wrong the world is.
Okay Megan I am sitting here alone. Yes alone the kids are in bed and Colby is out smoozing some canadits. I just wanted to check the site and see how your house hunting trip went. Instead I am just laughing my head off. Did you have a bad day? Did I ever tell you about the day at Walmart up on Lake Lansing? Well I was walking out of the store right as on of the associates pushed (as hard as he could) a shopping cart to another associate. Well the wind was blowing and it ran right into my car. Leaving a big dent and scratch. So of course I go in and talk to the manager and she calls the boys in and the lie. They say they don't know what I am talking about. I saw them and they say me. Sicking- needless to say Walmart did nothing. Shocker
Well I started returning my cart once I moved to MI. Mostly because the wind is always blowing and the last thing I want is one runing into my car! The world is becoming one great big armpit. I guess I'll just keep trying to make a difference. We hope your well and if you get a chance we should chat. I can tell you a few things I wish I had done different with the house thing. Take care
i completely agreed with you until i read emily's comment. i'm sure i'll still be mad every time i see one adrift in a parking lot. but maybe i'll try to have more compassion and remember emily. unless i see some able-bodied person just ditching one somewhere; then can i get mad? nice post megan! (although it's still fun to see pics of your daughter. and congrats on the job!)
My dad used to say "A quality person always returns his shopping cart". But like Emily there are times when my kids are strapped into the car and I'm too scared they'll be kidnapped if I take the cart all the way to its proper resting spot. So now I try to always park my car next to the cart-return.
I remembered an even BETTER solution to the shopping cart dilemna today when I went grocery shopping. If they offer to "help me out to the car" with my groceries I always say "YES!" because then the store employee returns the cart FOR me! What a perfect solution. Now if we could just apply that somehow to the people not being returned analogy...
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