Smackdown in the Kroger Parking Lot
01/25/2004 03:45 Filed in: Culture Watch
Could a simple lack of etiquette be a sign of the coming apocalypse?
Okay, first of all, I realize that I get a bit grumpier every year as I get older. Nevertheless, it seems to me that people are less and less courteous today than they used to be. One minor example of this is the subject of this blog.
Yesterday, I stopped at Kroger to pick up a few groceries. I saw an open parking spot about 3/4 of the lot away from the store and began to turn in that direction. As I am doing this, I happen to notice a woman (whom I shall describe as looking middle-aged and middle-class) who had just loaded her groceries into the vehicle next to my open spot. Finished with her now-empty cart, she proceeded to push it--not to corral where once-used carts are supposed to go--but rather into my open parking spot!
Seeing me pulling into the spot (and perhaps the look of consternation upon my face) she quickly developed a look of "Oh! I've been caught." Then, instead of pushing the cart in my soon-to-be parking space, she pushed it into the empty space in front of mine, smiled at me, got in her SUV and drove off.
I don't understand this. I admit there are a number of things I can be a bit lazy about. For instance, I often procrastinate grading papers (which I should be doing right now instead of writing this blog). But to me, leaving your shopping cart in the middle of the super-market parking lot is the equivalent of not picking up after yourself. I've got lots of bad habits (some perhaps even worse than this), but I've never sent some 16-year-old super-market clerk off after my cart because I was too lazy to put it where it goes.
I've noticed more and more people doing this. And I've even tried to put together a profile on who it is who commits such an egregious offense. But overall, I've found that laziness and discourteous behavior knows no distinction of gender, race, or social status. I've seen all kinds of people do this lately--men and women of various racial backgrounds and (from outward appearances and the vehicles driven) are from various levels of income.
This is a minor thing, I know, but it is one of those things that just aggravates the fire out of me. It makes me want to have a WWF Smackdown right in the middle of the Kroger parking lot. I want to come leaping off the top of the nearest Hummer, knocking the shopping cart offender to the ground and with my finger in his or her startled face, growl "Hey Buddy! Is that where that buggy really goes?"
I mean, besides being inconsiderate, shopping carts rolling around in the parking lot willy-nilly is both a safety hazard and a source of little dings in the doors of your mini-van.
What's the solution? Beats me. I've tried shaming people with "Sir, would you like me to put up your cart for you?" But things like that and other instances of not minding my own business such as telling some little girl at the movie theater that her boyfriend didn't wash his hands in the bathroom is just going to get me beat up one day.
Here's an idea that might work, and maybe you can do it with me. Next time you or I go to the grocery store (or Target, Wal-Mart and other places where they have carts), and we see carts not in the corral, let's all get one and take it with us. In fact, since we're going into the store anyway, let's bypass the corral and use it ourselves or if we don't need it, put it with the others that have been gathered up for the next customers. Who knows? Maybe it will catch on and we can restore one minor form of courtesy in the world.
Okay, first of all, I realize that I get a bit grumpier every year as I get older. Nevertheless, it seems to me that people are less and less courteous today than they used to be. One minor example of this is the subject of this blog.
Yesterday, I stopped at Kroger to pick up a few groceries. I saw an open parking spot about 3/4 of the lot away from the store and began to turn in that direction. As I am doing this, I happen to notice a woman (whom I shall describe as looking middle-aged and middle-class) who had just loaded her groceries into the vehicle next to my open spot. Finished with her now-empty cart, she proceeded to push it--not to corral where once-used carts are supposed to go--but rather into my open parking spot!
Seeing me pulling into the spot (and perhaps the look of consternation upon my face) she quickly developed a look of "Oh! I've been caught." Then, instead of pushing the cart in my soon-to-be parking space, she pushed it into the empty space in front of mine, smiled at me, got in her SUV and drove off.
I don't understand this. I admit there are a number of things I can be a bit lazy about. For instance, I often procrastinate grading papers (which I should be doing right now instead of writing this blog). But to me, leaving your shopping cart in the middle of the super-market parking lot is the equivalent of not picking up after yourself. I've got lots of bad habits (some perhaps even worse than this), but I've never sent some 16-year-old super-market clerk off after my cart because I was too lazy to put it where it goes.
I've noticed more and more people doing this. And I've even tried to put together a profile on who it is who commits such an egregious offense. But overall, I've found that laziness and discourteous behavior knows no distinction of gender, race, or social status. I've seen all kinds of people do this lately--men and women of various racial backgrounds and (from outward appearances and the vehicles driven) are from various levels of income.
This is a minor thing, I know, but it is one of those things that just aggravates the fire out of me. It makes me want to have a WWF Smackdown right in the middle of the Kroger parking lot. I want to come leaping off the top of the nearest Hummer, knocking the shopping cart offender to the ground and with my finger in his or her startled face, growl "Hey Buddy! Is that where that buggy really goes?"
I mean, besides being inconsiderate, shopping carts rolling around in the parking lot willy-nilly is both a safety hazard and a source of little dings in the doors of your mini-van.
What's the solution? Beats me. I've tried shaming people with "Sir, would you like me to put up your cart for you?" But things like that and other instances of not minding my own business such as telling some little girl at the movie theater that her boyfriend didn't wash his hands in the bathroom is just going to get me beat up one day.
Here's an idea that might work, and maybe you can do it with me. Next time you or I go to the grocery store (or Target, Wal-Mart and other places where they have carts), and we see carts not in the corral, let's all get one and take it with us. In fact, since we're going into the store anyway, let's bypass the corral and use it ourselves or if we don't need it, put it with the others that have been gathered up for the next customers. Who knows? Maybe it will catch on and we can restore one minor form of courtesy in the world.